Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. The Exorcist: Believer, the first outing in the much-hyped new horror reboot, doesn’t deliver enough fire and brimstone. Universal apparently paid a devilish $400 million for the rights to this franchise, but there’s nothing about Exorcist: Believer that suggests producer Jason Blum or director David Gordon Green have crafted an inventive or haunting retooling of William Friedkin’s stellar 1973 classic The Exorcist, which originally scared the bejesus out of audiences and set a precedent for future horror films.
Things went to hell after that. The four Exorcist films that followed (two sequels, two prequels), never soared high enough. Exorcist II: The Heretic was abysmal, in fact, but that certainty didn’t stop producers from making other films in the same vein. The bright spot here lies in director David Gordon Green, the man who breathed new life in the reboot of the Halloween franchise. Still, the films that followed went limp — the third outing there, Halloween Ends, truly divided audiences.
You can feel the reboot vibe of 2018’s Halloween running throughout The Exorcist: Believer, and it’s bound to wind up at the top of the box office in its opening weekend despite negative reviews. That said, there are some thrills to have here, and with Ellen Burstyn returning to the franchise in the role of Chris MacNeil — Regan’s (Linda Blair) beleaguered mother in the original film — the intrigue is high.
Fright Night: Light
Universal
The Exorcist: Believer was written by David Gordon Green, Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds), and Scott Teems (Halloween Kills, Isidious: The Red Door). The premise lures you in. Victor (Leslie Odom Jr. of Knives Out 2) is a widowed and overprotective single father who dotes over his young daughter Angela — really? — played by Lidya Jewett. He reluctantly agrees to let Angela do homework at her friend Katherine’s (Olivia O’Neill) house. Katherine stands out with her curious rituals and her devote Christian family. Soon, the girls’ innocent walk through the forest delivers a shocking blow. The two go missing for several days.
The ripple effects of their disappearance shock their small Georgia town and Victor is in full freak-out mode. Days later, when the two reappear, Angela is foggy about what transpired. To her, she’s only been gone a few hours. Back to “normal” life the two girls go, but Victor quickly suspects something happened out there in the woods. Sure enough, Angela wets her bed and begins convulsing. Things aren’t pretty over in Katherine’s world either. Sunday morning church turns into a freak show when Katherine decides to raid the red wine used for communion. In one of the more chilling scenes — and a foreshadowing of what’s to come — Katerine stumbles down the center church aisle in her red-stained dress screaming, “the body and the blood!” in a demonic voice that should make you shiver.
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Thing is: It really doesn’t. Not enough, anyway. The dilemma is that we’ve been here before in films like The Conjuring, The Last Exorcism, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Prey For The Devil, and, more recently, Mother, May I? All films The Exorcist inspired beginning 50 years ago. Some of those outings delivered nail-biting thrills. The Exorcism: Believer does on occasion, but never enough. Not the way it needed to in order to justify its existence. True, David Gordon Green offers an effectively creepy tale here, but it never really transcends the source material or offers anything in the way of spine-tingling frights. This film needed to pack a punch as strong as an original film like Barbarian, rather than simply ride the coattails of a horror masterpiece.
Double the Devil, Minus the Horror
Universal
As fate would have it, Angela and Katherine are both possessed by a demon. Double teen possession — great premise, but again, here we are. Cue: eerie green eyes, pale skin, bloated and scarred faces, smart-mouth creepy girls. Okay, fair enough. Some of that works. What to do, though? Victor and Katherine’s mother (Jennifer Nettles) want answers. And a solution.
There’s some religious banter here and there, but when a compassionate nurse (Ann Dowd) recommends Victor to Chris MacNeil (90-year-old Ellen Burstyn in fine form), who’s had a go of it with her daughter Regan’s exorcism so long ago, of course, things get interesting. Regan, we soon learn, has “disappeared” from her mother’s life after Chris penned a bestselling tell-all. There’s bound to be more to the Regan story because, well, we have more movies to endure, folks.
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It’s nice to see Burstyn here, and it will be interesting to see how devoted fans feel about her addition and what the screenwriters choose to do with her character. (Again, forgive them Father…) Burstyn’s presence adds something, but the story really doesn’t give her enough to do. Her screen time is rushed. Also missing is the kind of intensity that Max von Sydow brought to his exorcist priest, Father Merrin, or Jason Miller’s Father Karras, for that matter, in the original film. William Peter Blatty wrote the screenplay for that game-changer of a movie, based on his best-selling book. It was head-turning — no pun intended — at the time and the film version was downright hair-raising.
Universal
The film’s saving grace is the actors and the acting. Pitch perfect all around. Leslie Odom Jr. is believable as Victor, bringing to him a sense of devotion and urgency. Ann Dowd doesn’t go too much farther than her Aunt Lydia role from The Handmaid’s Tale. She’s Aunt Lydia light here, but a great presence to have. Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill effectively pour on the creep as the possessed teenagers. The film’s grand opus — a grueling exorcism — delivers some twists and teases what may come in the next film (if you “get” the surprise.)
In the meantime, themes of community and spiritualists extending hands across the aisle come into play. It’s a bit preachy, but just go with it. Still, a gaggle of questions come to mind: Why is it that mostly girls are the ones that become possessed in films? (Is it because Eve got a bum rap?) And what’s in it for these demons to possess people, anyway? It’s hardly a joyride. And if these demons are so powerful, as our dear screenwriters want us to believe, why do they need frail young bodies as hosts?
Best not to overthink things. The Exorcist: Believer eventually holds your interest and delivers just enough suspense and light terror to satisfy, but never to really warrant its own existence. Don’t worry, though — if this film leaves you wishing there was just more to it, you’ll get it. The Exorcist: Deceiver drops in 2025. God help us.
The Exorcist: Believer opens in theaters October 6.
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