The Exorcist: Believer
In the sixth instalment of the demonic franchise, the Devil doesn’t so much have the last laugh as a subdued cackle.
What can have possessed her? Lidya Jewett loses it
Photo Credit: Eli Joshua Adé, Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Having terminated the Halloween franchise with the last three nonsensical instalments, writer-director David Gordon Green has now decided to finish off The Exorcist. A direct sequel to one of the scariest and most deeply disturbing horror films ever made, The Exorcist: Believer is the first of an attempted resurrection of the Devil (another chapter is already in the works). Green’s ace card is the casting of Ellen Burstyn (reprising her role as Chris MacNeil), who brings a shock of distinction to the proceedings, which cannot be said for the rest of the film. While honouring the visual aesthetic of the 1973 classic, Believer can do little with the new material, an underwhelming retread with little to say for itself.
Green’s worst crime is withholding crucial information, which immediately casts his protagonist in an unsympathetic light. We first meet Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr) with his wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves) on holiday in Haiti, although not much evidence is divulged to explain how they can afford such a large house in Georgia (or a holiday in Haiti). Perhaps she was an heiress of some type, although we do know that she was nine months pregnant before she dies. We then jump forward thirteen years and Sorenne’s child is now a happy, loving teenager called Angela (Lidya Jewett). Victor, meanwhile, remains a closed book, so it’s hard to get a handle on him – Green’s second error. It’s difficult to invest in any film without an empathetic central character, even while Victor’s daughter is being possessed by a demonic force (these things happen in The Exorcist films).
Another misstep is the perverse underlighting of the interiors, the better to create a mood of foreboding. However, William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist (1973), had enough confidence in his material to utilise both bright light and dark shadows, highlighting the extremes of good and evil. The look of Believer is just murky and irritating, its leading man a glum and mysterious non-entity, and when the fireworks do finally begin, they prove relatively low-key. Even so, Ellen Burstyn illuminates every scene she is in, as does Ann Dowd as Victor’s neighbour, a nurse with a past in religious orders. The rest just feels mechanical and contrived and is terribly dull.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Leslie Odom Jr, Lidya Jewett, Olivia O'Neill, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Ann Dowd, Ellen Burstyn, Raphael Sbarge, Okwui Okpokwasili, Danny McCarthy, E.J. Bonilla, Tracey Graves, Celeste Oliva, Linda Blair, Father Morris.
Dir David Gordon Green, Pro Jason Blum, David C. Robinson and James G. Robinson, Screenplay Peter Sattler and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, Ph Michael Simmonds, Pro Des Brandon Tonner-Connolly, Ed Tim Alverson, Music David Wingo and Amman Abbasi, Costumes Lizz Wolf, Sound Chris Chae.
Blumhouse Productions/Morgan Creek Entertainment/Rough House Pictures-Universal Pictures.
111 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 6 October 2023. Cert. 15.
