The Exorcist: Believer

This film is a great showcase in why you shouldn't follow your white friends into the woods to speak to spirits.

This is one of those films where after watching I said to myself, “well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.” In fact I had originally started watching the film alone, when my family members walked in, grew interested, and since began watching with me. They too liked the movie, "well enough".

Well enough is fine for general audiences, at least without the cost of ticket purchase, well enough is far from good enough for long time series fans and/or ardent horror fans.

There’s a specific sort of expectation placed on an IP like The Exorcist that I find a smidge unfair. The Exorcist was such a landmark not only in horror cinema, but cinema period, that cultivated such a specific era high it's truly impossible to recapture within the same franchise in my opinion.

Other original horror films since and prior to The Exorcist have, but firsts are firsts for a reason. There have been good Nightmare on Elms after the first film, well liked Scream sequels, but none capture the exact sort of climatic newness, or rich rawness of The First do they?

This feels even more true for The Exorcist as a piece of landmark cinema.

So influential and historic was The Exorcist that it popularized an entire sub-genre of horror. In that, the original 1973 film - which was nominated for various Oscars at the time even! - has much in common with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. And have we ever hit the same high and accolades with any of the Living Dead sequels, remakes, or reboots? Is such a thing even possible?

With this in mind, I find myself pitying The Exorcist Believer. The title alone sets the film up for failure in a way. With almost 50 years of exorcist styled films, all taking notes and pace from the original, how could this film possibly stand out or even live up to its predecessor? In its own way, The Exorcist Believer is the child of a hugely historical figure, and like all children, it flounders under those expectations, failing to meet them.

If you are a die-hard fan of The Exorcist, you will more than likely not like this film. If you are a cinema sins style consumer of media, you will more than likely not enjoy this film. If you are a casual movie goer, this isn’t a bad film to watch with the family on a weekday night for some decent thrills, and a solid through-line story about a father’s love for his daughter.

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