Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Exorcism Blu-ray Movie Review

"Stealing's a sin."

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 2, 2024

Let's face it: any film in the overcrowded genre of supernatural horror -- especially one with a title as painfully generic as Joshua John Miller's The Exorcism -- better bring something new to the table, but this one doesn't follow through. Though its admittedly intriguing premise blends meta-realism with genre tradition in a way that shows promise, it isn't long before The Exorcism falls back on clichés, bad storytelling, and borderline plagiarism that severely undercuts the few things it does right. It's not a total loss, but a notable lack of replay value makes this second film from Miller, a former child actor (Halloween III, Near Dark) and the son of original Exorcist actor Jason Miller, more of a questionable one-time watch than some kind of buoyant exercise in originality. Simply put: don't get your hopes up, folks.

The Exorcism at least gets off on the right foot, opening with a chilling scene where a priest -- soon revealed to be involved in a literal remake of The Exorcist entitled The Georgetown Project -- is killed on its impressive set with no witnesses but us, the audience. It's a great opening that evokes eyebrow-raising possibilities, eventually pulling back the curtain to reveal that yes, the show will go on with a recast. The Georgetown Project's director (Adam Goldberg) has apparently taken a chance on former leading man and recovering alcoholic Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe), who will assume the role of its Father Karras-like priest character, and Miller's teenage daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) even tags along as a production assistant. A widower whose spiral into alcohol and substance abuse began with his wife's cancer diagnosis, "Tony" has also struggled with faith after leaving the Catholic church at about the same time.

Ideally, this familiar but serviceable setup should have set the stage for an intense character drama that ran parallel to The Exorcist's story while smartly branching off its own direction. Sadly, what we get is kind of a mushy exploration of lost faith sprinkled with cheap jump scares and a confusing back story that ultimately leads to a vague re-enactment of the film's most obvious source of inspiration. Worse yet, The Exorcism is bogged down with a few distracting subplots, perhaps the weakest of which is Lee's daughter and her relationship with on-set actress Regina (Tracey Bonner), which feels extremely forced. As portrayed by Ryan Simpkins (who's in her mid-twenties portraying a 16 year-old, which goes about as well as you'd expect), Lee and her new crush are simply bland and uninteresting characters that perhaps end up getting more screen time than Crowe himself, who does decent enough in his generally underwritten lead role but at leads conveys a sense of menace during critical climactic moments. The cast's inarguable highlight is David Hyde Pierce as Father Conor, a religious consultant on The Georgetown Project who eventually becomes more of a father figure to Lee as her real dad descends further and further into crippling addiction. Why couldn't we see more of him?

Despite a few bright spots and spooky scares, The Exorcism ends up coming off like a jumbled mess of borrowed ideas and tonal shifts that doesn't deliver on its early promises. I can't say that this is a total missed opportunity and should be watched at least once, but its overly familiar subject matter and uneven approach storytelling don't make it ripe for revisiting. One or two admittedly great scenes simply aren't enough to make this worth owning... and neither is Vertical Entertainment's Blu-ray, which serves up decent A/V merits but comes up woefully short on extras.

The Exorcism Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As these screenshots imply, The Exorcism is heavy on darkness; this not only establishes mood but makes it easy to spot any potential shortcomings on this 1080p transfer from Vertical Entertainment. The good news is that it mostly walks away unscathed, generally performing well in the areas of fine detail, contrast. and color representation as seen its mostly muted palette. (Its largely teal-tinted climax is actually a lot closer to The Exorcist's more recent re-coloring than its original appearance, but I digress.) Disc encoding is decently solid as well, as this single-layered disc still has sufficient real estate for its main feature to run at a supportive bit rate yet still shows occasional but forgivable signs of macro blocking and banding in its murkiest moments. While a full 4K UHD option would have certainly been interesting to see, what's here is of fairly good quality for the format and absolutely shouldn't disappoint fans.

The Exorcism Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track follows suit with a competent mix that sounds exactly like you'd expect, with full-bodied dialogue that's easy to follow and plenty of opportunities for discrete activity and an enveloping atmosphere. Although portions of this track do sound a little overcooked, that could very well be by design but it's ultimately tough to say with no real reference point. The bottom line is that it gets the job done without necessarily carving out new sonic territory for the well-traveled genre, remaining enjoyably effective during critical moments.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature.

The Exorcism Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in an eco-friendly keepcase with cover artwork that's perhaps as generic as its title. Sadly, absolutely no bonus features are on board here; that's perhaps not surprising given the film's production history (which is detailed in Brian Orndorf's similarly lukewarm theatrical review, but it's still disappointing nonetheless.

The Exorcism Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Joshua John Miller's The Exorcism has clear connections to the iconic film that it borrows all but one letter from, which is undoubtedly due to the director's lineage as son of The Exorcist's Jason Miller. Sadly, the few intriguing possibilities put forth by its setup aren't really taken advantage of, with the film slowly and frustratingly devolving into supernatural clichés and cheap scares that make this more of a one-off curiosity than anything truly original. Genre fans may want to have a watch... but unfortunately Vertical Entertainment's Blu-ray doesn't offer any real support beyond decent A/V merits and thus doesn't make The Exorcism a great blind buy, even at its currently discounted price point.