By John Corrado

★★ (out of 4)

After completing his Halloween trilogy last year with the divisive Halloween Ends, director David Gordon Green now sets his sights on rebooting another classic horror property with The Exorcist: Believer, though the results are largely disappointing this time around.

Like Green’s 2018 legacy sequel Halloween, The Exorcist: Believer positions itself as a direct followup to the late William Friedkin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist, serving as a fresh start for the franchise by ignoring the other sequels in between (and, like Halloween, it’s also intended as the beginning of a new trilogy).

What we end up with is a film that had potential, but is unfortunately just not very good. As far as legacy sequels go, Green’s film feels like a cheaply made cash grab that never comes close to capturing the power of the original, which is still rightfully considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time.

The film’s main selling point is the return of Ellen Burstyn (who declined appearing in the other sequels) as Chris MacNeil, whose daughter Regan famously became possessed in the first one. But Burstyn’s role is pretty minor, and only adds to the feeling that the film is offering up tired fan service while struggling to establish much of its own identity. The twist is that there are two girls who become possessed this time around, friends Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill), who go missing in the woods and turn up three days later with no recollection of how long they were gone.

The film opens in Haiti, where photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) loses his pregnant wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves) in an earthquake, with only their daughter Angela surviving. Thirteen years later, Angela is living with her dad in Georgia, who has long since given up on his belief in God. When Angela and Katherine venture into the woods, they end up connecting to a demonic spirit that follows them out. The girls begin acting strangely, leading to the realization that they are possessed.

The big theme of the film is how Victor must grapple with his loss of faith as he deals with his daughter’s possession, and Odom Jr. does do his best to ground the film with his performance as a grieving single father. Ann Dowd also does fine work with what she is given as the religious neighbour and nurse who introduces Victor to Chris, the only other parent out there who might understand what he is going through (Chris has since written a book about her daughter’s exorcism).

But the execution is pretty choppy. The screenplay, co-written by Green and Peter Sattler, feels like a first pass at something that hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet. There are some pacing issues throughout the 111 minute film, which feels both rushed and plodding in places. It lacks the foreboding tension of its predecessor, which relied on strong character development to build a sense of existential dread. Aside from a few jump moments and gross-out effects, The Exorcist: Believer is never particularly scary, and often surprisingly tame compared to a film that is still somewhat notorious for its shock value.

At times, Believer plays more like one of those faith-based dramas. Since Friedkin’s film was so artfully crafted, this just makes the churned out feel of this sequel (timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the ‘73 classic) all the more frustrating. Even compared to Green’s Halloween films, which were fan-service but still largely enjoyable as such (I’m personally a defender of the swing for the fences that was Halloween Ends), there is nothing particularly original The Exorcist: Believer, which feels through and through like a studio product.

There are hints at what could have been a satisfying legacy sequel that built upon its predecessor’s spiritual themes. The film does have some unsettling moments (including the grisly procedural details that are presented after the girls are found), and the actual exorcism sequence itself – once we finally get to it – does have a somewhat interesting moral dilemma at part of its setup.

The sequence also sets itself apart with the inclusion of different denominations of spiritual leaders, instead of just the Catholic priests that were such a big focal point of the first film. The Catholic priest who gets brought into the mix this time around, Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla), is actually somewhat sidelined, which also adds to some more muddled and questionable spiritual messaging.

This is a mediocre demonic possession movie that in many ways has the misfortune of being connected and closely compared to the original. Blumhouse reportedly paid $400 million for the rights, which begs the question of how this was the best thing they could come up with. Furthermore, it’s hard to even see how they can continue this story for two more films (The Exorcist: Deceiver is currently set for release in 2025)

What ultimately makes The Exorcist: Believer so frustrating and disappointing is that it actually had potential. While one could cynically argue that a legacy sequel was always going to be a cash grab, there are ways that it could have been done at least decently well. But this is not really it.

The Exorcist: Believer is now playing in theatres, and is also available on PVOD.