Fifty years after the original scare show brought fear and revulsion to worldwide cinema goers, “The Exorcist” is back with one question: is belief enough to cast out true evil?
Fans of the 1973 original, a horror phenomenon that revolutionized the genre, will be satisfied by this direct sequel, which brings classic Exorcist elements to a modern-day setting. The film features a compelling performance by Leslie Odom Jr. (of “Hamilton” fame) and will surely quench viewers’ thirst for a good ol’ demon-ousting.
Led by a stellar Odom in his prime as a single dad in the fight of his life to save his only daughter, “The Exorcist: Believer” pits not one but two teen girls against the angry demon possessing them. “Believer” is the latest Blumhouse chiller from director David Gordon Green (behind 2018’s “Halloween” slasher and subsequent reboot trilogy) who effectively ratchets up the tension with sharp and punctuated editing.
The film centers on two young girls living in the same Georgia neighborhood but with opposite families. The focal character, Victor Fielding (Odom), is closely protective of his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) after the death of her mother in Haiti during the destructive 2010 earthquake. Pregnant with Angela, Victor’s wife is struck by rubble, suffering injuries too great for her to survive.
Twelve years later, Angela is a teenager living in a quiet Georgia suburb under her father’s careful eye. Angela’s friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) lives a different life, in a devout and church-going family, but the two keep up a strong relationship. After the girls stroll jauntily into the woods to experiment with spiritual hypnosis, attempting contact with Angela’s late mother, they vanish for three days before reappearing, bloodied and cowed in a goat barn.
They’re alive, but something is off. With off-the-chart fevers, burns on their feet, and increasingly erratic behaviors, the girls are not themselves, and it becomes ever more clear that what tortures them is not of the human world. Victor pairs up with Katherine’s begrudging parents to find whatever solution might bring their daughters back to normal.
The film is ripe with allusion, fun for fans of cinematic analysis. Even a blockbuster horror movie can be deep if you read into it. The girls’ disappearance is taken as a trip through Hell and back, returning on the third day akin to Jesus’ biblical descent to the underworld. Sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, the religious symbolism is a hallmark of the franchise and a fan touchstone.
Although the first act starts off strong with growing unease and excellent character-building between Victor and his daughter Angela, the movie loses some momentum when it goes on a tangent to reintroduce Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) who makes her return to the franchise after starring in the 1973 original.
The reference is a nice nod, but overall, Burstyn’s performance underwhelms. She’s given a lot of screen time, probably as a crowd pleaser, but her presence doesn’t add much when the focus should continue to be on Fielding’s family struggle and a new generation of demonic possession.
The exorcism itself in the third act, although hitting all the notes of epic ritual made popular by the groundbreaking original, feels somewhat rushed and underdeveloped. The characters seem to jump to the conclusion without much of the exquisite tension-building that the first film did so well. In that movie, it takes half the film for Chris to convince anyone that an exorcism is the only thing to save her daughter, but the eerie drawing-out makes the action that much more enjoyable. The frustration ratchets up and up, the devil gets more ludicrous and relentless, until a daring pair of Fathers eventually exorcize the inexorable.
In “Believer,” most of the cast isn’t fleshed out enough, and the ritual comes without much lead-in, but the movie still delivers thrills as advertised, with enough hints of symbolism to excite the keen viewer. Much of the film’s strength relies on Odom’s acting might, without which the film would have fallen far flatter. Odom brings a level of depth and Carnegie Mellon-honed dramatic gravitas to the film that elevates it above the average trite horror flick.
The film does well with both creeping dread and shaking horror, achieving the frights it’s after. It does, however, have that particular Universal blockbuster feel of contemporary movies and is thus left wanting the misty autumn gloom aesthetic of the original movie. The 1973 “Exorcist” was grounded in the particular sense of place which makes it an enduringly special movie. Leaves falling in a foggy Georgetown neighborhood of red brick townhomes and the university’s gothic architecture set a delightfully spooky tone and make it an ideal Halloween treat. The new film is driven well by Odom but lacks the same ambience, and of course the iconic Exorcist steps.
As the title suggests, the idea of belief is at the heart of the film’s tensions. Characters struggle to come to terms with their belief, finding what’s in front of them hard to reconcile with the principles they hold. Belief may not be what will save the families in the end.
Will faith and religion be enough to rescue the excruciated girls? Will the power of the cross be enough to repel the repugnant demon? A malevolence beyond compare is at the door; the band of saviors will have to open it, or risk losing the girls forever.
Leave a Reply