Bigger is not always better, as The Exorcist: Believer painfully proves — against all horror-movie logic, two demon-possessed girls are not better than just one.
Far from honouring the original The Exorcist, this nostalgic-yet-sacrilegious sequel (sacrilegious towards the original, that is) fails to understand what made William Friedkin’s movie so great. It’s not that it needed to be a copycat or a fan-service fest – it just needed to be good.
Horror-franchise revamper David Gordon Green follows his own formula, already tested in the recent Halloween trilogy starring Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s simple: keep the budget low to ensure a profit, convince big stars to return in order to endorse the new generation while attracting the fans, and drain the distinctiveness of the original movie to a domesticated, manageable version.
It’s still spooky fun for those looking for the bare minimum, of course, but why would anyone choose to live in the shadow of one of the best horror movies of all time?
The Exorcist: Believer follows two teen friends, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O'Neill), who are possessed by a demon after disappearing for three days in the forest.
When they are found and start showing inexplicable symptoms doctors can't explain, their respective parents seek help from the Church and other spiritual experts to save the girls before it's too late.
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It's not easy for a skeptic like Angela's father, Victor Fielding (Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr), to go along with a faith-will-save-us situation. He still hurts due to the death of his wife in a terrible accident 13 years ago, and the burden of a life-changing decision he had to make at the time, so it's been a while since he felt God on his side.
This original trauma will play an important part of the story, which explores the self-destructive power of uncontrolled loss, pain and regret.
Unfortunately, the depth of those vast concepts are lost in hollow characters and a self-help-book mentality.
There's a lot of that too in the return of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, Regan's mother in The Exorcist.
After living through the traumatic experience of seeing her daughter going through a violent, bloody exorcism, Chris MacNeil wrote an influential first-account book, becoming a well-respected figure in the demon-believing community.
However, unlike Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode in the new Halloween movies, Burstyn has little to do in the story.
Victor seeks her help, but the movie only wants to exploit a quick stand-off between her and a Regan-looking demonic child in search for immediate nostalgic gratification.
We wouldn't expect Burstyn, at 90, to engage in a more physically demanding role in this sequel, but her legacy in The Exorcist's franchise could have been used in a more compelling way.
In fact, with iconic demon Pazuzu absent while a nameless new demon takes stage as the new big-bad evil, one wonders what part of The Exorcist's DNA is left here to justify calling it a sequel.
Yes, we hear Tubular Bells on several occasions, giving us some satisfying goosebumps, but that's about it. There's no boldness, no horror, no thought-provoking plot points or grisly violence.
There are a lot of flickering lights and empty words, but no truly haunting moments to remember in the stillness of the night.
In all of its silliness, even The Pope's Exorcist is a more enjoyable outing in the Exorcist-knockoff tradition.
Years from now we will still remember The Exorcist's spinning head, hideous vomiting and trembling bed, as well as the iconic shot outside the house imprinted in every cinephile's mind.
The Exorcist: Believer, though, is too easily forgotten.
The Exorcist: Believer arrives in cinemas on October 6, 2023.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
