‘THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER’ Fails to Resurrect the Terror

If there’s one thing an Exorcist movie, be it a sequel, prequel, remake or sequel, needs to be, it’s scary. David Gordon Green’s 50-years later requel, The Exorcist: Believer fails that most fundamental test. The very celluloid of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist hums with tension and terror – each shot more possessed with unspeakable dread than the last. It’s the original nightmare-inducing horror film, a palpable shock to the system that stands up half a century later. It’s especially remarkable when you consider the context: just five years earlier, filmmakers were ensnared in the strict confines of the Hays Code, a moral guideline that prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence, and sexual persuasions. The thought of a 14-year-old child actor old uttering lines like, “Your mother sucks c*cks in hell” was plain unthinkable just a few years prior. It’s also pretty unthinkable today.

Friedkin’s film boldly embraced these transgressions, creating a classic that became a template for horror for decades to come. It even earned the distinction of being the first horror movie nominated for Best Picture. In stark contrast, The Exorcist: Believer is a pale reproduction, grafting franchise iconography onto a slick, uninspired production, lacking a compelling reason for its existence or anything of value to say. This would be forgivable if the movie were at least frightening on any level.

This proves disappointing because the setup works well enough and there’s a committed cast assembled to tell this should-be spooky tale. The story begins when photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his rather pregnant wife take a trip to Haita. A natural disaster unleashes calamity upon the Fielding family, and Victor is left to make a horrifying choice that will define the future of his family. Thirteen years later, their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her new friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) mysteriously disappear for three days into the wilderness. They return scratched up and missing their shoes and toenails, their memories shrouded in an eerie fog of amnesia, only to find themselves both ensnared by an ominous force—an evil that would make them instruments of terror.

These initial scenes are shot with grave tension and filled with anxiety. Green frames the horror through the lens of a parent trying desperately to find their child and, later, figure out what has happened to them. The first half of The Exorcist: Believer effectively leans into the trauma of something horrible befalling your child, and although it moves fairly slowly, it made me want to give the story the benefit of the doubt even when it turned to cheap jump scares. Loud audio bangs and intercut frames of contorted children’s faces interrupt otherwise tense moments to undo audience nerves. That Green can’t seem to capture any of the tension in camera and instead relies on lazy post inserts is disheartening, though wholly representative of what will come down the line.

Strangely enough, The Exorcist: Believer functions better before it turns into an Exorcist movie. Green does a convincing job with the domestic thriller procedural stuff, but when it pivots to being about demonic possession, the film comes apart. This is in part due to a script that increasingly doesn’t seem to know what it actually wants to be about, though Green’s middle-brow direction becomes excruciatingly flat. He’s decent when conducting the slow-paced domestic stuff and setting up the father-daughter rapport between Victor and Angela, but the horror set pieces are so uninspired. There’s not an interesting or memorable moment, certainly nothing coming near the infamous spider-walk, Regan’s head-spinning moment, or even the iconic pea soup vomit. It’s as if Green knew he couldn’t top those iconic moments, so he didn’t even try anything.

Leslie Odom Jr. undeniably shines as the movie’s standout, commanding every scene he graces with a quiet intensity. His pervasive presence throughout nearly every frame of the film lends it an emotional depth that arguably surpasses what the movie and its writing deserve. In contrast, Ann Dowd’s performance, while welcome, is hindered by an underwritten character. As for the child actors, they fulfill their roles capably, transitioning from angelic figures to wretched evildoers. However, Katherine suffers from a character that feels so underdeveloped that they nearly vanish into the background. Meanwhile, Angela remains frustratingly one-dimensional, although Victor’s investment in her provides a compelling reason to root for her survival.

Ellen Burstyn returns to the franchise as Chris MacNeil for the first time in 50 years, and her reunion with the material is a disappointment at best. Her appearance here might be deemed an outright waste of her imposing talents, as she primarily serves as an expositional conduit, recounting events from previous films. She factors into events only in the loosest sense, underscoring the script’s reliance on an already tired “requel” formula. The need to bring back a legacy character even if you have no use for them in the narrative is a clear sign of lazy storytelling, indicative of horror movies having already quickly exhausted the novelty of such returns.

It might appear somewhat unusual to highlight the religiosity of a franchise inherently centered around matters of faith and battling malevolence. However, Exorcist: Believer takes an oddly preachy stance, emphasizing its religious themes more fervently than its predecessors. Previous entries in the series navigated the complex terrain of faith, belief, and evil with subtlety. In contrast, The Exorcist: Believer often feels like a promotional pamphlet for attending church or one of those ubiquitous Jesus billboards that dot the landscape along rural highways. The effect is just a bit unsettling.

The film’s concluding moments are undeniably cringe-worthy, marred by uninspired storytelling that leaves viewers questioning the value of their time and money spent. It’s far from the spine-tingling scare-fest one might hope for. The entire project appears to wave the white flag, openly surrendering to mediocrity instead of rising to the occasion. This disappointment is amplified when you consider the somewhat promising start and Leslie Odom Jr.’s exceptional performance. Unfortunately, The Exorcist: Believer falls short in delivering the satisfying punch we anticipated, leaving us with a disconcerting feeling of emptiness. Green and his team had the potential to keep us up at night, but instead, they’ve exorcised any belief we had in their ability to drum up another compelling horror movie.

CONCLUSION: Despite a strong lead in Leslie Odoms Jr. and a somewhat promising start, ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ crumbles when it leans heavily into its franchise heritage, dimming in comparison to the original’s chilling thrills. It commits the inexcusable double sin of lacking inspiration and failing to deliver scares, rendering this 50-years-later return to the realm of possession films an unworthy journey down a cragged memory lane.