The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

In 1987, Father Gabriele Amorth, a World War II Italian partisan and the Pope's personal exorcist, an earthy, scooter-riding and practical man with a sense of humour, visits an Italian village where a teenage boy, Enzo, appears possessed by a demon. With the local priest, Amorth enters the room where Enzo is restrained. During the exorcism, he uses a Saint Benedict Medal sacramental and taunts the demon, challenging it to possess a pig. When it does, the pig is killed with a shotgun.

The incident brings Amorth before a Church tribunal headed by Cardinal Sullivan, who doubts the existence of the Devil, and attended by Amorth's friend Bishop Lumumba. Amorth insists that evil exists, but says he did not perform a genuine exorcism, only psychological theatrics to help the mentally ill man. Disgusted by Sullivan's lack of faith, he leaves.

Julia Vasquez, her young son Henry and his teenage sister Amy travel from the United States to visit an old Spanish abbey, which was Julia's husband's sole legacy to the family after his death in a car accident witnessed by Henry. Traumatised, Henry has not spoken since the accident. After a sinister fire injures workers restoring the abbey for sale, they abandon the project. Henry begins behaving strangely, but medical tests find no physical abnormality.

Henry appears possessed and demands a priest. Father Tomas Esquibel, a local priest, arrives, but Henry obscenely mocks him. The Pope sends Amorth to investigate. At the abbey, Henry taunts Amorth with memories of World War II. Amorth stresses the importance of prayer, while Esquibel struggles as an assistant exorcist, at one point attempting to strangle Henry after being provoked and mocked over his sins.

Their attempts to exorcise Henry fail, and the demon intermittently possesses Amy. Amorth learns that Julia has rejected religion since childhood, but persuades her to pray after she reveals that she once believed her guardian angel protected her.

The Pope falls seriously ill while reading historical documents about the abbey and is hospitalised. Amorth discovers a well leading to a complex sealed by the Church as demonically dangerous. There he learns that a founder of the Spanish Inquisition, himself an exorcist, was possessed and left to die in a buried cage. The Church concealed the incident. Amorth eventually discovers that Henry's demon is Asmodeus, whose name will aid the exorcism.

Amorth and Esquibel undergo the sacrament of Confession and Absolution, confessing and absolving one another. Amorth admits that, after surviving the war and vowing to serve God in gratitude, he failed to help a mentally ill woman who subsequently died by suicide, his pride preventing him from intervening. Esquibel confesses that he fornicated with a young woman whom he did not marry. They prepare for the final exorcism, with Amorth instructing Esquibel to wear a Miraculous Medal necklace.

The exorcism succeeds only when Amorth offers himself as a host, fulfilling Asmodeus's desire to destroy him. Amorth attempts to hang himself, but Asmodeus stops him, intending instead to use him to infiltrate and destroy the Church. Esquibel helps Amorth resist, while the two banish Asmodeus and demonic manifestations resembling the women associated with their past sins back to Hell.

The Pope and Henry recover, and the Vatican purchases and reconsecrates the abbey. Amorth and Esquibel return to Rome, where they learn that Sullivan has taken leave in Guam and Lumumba has replaced him. They are admitted to a special Church archive, where Lumumba reveals that, using a map Amorth found at the abbey, they will investigate 199 other sites associated with evil and combat the Devil. Amorth jokes that he and Esquibel are going to Hell.