THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER is in dire need of extreme unction. But then again, it doesn’t have a soul to save.
This excruciatingly disappointing sequel to the 1973 masterpiece, THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER begins well, with dedicated homage of an opening shot of two dogs fighting.
Instead of an archaeological dig in Iraq, the story begins in Haiti where a photographer and his heavily pregnant wife are holidaying. The location is laden with voodoo which augurs well for an opening of the gates of hell.
An earthquake cuts short their holiday as well as the mother’s life, the father and newborn surviving and returning to the United States.
Fast forward thirteen years and the newborn is now a teenage girl, morbidly missing her mum. Her high school bestie, whose family are Southern Pentecostals, suggests they go into the woods and hold a séance.
Three days later, they emerge, possessed by the devil, spewing forth quotes from the original movie, and looking decidedly like Regan McNeil, the little girl possessed in the original movie.
Cue Ellen Burstyn, who played the mother in the original movie, to be summoned in a nostalgic fondling cameo. In the intervening years she has become a scholar on demonic possession, written a book on her experiences back in ‘73, and been estranged from her daughter ever since.
Talk about telegraphing a spoiler alert!
The Exorcist brilliantly engineered the suspension of disbelief because it was grounded by a strong narrative populated by characters you cared about. THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER is a misnomer because it is unbelievable, with characters you couldn’t give a rat’s arse about.
In this ecumenical exorcism conducted by an occult oncologist, Pentecostal pastor and late arrival Catholic priest, the drama dissipates into derivative drool.
Devoid of the dynamic between Karras and Kinderman, the priest’s crushing crisis of faith, the cop’s questing scepticism, and all the attending attributes of texture and tenebrosity of the original film are attenuated in this sickly sequel.
Trite where it should be tight, slight of fright, light on bite, nothing to ignite excitement.
THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER – not even the devil may care.
