Russell Crowe stars in an emotive meta-movie with a truly diabolical third act “I believe in cinema,” Joshua John Miller told the Au Review earlier this month. “I don’t believe in Hollywood.” These are reassuring words from an ambitious co-writer and first-time director whose pedigree seems pretty ideal when it comes to freaky films.
His father, Jason Miller, was Oscar-nominated for his role as Father Damien Karras in William Friedkin’s unimpeachable The Exorcist , a movie for which “classic” is far too weak a word. The Exorcism , then, is a kind of tribute to that film, which Miller – like many of us – saw at a troublingly young age. In his second exorcism-themed flick in a year (after the similarly hokey The Pope’s Exorcist , which has a confirmed sequel on the way), Russell Crowe plays Anthony, a famous actor whose drink and drug problems have been as well publicised as his abandonment of his terminally ill wife.
Seeking atonement, along with the forgiveness of his teenage daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins), he takes the lead in The Georgetown Project , a movie that looks suspiciously like a remake of The Exorcist , though is never explicitly named as such. With references galore, there’s plenty of fun here for horror buffs, given that Anthony’s apartment block resembles the one from Rosemary’s Baby and, as eagle-eyed readers will have clocked, the movie he’s making is named after the Washington suburb in which The Exorcist is set. The rubbery perfo.
