The Pope’s Exorcist | 2023 | R | – 5.8.6

Why is “The Pope’s Exorcist” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several remarks about sexual activity with a demon and a priest, a fully nude young woman soaked in blood, a topless young woman, many scenes of a deep voice coming from a young boy and making threats toward people, discussions of demonic possession and exorcism, soldiers dying from gunshots, a fatal car accident, a young woman falling to her death, many encounters with a demon that end in bloody deaths, arguments and yelling, and 14 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The official exorcist of the Vatican (Russell Crowe) finds himself tested when he faces a powerful demon occupying the body of a young boy in a Spanish abbey. Also with Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Franco Nero, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Laurel Marsden, Cornell John, Ryan O’Grady and Bianca Bardoe. Directed by Julius Avery. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish, Latin, German and Italian with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:43]

The Pope’s Exorcist SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A young woman lowers her top and we see her bare breasts as she makes sexually explicit remarks to a man. A fully nude young woman, completely covered with blood, is shown (we see her bare breasts, buttocks, legs and abdomen).
► A young woman tells a man that the devil has sex with her. Accusations are made toward a priest as having had sex with parishioners. A demon’s voice coming from a young boy threatens a priest with rape, and describes the act. A woman talks to her young son and he speaks with a deep voice and makes crude remarks while grabbing his mother’s clothed breast and asking to be breastfed.
► A teen girl wears a tank top that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders in several scenes with shorts that reveal bare legs to the upper thighs. A teen girl wears a cropped top that reveals cleavage and her bare abdomen in a couple of scenes.

The Pope’s Exorcist VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – A fully nude young woman (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) throws a man in a pool of water and holds him under the surface until a medallion is held against her forehead and she bubbles and explodes (blood and matter spray around the area).
► Soldiers walk through a bombed out area and are shot at by German soldiers; several of the soldiers are shot dead and one lies on the ground pretending to be dead as German soldiers walk through looking for him. Two men investigate a hole in a stone wall and when one lights a flare, it ignites gas and the two men are blown back (we see one man being put into an ambulance). A young woman stands on a ledge of a tall building and falls to her death (we see a pool of blood on the ground). A priest moves close to a young boy sleeping in a bed, the boy grabs the priest and bites off part of his ear and then spits the bloody piece at the man.
► A priest presses a crucifix against a young woman’s forehead and she swirls around in a pool of what seems to be lava and disappears. A priest goes to a house where a young man is tied to a bed and he thrashes and moans in a deep voice; the priest talks to the young man and shows him a medallion that causes the young man to freeze, then he roars and thrashes before collapsing on the bed, a pig in the room squeals and a man shoots the pig (implying that a demon has left the young man and entered the pig). A young boy lies back on a bed and says that something is hurting him, we see wriggling under his skin and when his shirt is lifted we see the words, “God is not here” being carved into his abdomen. A teen girl moves unnaturally like a skittering creature, climbs to the ceiling, then drops back to the floor, she lunges toward a woman and slams her head into a sink that breaks, and then pins her in a bathtub where she bites her hand (we see blood). A priest is held off the floor by his tie and he struggles and gasps for air. A woman says that her young son saw his father die in a car accident where the man was impaled (we see an image of wreckage and a bloody body).
► A teen girl hears noises coming from her brother’s room, and when she opens the door, the boy growls at her and she runs away; the phone in her room rings and she hears her dead father’s voice telling her that they are all going to die and the voice turns to a growling demon’s voice. A young boy speaking in a deep voice demands to see a priest and when a priest enters the room, he is quickly thrown out and slams into a wall (we do not see injuries). A woman is thrown and slams into a mirror that shatters and she is held off the ground by her throat while a teen girl is levitated off the floor and her head is twisted around unnaturally (we see the flesh on her neck twist and hear crunching sounds). A priest speaks to a young boy that talks to him with a deep voice, the priest holds a religious medallion and the boy’s iris seems to split to two with one iris glowing and the other seemingly normal. A woman talks to her young son and he speaks with a deep voice and makes crude remarks while grabbing his mother’s clothed breast; she pulls away alarmed. A priest attacks a young boy and puts his hands around the boy’s throat when the boy, speaking in a demon’s voice, accuses the priest of inappropriate sexual activity with congregation members. A woman sleeps alone in bed and a man’s hand reaches over her shoulder, covers her mouth and pulls her into the mattress as she screams.
► A teen girl is chased inside a closet with something scratching at the walls and she is pulled into a hole in the floor. A priest searches a corpse for a key to a door and pushes his hand into the abdomen (it squishes and he reacts to a smell). A young woman asks a priest why he didn’t help her and she bites the head off a bird (we see blood in her mouth and on her face). A young boy gags and retches as a lump moves through his throat and he spits out a small dead bird. A young boy’s face changes and stretches unnaturally in a few scenes and his flesh becomes discolored with dark veins showing. A young boy holds a priest’s face in his hands and the man’s eyes go dark and his flesh becomes covered with darkened veins as the man spits blood and moans; the priest tries to hang himself with a rope and is slammed over a flight of stairs, he floats in the air, roars and his mouth stretches unnaturally large. A young boy seizes in a bed thrashing and growling; the boy says in a deep voice, “You’re all going to die” and scratches himself on the face (we see bloody scratches).
► A young boy walks through dark passages and pulls a rock out of an opening in a stone wall; we hear what sounds like bones cracking and movement behind the wall and the boy seems frightened. A woman investigates noises in the dark and finds her young son sleeping; his eyes open when she leaves the room. A priest pulls a cover off a well and we see many human skulls lining the walls as well as the seal of the Inquisition at the bottom. Two men discover a room where one decayed corpse is shown in a cage and others are shown in inlets in the walls. A teen girl hears knocking sounds in several scenes and in one scene, she finds her younger brother wearing a goat mask with horns when she opens the door to her room.
► A young boy, speaking in a deep voice, tells a priest, “I am your demise.” A demon’s voice says, “No one’s getting out of here alive.” A teen girl sits on a railing on the second floor of a dilapidated building and her mother yells at her to be careful. A priest describes that during an exorcism, a demon tried to put a crucifix in his eye. A priest describes a representative of the church having been possessed by a demon and that this led to the Inquisition that included the persecution and torture of many people. Men yell at each other in a hearing about a man’s performance of his duties as an exorcist. We read a quote that describes when we jeer at the Devil and say he doesn’t exist, that is when he is the happiest. A woman says that her husband died recently and that her young son has not spoken since. Doctors describe a boy having psychosis and give a woman a sedative to give the boy if he tries to harm himself again. Several people say, “Our sins will seek us out.” A priest makes noises as young nuns walk by and they giggle.
► A crucifix with Jesus hanging in a church is shown bleeding from a wound made by a sword. We see X-ray images of a young boy’s head and brain. A man has a heart attack while reading a letter and we see him in a hospital where he vomits a torrent of blood on another man. A priest talks about fighting against the fascists as a young man.

The Pope’s Exorcist LANGUAGE 6

 – About 14 F-words, 5 sexual references, 3 obscene hand gestures, 4 scatological terms, anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (twerp, fat cow, little piggie, shameless, nightmare, prideful fool, sweet treat, coward), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, Lord, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted], godforsaken, God). | profanity glossary |

The Pope’s Exorcist SUBSTANCE USE

 – A young boy is jabbed in the neck with a hypodermic needle containing a sedative. A man drinks whiskey from a flask in a couple of scenes, and a man shares a flask of whiskey with another man. A teen girl smokes a cigarette.

The Pope’s Exorcist DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Guilt, sin, demonic possession, mental illness, the right to choose, having faith, sacrifice, the Spanish Inquisition, the doctrine of the faith, blasphemy, fatal car accidents, trauma, vulnerability.

The Pope’s Exorcist MESSAGE

 – Demons can make us do all kinds of bad stuff.