My feelings about The Exorcist: Believer are very similar to those that I felt for Halloween Ends last year! That is rather fitting as The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green who also did Halloween Ends. I had a lot of hope for this and thought that the trailers looked awesome!
How to Download The Exorcist: Believer
The Exorcist: Believer was released on October 6, 2023. You should be able to download or stream it in about two months from its release on Max or HBO Max. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability.
Movie Review: A Disappointing Sequel
David Gordon Green took the same approach to this as he did the Halloween franchise. The idea is that we just take the first movie and make a sequel to that, ignoring all the other stuff that is in between. Even though I did like some of the Exorcist sequels and prequels, I was more than okay with them taking this approach. I have to say just like Halloween Ends was last year, The Exorcist: Believer is one of my most disappointing movies of this year.
Two Movies in One
What we have here is kind of two movies in one which now that I think about it, the trailer actually does tell us. We have two kids Angela and Katherine who head into the woods for something they should not be messing with and they end up missing for three days. The first part of this movie is actually a missing person film as we see Angela’s father and Katherine’s parents wrecked with worry.
Underdeveloped Plot
The parents are interesting as 80 percent of the development is with Angela’s father, Victor. It is almost like Katherine’s parents are a complete afterthought and not important at all! Anyway, you know the deal, the girls appear out of the woods, but there is something strange, turns out they are possessed by a demon!
Missed Potential
I love possession movies, but I will be the first to admit that there is only so much you can do with possession movies as there have been so many over the years. I do think the idea of the two girls being possessed and connected the way they were made for an interesting idea, but this and everything else in the movie is so underdeveloped!
Underwhelming Cameo
One of the craziest things is the inclusion of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil from the original Exorcist. When I saw her in the trailer I thought it was awesome, but she is a cameo for the sake of being a cameo. It is cool to have “legacy characters” in our sequels, prequels, requels, or whatever you want to call them these days and that is all she is. You could take her out of the movie and it would not change a single thing!
Lack of Genuine Horror
The movie lacks the creepy, eerie vibe that I want from a possession movie. It never truly terrifies you and instead relies on cheap jump scare after jump scare! Look, I love a good jump scare as much as anyone, but an overreliance on them like this has become tiresome and makes the movie lack any real substance or depth.
A Disappointing Experience
The Exorcist: Believer the more I think about it the more I kind of straight up do not like it. This was such a disappointment, it had a fantastic premise and it felt like they flushed it all way for a series of cheap jump scares. I have to be honest with you, I have no desire to buy this when it comes out on physical media at all. Heck, I am not even sure I would want to watch it again via streaming!
