2013’s The Conjuring used the inspiration of real-life people to generate an additional “based on a true story” frisson to its tale of supernatural hauntings and demonic possession. It did not matter that the “true” inspirations were either malicious con artists or gullible idiots – the mere idea was enough to spin the film out into Hollywood’s second-largest shared universe after Marvel. It is no surprise, given that success, to see rival studios attempt the same feat with their own vaguely biographical franchises.

Sony’s Screen Gems and director Julius Avery (Overlord) have latched onto Catholic priest Gabriele Amorth, who worked as an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome and authored several books on the topic of possession. Amorth, who died in 2016, once claimed to have undertaken 70,000 exorcisms. To duplicate New Line Cinema’s success with The Conjuring, Amorth seems the perfect choice for a film with the perfect title: The Pope’s Exorcist.

To be clear: the storyline of The Pope’s Exorcist presents nothing new or innovative. An American family – single mother (Alex Essoe) and two children (Laurel Marsden and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) – inherit a decrepit former abbey in Spain. One of the children gets possessed, the local priest (Daniel Zovatto) is unable to help, and so the Pope (Franco Nero) calls in Amorth (Russell Crowe) to intervene.

The Pope’s Exorcist rides almost entirely on Russell Crowe’s shoulders. Crowe is 59. He is an Oscar-winner and three-time nominee. In Australia he has won four AACTA/AFI awards from a staggering 10 nominations. He has nothing to prove. At this stage of his career he really seems to be having a lot of fun.

Crowe’s Father Amorth is a stunning and imaginative creation, riding around on his Labretta scooter and listening to pop music. He makes jokes during exorcisms. He is self-deprecating in front of his Pope and openly mocks the demons he works to banish. While the film around him is close to as by-the-numbers as these films get, Crowe forces into it energy, life, and extraordinary entertainment value. I mentioned in a recent review of The Nun II (2023) of the enjoyment to be had in “charming nonsense”. Screenwriters Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos provide the nonsense. Crowe gives a surfeit of charm.

The other performances are all capably delivered. The great Franco Nero plays a fictionalised Pope in one of those cameo roles where you cannot help but notice all of his scenes were filmed on the one set. Alex Essoe is excellent as Julia Vasquez, who builds a strong and believable rapport with Amorth. Between Julius Avery and cinematographer Khalid Mohtaseb, the film looks nicely slick and atmospheric.

This is solid, decently-made pulp cinema. You will come for the exorcisms, but you will stay for Russell Crowe. His palpable humour and heightened performing style are honestly a blast.