Film Review: ‘The Exorcist: Believer’- The Devil Returns to Theaters

David Gordon Green did a fine job with his clever and respectful-to-the-original 2018 continuation of John Carpenter’s “Halloween”. The former Independent filmmaker now sets his sights on another horror classic with “The Exorcist: Believer”, the latest sequel to William Friedkin’s 1973 masterpiece. While there is a lot to admire in the first half of the picture, it is in the final act (where the demonic possession and attempted exorcism come front and center) that the film falters, culminating in an overblown and been there/done that climax that cannot sustain the dramatic impact of the strong first hour.

Working with his fellow “Halloween” trilogy screenwriters Scott Teems and Danny McBride (along with writer Peter Sattler), Green focuses on character and mood, two of the many ingredients that made Friedkin’s original work so well. Cinematographer Michael Simmonds immediately sets the picture’s visual tone in the opening moments. Set in Haiti (filmed in Santo Domingo), Simmonds gives the beginning a rusted gold hue, imbuing these opening moments with a disquieting aura.

It is here we meet Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his pregnant wife (Tracey Graves). The happy couple are on a vacation. As the woman walks around the island while her husband takes photos, things seem normal, but there is a sense of something evil in the air. Green and Simmonds make good use of the uneasy atmosphere, through tight framing (when the wife is “blessed” in a Haitian ritual) and a patient camera that allows the visual tone to simmer just enough to keep the audience on edge.

Tragedy strikes when the wife is killed in an earthquake. 12 years on, the film finds Victor back in the states (Georgia) as a single father raising his 12 year old daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett). Odom Jr. and Jewett have a natural chemistry and their introductory moments together feel organic rather than scripted. As in the 1973 original, the screenplay for “The Exorcist: Believer” sets up the young girl as a sweet and normal kid, immediately endearing her to an audience that knows what awaits the character. The strategy should make Angela’s fate hit deeper, as it did for Linda Blair’s “Regan”.

Angela and her equally innocent friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia O’Neill) take a sneaky trip into the deep woods to perform a ceremony. After failing to come home Angela’s father and Katherine’s parents (Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz) panic and call the police. Three days later, the two young girls are found cowering in a barn with no memory of what happened. What Angela and Katherine conjured up has now taken them over and a double case of demonic possession plagues the two families.

Up to this point, Green and his fellow screenwriters have done a commendable job in crafting a patient film that concentrates on keeping the atmospheric quality while allowing for character development; perhaps the most important homage to Friedkin’s original. The family dynamics are unforced and the supporting players who will become a larger part of the story (including Victor’s neighbor played by the treasure that is Ann Dowd) are well defined. It is a pleasure to find a modern horror film that does its best to stay away from side-character cliches. With everything dramatically locked down the possessions begin. Sadly, this is where the film falters.

The strange behavior the two girls begin to display are not potent enough to exude any real chills. Angela is used as a human jump scare more than once and Katherine’s breakdown during a church service starts in an interesting manner but becomes preposterous, robbing the moment of any intended creepiness.

With nowhere else to turn, Victor tracks down Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), as she has famously been through this with her own daughter. The inclusion of Burstyn’s character is a desperate attempt at bridging a direct connection to “The Exorcist”. The fact that Chris authored a bestselling book about her and Regan’s experience betrays the design of the character. By the end of the 1973 film, MacNeil was taking her daughter far away from where it happened so they could put it all behind them. To have her do such an opportunistic act is unbelievable and dramatically insincere. Where the film takes the character is rather silly in its execution and Chris’ place in the finale is ludicrous. The writers should have made her return more potent. As it stands, Burstyn’s character is basically product placement.

By the time we get to the big exorcism finale, Green blows any good will earned as the script desecrates a famous line from the first film (ridiculously used for comic effect) and by not doing anything new with the exorcism ritual. While it is understandable that any film about possession must hit certain bullet points (the reading of the scriptures, holy water, demonic tongues and bile coming from the mouths of the possessed, etc.), that is all the director does. Green’s only addition is an unnecessary moment of CGI that simply doesn’t work and looks completely phony. The scares just cannot seem to land.

It certainly doesn’t bode well for a horror picture about the devil possessing souls to have the demonic possession segments be the most uninteresting, but “The Exorcist: Believer” is not a complete failure. While the big exorcism payoff doesn’t work and a final montage of “hope” fails to ignite emotion, there is a lot of good to be found in what Green and his writers have done.

The first half of the film is heavy in crafting natural character progressions that helps the audience understand actions and decisions they will make later. Until the final act, there is a proper and inescapable aura of dread built through patient cinematography and disturbing art direction. Finally, Amman Abbasi and David Wingo’s eerie score is used to good effect, underplaying itself as it properly colors the horrors of the tale.

As Green started strong with his recent “Halloween” trilogy, the next two entries became progressively less enticing. Let’s hope the filmmaker goes the other way this time, where each entry gets better, as “The Exorcist: Believer” is to be the first of a planned three film arc.

The power of respecting Friedkin’s classic (and the legion of fans who hold it dear) compels you.