Russell Crowe’s New Horror Movie Now Streaming on Netflix

The Pope’s Exorcist, Russell Crowe’s recent horror release that draws obvious inspiration from The Exorcist franchise, is now streaming on Netflix. The movie, which also stars Laurel Marsden and Alex Essoe, is very loosely based on the true story of Gabriele Amorth S.S.P., a famous priest who really was the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome and a co-founder of the International Association of Exorcists. During his lifetime, he wrote several books, which inform the mythology and narrative behind The Pope’s Exorcist, although the movie itself is not based on any specific true story or set of stories.

The movie earned around $76 million against a budget of under $20 million, making it a pretty profitable mid-budget horror movie. It has also gone semi-viral on YouTube, with a number of big-name film YouTubers doing reviews of the film.

The film, from Screen Gems and Sony Pictures releasing, also has Booster Gold and Freddy vs. Jason writer Jeff Katz listed among its producers.

A sequel is reportedly in development — something that Crowe spoke about not long ago, acknowledging that it would be fun to continue to story of Father Amorth, but that the movie had to be made without worrying about sequels, so they could make the first one as compelling as possible and set themselves up for success.

“As you probably know, every single time anybody on a film production says, ‘We’re thinking we might be able to make three of four of these,’ that’s it, not gonna have a sequel, done. As soon as you say it out loud, it’s like you put the kibosh on it,” Crowe confirmed with the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “The central premise, which I think is clever, because it’s a biblical premise. There’s 200 fallen angels, it says in the Bible that they were cast and driven underground. The central premise that is 200 physical places across the planet where God is not welcome or where evil sources from, it’s a pretty cool idea.”

He added, “Who knows? It really is gonna be up to an audience response. If the audience jumps on this and they really like the adventure and want to see it happen again.”

Here’s the synopsis for the movie:

Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe), The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.