The Exorcist: Believer is not so much a sequel to William Friedkin’s brilliant masterpiece. It is a new exorcism story that utilizes a well-known character from The Exorcist to tie it together.
Leslie Odom Jr. stars as Victor Fleming, a photographer who was in Haiti when a detrimental earthquake struck. His wife, pregnant with their first child, was badly injured, and Victor is told they can only save one: his wife or his unborn daughter. 13 years later, we discover that it is his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), who survived. The two are close, with Victor being just the tiniest bit overprotective of his happy daughter. He lets her go over to a friend’s house to do homework instead of joining him at work, with the promise that she will return for dinner.
Angela says she is going over to Katherine’s (Olivia O’Neill) house, but instead, the girls sneak off into the woods with the intent of conducting a séance to reach Angela’s mother. The séance doesn’t appear to work, and the girls don’t come home. Three days later, the two teens are found, frightened, hiding in a barn thirty miles away. They think they have only been gone for a few hours, and other than some superficial injuries, they seem to be fine and are released.
The next day, shit hits the fan. Angela wets the bed, has a seizure, and begins screaming violently. She is knocked out with Thorazine, but the doctors have no idea what is wrong and suggest she be put into a mental institution. Meanwhile, Katherine causes a scene at her church, but her parents decide to care for her at home.
With the help of Victor’s next-door neighbor Ann (Ann Dowd), a nurse who was nearly a nun, Victor discovers Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn). Though she is careful to explain that she has never actually seen an exorcism, she claims she has researched exorcism and demon possession in every culture she could find. Chris goes to visit the girls and has a bad accident at the hands of Katherine.
Victor, a non-religious man, finally decides that he has enough proof. In order to save his daughter and her friend, he needs to put aside his distaste for religion and hold an exorcism. They gather a super team of religious people, ranging from the evangelical Katherine’s parents and pastor, to the nearly-nun neighbor, to a former doctor who now specializes in old-world traditional medicine. Rounding out the team are a Catholic priest (there against the dictate of the diocese) and a guy who is . . . maybe a snake handler? I don’t know, but they have pretty much every angle of Christianity covered.
The Exorcist: Believer Isn’t Very Scary
The Exorcist: Believer didn’t have a lot of scares. It was very loud, without the quiet parts to lead you into a false sense of security. You know the two little girls are in need of an exorcism, so quite frankly, all of their actions are expected. They mostly speak in demonic voices and shout curse words. They didn’t even shift between possessed and helpless little girls. Once they were possessed, they stayed possessed. That felt a little flat.
The two little girls, however, were phenomenal. They played possessed children with aplomb. When they were kids, they felt like kids. When they were possessed, they felt demonic. An extra shout-out goes to Jewett. This was really Angela’s story. She got the most screen time, and she shined. When she was possessed, I forgot she was a child.
The religious aspect was well-handled in this film. There was a super-team of religious entities that didn’t go so corny as to represent every religion, just all the different aspects of Christianity. I like that Victor wasn’t religious. As an atheist myself, it made me feel less alienated.
The movie didn’t need The Exorcist angle. It could have succeeded on its own as an exorcism of two girls. As far as I could tell, Pazuzu didn’t possess either girl; maybe it did, but it wasn’t clear. Chris MacNeil seemed to have been wedged into the story to allow it to carry The Exorcist title. Other than pushing Victor towards believing that an exorcism was necessary (something which he was leaning towards at the behest of others in his little group), Chris MacNeil had no purpose. She didn’t even partake in the exorcism. Honestly, if you were going to lean into The Exorcist side of things, it would have been more purposeful to bring back Linda Blair as Regan.
Ultimately, The Exorcist: Believer doesn’t really make sense as a sequel to The Exorcist. It fits within the canon, but it doesn’t feel like a natural sequel. While the film isn’t scary like the original, top-notch performances make this an entertaining film.
SCORE: 6/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.
