Review | "The Exorcist: Believer" - A Requel Lost in Translation?

ONLY A HANDFUL of devout and pious individuals might've known what an exorcist was or what they did before the early 1970s. However, after William Friedkin's blockbuster adaptation of William Peter Blatty's horror best-seller hit theaters in 1973, the term instantly became part of the cultural lexicon. Suddenly, everyone knew about priests who purportedly specialized in dealing with demonic possessions; there were reports that churches were receiving dozens of calls from congregation members requesting (or claiming to need) the ancient ritual after the movie became a sensation. The term soon became synonymous with both the resurgence of Catholicism and certain types of horror films dealing with the religious, the supernatural, and the satanic. But that original Exorcist not only spawned a slew of similar imitations. It also restarted a cultural conversation that breathed new life into a concept. Most nouns would kill for that kind of publicity.

Real-life exorcists might want to hire a crisis management firm, however, given how "The Exorcist: Believer" maligns such a term. (At the very least, Pazuzu might consider suing for slander.) A "requel"— that is, the modern notion of a movie that's simultaneously a reboot and a sequel— crafted to kick off a new trilogy, David Gordon Green's attempt to reinvigorate the series ends up putting it in critical condition. Whether this unholy trinity manages to overcome this disastrous start or not, it's safe to say the brand, and its discernment, is tarnished. There are moments in this nearly incoherent mess of a film when fans might be convinced that its sole purpose is to make the original sequel, the notorious and awful "Exorcist II: The Heretic" from 1977, look downright brilliant in comparison. The devil can't be blamed for this disaster. Even Evil would want its name taken off the credits, thank you very much.

Green had already dabbled in "requels" before, having resurrected the Halloween franchise with a trilogy that started incredibly strong but sharply declined on its third outing. His venture with The Exorcist, however, starts off on the wrong foot. And much like the original 1973 film, "Believer" also begins with a sort of exotic detour: instead of Iraq, we're whisked off to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his pregnant wife (Tracey Graves) are vacationing. She receives a blessing for the unborn baby from a local healer. Then, the 2010 earthquake hits, and tragedy ensues.

Some 13 years later, Victor and his teenage daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), live in Georgia. Trying to communicate with her deceased mother, she and a school friend, Katherine (Olivia O’Neill), venture into the forest to hold a kind of séance. Three days and a massive search later, the pair are found in a stable several miles away, with no memory of what happened or where they were. Victor and Katherine's deeply Christian parents, Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), fear that something terrible has befallen their children—after all, she remarks, kids venturing into the woods basically means they're communing with impure spirits! For what else would they be doing out there?!

The two teenagers return home. Strange things start to occur. Angela gets into a habit of flicking the bathroom lights on and off and believes she's hearing voices. Plus, there are some scars on her abdomen that just might, maybe, form the words "Help me." (Sound familiar?) Katherine develops a severe allergy to church, as well as to behaving politely in public. Both begin to spend a lot of time in their respective beds and experience Lucifer-style personal transformations. This isn't your typical rebellious teenage behavior. Something weighty is afoot. Victor's fervently religious neighbor (Ann Dowd) believes that local authorities, or even the neighborhood priest, can't help. They need to get in touch with someone who's dealt with this before. Like that actress who lived in Washington, D.C., all those years ago, whose daughter had some eerily similar symptoms...

Part of any "requel" plan involves pressing the nostalgia buttons of fans, bringing back old characters and the stars who played them. So, it's no surprise when Ellen Burstyn reemerges as the original, anxious mother, Chris MacNeil. She's turned her devilish experience into a book—"A Mother's Explanation"—which estranged her from her daughter, Regan; the mother hasn't seen or heard from her adult daughter in years. She agrees to assist the families, leading to a reunion between Chris and the malevolent force once known as Captain Howdy, now inhabiting not just one body, but two. Any euphoria aficionados of The Exorcist might feel at seeing the Oscar-winning actress is swiftly quashed, however, and when everyone straps Angela and Katherine to chairs for some intense showdowns between man and demon-possessed teens, all that remains are head spins and the "Tubular Bells" soundtrack cues.

Attentive viewers might keep a tally of Exorcist references that Green and his co-writers (a team that includes Peter Sattler, Scott Teems, and Danny McBride) drop in, from repeated lines to replicating Dick Smith's decaying makeup; the fact the movie doesn't even try to recreate Max von Sydow's iconic silhouette shot is a small blessing in a film riddled with curses. But more important than what's being highlighted here in "Believer" is what's missing: a genuine sense of shock and awe. It's not just that the foul language and self-abusive gestures that sent 1973 audiences into fits have been toned down and tamed (go back and watch the original, and you'll be reminded of how still-shocking Regan's demonic dialogue sounds), it's also how everything feels so familiar yet so generic.

The final confrontation might've been borrowed from any Blumhouse film from the past decade. Catholicism, which was so pivotal to the original movie's crisis of faith, is sidestepped in favor of a makeshift multi-faith squad emphasizing its message that believing in people is as crucial as believing in God. And even that intrinsically intriguing notion is reduced to a clunky speech poor Ann Dowd is forced to recite as one final montage wraps everything up. You simply won't believe how "The Exorcist: Believer" manages to get nearly everything wrong in this endeavor—not the jump scares or the sense of supernatural dread, not the subtext about the world falling apart and thus being primed for otherworldly evil, not the treatment of Christian mythology, the concept of God, or even the real object of its worship, the intellectual property itself. If this is to be the start of a fresh beginning for what has been a long-standing yet troubled franchise, then it might as well give up the ghost and go straight to hell.