From Jeff Nelson

William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece The Exorcist haunted theaters in 1973, changing the face of the genre forever as one of the most terrifying pieces of cinema ever to hit the silver screen. It spawned a franchise of sequels and prequels, further expanding upon the demon’s mythology and the terrors it exacts upon humanity. However, they don’t hold a candle to the classic that started it all. David Gordon Green, the filmmaker behind the latest Halloween trilogy, seeks to give the same treatment to another beloved property with The Exorcist: Believer, but his sequel fails to grasp the fundamentals of Friedkin’s original.

Teenage girls Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) decide to wander into the woods, leading to their disappearance. They return three days later with no memory of what happened, but their behavior is anything but normal. Angela’s father, Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), seeks out Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), who once faced such an evil 50 years prior with her daughter’s possession.

Similar to 2018’s Halloween, The Exorcist: Believer is a legacy sequel that acts as a follow-up to the original. However, the difference is that the sequels and prequels technically remain canon, even though they hold no barring on the plot. Chris makes a minor return, but this isn’t her story. We’re given some information about what became of her and Regan (Linda Blair), but this is primarily a new story set on the father-daughter relationship between Victor and Angela, where all else is just noise.

The Exorcist: Believer doubles the demonic possession, roping two families into the traumatic struggle for survival. The film’s heart lies in the connection between Angela and Victor in the memory of her dead mother. Meanwhile, Katherine and her family don’t have any emotional stakes outside of the demonic horrors, making the dual possession storyline feel less compelling.

Possession films tend to follow a good vs. evil storyline, with the Catholic Church typically acting as the lifeline for survival. Green doesn’t wander far from the trope, but he invests more time into the ways that various cultures approach evil spirits with their own tools. However, it devolves into long spouts of pointless exposition as if the baseline of exorcism itself is a new, abstract concept. 

Perhaps most puzzling is Green’s lifeless visual style, which misses the mark on generating atmosphere. There aren’t any defining shots, with jump scares taking up the majority of the demonic-based scares, rather than unnerving interactions or set pieces. However, The Exorcist: Believer lands a solid final exorcism scene that isn’t afraid to dip its toes into violence.

The Exorcist: Believer marks a soulless return to the franchise that lacks both atmosphere and scares. If this didn’t have any ties to Friedkin’s horror classic, it would be serviceable as a generic possession film with a few intriguing ideas that go beyond Catholocism’s approach to exorcisms. But as a legacy sequel, it fails to live up to the name, relying on an underutilized Burstyn and a familiar score to tap into nostalgia as a means of redemption. 

Rating: 2/5

The Exorcist: Believer hits theaters on October 6th, 2023.

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