You have to hand it to David Gordon Green, a man hellbent on resurrecting as many iconic horror franchises as he can. He did it with Halloween and he's at it again with The Exorcist: Believer. The real question though is, does evil die tonight?
When his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum), show signs of demonic possession, it unleashes a chain of events that forces single father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) to confront the nadir of evil. Terrified and desperate, he seeks out Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), the only person alive who's witnessed anything like it before.
The Exorcist is not a film I have a great affinity to, having only watched it a few years ago for the first time. That being said, it's deemed one of the greatest horrors of all time for a reason - being that it's fucking great. Years later, making a direct sequel to it is, as previously mentioned, a brave move. The end result is a mixed bag from David Gordon Green, a real lack of atmosphere in the film's first half making it quite a chore to sit through. Even when things start to go very wrong, it doesn't really feel as if anything is at stake here, odd considering two young girls have been possessed.
The same creative team who brought the Halloween franchise back to life find it tough to do as well here, The Exorcist being a film quite hard to attempt something different with. It isn't until the final act exorcism where the film saves itself a little, great practical effects put to use to create such an errie sense of occasion.
The performances really do leave a lot to be desired too, Leslie Odom Jr. sleepwalking through some of his line deliveries in particular. Considering their daughters have been possessed, the lack of urgency felt from the parents and their performances contributes to the lack of stakes felt. Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum get to do the fun stuff, if that's what you could call demonic possession, revelling in the latter stages of the film, particularly during the exorcism.
We already know a new trilogy is being made so in that sense, The Exorcist: Believer feels a little bulletproof. Lord knows what exactly they could do with it all mind, because it would have to be very different to be worth doing at all.
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