''13 Exorcisms'' () is a 2022 Spanish

supernatural horror Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...

film directed by Jacobo Martínez in his feature debut, which stars

María Romanillos María Romanillos (born 2004) is a Spanish film and television actress. Life and career Romanillos was born in 2004 in Madrid, training at theatre school Cuarta Pared and film school Primera Toma. In 2020, she made her television debut, featur ...

and

José Sacristán José María Sacristán Turiégano (born 27 September 1937), better known as José Sacristán, is a Spanish film, theatre, and television actor. He made his feature film debut in 1965 in '. At Gijón International Film Festival in 2015, he r ...

in a demonically possessed girl versus

exorcist In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person ...

priest relationship, along with Ruth Díaz and

Urko Olazabal Urko Olazabal Ortiz de Zarate (born 1978) is a Spanish actor. He is known for his role as Luis Carrasco in the film '' Maixabel'' by Icíar Bollain. Among the awards he has received are the Goya Award (2022), the Feroz Award (2022), the CEC ...

Plot

Following a naive

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

, and upon the strange behaviour displayed afterwards by teenager Laura Villegas, the latter's deeply

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family calls a Vatican-sanctioned

to intervene in the purported case of

demonic possession Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

Cast

Production

The screenplay was written by , Teresa Fernández-Valdés, Salvador S. Molina, Gema R. Neira, David Orea, and Carlos Ruano. A Mr. Fields and Friends,

Atresmedia Cine Atresmedia Cine (formerly Ensueño Films and Antena 3 Films) is the studio belonging to Grupo Atresmedia responsible for producing films. It was created in 2000. History The film production company was created after the enacting of the Spanish ...

, Bambú Producciones and 13 E Movie AIE production, the film had the participation of

Atresmedia Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A., previously Grupo Antena 3, is a Spanish media group, present in the television, radio and filmmaking industries. Significant shareholders include Grupo Planeta and Bertelsmann. On 6 Marc ...

Movistar Plus+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by , which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL as well as with satellites such as Astra. The pl ...

, AGADIC and Diputación de Ourense. It was shot in Galicia, including locations such as

Ourense Ourense (; ) is a city and the capital of the province of province of Ourense, Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path o ...

Ordes Ordes is a municipality in the province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Ordes. The population in 2008 was 12,534 inhabitants, according to the INE. Etymology According to E. Bascuas, ...

, and

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

Release

Distributed by Beta Fiction (thereby marking the company's debut as a distributor in the Spanish market), the film released theatrically in Spain on 4 November 2022.

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

handled international sales.

Reception

Raquel Hernández Luján of ''

HobbyConsolas ''HobbyConsolas'' is a Spanish video game magazine founded in 1991 by Hobby Press and published by Axel Springer SE. The first issue appeared in October 1991. The monthly magazine offers information about games for all consoles, and since 2012 ha ...

'' rated the film with 70 points ('good'), highlighting the cast's commitment, the most twisted scenes and the special effects as the best things about the film while citing the film's final coda as a negative element. Beatriz Martínez of ''

La Nueva España ''La Nueva España'' is a daily newspaper in Spain. Published in Oviedo, it serves Asturias. The publisher of the paper is Editoral Prensa Asturiana. It is published in tabloid format. The paper has an independent political stance. Letizia Or ...

'' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, pointing out that despite the helmer managing to pull a beginning eliciting just the right doses of suggestion and creeps, the perspective, initially anchored to the adolescent psyche of the character portrayed by an "extraordinary" Romanillos, becomes blurred, and "the climax is rushed and confusing, throwing away the achievements of its disturbing beginning". Elsa Fernández-Santos of ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'' considered that the film "barely delves into its more realistic possibilities to offer nsteada fiction that is slanted towards the fantastic, poorly constructed and that contributes very little to the genre", otherwise finding striking the direction of actors, as each one of them are seemingly in a different movie, with only Romanillos providing some truth to her character's portrayal. Begoña del Teso of ''

El Correo ''El Correo'' (; ) is a leading daily newspaper in Bilbao and the Basque Country of northern Spain. It is among best-selling general interest newspapers in Spain. History and profile The brothers Ybarra y de la Revilla – Fernando, Gabriel and ...

'' rated the film 2 out of 5 stars, arguing that it is "badly structured, badly lit, badly created" and pointing out that its makers "could not decide if they wanted to (badly) imitate '

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...

' or ' Carrie'".

Accolades

, - , , ,

37th Goya Awards The 37th Goya Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, took place at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Andalusia on 11 February 2023. Background On 31 May 2022, Seville was r ...

, , Best Special Effects , , Mariano García Marty, Jordi Costa , , , ,

References

{{authority control 2022 horror films 2022 films Films shot in Galicia (Spain) Spanish supernatural horror films Spanish religious horror films Films about exorcism Bambú Producciones films Atresmedia Cine films 2022 directorial debut films 2020s Spanish films 2020s supernatural horror films 2020s Spanish-language films Spanish-language horror films