The Exorcist: Believer (2023) Review
How do you top a (nearly) 50-year-old horror classic that is still regarded as one of the scariest movies ever made? That horror classic in question is none other than the late William Friedkin’s The Exorcist back in 1973. The success of the first movie paved the way for two sequels — the 1977 embarrassing misfire of Exorcist II: The Heretic and the underrated 1990 slow-burn gem of The Exorcist III. There were prequels — the 2004 re-shot Exorcist: The Beginning and the 2005 sombre original take of Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. Too bad both movies failed to deliver the goods (read: scares).
Just when I thought The Exorcist franchise was buried once and for all, here comes a new one eighteen years later. Initially thought to be a reboot before The Exorcist: Believer turns out to be a sequel to the 1973 original, ignoring the rest of its existence that came before it. David Gordon Green is calling the shots here and he’s no stranger to directing legacy sequels after the recent Halloween trilogy. He did a better-than-expected job in 2018’s Halloween, only to somewhat falter in Halloween Kills before stumbled with the heavily misguided Halloween Ends.
The latter’s creative dud is what worries me the most upon finding out that David Green Gordon’s next movie would be The Exorcist: Believer. This brings me back to the earlier question. Personally, the 1973 original remains a one-of-its-kind cinematic horror experience that no other possession-horror movies can come close to replicating, let alone surpassing it. Not sure a legacy sequel or whatever you want to call it is needed here. And not especially after the subsequently inferior sequels and prequels except for The Exorcist III.
In The Exorcist: Believer, similar to the older Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode in Halloween, David Green Gordon manages to convince the nonagenarian Ellen Burstyn to return as Chris MacNeil for the first time since the 1973 original. To refresh your memory, Chris MacNeil was the frightened mother, whose daughter Regan (Linda Blair) suffered from an unknown illness. After taking her to various doctors and psychiatrists trying to find out the root of the cause, she finally resorted to enlisting the help of a priest, Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller). Karras would go on performing an exorcism on the possessed Regan with the experienced Father Merrin (Max von Sydow). The incident changed Chris MacNeil’s life forever.
Fifty years later, a desperate single father named Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) sought her help after his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) behaved strangely. These two girls had been missing in the woods, only to return three days later, and they can’t remember what happened to them at all.
David Gordon Green, who also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Peter Sattler, retains William Friedkin’s slow-burn and methodical storytelling approach. The movie takes its time to build up the story from the girls gone missing to their reappearances and subsequent signs of odd behaviours and demonic possessions. On paper, it sounds as if David Gordon Green is heading in the right direction by honouring the 1973 original.
But what’s missing here is the lack of heart and soul and above all, the sheer intensity of how demonic possession can affect a person both mentally and physically. The 1973 original has it all. It’s hard not to sympathise with Regan’s childlike innocence of a 12-year-old girl and her terrifying ordeal of being possessed by a demon. Even without comparing this to the original, I find it difficult to root for Angela and Katherine’s predicaments played by Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum. The characters are sadly underdeveloped, even though the makeup effect department does a decent job of the possessed girls’ gradual stages of physical transformations.
While it’s nice to see Ellen Burstyn back in the franchise, I was expecting more from her. Let’s just say her appearance is merely a fan service rather than giving her a worthy character arc. At least Leslie Odom Jr. stands out as Victor Fielding, a caring father and a sceptic who doesn’t believe in all things supernatural. The latter is especially true after a tragedy that killed his beloved wife. The death of his wife ever since has made him develop a closer bond with his one and only daughter, Angela. The father-daughter connection earlier in the movie does give the story an emotional centre but unfortunately, only to a certain extent.
Green’s attempt at a slow burn doesn’t make me feel invested in the story and most of the characters here. The movie is rather tedious with its nearly two-hour length eventually overstays its welcome long before it reaches the climactic exorcism sequence. He relies heavily on jump scares — some of them are effective while others feel more telegraphed. The final third act, which is supposed to be the highlight of the movie, fails to evoke genuine scares and ominous dread.
The Exorcist: Believer actually has potential as Green does try incorporating fresh angles to the otherwise typical possession-horror movie. He focuses on two individuals rather than a single possessed victim. Interestingly, he introduces the rite of exorcism beyond the usual Catholic point-of-view seen in the 1973 original from the perspective of multiple beliefs, hence the subtitle of the movie.
And yet, none of them matters since the execution falls flat with an overall bland storytelling. At the time of writing, two sequels were already confirmed with the second one set to be released in 2025 under the title of The Exorcist: Deceiver. Judging by the flimsy outcome of this so-called legacy sequel, I guess it’s better off to exorcise the franchise once and for all (even though, deep down, it’s all about whether the movie is making enough money at the end of the day).
