The Exorcist: Believer – double the trouble and twice the twisted terror

When the creators of the original The Exorcist made the proclamation it was “the scariest movie of all time”, they weren’t kidding. Despite it obviously falling into the category of horror, when it came to quality storytelling and filmmaking, The Exorcist proved nothing short of a masterpiece.

It is a bold move, then, for any contemporary director to take up the challenge of creating a direct sequel to the 1973 classic, and kudos must go to David Gordon Green for doing justice with The Exorcist: Believer, helping us forget the disastrous ‘sequels’ that came between the first and the latest.

https://creammagazine.com/2019/05/08/film-school-chill-the-exorcist/

While Gordon Green could easily have filled the first half of the film with instant spirits-go-batshit-in-the-bodies-of-kids, he instead sets up a slow burn of a narrative, with the occasional jump-scare in the first few scenes to keep the momentum going. By the time the second half of the film clocks in, he goes hell-for-leather on the possession theme, with plenty of head-twisting, knocked-down crucifixes, vomiting galore (of a gooey tar-like substance rather than the expected green stuff), and enough cuss words to make your mother blush.

Gordon Green takes all the great elements of ‘The Exorcist’ and extrapolates on each – on some a little too much. By the end we’re left with a big, twisted, dark, vomit-y mess. Some horror fans will like what they see and hear; others might find it much of a muchness and more attention to a comprehensive story line may be the better way to go.

The narrative in this film is a relatively simple one. Angela (Lidya Jewett) lost her mother at the time of her birth. She is invited by high school friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) into the woods to take part in a seance of sorts where the girls attempt to make contact with the spirit of Angela’s mum. We don’t see exactly what freakish incident occurs but we do know the girls go missing for three days and end up 30 miles away from home in the corner of a barn.

Something sinister has entered the bodies of the girls and what we witness thereon is sheer horror, scene after scene. There are references to original possessed protagonist Regan MacNeil – in fact her mother enters the story soon enough and tries to exorcise the demons within the possessed girl – albeit too eagerly. I’m sure Ellen Burstyn might even have wondered why her character would so willingly enter a world that fucked her own up so much.

Because the movie has been made for a modern audience which supposedly demands diversity onscreen, there is not just one person doing the exorcising but about six people. One of the characters teaches us that there is exorcism of some kind or another in just about every culture in the world, so by the time we reach the film’s crescendo, we’re seeing half a dozen peeps of various backgrounds in the one room trying to tear the evil spirits out of two rather tough teens. While it’s a nice exercise in diversity, it does make things somewhat confusing for the viewer. Watching the ultimate exorcising scene was, to me, like latching onto a juicy online thread but then watching it go sideways and off-topic in all directions since everyone’s putting their two cents in but nothing appears to be clearly adding up. But its all in there, therefore it all must be valid. I think.

This movie has a lot to live up to – not only will comparisons be made to William Friedkin’s original film of ’73, but to recent films on the subject of possession such as The Pope’s Exorcist which appears to have more gravitas.

‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ is sure to spook even the hardest of horror fans

Still, The Exorcist: Believer must be seen by horror fans – both hardcore, and those who’ve seen the first film, skipped the in-between flicks, and want to come full circle with the franchise. At least for now… since this instalment is reportedly the first of a fresh trilogy.

Two more to go, then, of utter chaos and gooey, sticky tar. Bring it on!

Antonino Tati

‘The Exorcist: Believer’ is in cinemas now.

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