TL;DR – It is a stunningly tense affair that gets closer to the original than I think people expected.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Exorcist: Believer Review –

One of the jobs I set for myself this year was to explore the world of horror more. It was an area that was a bit of a blind spot for me, and I needed to engage with it a bit more. While I am not sure if I have been as successful with that as I would have liked. However, M3GAN, Outpost, and Evil Dead Rise have helped. But I am not sure that anything will prepare me for The Exorcist.

So to set the scene, one morning, Katherine (Olivia Marcum) and Angela (Lidya Jewett) go to school, and they disappear, vanishing until they are found walking in the forest disorientated. The girls think they have been gone for hours but have been missing for three days. Their parents are just happy to have them home, that is, until they start acting odd, dangerously odd. For you see, it might not have been just the girls who returned home that evening, and traditional medicine might not have the answer.

Now, before we jump into the review proper, I do want to take a moment to explain where I am coming from with this review. I have never watched the original The Exorcist. I was far too young when it had its re-run Hay Day on TV, and by the time I was old enough to go watch it, I had already seen most of the film. From clips of the movie to appearing on best-of lists to it being parodied in every possible way, it did feel like I had gotten all the essential bits. That might not actually be true, but that is the experience that I am walking into the film with today.

What The Exorcist: Believer does best is set the mood. From the moment you see people walking the streets of Haiti, you know something terrible is about to happen and people’s world is about to change. Nothing changes once we get to Georgia, where we find two close-knit and loving families about to undergo an unspeakable tragedy. The film goes out of its way to prepare you for what is coming with its disjointed, hard-cut editing in places, throwing you off your pattern and leaving you unsettled before anything happens.

I must give full respect to both Lidya Jewett & Olivia Marcum for how much they throw themselves into their roles. This could not have been an easy shoot for them, as they had to go through some very confronting scenes, even before we got to the third act. Leslie Odom Jr. is perfect as the loving father thrust into a world he doesn’t really believe in but has no choice but to. Ellen Burstyn was all class returning to play Chris MacNeil to help give the film the necessary continuity. But also, if there was ever a film to cast Ann Dowd in, this was it.

The film does very well in managing the tone and connection with the audience. You could feel the audience emoting as one from the off-kilter start to the rise and then full of hope when the girls are found, to their descent into despair. I don’t think I have ever experienced a whole cinema jumping at once before. But you also felt those waves of emotion permeating the room, landing on deeply profound moments. You do unfortunately get to know who the weak links are a bit too early, but that is a small thing.  

What was interesting to see was the shift in the undercurrent of the world between the first film and this. I am reliably informed that The Exorcist is a microcosm look into the world of Catholicism, which made it hit so powerfully back in the day. This time, we get more of a mixed view of things, with Catholicism, Scepticism, Protestantism, and Indigenous African Faiths all playing a part. The strength of this approach is that it lands more closely to where modern America is, so it is more faithful on that front. However, what the film makes up for in the width of experience, it loses in depth. There could have been some fascinating explorations of the commonalities and differences between the different faith groups, but it never goes deeper than the surface level.

In the end, do we recommend The Exorcist: Believer? Well, if nothing else, I expect that I will have a significantly disrupted night’s sleep once I finish writing this review. You can take that for the warning or affirmation that it is, depending on your perspective. While nothing could ever reach the heights of the original, I think this is a solid adaptation that captured the audience and refused to let go. If you liked The Exorcist: Believer, we would recommend to you The Invisible Man.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched The Exorcist: Believer?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Exorcist: Believer
Directed by – David Gordon Green
Screenplay by – Peter Sattler & David Gordon Green
Story by – Scott Teems, Danny McBride & David Gordon Green
Based on – The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Music by – David Wingo & Amman Abbasi
Cinematography by – Michael Simmonds
Edited by – Tim Alverson
Production/Distribution Companies – Blumhouse Productions, Morgan Creek Entertainment & Universal Pictures
Starring – Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Ellen Burstyn, Tracey Graves, Okwui Okpokwasili, Raphael Sbarge & Danny McCarthy with E.J. Bonilla, Danny McCarthy, Lariah Alexandria & Linda Blair
Rating – Australia: na; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R