The Exorcist: Believer review

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER: 

JONAH HILL SAID IT BEST “IT’S NOT THAT COMPELLING”! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Olivia Marcum in The Exorcist: Believer

 

            A demon possesses two young girls, and a group of people try to exorcise it before they’re gone forever in The Exorcist: Believer, the latest installment of the Exorcist film series, the first without any involvement from Warner Bros. (Not counting The Exorcist III which was released theatrically by 20^th Century Fox while Warner Bros. owns home video rights), and a direct sequel to 1973’s The Exorcist ignoring the later films. What can be said about the original Exorcist? It’s a horror classic and one of the most iconic films of all time from its memorable scares to stellar performances by its cast and incredible special effects, it’s a film that has truly stood the test of time, inspired other possession movies, and spawned several parodies, homages (One of my favorites being from The Boondocks), and of course, a franchise.

            While the original film has been hailed as The Scariest Movie Ever Made and a staple in pop-culture, the later films are rather hit-or-miss. 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic is often considered one of the worst sequels of all time despite its ambition, 1990’s The Exorcist III is an underrated horror classic with a phenomenal George C. Scott performance and probably the best jump scare in cinema, and both Exorcist prequels, 2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning and 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist…they exist! 

            Which brings us to The Exorcist: Believer with David C. and James G. Robinson, who have produced every film in the series since The Exorcist III returning as producers under their Morgan Creek Entertainment studio and in the director’s chair is David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Joe, Halloween (2018) trilogy). Despite the declining quality of the sequels, I thought his first Halloween movie was a worthy continuation of the story and the best since the original so I was optimistic that the first in his new Exorcist trilogy would have that same effect. It doesn’t. 

            The Exorcist: Believer isn’t the worst film in the Exorcist series as it does have a handful of fun scares and decent performances by the cast. Unfortunately, it seems too focused on rehashing plot elements from the original movie (or possession horror films in general) instead of coming up creative and new ideas. 

            The film follows widowed father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.-Hamilton, Murder On the Orient Express (2017), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) who has lost faith in God after the tragic death of his then-pregnant wife 12 years ago and is living with his daughter Angela (Newcomer, Lidya Jewett). But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Newcomer, Olivia Marcum) sneak out into the woods and go missing for three days, they bring something evil and terrifying home with them, a demon taking control of their bodies. 

            This results in Angela’s dad and Katherine’s parents Miranda (Jennifer Nettles-Harriet) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz-Dan in Real Life, Fair Game, Better Nate Than Ever) enlisting the help of their nurse neighbor Ann (Ann Dowd-Philadelphia, Side Effects, Hereditary), priest Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla-Guiding Light, Unforgettable, Gemini Man), and someone who has witnessed these terrors before, Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn-Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Requiem for a Dream, W. reprising her role from The Exorcist) to send the demon back to Hell and rescue their daughters. 

            The film also stars Raphael Sbarge (Risky Business, Mass Effect trilogy, Once Upon a Time) as Don Revans and Danny McCarthy (The Amityville Horror (2005), The Drop, Elvis & Nixon) as Stuart. 

            Overall, The Exorcist: Believer has its moments and on paper the plot has a lot of interesting potential. Unfortunately, it falls apart in the execution and becomes just another generic possession movie that constantly reminds the audience how much better the 1973 original is. 

            There are some elements of the film I enjoyed, for the most part the acting is decent with the biggest standouts being the actresses playing the two girls. Granted, they are seemingly trying to replicate Linda Blair’s performance from the original, but it looks like they’re having a ball going over-the-top and creepy and I did find the connection between the widowed dad and his daughter to be genuinely sweet. 

            It was also neat to see Ellen Burstyn back as Chris MacNeil (And the return of another actor/character later on) even though the script doesn’t really do her any favors and that a large chunk of her performance was already shown in the trailers. Because of that, there isn’t much of a point in having her there aside from fan-service, a typical legacy sequel trope. 

            Some of the scares are fun, I thought the scene shown in the trailers where one of the possessed girls walks into a church was both suspenseful and a little comical and there’s one ingeniously subtle scare early on in the film shortly after one of the girls returns home. The rest are generic possession scares, jump-scares, horribly edited sequences where scenes cut away just as the scares are happening, and this movie’s version of iconic scenes from the original Exorcist. 

            As a direct sequel to the first movie, it’s an embarrassing and lackluster continuation because why watch a subpar reenactment of scenes from The Exorcist when you could just watch The Exorcist, original or Director’s Cut? As the start of a new series, it also fails because it doesn’t stand on its own nor does it do anything unique with its storytelling (Despite an interesting concept with 2 possessed girls), and despite an abundance of characters there was very few of them I was invested in, unless it becomes an Annabelle: Creation or Ouija: Origin of Evil scenario I am not looking forward to any sequels to this because it left so little an impression when it ended. 

            The Exorcist: Believer isn’t a terrible movie, but it’s a dull, uninspired legacy sequel that’s overly focused on recreating the good old days rather than doing anything new. Even with the cast trying to make this material work, it turns out a forgettable exorcism that the power of Christ does not compel.