The Exorcist: Believer Review: Back Away From the Demon

Horror movie legacy sequels are usually a good time, even if they don’t stray much from the original. Unfortunately, The Exorcist: Believer fails to soar in any respect, rooting itself in predictability and mediocrity. Set 50 years after the original The Exorcist which was directed by the late William Friedkin, this movie is the sixth entry in the franchise, and it was directed by David Gordon Green (Halloween, Halloween Kills). The story follows two girls, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia Marcum), who are found possessed after they go missing. It was released in theaters on October 6, 2023. 

It stars Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton, One Night in Miami…) as Angela’s father Victor Fielding, who is protective of his daughter as her mother died as a result of an earthquake while she was still pregnant with her. Jennifer Nettles (Harriet) and Norbert Leo Butz (Fair Game, Give or Take) play Katherine’s parents, Miranda and Tony, who together with Victor, try to figure out what happened to their daughters. They are all joined by Ann Dowd, who plays Angela’s neighbor (The Leftovers, The Handmaid’s Tale), and Ellen Burstyn who reprises her role as Chris MacNeil from the first movie.

Double the Exorcism, Half the Fun

The story of The Exorcist: Believer is fairly simple. Two children go missing, exhibit demonic abilities, and then an exorcism is performed. Thankfully, there are a couple of threads that manage to sustain some interest, especially in the first 30 minutes. The biggest disappointment of The Exorcist: Believer is that it doesn’t deliver on the scare front. It is filled with cheap jumpscares that lessen the impact of the possessions and the exorcism. The only jumpscare that caught me off guard was the one right at the beginning, and it wasn’t earned.

With that being said, there are a couple of plotlines that are actually scary. Yet, both had barely anything to do with religious or supernatural themes, and they were instead rooted in real-world problems. The first was an earthquake, and the second was the girls going missing prior to the possession. The tension between Victor and Katherine’s parents was executed well, turning on each other quite quickly. I easily could have watched Odom Jr. re-enact Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, but the movie turned stale once they found the girls. This foreshadows the end of the film, which in turn makes it too predictable. 

The earthquake wasn’t treated much better, with over-the-top effects, and a shaky camera that is supposed to show you how disoriented Victor is. It left me annoyed that I was having trouble keeping track of what was happening. But, the first 30 minutes were at least interesting, which is more than I can say for the rest of the movie.

The Exorcist: Believer Never Makes You Believe

The writing is the worst part of the film. The cringe-worthy dialogue doesn’t play for laughs, and most of the story is boring. You just don’t care about anything happening in the movie, especially seeing as the ending is telegraphed way too much. The dual possession is an interesting premise, but not much is done with it other than at the very end. Therefore, most of the movie lacks suspense and scares, making most of the scenes unintentionally humorous, if not boring. 

Most of the performances in The Exorcist: Believer are good, and they would have fit well in a better story. The characters feel wasted as well, especially Chris MacNeil. Her inclusion should’ve felt like Laurie Strode in Halloween or Sidney Prescott in Scream. Instead, it felt like the movie included her as a marketing gimmick. There’s barely any reason this movie needed to be a legacy sequel. If you removed a character and changed the soundtrack, it could’ve been easily mistaken as a knock-off of the exorcism trope. 

The film has an interesting sequence leading up to the exorcism, bringing together different religious and spiritual leaders. This is one of the only segments that actually pays off at the end of the movie. Everyone becomes equally terrified at the horrors that are being unveiled in front of them. Yet, even this sequence ends with a moment that should have been scary, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

None of this makes the movie terrible, just terribly mediocre. Right now there are other horror movies in theaters that you would probably have a better time with. But, if you’re a massive fan of the original The Exorcist or love catching a horror movie in theaters, you can see The Exorcist: Believer now.