Pan and Slam

The Exorcist: Believer

R 1h 51m

• Director
  • David Gordon Green
• Stars
  • Ellen Burstyn
  • Linda Blair
  • Jennifer Nettles

By Jason Koenigsberg

Sequels to William Friedkin’s classic horror film The Exorcist (1973) do not have the same reputation as other sequels in popular horror franchises. It’s reputation as ‘the scariest movie ever made’ probably does not help and it completely missed out on the 80’s horror boom with its sequels coming in 1977 with Exorcist II: The Heretic and 1990 with The Exorcist III both to underwhelming reviews and box office. Now here comes David Gordon Green giving The Exorcist the same legacy sequel, or ‘re-quel’, treatment he did with the Halloween franchise ignoring all of the previous entries with hopes of kickstarting a trilogy. The ticket sales and internet buzz will determine if that plan comes to fruition but in the meantime The Exorcist: Believer is entertaining and has thrilling moments nine tenths of the way through until it reaches its anticlimactic ending, or practically non-ending where the viewer will be left asking what the previous two hours was all about.

The opening shot is of two dogs wrestling and biting each other reminiscent of the first scene of the 1973 original Exorcist filmed in Iraq. The Exorcist: Believer opens up on location in Haiti trying to capture a similar vibe. Thankfully this legacy sequel is not just a series of callbacks and winks at the audience making references to the first film. It tells a real story and creates genuinely engaging characters the audience will care about… at least during the first half. The performances across the board are noteworthy until it falls into the standard exorcism scenes that go on for too long. The plot involves a single father played by Leslie Odom Jr. raising his thirteen year old daughter. He lost his pregnant wife during the first scene in Haiti when a massive earthquake struck the island and the doctors were able to save his daughter but not his wife. From that event he also lost his faith which plays into the plot. His daughter runs off with another girl to try and contact her dead mother in the woods. The two girls disappear for three days and when they are found they slowly reveal certain behaviors that are odd and off-putting to say the least. Eventually they realize that the two girls are possessed by a demon, possibly the same one that possessed little Regan in the first movie. Our protagonist father goes on a quest to find answers. Eventually he tracks down the mother from the first movie and we see Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil where we learn she gave up her acting career to write a novel about her experience with her daughters exorcism. Ms. Burstyn’s part in the movie is rather small and after a nice slow build during the first hour, the majority of the second hour is the actual exorcism and that is where The Exorcist: Believer loses the audience. The room is crowded, there is a lot of screaming and very little scares unlike the first hour which had a few jump scares but did a solid job building that sense of dread as if the normal everyday mundane actions we see could be disrupted at any moment by something horrifying.

The cinematography in the first half of the film is gorgeous to the point the viewer would want to step on screen and walk around with the characters, until something unsettling happens which it feels like it could. The whole first hour of the movie looks like a crisp beautiful fall day and you can feel the sun and the cold air with just the camerawork and lighting. That deserves to be noted since it helps contrast the impending terror and increase the tension when you know something evil is afoot with these two girls. Then the second hour all of those elements disappear and we are left with a lot of people standing around and we pretty much know what needs to be done and the only question is how and what will be the result of their attempt to exorcise the demon or demons. Only Ann Dowd who plays a novitiate turned nurse manages to convey a sense of humanity and give off enough interesting qualities where she seems invested as more than just an actor playing her part going through the motions that the script requires her to do during the long exorcism scene.

The big question is after all of this, what was director David Gordon Green and his creative team trying to say? When one has to ask themselves after a movie, what was the point? that is usually not a good sign but The Exorcist: Believer has enough depth to warrant a recommendation for those looking to escape to the cinemas for a few scares this Halloween season. Yet it is never clear why the girls were possessed, how they were possessed and if they were possessed by the same demon simultaneously, or if this demon was Pazuzu, the same evil entity who possessed Regan in the first film. I guess all of those questions and even more regarding the plot and resolution, or lack thereof since the ending felt so anticlimactic, will all be answered in the next movie or two of this attempt to restart the franchise. Linda Blair does show up in what should be considered a cameo since her screen time is so brief. So once again, maybe The Exorcist: Believer is an attempt to build something, but it will be unclear to anyone what that something is until the next installment in the trilogy. Allegedly Universal and Blumhouse paid over $400 million for the rights to this series so whether this movie is successful or not they will probably continue with more Exorcist movies just to try and make their money back on that investment.