The exorcist subgenre is well-known and (in)famous in the horror genre. Most exorcism films follow the same recipe: the priest spends a frightening 15-20 minutes of runtime exorcizing the possessed (typically) woman and saves her soul. The priests are always armed with a Bible, holy water, and a crucifix. But what if they had something else? Like, perhaps… a gun? 

Yep. A gun. 

Directed by Rebecca J. Matthews and Scott Jeffrey, Exorcist Vengeance (2022) is certainly a surprising iteration of the exorcist subgenre. Father Joszef (Robert Bronzi) is a priest with a reputation for gun violence is enlisted to help a wealthy family with a demon problem. This job is framed as a Hail Mary of sorts for Father Joszef’s career as a priest. Armed with the exorcism essentials and a gun (that never proves to be useful), Father Joszef comes to the family’s aid. As the Father is exorcizing the possessed maid, family members are turning up murdered. Who is the culprit? Is it one of them, or Satan himself? 

It’s unfair to criticize a small film over things like CGI special effects or not having top tier acting, so I won’t do that here. As an amateur filmmaker myself, I can empathize with the trials and tribulations of a small film trying to get off the ground. But there were notable fundamental flaws with this film that were hard to ignore. 

For one thing, Exorcist Vengeance is rife with editing and continuity errors. A fight scene and a costume continuity error in the third act were the most obvious. These are the kind of mishaps that are easily corrected by the presence of a script supervisor on set and thorough editing in post-production. Glancing at the film’s IMDb, a script supervisor is not listed among the crew members. But there are two people listed as editors, so one has to wonder how these mistakes slipped past them. If I had to guess, I’d say the film’s release date must’ve been too soon for the editors to make the necessary fixes. As an editor myself, I’d prefer to give these folks the benefit of the doubt. 

The practical effects, fairly good and effective, would have been far more believable if they weren’t always framed in a close-up shot. A long shot of the practical effects would have hidden any imperfections left by a small budget and served the film well. 

Speaking of, I was a little disappointed in the cinematography of Exorcist Vengeance as a whole. For what felt like padding time in between major plot points, the shots felt less planned and more spur-of-the-moment. Frequent use of shot/reverse shot with unnecessary head room for the actors in frame is a constant. I’d wager about 80% of the shots in this film are close-ups or medium shots, which isn’t necessarily a flaw of the film but rather a questionable creative decision. Though there is a moment of gore in the third act where the cinematography was complex and perfectly timed. So, kudos, Exorcist Vengeance. 

More kudos I need to give are to production designer Emily Ioannou, drone operator Edward Ellis-Jones, composer Mike Ellaway, and the co-directors’ work on location management. The main location, the family’s home in the country, is beautiful inside and out. It adds authenticity to the film and helps the viewer lean into believability. Ioannou’s decor within the home paints a wealthy but homey manor, a wonderful setting for a frightening exorcism. Ellis-Jones’s drone shots of this location and of the church served as great transitions and felt akin to something I’d see in a big studio film. Elleway’s accompanying soundtrack carries the fear and horror in this film where I otherwise wouldn’t have felt it. 

Kudos aside, I’m afraid I wouldn’t recommend Exorcist Vengeance to any of my horror fan friends. The narrative itself feels flawed. The protagonist, Father Jozsef, is hardly a hero you can root for, even though it seems the film wants you to. Devoid of charisma, he comes off as more of a bully than a hero. Half-baked, like the first draft of a screenplay, the story assigned 80s-slasher-level stereotypes to characters that undermine it. If a film’s basic story is flawed, then inevitably the entire film will be flawed. 

1 out of 10 Priests With Guns