Review: ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ left its spirit in the ‘70s

Demonic possession is a contentious issue. Historically, many cases characterized as possession were actually incidents of severe and undiagnosed mental illness that required medical treatment, not divine intervention. Some instances resulted in long-term harm and even death. Yet, there are allegedly records of confirmed possessions and exorcisms in which no medical cause could be determined for the afflicted’s behaviour. Whether one believes or not, it’s been the subject of countless films that aim to terrorize audiences with the demon’s physical and verbal violence. In The Exorcist: Believer, the parents of two girls must accept their children are possessed or watch them suffer slow, agonizing deaths.

Thirteen-year-olds Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) are best friends. When they lie to their parents to hang out after school, it seems like a harmless deception — until they fail to come home. They return three days later with no recollection of their disappearance, but appearing mostly unharmed, everyone just breathes a sigh of relief that they’re back. However, something is wrong. The girls are acting strangely and frightening their families. Angela’s father (Leslie Odom Jr.) seeks psychiatric help, while Katherine’s parents (Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz) opt for home care and prayers. But this isn’t the first time this demon has possessed a young girl and they’ll need to combine their energies if they have any chance of saving their daughters.

It’s been 50 years since Captain Howdy turned out to be a malevolent spirit possessing Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), but its return is lamentably lacklustre. Much of the appeal of the original The Exorcist (1973) was the horrors inflicted on Regan by the demon, frightening audiences with its unnatural, disturbing displays. The build-up was slow, but the ascent and climax were exceptional, consequently ranking it highly on countless “scariest movies of all time” lists. However, this picture flips the focus from the possession to the parents’ experience, which challenges their strength and devotion — and is simply less interesting. Katherine’s family is religious, yet they conceal her illness, possibly out of fear and/or shame. Angela’s father is agnostic, yet grows open to any and all possibilities if it means saving his daughter. Thus, the Catholics, Evangelical Christians and voodoo practitioners form an unprecedented coalition of beliefs, banding together to fight for the children’s souls — but even the exorcism is a bit tedious, with the exception of the eerie voodoo ritual.

Ellen Burstyn’s reprisal of Chris MacNeil lends very little to the story — they could have just as easily referenced her book about Regan’s possession without muddying the narrative by forcing her inclusion. Co-writer and director David Gordon Green previously revived the Halloween franchise with mixed results, but he unquestionably gets it wrong with this one. Most notably, it fails to be even remotely scary. While there’s only two attempted jump scares, the main disappointment is the portrayal of the possessions. The title event gets very limited screen time and what is depicted is not noteworthy. Of course, the film is inevitably being judged against the original picture, but that should have been understood during production and greater efforts should have been made. Even the closing scene, while sentimental in theory, just further underlines the film’s misdirection.

Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett and Ellen Burstyn