The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

When two young girls go missing and return three days later, their families know that something is off about them, that something has happened to them during their disappearance. The Exorcist: Believer follows these friends and their families as they attempt to uncover the truth about them and the demonic spirits that have entered their bodies.

The Exorcist: Believer is the long-awaited sequel to the 1973 classic The Exorcist. For fifty years people have lived with the haunting visuals of the latter, and they have now, for months, prepared themselves to sit down and watch the newest installment in the franchise. I, being someone that had only recently seen the original, was desperately hoping that The Exorcist: Believer would rectify the issues of the past, and find a way to create a film about possession that exists appropriately in the twenty-first century.

The Exorcist: Believer fails to fix one glaring issue, the majority of the film’s plot occurs in the middle of the film, causing both the start and the finish to be a tad boring. There are times in which this film drags on and on, seemingly going nowhere in the process. What The Exorcist: Believer does differently, however, is provide meaning to the long exposition. While the first installment babbled on and on about nonsense, nearly every word played a role in helping to develop the story. I actually appreciated the slow burn present in this film, as it ultimately added to the suspense of the film and helped to move it forward effectively.

This film falls victim to just about everything from the film being present in the trailer. By the time the film had ended, there wasn’t much surprise, there wasn’t much that made me go “wow, that was unexpected.” With that, The Exorcist: Believer became a case of “when is this thing that I already know about going to happen?” I knew what was coming next, and that stole from the suspense that was developed in other ways. This is one of the most disappointing aspects of modern cinema, and it causes some moments of the film to fail as a result.

The acting, the story, and the makeup design is far better than what I had seen in the previous film–and they all lend themselves to success. The Exorcist: Believer is led by Leslie Odom Jr. (Victor Fielding), one of the more talented actors around in my opinion–and with that the film is provided a stellar opportunity to succeed. Odom Jr. thrives every step of the way, and he does a spectacular job of taking charge in the film’s most pivotal moments. However, I don’t believe that Odom Jr. is the most important part of the production of The Exorcist: Believer–that belongs to the makeup. The two young girls are seen slowly deteriorating throughout the course of the film, and the makeup has to be spot on in order for this to work. Like the slow development of the story that works to keep viewers on edge, the makeup works to develop suspense, horror, and other powerful aspects of the film. Hair and makeup may not seem like the most important thing when developing a film, but in the case of The Exorcist: Believer, it is.

I’d imagine that there are very few people that can say that they watched this film in theaters with a Catholic priest. I had the unique pleasure of doing this, and while this person is a family member–the fact that he’s a priest played a pivotal role in my viewing experience. The Exorcist: Believer has been accused of being anti-religion. At first glance that’s not something that I noticed, I actually believed the opposite to be true–that the film was saying that all religions and beliefs should exist in harmony. While that may still be a message that the slew of writers and Director David Gordon Green are trying to convey to their audience, talking with that aforementioned priest afterward made me see things differently. There are moments toward the conclusion of the film in which there are some questionable choices made by the people of the Catholic Church, and those things sort of work to denigrate the religion (and some things that occurred are just false) and to make it appear lesser. I can see where those anti-religious claims are coming from now, and while that’s not something that ruins the film for me, it’s certainly something to consider when watching for the first time.

I like the slow burn approach taken by Green and the team, and I genuinely appreciate the fact that this was their attempt to develop suspense and horror throughout the course of The Exorcist: Believer. However, with the trailer spoiling so much of the film, those moments of suspense don’t work quite as well. Sure, the trailer almost exists as an entity separate from the film itself, but trailers are often used to prepare viewers for what’s to come without spoiling anything, and that needs to be taken into consideration when marketing a film. Hair and makeup, the acting of just about everyone involved (particularly Odom Jr.), and the story itself are lovely–helping bring The Exorcist: Believer to life in ways that the first film wasn’t able to. There’s so much good present in this film, but the marketing plan of Universal and Blumhouse works against the film, spoiling some of its potential success.

Directed by David Gordon Green.

Written by Peter Sattler, David Gordon Green, Scott Teems, Danny McBride, & William Peter Blatty.

Starring Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia O’Neill, Jennifer Nettles, Ellyn Burstyn, Ann Dowd, Raphael Sbarge, Norbert Leo Butz, etc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10