I was allowed to see most R rated movies growing up in my pre-teen/teen years, with the sole exception of 1973’s The Exorcist. My mom was so convinced she could be possessed that she was against me seeing it until she would be able to watch it with me, and pause before every scary part.
Even after a half century of sequels and (truly) countless rip offs, The Exorcist has still retained it’s immortality on the Mt. Rushmore of horror films. It is hard to argue its impact. From that view point, it is easy to see why director David Gordon Green, who just finished a trilogy of Halloween sequels (which I have yet to see), would want to use the same approach and make a direct sequel to the late great William Friedkin directed masterpiece. The result, The Exorcist: Believer, is a true let down.
Ignoring all the other sequels to the original (as he did with the aforementioned Halloween sequels), Green’s film centers on single father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.). A prologue 13 years earlier shows him and his very pregnant wife on vacation in Haiti, when the earthquake hits. The baby Angela survives, but not the mother. In modern day, young Angela (Lidya Jewett) is curious to contact her deceased mother, and goes off with friend Katharine (Olivia Marcum) to the woods to try to make the connection (to the filmmaker’s credit, they do at least get rid of the Ouija board, the most overused prop in horror.)
Victor and Katharine’s parents Miranda and Tony (Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz, respectively) are unable to find them until they show up some thirty miles down the road in a barn. Despite not remembering a thing, they both seem fine, until mysterious, creepy things start happening. With the help of Victor’s neighbor Paula (Ann Dowd), they track down the one person known for seeing this behavior before, and that (of course) is Chris Macneil (Ellen Burstyn).
None of the actors should be at fault here. The young girls are impressive enough, Odom, Jr. is credible as is (the always reliable) Ann Dowd, and to see a heavy weight like Burstyn (at the ripe age of 90) still showing her chops (despite the fact she is not in the film as long as the trailer would like you to think). The fault lies in the hands of Green and the producers. One can imagine a pitch meeting , where someone states something along the lines of,
“Picture this: Instead of one girl being possessed, why not two?!?!
“(Thumbs up) YES!”
The original film was based mainly on Christian/Catholic faith. This time around, there are more faiths at work here (Victor lost faith in God after the death of his wife, while Tony, Miranda, and Paula are all devout Christians.) The inevitable exorcism at the end revolves around many types of religions, because each religion (according to Chris, who has written a book about her studies and experiences of the first film) has their own form and beliefs about exorcism. There are moments where connections are tried to be made between each religion (one character says something about the book of Ezekiel), and it left my head spinning (pun intended) with confusion.
The sequel does manage to have some jump scares, but there is never that constant sense of dread lingering with the audience during the runtime. It is all just a bunch of hacky build up with even hackier pay off.
Parents, if you were the culprits who were sitting behind me in the theater with your ten year old sons, forshame (or if it was you sending your teen girls and younger sons…I could not tell the relationship, but still…). This is not a movie for kids. Come on now.
There was a time where I would be excited for a David Gordon Green film. His early works like George Washington (2000), All the Real Girls (2003), 2004’s Undertow (unseen by me) and 2007’s Snow Angels (one of my personal picks as a true underrated masterpiece. He went on to comedies (also unseen by me) like 2008’s Pineapple Express as well as Your Highness and The Sitter (both 2011). Despite some more dramas sprinkled in afterwards (like 2017’s Stronger, with Jake Gyllenhaal), he is now into making horror sequels.
Not long before his death, William Friedkin was understandably perturbed about the sequel. According to film critic Ed Whitfield, Friedkin said,
“Ed, the guy who made those new Halloween sequels is about to make one to my movie, the Exorcist. That’s right, my signature film is about to be extended by the man who made Pineapple Express. I don’t want to be around when that happens. But if there’s a spirit world, and I can come back, I plan to possess David Gordon Green and make his life a living hell.”
https://gamerant.com/the-exorcist-believer-william-friedkin-sequel-opinion/
If this is true, Green won’t be getting much sleep for a while.
Overall:
Nothing else to say 