Worth: $12.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Ellen Burstyn, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum
Intro:
…. sacrifices a strong start for a generic horror experience that won’t stick, and would have worked so much better as a standalone and not a direct sequel to the original horror classic.
In its defence, The Exorcist: Believer was never going to live up to the 1973 horror classic.
The impact that the original film had on the horror genre and cinema itself cannot be overstated. The audience pass-outs. A minor committing obscene acts on screen. The groundbreaking special effects (for the time). The incredible success and enormous box office earnings for a horror film no less (rare back then). It certainly lived up to its reputation as ‘one of the scariest films ever made.’
While many argue that The Exorcist has lost a little of its potency due to dated elements (pee soup anyone?), it holds a significant place in horror fans’ hearts and stands as a superior exercise in foreboding atmosphere and genuine horror.
What better way to celebrate its 50th anniversary then by releasing a modernised sequel that retcons the Exorcist films and is directed by none other than David Gordon Green.
Green’s plans to make a direct sequel trilogy to the beloved classic unsurprisingly received fair amounts of boos and hisses, not helped by his last foray into John Carpenter’s beloved horror classic with the misjudged Halloween trilogy.
To its credit, Believer starts promisingly during the 2010 Haiti earthquakes, as photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) loses his pregnant wife to the carnage, with the child, Angela, surviving. Flash-forward 13 years, Victor and Angela (Lidya Jewett) live a comfortably ordinary life in Atlanta, Georgia as one ordinary school day turns into every father’s worst nightmare. Angela, along with her classmate Katherine (Olivia Marcum), vanish in the woods, only to emerge three days later traumatised, memory-wiped and, well, possessed.
The frustrating part about The Exorcist: Believer is that there is half a good film here. It is a perfectly competent horror thriller that is ruined by on-the-nose nostalgia and a surprisingly dull third act.
The drama of the two daughters vanishing at the start is genuinely gripping, with Victor having to sort out his differences and work together with Katherine’s Catholic parents (Jennifer Nettles and Danny McCarthy). Once they get their little ones back and they are speaking devil-tongue, it is tense to witness the parents having to face the corruption of their daughters, which harkens back to the trauma of mother/actress Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) in the original film.
Of course, Chris McNeil is brought back to offer guidance, in what can only be described as the limpest way they could’ve used the talent of Ellen Burstyn. The character’s lack of impact on the plot is staggeringly low. Believer is predominantly the story of the Fieldings, and the Catholic family are equally underdeveloped, which is a problem when there are two possessed girls. We are given no background story to Katherine, with the only set-piece dedicated to this family being the heavily marketed church procession scene. This scene’s purpose is ultimately, shock value, and not character development.
To that end, Believer has a general lack of scares, and plays it relatively safe. As much as one can complain about the late, great William Friedkin and his unorthodox filmmaking methods in the first film, one cannot deny that he committed fully to the gritty aesthetic. Gordon Green feels like he tippy-toes around any controversy here, with the bloody sequences and one curse word (which really comes out of nowhere) lacking impact.
That said, the film the two child actors give it their all, and Ann Dowd is also a welcome addition as a neighbouring nurse who becomes involved in the family drama.
A few interesting ideas here and there (having two possessed girls is ripe with potential) do keep The Exorcist: Believer from being total cinema filler, but it sadly sacrifices a strong start for a generic horror experience that won’t stick, and would have worked so much better as a standalone and not a direct sequel to the original horror classic. Let’s pray that David Gordon Green can keep his nostalgia bait at the door with the next two entries.
