GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★
Rated: MA15+ 
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Screenplay by: Peter Sattler and David Gordon Green
Based on the Characters Created by: William Peter Blatty
Story by: Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
Produced by: Jason Blum, David Robinson, James G. Robinson
Starring: Leslie Odom, Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum and Ellen Burstyn.
‘The power of Christ works through all of us.’
Created as a sequel to the Academy nominated (first horror film to ever be nominated for Best Picture) ‘The Exorcist’ (1973), The Exorcist: Believer finds Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), the mother of Regan, alone without her daughter who was possessed all those years ago.
After publishing a book about her experience of seeing her daughter undergo an exorcism, releasing her from the demon, Pazuzu, Chris loses Regan again when her daughter can’t forgive her mother for sharing her story with the world.
Walking into the cinema, I wondered if Believer was going to be a legacy movie; like the reboot of the Halloween franchise, Blumhouse is creating, The Exorcist franchise, but I found the legacy aspect here a red herring.
The reminder of Regan was more a touchstone, a cameo, not a continuing thread.
The Exorcist: Believer follows new character, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.), first seen taking photos of fighting dogs in Haiti.
He captures the stills of violence well, his curiosity in the capture of life, while his pregnant wife interacts with it. She’s a peaceful character, meditative in her wander through the streets, the markets.
A little boy pulls her away for a treat. A blessing.
A ritual to protect her unborn child: Angela.
Then an earthquake strikes, the chaos of sound rising and falling, images flipping; the peal of a bell sounding through a muffled deafening after the world begins to crumble.
Then back to Victor. He has to make a choice.
There’s a build to the story, the foundation of the father and daughter relationship a contrast to the inevitable possession of daughter: Angela (Lidya Jewett).
And her friend, Katherine (Olivia Marcum).
Two young girls, two families, a circle back to Haiti and ritual, a circle back to the catholic church to perform the exorcism.
To understand what is happening to his daughter, Victor reaches out to Chris MacNeil, to the catholic church, but the difference here is the exploration of community and combined ritual to fight against evil, so there’s a different take of the view of religion, with the touchstone of the familiar.
‘Are you looking for Regan?’ The question asked from possessed cracked lips and yellow, blood-shot eyes.
Analysing the story, I realise I didn’t find the movie all that scary – because of that familiar aspect to the possessed.
There’s some jumps and twists. And I appreciated the restraint, building the relationships of the characters rather than over-extending the exorcism (there’s still projectile black spew – classic).
What started to draw a cold shiver was drawn from the montages of cuts back and forth of a young girl reading an old tale of dragons, a ‘snick snack’, as a search continues for lost girls who wander in the woods.
And those new cracks, those hints of old folk lore could have expanded into suspense but were instead filled with a harking back to the beginning of the franchise. To Regan. That didn’t really go anywhere.
It will be interesting to see what comes next.
