Movie Review- The Exorcist: Believer

Went into this having avoided other reviews, but knew this film was getting dumped on before its release. Still, my hopes were high.

The film follows a widowed father whose daughter and her friend go missing after school. When they are found three days later, the families slowly begin to realize that something isn’t right. Medical science can’t find a cause, of course, because evil demons aren’t a medical condition. Several different religious figures are brought in, a deviation from the usual catholic priest though one is present.

This film works best when the girls aren’t on screen. Each of the adults have their own issues and it is these skeletons that the girls feed off of, but it is the adult reactions that succeed in telling the story.

The lead up to the exorcism is the best part of the film, and the exorcism is nicely staged. How the film utilized Ellen Burstyn also worked, and I enjoyed seeing how the exorcism of Regan affected her life.

Believer is slow paced, but somehow we don’t have a lot of time to get to know the girls. Also would have been nice to know why the super religious father of the other missing girl had anger management issues. Felt like that was a missed plot point and wasn’t utilized during the exorcism like the other adult issues.

I could crack a joke about a priest, a pastor, and a hoodoo priestess walk into an exorcism, but I won’t because I so enjoyed seeing multiple religions show up for this. Would have liked to see deeper connections to it character wise, but they included hoodoo, and I’m here for it.

I gave this a solid three out of five stars, for there are far worse films out there right now and this isn’t the worst exorcism film I’ve seen. Not by a long shot. it’s the kind of film that if you go in already hating it beforehand, then there will be no saving it for you. So give it an honest shot.