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In 2013, director Alejandro Hidalgo gave the haunted house a sci-fi twist in his feature debut, The House at the End of Time. His long-awaited follow-up, The Exorcism of God, attempts to shake up the overly familiar exorcism horror subgenre. Hidalgo pays tribute to the granddaddy of them all, The Exorcist, then works to retool the formula through the past and present. It’s meant to be a scathing critique on religion, but it’s muddled by adhering a little too close to the tropes and centering the story on a morally murky lead that forgives himself far too quickly.
The Exorcism of God opens with a climactic-style exorcism in more ways than one. Father Peter Williams (Will Beinbrink), an American priest living in Mexico, defies orders from the top to perform an exorcist solely on a possessed woman. The demon knows his number, though, and uses its host body to seduce Father Peter Williams, getting possessed himself. It causes him to commit one of the more egregious sins. Cut to eighteen years later, the consequences of that sin come back to haunt Father Peter Williams in a big way, unleashing a larger scaled battle between good and evil.
Hidalgo captures that iconic shot from The Exorcist in the opening scene and continues to borrow from the film throughout, especially in the look of the possessed. That includes pea soup colored projectile vomit. But Hidalgo also weaves in some of his ideas in a script co-written with Santiago Fernández Calvete. It’s once the recovered woman from the opening, Magali (Irán Castillo), returns into the fold that Williams’ sins are exposed and the larger picture clicks into place.
Beinbrink attempts to play Father Williams as a protagonist in constant conflict with himself. Yet, the narrative rarely allows that to play out in a meaningful way. Father Williams crumbles easily when faced with temptation in the opening, culminating in a nonconsensual moment of great weakness that ripples throughout the narrative. But Father Williams jumps right back into his role within the Church and buries that secret down deep until it comes roaring back. Even then, the endless choices this character makes are often the opposite of holy. By the film’s end, it’s clear that Hidalgo is lobbing some scathing critiques against the Church, namely in its corruption, but presenting Father Williams as a protagonist that never earns our sympathy makes for a challenging and confusing sell. This priest isn’t a man worthy of his position, nor does he ever bother to redeem or atone in any way. The narrative never does enough to earn that giant leap in the film’s finale, either.
Father Williams’ arc is a flat line from beginning to end. There’s no growth or any depth to help humanize him beyond a well-meaning but highly corrupt priest. Supporting players don’t fare any better, but Joseph Marcell (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) does attempt to bring some energy as Williams’ superior.
A few creative scare moments arrive in demonic iterations of religious icons, but mostly Hidalgo relies on repurposing the same possession horror beats. It’s all in service to highlighting this very corrupt system but blandly written supporting players and a flat lead that never earns any absolution, redemption, or growth of any kind. This core concept drives the story but gets buried too deep to engage. Much like Father Williams’ failure in the opening act, The Exorcism of God never succeeds in its subversion.
