The Exorcist: Believer
The Exorcist: Believer
Starring Leslie Odom, Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz
Directed by David Gordon Green
Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) lost his wife during an earthquake in Haiti but managed to save their unborn child in the process. Thirteen years later he's raising Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own, and for all intents and purposes they seem like a loving, happy family. So too is Miranda (Jennifer Nettles), her husband Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), their teenage daughter Katherine (Olivia Marcum) and their two younger children. Angela and Katherine are friends and one day they go off into the woods, and disappear. The frantic parents and the police search for three days before they're found, and it seems that other than some cuts and bruises they're alright - but something is definitely off with them.
Soon both girls begin exhibiting strange behaviors that draw the attention of nurse Ann (Ann Dowd) who was at one point in time going to be a nun, who believes (along with devout Baptists Miranda and Tony) that the girls are possessed by an evil demon. Victor, having lost his faith, is more doubtful until he hears what Angela told Ann, leading him to believe. Ann leads him to Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), a woman who wrote a book after her young daughter was possessed fifty years ago, and brings her in to help. Joining the fight for the girls' souls is a priest, a Baptist minister, a Pentecostal believer and a rootwork healer who join forces to perform an exorcism that'll hopefully free the girls from the demonic hold over them.
The Good:
It's never easy directing children and animals, and David Gordon Green manages to pull out tremendous performances from young newcomers Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum as Angela and Katherine respectively. Both girls showcase talent beyond their years as they deal with their possessions and the effect it has on their minds as well as their bodies, going full force into their roles that require heavy physical transformations. They come off as believable victims akin to Linda Blair's performance in the original, but don't expect to find their names listed come Oscar time like Blair did.
The exorcism itself is fascinating and tense, filmed in a tight claustrophobic space of a kitchen filled with an Avengers-style army of differing faiths that come together to see the girls delivered. Usually films like this point that Catholicism (or Christianity, if you will) is the one sole religion that'll save, but here the Haitian practices and voodoo also come into play, as does a rootwork healer who practices Hoodoo. Along with her is the typical Catholic priest, a Baptist minister, and a Pentecostal believer along with a nurse who has strong ties to the sisterhood.
The girls, again, shine in the exorcism scene. It couldn't have been easy for them to perform in such a manner, but they come off, again, as highly believable and sympathetic. You want them to be delivered, and the excitement and tension comes with the seemingly impossible nature of it. The original only had two priests going up against the demon, and here there's so many it somewhat gets confusing as all the religions try their practices at the same time, to which I thought even the demon was confused as to what was happening.
The Bad:
David Gordon Green struck gold with the 2018 sequel "Halloween," but then subsequently lost all good will with "Halloween Kills" and "Halloween Ends," which is the most hotly debated film in the long-running franchise. Some (very few actually) liked it while pretty much everyone else hated it. So when he announced he was doing a trilogy of "Exorcist" sequels, the groans were well deserved. And we got what we asked for. The same story akin to "Halloween" 2018 that brings back the legacy character and cuts and pastes most of the original film's practices with a touch of modern effects for good (or, in this case, bad) measure.
There's so much that made the original "Exorcist" such an iconic film, and all of that special sauce is left off the "Believer" sandwich. It's cut and paste without the heart and soul, leaving you feeling totally hollow at the end. You know you're supposed to feel something, to have some sort of fright, anything - but all I got was a shrug. Nothing I haven't seen before and done better, and devoid of anything that makes it unique, special, fun, or frightening.
The addition of Ellen Burstyn seemed like a stroke of genius, much like how Green brought back Jamie Lee Curtis for "Halloween," but here her role is completely wasted. She's more a glorified cameo than anything, and ultimately doesn't serve much purpose in the grand scheme of the film. Burstyn herself said she didn't want to do it, but they offered her a lot of money to the point she even said "I feel like the devil is asking my price." She agreed to do it and donated her salary to fund a MFA scholarship for actors at Pace University, and you can tell her heart isn't in the film at all.
William Friedkin, the director of the original "The Exorcist," just passed away a few months ago, so he never got to see his beloved film get this poor treatment. Writer and film critic Ed Whitfield said "William Friedkin once said to me, 'Ed, the guy who made those new Halloween sequels is about to make one to my movie, the Exorcist. That's right, my signature film is about to be extended by the man who made Pineapple Express. I don't want to be around when that happens. But if there's a spirit world, and I can come back, I plan to possess David Gordon Green and make his life a living hell.'" I bet David Gordon Green hasn't had a good nights' sleep since.
Leslie Odom Jr., Jennifer Nettles, and Norbert Leo Butz play the most annoying, egotistical, entitled parents I've ever seen. Even before their children go missing they are completely pompous and arrogant. Odom's Victor parks to drop her daughter off at school in a school bus zone where other parents were patiently waiting and he cuts them off, and after Angela comes back he carries on like his daughter is the most important thing (to be fair, I guess that's how any parent would act), but he does so in a way that comes off as annoying. Nettles' Miranda and Butz's Tony are even worse, mixing their religious beliefs with their holier-than-thou attitudes toward anyone in regards to Katherine, treating everyone as lesser beings. None of them were enjoyable, and I hated them all.
The original film spent a lot of time with Jason Miller's Father Damian Karras, giving him a rich, full backstory involving his mother and the guilt he felt after her passing which affected his performance with the exorcism itself. Here, the priest is as invisible as The Invisible Man, and I honestly didn't even remember his name. There was no development of the character and it felt like a major chunk of the film got edited out that explained some things, such as when said Father approached the church for the exorcism and said he personally was with the girls and felt the exorcism was necessary. I looked at my friend and was like, "I don't remember him even seeing them." So maybe there's a Snyder-cut version out there, but that's one I don't have any intentions of watching.
There's not a lot of time spent on the actual possessions, and nothing as memorable as the twisting of the head, the spewing of the pea soup vomit, or the levitation, even though all are done here as well but so muted it's almost invisible. There won't be any mention of these events fifty years from now, I can safely guarantee that.
Blumhouse spent $400 million to secure the filming rights, and had to guarantee that a trilogy would be made, so even if this film bombs (which I'm pretty sure it will), they still have to make two more of these abominations. I guess the devil really does exist.
The Summary:
Proving once again that David Gordon Green should have nothing to do with beloved horror classics, "The Exorcist: Believer" is a film that doesn't have a soul, a cash grab wannabe that tries to trick the audience into thinking that it's going to be as good as its namesake - and one that needs delivered out of the theaters as soon as possible.
The Score: C-
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