![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/The-Exorcist-Believer-PIC.jpg?resize=620%2C348&ssl=1\")
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The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some violent content, disturbing images, language, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Sattler and David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Wingo and Amman Abbasi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Simmonds\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 6, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Ellen Burstyn, Raphael Sbarge, Okwui Okpokwasili, Danny McCarthy, E.J. Bonilla, Celeste Olivia, Tracey Graves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: * \u00bd<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I didn\u2019t hate David Gordon Green\u2019s Halloween trilogy, not even the much-derided Ends. He did a decent job of reviving the series. Who would have expected it from a filmmaker best known for stoner comedies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness? Unfortunately, he doesn\u2019t repeat that success with his attempt at doing the same with the Exorcist series. He merely puts it on life support with The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong>. It\u2019s a dull, tepid affair that doesn\u2019t even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the 1973 original.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0To be fair, Green had his work cut out for him making a sequel to one of the most iconic horror films of all time. The world has changed a lot in the 50 years since William Friedkin\u2019s movie scared the hell out of audiences. What was considered shocking back then- i.e. a cherubic preteen girl swearing like a truck driver and masturbating with a crucifix- is old hat in 2023. We\u2019ve seen the same and worse in the countless demonic possession movies that followed in the wake of the OG\u2019s success. There are no surprises left in that bag of tricks. This is made quite evident by the lack of anything even remotely scary in The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It should be noted that The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> is a direct sequel to the first movie. NONE of the other ones count. Basically, Green hits restart just like he did with Halloween. Okay, fine. I\u2019ll take that over a complete remake any day. In this not at all terrifying tale, it\u2019s two<\/em> preteen girls that get possessed by a demon (presumably Pazuzu even though he\u2019s never named). It happens when Angela (Jewett, Good Girls) and Katherine (newcomer O\u2019Neill) go into the woods and disappear after trying to contact the spirit world so Angela can talk to her dead mother. They turn up three days later and they\u2019re definitely not the same. A couple of violent episodes later, hospital nurse Ann (Dowd, Hereditary) diagnoses the girls with demonic possession. She further suggests Angela\u2019s father Victor (Odom, One Night in Miami) get in touch with an expert.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0That expert is none other than Chris MacNeil (Burstyn, Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore), the mother of Linda Blair\u2019s possessed preteen from the OG. She wrote a book on the subject after her experiences in Georgetown. It became a best seller, but it also causes her to become estranged from her daughter. She explains to Victor that she spent ten years doing research on exorcism in every culture in the world. Apparently, this makes her qualified to help the two girls. Turns out it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I take a lot of crap for unapologetically liking Exorcist II: The Heretic, but at least that one had some interesting ideas. It was a bold move on John Boorman\u2019s part to do something different with it. The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong>, on the other hand, is just a rehash and a weak one at that. Take the opening scene set in Haiti. It\u2019s where we first meet Victor, a photographer looking forward to fatherhood. That is, until an earthquake claims the life of his pregnant wife. He could have saved her, but chose to save the life of his unborn daughter instead. It\u2019s something he still feels guilty over which means the demonic entity will use it against Victor at some point during the exorcism. That\u2019s all well and good, but the opening fails to do something crucial. Remember the unsettling vibe of the original\u2019s Iraq-set opening? GONE! All I felt was indifference as I knew Victor\u2019s choice would come up again later. This movie is completely and utterly predictable. For instance, the very fact that the screenwriters (Green and Peter Sattler) take the time to explain the Chris-Regan rift means it will be resolved by movie\u2019s end. And in case you\u2019re wondering, there IS a surprise cameo in the final minutes. NOT a spoiler! You know it\u2019s coming.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019ve already told you The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> isn\u2019t at all scary. There isn\u2019t even a decent \u201cBOO!\u201d scene. What makes it even worse is the CGI. It\u2019s bad, really bad. It\u2019s some of the worst I\u2019ve ever seen. I recently rewatched the first movie (along with II & III) and the makeup effects are as effective now as they were a half-century ago. Had there been a makeup category in \u201973, The Exorcist would have been a clincher for that Oscar. The effects in The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> are as lazy as everything else including the sound design (one of two Academy Awards won by the OG).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Green even botches the climactic exorcism, a group effort attended by a Baptist minister (Sbarge, Once Upon a Time), a ritualistic healer from Haiti (Nigerian artist Okpokwasili), all the parents and Ann standing in for the priest (Bonilla, Guiding Light) who bows out because the Vatican won\u2019t approve the ritual. What is they say about too many cooks? Not only that, we don\u2019t get to know most of the people (aside from Ann and Victor) beyond a superficial level. How can we care when we don\u2019t know the personal stakes of the exorcists?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I wouldn\u2019t necessarily call the acting in The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> bad. It\u2019s more wooden than anything else. Now that could be because the screenplay doesn\u2019t give them much to work with in the first place. I\u2019m going to go ahead and give the cast the benefit of the doubt. Burstyn does okay in her limited screen time. Jewett and O\u2019Neill aren\u2019t too bad either; the problem is we don\u2019t see a lot of them. Once the evil takes them over, they\u2019re essentially sidelined in favor of parents and religious figures in various states of worry and fear. It\u2019s a feeble attempt on Green\u2019s part to assign deeper meaning to the proceedings. He fails. He touches on a few themes, but doesn\u2019t explore them. Too bad, he could have really said something about organized religion and how they\u2019re often at odds with one another.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Why mince words? The Exorcist: Believer<\/strong> sucks BIG TIME! It\u2019s dull, muddled and unoriginal. It doesn\u2019t have the courage to dare to be different like Exorcist II or totally bonkers like Exorcist III. It\u2019s a horror movie on autopilot. Green serves up what he thinks audiences will respond to. It\u2019s like he\u2019s not even trying really. He\u2019s just out for the almighty buck. Not only that, he already has a sequel planned for 2025 and another sometime after that. Maybe the devil made him do it? Please resist the temptation, Mr. Green, the power of Christ compels you.<\/p>\r\n The Exorcist: Believer (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some violent content, disturbing images, language, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Sattler and David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Wingo and Amman Abbasi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Simmonds\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 6, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Jennifer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/The-Exorcist-Believer-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/The-Exorcist-Believer-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C915&ssl=1\")
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