This Autumn, there have been a multitude of new horror films released in cinemas, one of which is The Exorcist: Believer – a supposed sequel to the classic 1973 film The Exorcist, set and released 50 years later. However, this film comes nowhere near the original, both in the element of horror and general plot.
To begin the film, we are introduced to Victor, a single dad to Angela. Victor’s wife dies whilst pregnant with Angela in Haiti and leaves him to feel endlessly guilty for choosing Angela’s live over his wife’s. This beginning scene does carry some aspects of eeriness; however, it is not an incredibly relevant scene and is simply there to give the viewer context that they will not need.
Then, on a normal autumn school day, Angela and her very religious friend Katherine go into the woods after school to communicate with the spirit of Angela’s deceased mother and subsequently go missing for three days. During these three days, the parents of both Katherine and Victor relentlessly search the town for their missing daughters. This part of the film does put the viewer on edge, however after a certain amount of time, the wait begins to feel endless and drawn out.
Finally, the two girls are found, with no memory of the past few days and seem to be a little bit different. The girls eventually become more and more possessed, and Victor and Katherine’s parents come to terms with the fact that their daughters are possessed by the devil. This whole development takes up roughly half of the film, leaving no time at all for the actual exorcism of the girls, the crucial part of the film. The problem with this is that the slow build up adds absolutely nothing to the plot or the amount of fear which the viewer feels, it simply makes the film that much longer to watch.
The very scarce relation to the original 1975 film is the character of Chris MacNeil, the mother of Regan from the original film (who is also played by the same actor) and the relatively insignificant role which she plays in the film, besides when she gruesomely has her eyes gauged out by one of the possessed girls. There is also a very intense focus on Victor, and not so much the parents of the other possessed girl, Katherine. We as viewers know virtually nothing about their family, except for the key element that they are very religious, which makes the possession of Katherine quite pointless.
At last, after four fifths of the film, the two girls are finally exorcized. This exorcism is quite disappointing, considering that it is supposed to be the final climax of the film. There is also a sick sense of irony in the fact that the only person qualified to exorcize the children, the catholic priest who is trained in exorcism, only has roughly 3 minutes of screen time and is instantly killed once he comes into contact with the girls. However of course there must be an unlikely hero, in this case it is Victor’s neighbour who trained to be a nun, however never fully completed her training, and became a nurse instead. She and the ragtag band of parents manage to carry out the exorcism without him, but not without a few mishaps.
When finally finishing the exorcism, the group is asked by the devil himself to choose which girl will live and which will die. In the heat of the moment, the father of Katherine chooses her, however in a horrific plot twist, Angela is the one who lives after all. This is where the beginning scene of Angela’s mother being blessed in Haiti finally becomes relevant and we see that Angela was always going to live because of her mother’s love for her. The final ending of this film is if anything, very cheesy and uplifting, for a horror film. The original Chris MacNeil is reunited with her daughter, Regan, and is in recovery. Angela and Victor are able to move on and live life as they were before, except now they are closer as a family- not the expected ending of a horror film.
Overall, The Exorcist: Believer has barely any relation to the original besides the vague similarities in plot and the appearance of Chris MacNeil. The film also lacks in suspense and does not incite much fear as a result. The film is also not necessarily scarier because it uses more realistic CGI, it simply makes the film much more gruesome and more like a thriller, and objectively, makes the movie a little bit humorous, something a good horror film should not be.
