Fifty years after “The Exorcist” (1973), despite being the sixth in the franchise, “The Exorcist: Believer” (2023) is a direct sequel and ignores the four movies and two season series that followed the original. When the daughters of Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and married couple, Tony (Norbert Leo Buzz) and Miranda (Jennifer Nettles), go missing, the parents are initially relieved when their children reappear until their girls start exhibiting strange behavior. Is it aliens? Nope. It is Satan! The entire neighborhood teams up screaming “Evil dies tonight!” Oh wait, wrong franchise. Oops easy mistake to make considering many people connected with the most recent “Halloween” trilogy are back and ready to ruin another classic horror film.
Good or bad news first? Ellen Burstyn, who played the beleaguered actor/single mom of a possessed girl in “The Exorcist” (1973), is back, baby, and she is glowing wearing light colors filled with expertise after studying every culture’s exorcism ritual. She is full of sassy quips about patriarchy only to get her ass handed back to her. Well, once you dodge a bullet, you should probably stay out of the fight. Welp. Burstyn warned us that she did it for the money, but her character still deserved better.
Instead “The Exorcist: Believer” tries to get viewers to root for protagonist Victor, atheist and single dad with a tragic, albeit tasteless backstory. Exploiting the Haitian earthquake as a natural disaster appetizer with visual references to 9/11 were not on my radar, but here we are. If it was not an actual event, the unexpected disaster would have been an unexpected highlight. Even the star power of Odom is not enough for him to prevent him from being forgotten once the scene-chewing, jump scares of demon possessed kiddies take over. There are some cool visual moments connected to his profession as a photographer, but they ultimately go nowhere. In a random coincidence with “Earth Mama” (2023), the backdrop of his family portraits is an enlarged photograph of the woods. As he takes photos, the girls are wandering in the woods and demonic signs appear in the artificial backdrop. These images go nowhere and just add to the atmosphere. Boooooo! There were also some nice scene transitions with screams becoming other sounds or a glass surface transition during location changes, but again, all abandoned for cheap scares.
“The Exorcist: Believer” is a soup to nuts disappointment. Why does the story have two possessed girls? Was there a two for one sale in hell? It felt as if the writers could not think of a fresh approach to possession films and just decided to double the numbers. It was probably a more cynical choice. Black people watch movies, and if there are Black characters, we are more likely to watch the film. I love pandering, but we deserve better material. Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) gets allotted the most Regan-like possessed scenes, but Angela Fielding (Lidya Jewett) gets the better backstory and is the manipulative beating heart with the closest parental relationship. The filmmakers wanted the viewers to be invested in Angela’s plight by showing Victor dealing with the tragedy alone compared to Tony and Miranda, who at least have each other.
After the girls return, and medical and law enforcement put them through the process of their respective bureaucracies, it felt as if injecting realism into the genre would bring a refreshing change, but no. When the girls receive mental illness treatment, the dehumanizing option makes demon possession feel like a problem with easier solutions. A real twist for a horror movie would be to play it straight and leave spirituality out of the plot. “The Exorcist: Believer” could have done something audacious by not blaming the devil while making an evil force a plausible scapegoat.
“The Exorcist: Believer” is at its best when the girls return home, and demons decide to impersonate ghosts and play haunted house. If the Fielding home’s plumbing gushed blood instead of foul water, it would give “The Amityville Horror” (1979) a run for its money. Jewett and O’Neill make a meal out of turning into spiritually synced nightmares that would make the twins from “The Shining” (1980) shudder. Also honorable mention goes to the other children in this movie who are smarter than these two and the adults. The winner is Deshanah (Lariah Alexandria), who was probably invited to the girls’ trip to the woods, but took her ass home. Close runner up goes to Hannah (Norah Murphy) and Tyler (Rory Gross), Katherine’s little siblings, who saw Katherine go full tilt into a mean impression of young Regan (Linda Blair, who makes a brief cameo because everyone has bills, and inflation is real) and wordlessly delivered a riveting exchange of looks that conveyed, “Not my circus, not my monkeys” and let big sis do her thing without intervening.
Soon the proceedings are awash with well-intentioned neighbors and religious leaders intervening to lend a hand. Tony, who telegraphs, “I’m the weakest link,” and Miranda are a member of a Protestant church so their pastor (Raphael Sbarge) jumps in to quote some Bible passages in spite of some misgivings as things get real. Boxing coach and ride or die buddy neighbor Stuart (Danny McCarthy) recruits an oncology doctor turned hoodoo priestess (Okwui Okpokwasili) to intervene. She appears impressive but does not do much. Annoying neighbor nurse (Ann Dowd) has a hidden spiritual background that acts as a substitute for the Catholic parish priest, Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla) who feels constrained from intervening without receiving an official sanction. Clearly the Catholic Church watches movies and said “Fuck that shit. We don’t fare well in these movies.” I created a fictional story for the nurse because of Dowd’s connection to “Hereditary” (2018) and having her turn into a vengeful ex after splitting up with that demon.
They team up to fight the unnamed demon—guess that Pazuzu wanted too much money to come back. A lingering shot of a sewer grate made me wish for Pennywise. If you loved tv series Lost’s Church of the Unitarian Jihadist, then you will adore this Christian centric, ecumenical, ineffective demon exorcising team. While “It Lives Inside” (2023) did not have rave reviews, people really underestimated the courage it takes to choose a religious faith or mythology and stick with it. Instead “The Exorcist: Believer” delivers a film about the power of community, and at the eleventh hour, allows a vague opening protection ritual to win the day despite not doing anyone any good for the first thirteen years after it was invoked. It is more likely that this team of exorcists would vote for the same US Presidential candidate than they would cast out demons together. Instead of committing to an ounce of research and actually finding a common thread between the varying exorcist rituals to create a cohesive, fictional ritual that would encompass a multitude of religions, this crew chants the same psalms and Lord’s Prayer with a heavy dose of Roman Catholic rituals that possession movies usually feature.
In the end, “The Exorcist: Believer” is about a family finally achieving closure after tragedy, healing trauma and finding peace by fighting Satan. Hurrah! This anti “Talk to Me” (2023) was devoid of quality and insisted on a happy ending with a bleak, obvious twist. It is the kind of film that could have benefited from caring less about making a buck and more about creating a solid story. Unfortunately this film is the first of a trilogy of movies from the creators of a franchise reboot who thought its iconic slasher needed a random teen to replace him.
