| The Devil and Father Amorth | |
| Director: | William Friedkin |
| Starring: | Gabriele Amorth |
| Narrator: | William Friedkin |
| Music: | Christopher Rouse |
| Editing: | Gary Leva |
| Studio: | LD Entertainment |
| Distributor: | The Orchard |
| Runtime: | 69 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $20,449[1] |
The Devil and Father Amorth is a 2017 American pseudo-documentary horror film directed by William Friedkin showing the ninth exorcism of an Italian woman in the village of Alatri[2] referred to as "Cristina", this time performed by Father Gabriele Amorth.
Mark Kermode, a British film critic and long-time admirer of Friedkin, was invited to assist in writing narration.[3]
The film premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2017.[4] It had a wide release in the United States on April 20, 2018.[5]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 44% based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 4.88/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Devil and Father Amorth sets out to interrogate age-old questions of faith, but fails to find enough compelling answers—or reasons for viewers to watch."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]
Robbie Collin of The Telegraph wrote that the film "feels amateurish and arguably also exploitative [...] although perhaps that lends it credibility: in this context, too much polish would almost certainly be cause for suspicion."[8] Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film "a rather tawdry charade."[9] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave it a C- grade, writing, "Mostly, Friedkin does the talking, never missing an opportunity to strain credulity or flaunt his credentials, which in this case begin and end at directing The Exorcist."[10]