The Exorcism (2024) review

Actor Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe) is preparing for his newest role as a priest in The Georgetown Project, but has a number of lingering personal issues - his wife died of cancer, he's struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and he was molested by a member of clergy as a child - and so when he starts behaving more demented than usual, it causes his non-binary daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins), co-star Blake Holloway (Chloe Bailey) and consultant Father Conor (David Hyde Pierce) to become concerned with his well-being.  Filmmaker Miller's late dad Jason was in the original Exorcist so there's some history there loosely 'connecting' the two features, except the rest of it is a disappointment: as skilled as Crowe is as a leading man (even in bulked-up form), he can't elevate any of this Psych 101 nonsense, and all the flickering lights and "demonic talk" (which, at one point, is fall-on-the-floor hilarious) fail to add up to anything - in-movie director Peter (Adam Goldberg) declares, "This is a psychological drama wrapped in the skin of a horror movie," except it's lousy at both genres.  For the record, this was filmed in November/December of 2019 (pre-COVID!) and it took multiple years later to finally be released ... you know, for tax purposes.  You can trick El Diablo but the IRS is a far nastier beast.