Much like 2018’s Halloween, The Exorcist: Believer is meant to be the sequel that ignores all of the other sequels and serves as a continuation of the original, otherwise termed as a “requel.” Film director David Gordon Green revolutionized the term in 2018 with Halloween. It was a surprise considering his background in indies and comedies. Even more surprising when you add Danny McBride to the mix. In what could have been a disaster at the time, the duo proved that their work in horror could be impactful. What could go wrong going forward?

After spending $400 million dollars a few years ago for distribution rights – right before the follow-up to 2018’s Halloween, Halloween Kills came out – Universal went forward with delivering a requel of another popular horror franchise in the hopes that it would be as impactful of 2018’s Halloween. The problem that was yet to come at the time was the quality set forth between Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends. I don’t personally holds those entries in high regard, but I think Green continues to show his strengths as a direction in those films through displaying complex human drama. While I hope he continues to get work, it was clear that his work is getting stretched thin and it clearly shows here with this film. Once again, he chooses to favor complex human drama. I truly don’t blame him on this choice, but what ends up happening is the lack of other areas that could make this far better such as delivering on what the people want to see.

POSITIVES

Starting off with the positives, the majority of them come from specific characters. It is truly delightful to see Ellen Burstyn back again. Even with the small role that she is given, she is truly one of the best stand-outs in the film. Fans of the original will find plenty of value with seeing her again. Leslie Odom Jr. is a phenomenal actor and I am glad to see what he is capable of doing in this role. His performances feels very realistic and will be surely one that viewers can connect with. Lastly, Ann Dowd’s performance was one of my personal favorites. Her character has a journey of her own that is very integral to the overall story.

The set up isn’t that bad. It is slow, but it allows certain characters to develop in their own right. Once again, David Gordon Green truly wants to display complex human drama and that only goes so far in the film.. and that’s pretty much where the positives end.

NEGATIVES

Saying that I was bored throughout this would be an understatement. The structure is non-existent. While the first act has a slower set up to establish characters and story, the rest is rushed, resulting in characters motivations coming out of thin air and little to no tension in its scares. The scares mainly come from jolting jump scares with the sound.

As much as it is nice to have Ellen Burstyn back again, I was appalled as to what they did with their character. Her character is reintroduced in a forced way and it comes off random. Her character even mentions that she wasn’t in the room during the exorcist, so why did they make her into some expert? I get it that it comes from the parental perspective, but it only ends up serving as something to get fans back into seats. Even then, it’s not enough to save the movie. There is also a specific thing that happens to her character that floored me negatively. I truly couldn’t believe anyone thought what happened to her was a good idea.

Outside of Leslie Odom Jr.’s character, characters are severely underdeveloped. There are probably close to ten other characters that are integral to the story. Due to the runtime and attention to Odom Jr.’s character, these characters lack any real emotion to be attached to them. Once again, this is the result of lack of character motivations that leads to a bunch of random scenes with no build up and making scenes drag out longer than they should.

WHAT COULD HAVE MADE IT BETTER

I am very much of the opinion that David Gordon Green should have been an executive producer, not a director on this. His work is clearly being stretched thin, resulting in rushes messes like this one. Coming off the last two Halloween entries, having him work on this immediately was concerning. With a negative reception like this film has had so far, it is disappointing that Universal is okay with rushed productions that don’t fairly allow them to make proper use of their investment.

It really doesn’t make much sense as to why two characters needed to be possessed, especially when the story focuses so much more on Odom Jr’s character. When you throw in the other possessed girl, it’s difficult to care about what happens to her family when so little is given to them. Keeping it to one character being possessed would have faired much better.

Going back to Burstyn again, it is unfortunate what they also do with their character. It would have been far better had the movie focused on her as the protagonist, give her the purpose of having to help these families and find resolution in her personal life in the end. I am sure it was due to scheduling conflicts or something of the sort, but then again, maybe don’t rush these type of projects.

If Green & Co. continue with this franchise, please… stop rushing.

OVERALL…

Overall, The Exorcist: Believer is quite disappointing due to how much it tries to juggle between its abundance of its characters and story, resulting in a lack of horror.

VERDICT: Pretty Bad