Written by Scott Teems And Danny McBride And David Gordon Green
Directed by David Gordon Green
The Demon: "One girl lives, one girl dies."
With a film as iconic as The Exorcist, it's follow ups really haven't hit the spot. Only the TV series has had some acclaim and even that only managed two seasons. Surely, Blumhouse, fresh off the success of their recent Halloween trilogy can breathe some vigor into this franchise.
Well, kind of. Critics haven't been especially as kind to this movie as they were with Blumhouse's efforts with Michael Myers but I digress. This movie's the start of an intended trilogy for this franchise and even I'll admit it's off to a rocky start.
Our protagonists of the piece are actually several characters, notably single father, Victor Felding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and religious parents Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Nortbert Leo Butz). Yup, it's their daughters Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) that find themselves possessed by a demon when an idea of theirs goes horribly wrong.
With both girls possessed and both parents largely out of their depth on the matter, it's former nun turned nurse Ann (Ann Dowd) who suggested the return of Chris MacNeill (Ellen Burstyn) to try and help the girls. Unfortunately the inclusion of Chris was where things were at their weakest in the movie.
Not only was the character poorly utilised but she was absolutely out of her depth when confronted with the possessed Angela. She was easily distracted by her failures with Regan (Linda Blair) and got her eyes gouged out. In a lot of ways this movie would've been better off not featuring the character at all as she's more of an hindrance than anything else.
The movie does however pick up in its third act where both girls survival is taken to the utmost extreme. Only one family get their child back while the other doesn't and it's this outcome that ended the movie on a rather bittersweet note, along with a much welcomed cameo towards the end of the movie.
- The sequel, which is called The Exorcist: Deceiver will be released April 18th 2025.
- Regan showed up for one brief scene to reunite with Chris at the end. She was mad about Chris writing a book on her possession.
- Ann is probably the only character who should be in this trilogy going forward, though I did like Father Maddox (EJ Bonilla).
- Chronology: I'm assuming 2023, given the current timeline.
The Exorcist: Believer isn't quite as bad as some critics have been falling over themselves to make out but it certainly could've been better. The general story felt like a watered down remix of the original and Chris as a character was badly written. Saying that, it's certainly better than other entries we've had in this franchise.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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