Reanimating life into a genre franchise that was launched in part by the most influential horror film ever made, but whose subsequent entries have failed to make a similar lasting positive impression, is no easy feat. The critically acclaimed and box office hit movie, 1973’s The Exorcist, instantly became a lasting success for various reasons.
The feature legitimized the horror genre as serious drama. The film quickly became known for grounding its supernatural elements in religious belief and the social anxieties that followed the tumult of the late 1960s protest movement.
The series’ latest installment, The Exorcist: Believer, which bypasses the events of the franchise’s earlier sequels, prequels and television series, is honoring the original feature’s 50th anniversary by being a direct follow-up. The new movie, which, like its predecessor, grounds its supernatural elements in religious belief and the social anxieties of the modern era, also finds its community in loneliness and a human quality ingrained in its character and overall story arc.
The Exorcist: Believer was directed by David Gordon Green, who also penned the script with Peter Sattler. The scribes based the drama on characters created by writer William Peter Blatty. The screenwriters penned the script after Green created the story with Scott Teems and Danny McBride.
Blatty scribed the screenplay for The Exorcist, which he based on his best-selling 1971 novel of the same name. The series’ original entry was helmed by William Friedkin. The supernatural screen adaptation broke box office records, and became the first horror film to ever be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Green and McBride also served as executive producers on the movie, which was also produced by Jason Blum through his production company, Blumhouse Production. The trio reunited to create the latest sequel in the Exorcist franchise after they resurrected the recent Halloween follow-up trilogy.
@The Exorcist : Believer
The Exorcist: Believer opens by following photographer Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.) as he spends time in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, taking pictures with his pregnant wife, Sorenne (Tracey Graves). After experiencing a major, unexpected earthquake there, Victor must choose whether to save the life of his wife or their unborn daughter.
Twelve years later, Victor is raising their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), on his own in a seemingly tranquil American suburb in Georgia. However, their fate suddenly changes when the pre-teen and her best friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) decide to venture into the woods near their middle school to try to contact Sorenne’s spirit. Katherine, who’s being raised by her devoutly Christian parents, Miranda and Tony (Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz), believes that she can help Angela speak to her deceased mother through a ritual involving candles.
The girls’ hypnosis session doesn’t go according to plan, however, and as a result, they go missing in the woods. After Victor, contact the local police to help them search for their daughters, the girls reappear in town three days later with no memory of what happened to them.
Angela and Katherine’s return unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the depths of true evil. In his terror and desperation, he seeks out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil (Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn, who reprises her role for the first time since the original 1973 movie). Chris, a former actress, has been forever altered by the possession and successful exorcism of her own 12-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) five decades earlier.
@The Exorcist : Believer
The Exorcist: Believer succeeds in bringing the filmmakers’ intentions for the series’ continuation to the screen. The sequel tells an unsettling and original story, particularly in conveying the horror that a parent feels when their child is physically and emotionally threatened. Victor, Miranda and Tony, much like Chris during the original movie, must contend with the fact that their beliefs have to evolve when they’re guiding their child through an unusual, unfamiliar situation.
The filmmakers’ meticulous attention to detail and creative expertise, particularly as Victor and Angela are still contending with the absence of Sorenne from their lives, has shaped the project into a follow-up that’s as chilling as its predecessor. As the father and daughter continue to grapple with the absence of their family’s matriarch, a demonic presence is able to pry on their pain by possessing Angela and her best friend.
That horrifying event forces the usually solitary Victor to rely on his community for support and guidance, and ultimately leads him toward fabled exorcism survivor Chris MacNeil. Through Victor’s initially reluctance to seek help from his neighbors, his growing need to find a way to treat his daughter allows the drama to emotionally explore themes about how people overcome hardships with community.
Angela and Katherine’s demonic possession explores ideas of more relatable types of possession in modern society: internal struggles that everyone experiences. The girls’ parents and neighbors must question who they are, and if the things they’ve done will be considered questionable by their community. If so, they must also ponder if their families and neighbors’ love and intervention can truly save their souls.
Dramatically and emotionally, the way The Exorcist: Believer‘s inexplicable events affect the main characters remain at the center of the story, which make the protagonists relatable. While Angela and Katherine’s possessions are dark, horrifying and dramatic, the characters’ reactions and emotions are still grounded and understandable.
@The Exorcist : Believer
Victor is a major standout throughout the film as a prime example of someone who’s been dealing with various hardships since his wife’s death. While he struggles to connect with his neighbors and has put his faith behind him to instead focuses on protecting his daughter, the events of the movie challenge his world view on a fundamental level. The initially isolated character eventually becomes exposed to community and begins to view the world in different ways, in order to free his daughter.
Odom infuses the role with a relatability and warmth that’s paralleled by his intensity. The actor showcases the vulnerability, humanity and desperation Victor has in his realization that it’s time to overcome his grief of losing his wife in order to be able to save their daughter again.
Victor finds that strength after meeting Chris, who has dedicated her life to helping others understand the phenomenon of possession since the events of the first film – especially other parents who have gone through hardships of the unexplained. Chris, who’s now a successful author, embarked upon her work for the love of her daughter. Through an introduction to Victor through his neighbor, Ann (Ann Dowd), who admires her writings, Chris is able to use everything that has happened to her to guide his journey.
Besides the emotional realism that Odom infuses into his role of Victor, the drama also thrives on Green smartly decided to cast relative unknowns in the roles of Angela and Katherine. Jewett and Marcum, the latter of whom made her feature film acting debut in the project, brought a natural sensibility to the young characters, who have innocent intentions when they try to summon Sorenne’s spirit in the woods.
As the story progresses, the actresses were also able to perfectly balance the stages of possession their characters experience. Jewett and Marcum amped up their performances to show Angela and Katherine’s transition from sweet to stoic and ultimately extremely aggressive.
Overall, The Exorcist: Believer is a stellar contemporary take on the supernatural horror genre that’s reflective of modern times. The franchise’s latest entry brings together the characters and elements of the original movie that are beloved by horror fans, particularly showing and exploring different perspectives of possession through a variety of characters.
The new sequel thrives in Victor finally accepting that he has to follow Chris’ lead and change his beliefs in order to save his daughter, as well as Angela and Katherine mimicking Regan’s efforts to fight back during a dangerous situation. As a result, The Exorcist: Believer creates an overall unsettling atmosphere that’s reminiscent of the original film.
Grade: B+
The Exorcist: Believer is now playing in theaters, courtesy of Universal Pictures.
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Here’s the trailer of the film.