THE EXORCIST BELIEVER (2023): LACKING FAITH AND FRIGHTS
The Exorcist not only stands as one of the greatest horror films due to helping to define the possession subgenre but with how many boundaries it broke as well. Since then, the films and television in the franchise have attempted to recapture William Friedkin’s magic in the original with various levels of success. Unsurprisingly, they announced that the series would receive the legacy sequel treatment akin to Halloween (2018) or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where the new film would ignore the previous continuity and serve as the rightful sequel to the original. Considering that Blumhouse would be producing The Exorcist: Believer and the two future films as a trilogy with David Gordon Green behind the camera with the same creative team of the new Halloween films, I had low expectations. After seeing it Wednesday night, it barely exceeded my low expectations, leaving me highly myopic about the direction.
While vacationing in Haiti, photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his pregnant wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves) experience a terrible earthquake, leaving Angela barely alive and forcing Victor to choose between his wife’s or child’s life. Now a teenager, his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her Baptist friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) leave school and head into the woods to try to contact Angela’s mother. However, the girls go missing and force the families to search for them until they pop up three days later. With both girls exhibiting strange and horrifying behavior, Victor has to confront evil and save his daughter and her friend while wrestling with his lost faith.
Without getting into spoilers, The Exorcist: Believer is a competently made film that lacks a strong identity while strongly relying upon the original as a crutch. It cannot stand up to the shocking and viscous edge that Friendkin brought to the table for The Exorcist. Green comes across as an unsure filmmaker who feels the need to hold onto the past film so relevantly without adding his touches as a director. What was considered shocking and taboo in the 1970s no longer comes across like that today, and Green and the team fail to keep it relevant.
Similarly, the movie fails to thread the social and political lines of the original. On the base level, The Exorcist focuses on a possessed girl, but on a deeper level lies the commentary of science and religion as Chris MacNeil attempts to get answers and solutions for rescuing her daughter from her affliction. Outside of that lies the topic of faith, where not only Chris must have faith in the institutions, but Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) must battle his doubts about his faith in the catholic church. Believer touches upon the concept of faith while expanding it beyond Catholicism and includes Baptist, Pentecostal, and Hoodoo as other avenues to combat the possession. Yet they feel more like set dressing than diving into them further outside of Hoodoo. Along those lines, Victor’s loss of faith and struggle with it mirrors the first film but never goes as deep.
My most significant issue with the movie lies in it serving as a legacy sequel and ignoring the previous entries in the franchise while providing nothing new. Even if none of the other films achieved the original’s highs, Believer does not feel it justifies its existence and the future trilogy. Compared to Believer, the 2016–17 The Exorcist TV show updated the franchise while tying it to the series in a more organic way. I love Ellen Burstyn, but she felt wasted as a plot device to connect the movie instead of existing as an actual character. Despite the abundance of other fantastic possession films this year, Believer needs to do more to elevate or differentiate from the basic possession tropes. Like Halloween (2018), Green and crew play it safe without taking big swings with the source material. If they could not replicate its transgressive 70s legacy, they could tap into the changes that the public engages in and views religion. Sadly, the difficulties of faith exist as more of a footnote. The swearing, body horror, and possession come across as Exorcist in name only, not substance.
The Exorcist: Believer somehow comes across as a boring possession movie that would rather play the hits than craft its rhythm. Granted, the original holds a massive footing in horror and pop culture. It exhibits some of the more considerable criticism directed towards legacy sequels. While I did not expect it to be in the same weight class as the first film, it met my middling expectations and confirmed my fears for the future. I do not have faith in them unless they decide to get a new team for the future installments.
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Be on the lookout for my new essay which will cover David Cronenberg’s Classic Videodrome.
