‘Exorcist Believer A Damned Disappointment
Why is David Gordon Green, who made a career out of bad Halloween sequels, now making The Exorcist: Believer, the first in a planned new Exorcist film trilogy? Apparently, only sequels to classic 70s horror films can be financed. The Exorcist: Believer is based on the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Directed by the late William Friedkin (The French Connection) and based on the hugely popular and controversial novel by William Peter Blatty, who adapted the work for the screen, The Exorcist breaks down barriers based on religious belief. for truly innovative horror films that always have a great cast and some expressions that have made them famous all over the world. The Exorcist: Believer shows what is wrong with modern cinema. This is by design and there is nothing new to say about The Exorcist's themes.
The Exorcist: Believer begins in Haiti, where photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami) and his pregnant wife Sorenn (Tracey Graves) meet some followers of the local religion, bless their unborn child, and an earthquake earth. 13 years later, Victor and his thirteen-year-old daughter Angela (Lydia Jewett, Good Girls) live alone in a small house. He owns a local photography business. Take Angela to her neighborhood school. In class, students listen to someone recite "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Angela desperately wants to connect with her dead mother, something we also discover in the brilliant and more creative Australian thriller Talk to Me. Angela and her friend, classmate and neighbor Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) go into the woods.
And they disappeared for three days. How? Why? Exorcism: The believer does not try to explain anything. His every fear was a loud “Boo” in his face. Angela and Katherine start to show the symptoms we all know from The Exorcist. The makeup effects look like the young Linda Blair from the original film, sounding the same and looking similar to each other. They are the twins from The Exorcist, with a multi-faith demon hunting fan following.
Be careful with that green color. At her fundamentalist church, Katherine maniacally repeats the words "Body and Blood" over and over and pretends to bite the priest's face. Someone muttered a line from Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. Headlights turn on and off. We hear "unspecified anomaly". Angela dirty the bed. It's dirty, but not too scary.
The original The Exorcist gave every devout viewer a reason to believe again, and many of them were ready, if not eager, to do so. “The Exorcist: The Believer” won 90-year-old Ellen Burstyn the highest praise for the original film, even though her role was small and arguably exploitative. As a nurse and former novice, the great Ann Dowd (The Hereditary), reprising her role as Max von Sydow from the original, automatically brings gravitas. But as talented as Odom is, he can't overcome a mediocre script. "The Exorcist: Believer" sounds like a vague riff on Mike Oldfield's memorable "Tubular Bells" theme. It was an echo of something great. But you barely feel it.
("Exorcist: Believer" contains strong language, violence, disturbing images, and sexual references)
"The Exorcist: The Believer"
Rated R. at AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay, and suburban theaters. Rating: C
