4/5 stars
He now does the same thing with The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s classic tale of demonic possession.
In The Exorcist: Believer, he brings back Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil, the mother who did everything in her power to save her possessed daughter Regan. As he did with Halloween, he blatantly ignores the below-par sequels that followed Friedkin’s 1973 original.
MacNeil, it should be said, is not the main character, although her appearance is more than just stunt casting. The lead is Victor (Leslie Odom Jr), who starts the film in Haiti where his heavily pregnant wife is caught up in a building’s collapse during an earthquake. He is told he can only save her or the unborn child.
Cut to several years later, in Georgia, and his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) is a bright young thing. But this changes when she and schoolmate Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) disappear after venturing into the woods. Three days later, they are found 30 miles away, dazed and scarred.
It becomes evident to Victor and Katherine’s God-fearing parents, as well as a nurse (Ann Dowd) at the hospital, that an “unholy spirit” has taken their girls. This is where MacNeil comes in, as Victor seeks out her expertise.
What happens from here should not be spoiled, though Gordon Green, who co-wrote the script, makes a good fist of the inevitable (and gruesome) exorcism scenes.
Some of the gorier elements will divide fans, but Burstyn’s involvement, especially in the year of Friedkin’s death, gives the project some legitimacy. As does the fact that music from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, famed for its inclusion in the Friedkin film, can be heard.
Certainly, The Exorcist: Believer is a vast improvement on the miserable second and third Halloween films Gordon Green made.
The idea of two young girls simultaneously possessed gives the franchise a fresh twist, and both O’Neill and Jewett act the hell out of their scenes, aided by some impressive make-up and visual effects – in particular, the eerie moment Katherine enters the church her parents attend yelling “the body and the blood”.
What the film does not quite manage is to stir up the religious debate the original managed, despite the nurse’s speech telling us that the devil has one wish: “make us give up”. But the bleak finale will chill you to the bone.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
