45 years after The Exorcist became a massive cultural moment, William Friedkin has decided to take a step back into the realm of angels and demons. The Devil and Father Amorth finds Friedkin spending time a real life exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, a beloved, 91 year old Italian cleric who claims to have handled thousands of exorcisms over the course of his career. He also happens to be a big fan of Friedkin, as the director mentions early on that The Exorcist was Amorth’s favorite movie, and their friendliness gives Friedkin an opportunity to film an actual exorcism.
It’s a fun hook, and the film does a solid job putting some context around itself, opening with some details surrounding the case that inspired William Peter Blatty to write The Exorcist. It’s weirdly delightful seeing Friedkin walking around locations like some cable horror host, pointing at the various buildings behind him, and explaining their significance. Any fan of the film will likely get a kick out out of seeing some familiar locations, and the places where the actual incidents allegedly occurred.
But the film cuts to the chase fairly quick, after giving a very, very brief overview of who Amorth is, and taking us to the session where he performs an exorcism on a woman referred to as Cristina. It’s a long, and rather unnerving sequence where the woman is surrounded by family and Amorth is beside her leading in prayer. Since it lacks the sort of pizazz of a Hollywood production, it creates an uncomfortable effect seeing this sort of dangerous spiritual activity taking place in a bright little living room in broad daylight. But then there are these inhuman growls that Cristina makes, and it’s basically that same double voice effect you’d hear in literally every exorcism movie ever made. I assume the footage was untouched, but the lack of Friedkin saying that nothing was altered in post would’ve been appreciated and much more effective.The documentary then goes into the really interesting direction of Friedkin going to various medical professionals and asking what they make of the footage. It’s here where it digs into ideas of confirmation bias as a possible component, the potential of undiscovered scientific branches, along with some other ways that the possession phenomenon can be explained.
But this is where we begin to run into the film’s problems. The film clocks in at a mere one hour and eight minutes, by the time we get through the intro and the entire exorcism sequence, we’re not left with much time to really dig deeper into the ideas that Friedkin seemingly wants to explore. We get several minutes of doctors talking about their theories, but it doesn’t fully commit to taking those theories and diving into what they mean and what still needs to be learned in order to get a better understanding of what someone like Cristina is going through.
I’m also not entirely sure who the audience is for this. I consider myself a skeptic, but I find topics about the supernatural to be very fun and interesting, but the film doesn’t scratch much of an itch either way. If you’re a believer, the documentary won’t bring in enough of a counterpoint to challenge those notions, and you’re just going continue believing what you believe. If you’re a skeptic, the footage is nowhere close to being as conclusive as the film might make it seem. It even ends on a rather over-the-top note where Friedkin goes to a small town away from Rome to meet Cristina, which is some time after the exorcism took place. And after setting this up, we get a smorgasbord of montages, cheesy transitions/video filters, and spooky music as Friedkin’s voice over talks about a crazy encounter with the woman in a church. The story is pretty freaky. So, of course, he did not bring his camera for this meeting.
The Devil and Father Amorth is a pretty mixed bag. It is a light and quick watch with some moments that do work effectively, and Friedkin makes for a fun host. However, it is disappointing to see a master filmmaker like William Friedkin deliver a very basic and (at times, straight up shoddy) talking head documentary that lacks the visceral and intellectual curiosity of his many classics. As someone with a genuine interest in this subject matter, I am bummed that I came out of this not learning anything particularly new, which might be the worst thing a documentary could do. To make matters worse, this might all be at the expense of a disturbed woman who is in serious need of help, and I don’t think the off chance of unlocking some secret truth to spiritually is worth that trouble.