Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar® nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia O’Neill), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.
What We Thought:
Fifty years ago The Exorcist changed the face of horror. It was a box office juggernaut and was nominated for ten Academy Awards becoming the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture. Since then we have seen hundreds of copycat possession films and despite The Exorcist: Believer being part of The Exorcist universe, it feels like one of the hundreds of knockoffs more than it does William Friedkin’s classic.
Because I also do home video reviews I watch a lot of horror flicks. Horror has always been one of my favorite genres so needless to say I’ve seen my fair share of demon/possession/religious horror. To me, The Exorcist: Believer is just the latest film in the genre. The two girls do a good job, but the film is slow and boring for the bulk of its runtime.
That’s the biggest issue with the movie, it takes forever for anything to happen. It has a cold open in Haiti then time jumps 13 years. We are introduced to the two lead girls and their families, they disappear and show up days later in a farm many miles away. Doctors look at them, the families think everything is fine, the girls don’t remember anything, but go back to their normal lives.
At this point I’m ready for something to happen, anything. Then it continues into more talking and more people second guessing things. By now I’m bored with it all. I didn’t care about anyone involved. The crowd in the theater was obnoxious and nothing about the film was holding my attention.
The third act finally gets things going, but ends up being lackluster as well. I’ve seen straight-to-video films with better exorcism scenes. Nothing about the third act seemed powerful and game changing. I guess because it was two girls and not one it was supposed to be doubly as powerful? It wasn’t.
The Exorcist: Believer is just the latest horror flick that will probably make money that I’ll forget about by the end of the year. I don’t believe in demons and ghosts and all that nonsense and never understand how crowds get into it. It will most likely make bank at the box office like all these movies do, but I’m better off watching them at home away from terrible crowds and have the ability to fast forward through the slow & boring parts. It’s a big swing and a miss for me despite the return of one actress from the original and a big surprise cameo you’ll see coming a mile away.
The Nerds Templar 