In hindsight, an Exorcist sequel in the year of our Lord 2023 was never going to work. But you can't blame those of us who religiously rewatch the late William Friedkin's 1973 masterpiece every year—remembering our own awe at the rites and rituals of the Catholic Church across many a Catechism class—for hoping. The Exorcist: Believer paid a pretty penny to bring back Ellen Burstyn, but forgot to include the character who matters most: An exorcist.
The Exorcist: Believer is one giant, aggressively un-scary $400 million cop-out that nevertheless offends. Women are not allowed to be priests in the Catholic Church, but no male actor could match Max von Sydow's Father Merrin and Jason Miller's Father Karras in the gnarly, groundbreaking original. It's a gender problem this sequel gets around by casting the great Ann Dowd as an ex-nun who broke her vows in the most politically-charged way possible.
Dowd is endlessly articulate, with a natural gravity that should lend itself to the heightened language and performance of a literal exorcism. (Fathers Merrin and Karras chanted "The power of Christ compels you!" a full 14 times in that unforgettable levitation scene.) But the film completely garbles her crisis of faith.
Universal Pictures
This is not to say that The Exorcist: Believer isn't religious enough — only that it's a confused mess of New Age-ey spirituality that culminates in the same schlocky message delivered by superhero movies: Hope is the way. This is the only real wisdom offered by Burstyn's Chris MacNeil, who returns 50 years after her daughter Regan's possession to lend a hand in the case of two suffering little girls. The film saddles her with lengthy exposition and monologues, at one point awkwardly editing in the same line twice. She's ultimately sidelined in the most ridiculous way possible, then confronted with a truly hollow cameo devoid of even a drop of nostalgia. Here's to hoping Burstyn was handsomely paid.
The film is guilty, also, of that other superhero movie plague: The need for a bigger monster. This time around, two girls are possessed, two sets of parents are distraught and many different religions are called upon to expel the demon. Director and co-writer David Gordon Green helmed the lackluster Halloween reboot trilogy, which similarly suffers from this contemporary franchise malaise. (Green frequently directs episodes of Danny McBride's excellent HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones; believe it or not, McBride is credited as a story writer on Believer.)
Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami...) delivers a warm lead performance, but you won't remember any character names. Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles does what she can with a script that inherently loathes her Georgia-born Protestant mother, and Norbert Leo Butz (Justified: City Primeval) is the same jerky Norbert Leo Butz we know and love. But his schtick just ain't it in an Exorcist movie. The two girls, Lidya Jewett and Olivia O'Neill, do an admirable job of, you know, being possessed. But we only really get to know one of them, making the upshot of the climactic exorcism hopelessly predictable.
Universal Pictures
About that exorcism... To avoid the Catholic energy of the original, The Exorcist: Believer stresses that, across religions and cultures, the key element of any ritual to cast out a demon is, simply, people. So it opts for a gaggle of faithful we know nothing about. There's a local Protestant priest, a holistic medicine healer, a neighbor guy who's also a zealot and, of course, Ann Dowd. The jump-scares in the first two acts don't amount to much here.
It's clear that Green was going for some sort of hope and togetherness thing, but it ends up feeling like an "Avengers, assemble!" team-up. Turns out we need to care about our characters before they head into a dimly-lit room to confront the root of all evil. And good golly it's only the first film in a planned trilogy. Cue the "Help Me" message.
The Exorcist: Believer is now in theaters. The Exorcist (1973) is now streaming on Max.
