The Exorcist: Believer is a 2023 Universal Pictures film directed by David Gordon Green and starring Lidya Jewett, Olivia O’Neill, Leslie Odom Jr., and Ellen Burstyn. Man oh man, DGG strikes again! Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing honestly. The divisive director behind the recent Halloween trilogy is now attempting to tackle another beloved, classic horror series in The Exorcist. Before I really get into it, I want to start off by saying I didn’t hate this movie, it kept my attention and had me entertained throughout and that’s at least something, it wasn’t a “bad” movie per say. BUT that being said, there was a lot in this that I didn’t necessarily care for and the film in itself felt a bit lackluster to me.
Ellen Burstyn was probably my favorite part of the film for the simple fact that she was the legacy character being brought back (at 90 years old!) and the main thing that was tying this film to the original, but even still she was treated to little more than a cameo and kind of disrespected and dismissed the character of ‘Chris MacNeil’ in the process. It’s no wonder why they had to do so much just to get her to agree to do this film. The main girls who underwent the possession did well in their roles, they were believable enough and still drew some sympathy and creeped you out simultaneously, and Leslie Odom Jr. did good too at playing the role of a damaged, protective, and concerned father. That’s the thing, none of the acting was bad. Everyone did a good job with what they were given, it was the storytelling itself that was problematic and fell flat at times. Things felt rushed or like they were moving through the script too quickly, there was no ominous build up to the craziness that made the original Exorcist so good, it was just scene to scene holding the same level of tension without really providing much fear or actually horror.
This movie wasn’t really scary, it was unsettling and tense at times sure, but not really scary. It didn’t necessarily have the feel of an Exorcist series film. Aside from Chris MacNeil, a couple mentions of Regan, and ‘The Exorcist’ tagline being attached to this film, it didn’t have anything really special about it that made it stand out from any of the slew of demonic possession movies that have come out by now. That’s going to be a problem with this film specifically because The Exorcist has some DIE-HARD fans and is still seen as one of the scariest films of all time 50 years later, this was not that and some people aren’t going to be able to forgive that. As I said before and I’ll reiterate it’s not a bad movie, it just made some problematic choices and felt like it was being sort of rushed through at times even though it was 2 hours long. The main problem with this is that it’s a continuation of one of the most beloved, classic horror films of all time so you’re immediately increasing people’s expectations just off that alone, and there was nothing specifically extraordinary about this movie in general. Maybe The Exorcist itself was so special because it was the first of its kind and you just cannot recreate that in the modern day with all the possession movies out now, who knows? Maybe upon a rewatch I’ll get more out of this film and thoroughly enjoy it more, who knows? I will say though, I didn’t have many expectations going into this and didn’t try to let any reviews or opinions affect mine upon viewing. I’m not as crazy of a fan of “The Exorcist” as some of the horror community, I like it and respect the hell out of it for what it was for the horror genre and how well done it was, but it isn’t one of my absolute favorite horror movies, so you can take that for what it is. If you’re in the mood to go see a horror movie in theaters for spooky season it’s worth checking out for yourself, especially if you don’t have too much love or nostalgia for the original.
