The Exorcist: Believer offers a two-for-one demonic possession, but do the girls survive the exorcism at the end of the movie?
Directed by Halloween's David Gordon Green, this new instalment in the Exorcist franchise directly connects with the original The Exorcist by bringing back Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, Regan's mother.
After all, she is the only one who can really understand what Angela and Katherine's parents are going through, seeing how their daughters are transformed into foul-mouthed, creepy-looking monsters.
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Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr and The Handmaid's Tale's Ann Dowd lead the cast of this new movie that tries to live up to the legacy of one of the best horror movies of all time.
Audiences can decide for themselves whether The Exorcist: Believer works or not. Until then, we explore the movie's shocking ending and how it could set up the already announced sequel, The Exorcist: Deceiver.
Major spoilers ahead.
The Exorcist: Believer ending explained
Once they can't deny what's happening any longer, the girls' parents team up to perform a double exorcism.
Angela's father, Victor (Odom Jr), seeks help from Chris MacNeil, who wrote a book about her daughter Regan's exorcism and has become quite a popular figure regarding demonic possessions. She senses Victor's desperation and decides to offer her assistance.
However, Chris won't be of much use after her encounter with one of the possessed girls, Katherine (Olivia Marcum).
While performing an improvised exorcism by shouting the usual prayers and commands, Chris is brutally attacked by Katherine. The girl stabs her eyes with a cross, blinding her. She is still alive, though.
Horrified, Victor knows they can't wait any longer. In his own living room, they tie up the girls in two chairs, back to back, to perform an exorcism.
Finding the strength in numbers, they are helped by a local pastor (Raphael Sbarge), a Pentecostal preacher (Danny McCarthy) and a ritualistic healer (Okwui Okpokwasili), as well as Victor's neighbour, who is an ex-nun.
They were hoping the exorcism would be led by a Catholic priest as it was requested by young Father Maddox (EJ Bonilla), but surprisingly the Church refuses his call for help, instead recommending some psychiatric help for the children.
Following the Church's orders, and fearing his life would be in danger if he participates, Maddox decides to step aside.
The exorcism begins and, as expected, it includes many passionate prayers, shouting, holy water, flickering lights and blood.
There is also a shocking revelation that goes back to the movie's first sequence set 13 years prior, when Victor had to choose between his wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves) or his unborn daughter after a tragic accident.
Since the wife died then and Angela (Lidya Jewett) lived we assumed he chose to save the child, but that's not true. As the demon inside of Angela reveals, Victor chose to sacrifice the fetus to save his wife, although ultimately it wasn't possible.
Because they have a wicked sense of humour, the demons give Victor and Katherine's parents another impossible choice: they can only save one girl.
We briefly think Father Maddox is going to solve all of the problems when he finally shows up having found the courage to intervene, but it only takes a minute for the demon to kill him by twisting his neck.
The dreadful choice is still on the table, but there seems to be an agreement to not give in to the demon's demands. To not choose.
However, Katherine's father (Norbert Leo Butz) loses it, choosing his daughter to be saved and condemning Angela.
It's not totally clear what happens next, as Angela's body rises, floating in the air.
There are brief flashbacks of a moment we saw at the beginning of the film, when Angela's mum got a protection spell in Haiti while she was pregnant. Somehow, that spell is suddenly now important as the demon finally leaves the girl's body. Or perhaps her mother's scarf, which Victor places on her neck, has found her in that dark place where she's been kept all this time. Either way, she is saved.
However, Katherine dies. Maybe the demons were just being twisted, killing the "chosen one" instead of saving her.
The nightmare is over, so it's time to heal.
Victor finally deals with the difficult decision he made so many years ago, and hopefully learns to be more open and less protective of his teenage daughter.
In the background, we hear Ann Dowd's ex-nun reflecting about what is evil. "We're born to find happiness, and the devil has one wish: make us give up," she says, revealing the only thing that can be done to survive: to keep going, to keep believing.
It's an emotional ending with no surprises or cliffhangers for what's to come in The Exorcist: Deceiver, and there's no post-credit scene either to tease the sequel.
However, we do get a long-awaited moment in The Exorcist: Believer's ending involving Ellen Burstyn and The Exorcist's original star Linda Blair in an unexpected cameo.
Chris MacNeil is recovering in hospital from her injuries, her eyes covered with bandages. Suddenly somebody goes into her room and kneels beside her, revealing she is her estranged daughter Regan. The same Regan that went through an exorcism in the original The Exorcist. Mother and daughter are finally reunited, making up for the lost time.
This could be just a nostalgic cameo for the fans, or perhaps Linda Blair could play a bigger part in the next instalment. For now, there's no confirmation either of them will be back.
The Exorcist: Believer is out in cinemas, and available to rent or buy digitally in the US.
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
