The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

It feels a lot like the studios behind “The Pope’s Exorcist” is intent, or at least trying, to build a new horror hero in the vein of the Warrens a la “The Conjuring.” While normally I would never root for a film to fail, I hope we don’t get any sequels because I can’t picture Gabriele Amorth being a dynamic or even compelling horror protagonist. Even with his first film, Gabriele Amorth is explored as a massively skeptical priest pulled in to an extraordinary and genuine exorcism. There really isn’t much beyond what we learn about Gabriele Emorth or “The Pope’s Exorcist” for that matter.

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Sorry About the Demon (2023)

There’s a realty good film desperate to break free tom “Sorry About the Demon.” While it’s not what I’d call a bad movie, it’s a movie that director Emily Hagins kind of loses grip over in its final half. It’s overlong for such a paper thin premise, and most times it feels like the movie can never decide if it’s horror rom-com or rom-com with a touch of horror. It’s a shame because the ingredients are there, but “Sorry About the Demon” never adds up to much of a genre film.

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]

“The Conjuring” cinematic universe/series has been a horror ride of varying degrees. It’s had its great highs and its depressing lows (Ahem—“Annabelle”), and in spite of delivering two genuine horror classics, the mainline movie series can’t quite escape the dreaded curse of the third film. While “The Devil Made Me Do It” is not at all a bad movie per se, it’s not high in scares or tension as the first two films. The first two movies relied on mounting tension and absolute terror, while “The Devil Made Me Do It” feels a lot more like if they took the series and tried to turn it in to a crime procedural.

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

“The Conjuring” is a series I hope studios keep re-visiting (with some caveats—ahem—“Annabelle”), since there’s so much they can do with the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren. At this point the movie has taken many of their actual cases and expanded them in to wonderful horror films and “The Devil Made Me Do It” is no exception. True it’s not as good as the first two films, but the third part in the core movie series really does help to emphasize the heroism of Ed and Lorraine.

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