THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER: 2 STARS. “all the shock value of AAA battery.”
Fifty years after its release, William Friedkin’s horror classic “The Exorcist” is still scary enough to frighten the twists out of your Twizzlers. The story of a 12-year-old girl, possessed by the Devil, and her mother Chris MacNeil’s attempt to rescue her through an exorcism, inspired nightmares and even reports of audiences becoming physically ill at screenings.
The four sequels spawned by the success of the original, not so much.
Coming back for another shout at the Devil is “The Exorcist: Believer,” the sixth installment in “The Exorcist” franchise.
The spirited new film, a direct sequel to the original, sees single father Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr) raising daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett) after the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago.
When Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear for three days, they come back changed, with no memory of what happened to them.
“Wherever those girls went,” says Katherine’s father Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), “they brought back something with them.”
Victor believes they are possessed by the Devil, and, in desperation, seeks help from someone who has been there, done that.
“You have some experience with possession?” Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), the mother who battled the Devil in the original film, is asked.
“Yes,” she replies, “more than I’d like.”
MacNeil understands the devilish happenings, and thinks she knows how to help. “Exorcism is a ritual,” she says. “Every culture, every religion, they all use different methods. It’s going to take all of them.”
Did the Devil make director David Gordon Green do it? That might be the only way to explain the hellishly dull experience of watching “The Exorcist: Believer.”
The movie begins with promise as Green sets up the story and a sense of foreboding, only to have it go all to heck once Angela and Katherine come back from the woods worse for the wear and tear.
From that point on, “The Exorcist: Believer” is a soulless collection of William Friedkin’s greatest hits. The inverted crosses, bloated faces, waggling tongues and spinning heads had real shock value 50 years ago when “The Exorcist” traumatized a generation of moviegoers, but today they are cliches with the shock value of AAA battery.
So, instead of terror, we’re given jump scares. Instead of the ultimate good vs. evil showdown, we’re treated to a mish mash of overlapping theological blather that makes very little sense. The Devil, Green seems to suggest, can be defeated by community but the exploration of faith that made Friedkin’s film a classic is nowhere to be seen.
Burstyn provides franchise continuity, but little else. She’s brought in as an expert of exorcisms, but isn’t given much to do other than serve as a touchstone to a different, better film.
If you go see “The Exorcist: Believer” you may have a hard time believing what a mess they made of it.
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