“The Exorcist: Believer” is a supernatural horror film by David Gordon Green, and it serves both as a legacy sequel to “The Exorcist” and the first entry of the trilogy. The story follows a single father who must question what he believes in when his young daughter and her friend show signs of demonic possession, leading him to someone who has dealt with this situation before. The film stars Leslie Odom Jr. (“Hamilton”), Ann Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), Jennifer Nettles (“The Righteous Gemstones”) and Ellen Burstyn (“The Exorcist”).
After an interesting career in independent dramas, studio comedies and television, Green has recently started dabbling in the horror genre with his bizarre legacy sequel trilogy to the “Halloween” franchise. While these films were of very mixed quality, they at least presented some interesting ideas — the same unfortunately can’t be said about “The Exorcist: Believer.” While the film has some great performances and solid directing, it has an utter lack of any personality.
“The Exorcist” is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic horror films of all time, due to its directing, screenplay, performances and special effects. While it was strong enough on its own to not warrant a subsequent franchise, that’s unfortunately what we got… and pretty much no other entry has been able to live up to the original. Aside from the now cult classic “The Exorcist III” and a positively received but short-lived television series, it’s safe to say that none of the other entries justify the idea of making “The Exorcist” a long-running franchise. And once again, “The Exorcist: Believer” fails to make an argument for why the series needed to be continued.
One of the few things that I liked about this film was the acting, particularly from leads Odom Jr. and Dowd. The best performance might actually come from 16-year-old actress Lidya Jewett, who plays one of the possessed girls. Good child performances are difficult to come by, so I was pleasantly surprised to see such a young performer pulling off such an intense role -— not to mention, the demonic makeup really added to her terrifying performance.
Unfortunately, nothing else really stood out to me. The cinematography, score, and directing were all serviceable, but nothing was particularly exceptional or worth an extra mention.
One of the most disappointing elements of the film was Ellen Burstyn, both in terms of how she was written into the film and her performance in general. A lot of the marketing surrounded the actress and how she would be reprising her Oscar-nominated role as Chris MacNeil from the original film, but as soon as the first trailer dropped, there was something off to me. It didn’t really seem like she was trying to give a very good performance, and the trailer’s insistence that she would play a pivotal role in the film convinced me that she would actually end up being more like a glorified cameo. Unsurprisingly, her performance throughout the film was quite one-note and she is only in the film for about fifteen minutes. This just makes it clear that her involvement in the film was merely a marketing stunt and bid for nostalgia rather than an actual writing decision.
The biggest problem for me was that the movie didn’t feel like it was made with any passion behind it. The screenplay was dull to the point where I pretty much shrugged away almost every major revelation that appeared in the movie. The ending in particular felt like it was supposed to have a lot of emotional impact, but I was just left confused.
I’m genuinely surprised that this movie was released theatrically rather than on streaming… This movie is technically cohesive, but considering the negative reception from test screenings, I wouldn’t be surprised if the filmmakers and/or producers tried salvaging the film in the editing room. Hilariously enough, it didn’t even work, if the film’s critical and commercial reception is any indication; even worse is that Green is no longer sure if he’s going to direct the rest of the trilogy, even though the sequel is already slated for 2025 and already has a completed screenplay.
While “The Exorcist: Believer” was, admittedly, not as bad as I was expecting, it lacked any sort of personality or reason to exist. Possession films are way too frequent and far between at this point in time, and it’s important to at least do something interesting with it, a la Danny and Michael Philippou’s “Talk to Me.” Some solid performances and great makeup simply can’t prop up a thinly written screenplay and bland direction.
RATING: 4/10
