The Crucifixion (2017)

The Crucifixion has a pulpy, old-world chill that’s hard to resist: rain-slicked Romanian streets, candlelit churches, and a sense that every stone corridor is holding its breath. Xavier Gens leans into atmosphere and striking visuals, letting the setting do as much haunting as the scares, while Sophie Cookson makes the journalist’s skepticism feel grounded and human rather than genre-automatic. It plays like a mystery-thriller first and a possession film second, keeping you hooked on the question of what really happened even as the dread steadily tightens. Fair warning: it’s not reinventing the exorcism wheel and it doesn’t shy away from harsh imagery, but if you want a moody, watchable descent into faith, doubt, and creeping evil, it delivers.

The Crucifixion is clearly aiming for a gritty, “based-on-a-real-case” exorcism mystery, mixing journalistic investigation with Catholic horror imagery and a steady drip of dread. The problem is it plays like a checklist of familiar possession beats, with clunky plotting and a heavy-handed, sermon-y tone that can feel more dogmatic than genuinely unsettling. If you want smart mystery work, fresh scares, or characters who feel like real people, this is likely to leave you cold—even with a committed lead performance and a few eerie locations doing their best to add atmosphere. It’s mainly for viewers who are happy to coast on exorcism tropes and don’t mind predictability as long as the mood stays dark and the imagery is intense.