Everything that sprouts from the soil of The Exorcist pales in comparison, with only Jeremy Slater’s The Exorcist series (canceled far too soon after just two seasons) living up to the standards of William Peter Blatty’s book and William Friedkin’s film adaptation. With the bar set incredibly high, the odds were against The Exorcist: Believer from the start. And, unfortunately, not even the much-ballyhooed return of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil can cast out the dreaded sequel demons.
The film kicks off with a flashback that only fills in minor story elements (since this is only part one of a planned trilogy). 13 years ago, married photographers Victor (Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami) and Sorenne (Tracey Graves, On Ten) were visiting Haiti when a devastating earthquake struck the city. Victor escaped unharmed, but Sorenne was gravely injured. She survived just long enough to give birth to their daughter, Angela.
Flash-forward to Victor raising a 13-year-old teenager on his own, with said teenager testing her dad’s limits by pleading to be allowed to study with a friend after school. Victor gives in; Angela’s a good kid, and he trusts her to behave.
However, 13-year-olds don’t let their parents – even protective, loving dads – in on all their secrets. Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) used the study session story as a cover for something much more sinister. You could say the devil made her do it, or maybe just normal teenage hormones. Whatever the cause, Angela decides to try and connect with the spirit world and speak to her dead mom. (Obviously, this girl’s never watched a horror movie in her young life.)
Angela and her BFF Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) disappear into the woods after school and go missing. Angela’s desperate dad and Katherine’s very religious and equally upset parents, Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), along with dozens of cops, worried friends, and neighbors, search high and low for the girls but only recover a few of their possessions from the woods.
When the girls are ultimately discovered, their parents are shocked to discover that while the kids were gone for three days, Angela and Katherine believe they were only out in the woods for a few hours.
Creepy images flick across the screen during much of this opening act, which, as it turns out, is the most intriguing segment of the film. A few effective jump scares in the first act seem to promise there are many more to come…a promise the film breaks as act two unexpectedly takes a turn to horror’s campy side.
Once it’s obvious that what’s gotten into the girls isn’t going to be fixed with modern medicine or even a talented psychiatrist, Victor’s helpful neighbor/occasional Karen/failed nun who’s now a nurse, Paula (Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale), suggests it’s time to reach out to a woman with up-close-and-personal experience dealing with the Devil. Dun dun duuun! Enter Chris MacNeil, played by Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn, who returns to the role 50 years after starring in the original The Exorcist.
I’d love to say that this project is worthy of Ellen Burstyn’s return, but I’d be lying. It’s fantastic to have Burstyn and the character Chris MacNeil back in the fold, but the story doesn’t do her re-entry into the franchise justice. The girls’ possession has a direct connection to Regan MacNeil’s possession, yet adding Chris to the mix only serves to spotlight the script’s major weakness: there are too many players.
In addition to the parents, the two girls, and the incredibly helpful, Johnny-on-the-spot neighbor, act two introduces Catholic priest Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla), who talks a good game but isn’t the most dependable demon-fighter. Baptist Pastor Don Revans (Raphael Sbarge) guides Katherine’s family’s church, and while he’s out of his league, he soldiers through in the face of foul-mouthed – and foul-smelling – demonic teens. Victor’s good friend Stuart (Danny McCarthy) just happens to be a Pentecostal preacher, and he brings in Doctor Beehibe (Okwui Okpokwasili), a spiritualist and root doctor.
Narrowing the focus to Victor and Angela would have made for a much more intense, compelling story. Instead, screenwriter Peter Sattler and writer/director David Gordon Green go the more the better route. The Exorcist depended on two Catholic priests to banish Pazuzu. With twice as many possessions, The Exorcist: Believer more than doubles the number of experts (if you can call them that) and branches out from the Catholic exorcism ritual to include other spiritual equivalents. This everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach only succeeds in watering down the overall impact of the face-off between good and evil.
Few of the characters feel fully fleshed out, but that’s due to the script and not the performances. The acting’s terrific all around, with the two young actors who play possessed BFFs – Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill – delivering incredibly impressive performances, even when covered in heavy makeup. They lived up to Linda Blair’s performance, and it’s obvious they gave their all in trying to scare the bejesus out of the audience.
Many of the creepiest and most effective scenes are teased in the trailers, lessening the scare factor once they show up in the film. Sadly, unlike the original, The Exorcist: Believer won’t keep you up at night or force you to sleep with a light on. Pazuzu was a nightmare-inducing presence in The Exorcist, but it’s doubtful he’ll plague your dreams after taking in a screening of The Exorcist: Believer.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: R for language, disturbing images, sexual references, and some violent content
Release Date: October 6, 2023
Running Time: 2 hours 1 minute
Studio: Universal Pictures
