The Exorcist : Believer review

 

The original Exorcist movie is a horror classic no doubt about it. It was groundbreaking for it's time back in 1973 so now exactly 50 years on can this new version live up to it's name and prove a worthy successor?? the answer is simply no. The Exorcist Believers story revolves the demonic possession of two young school girls who go missing for three days after leaving school to go into the woods one day. They're found in a farmer's property 3 days later with no memory of what happened or how they even got there. Various tests and psychiatric developments take place but it's not long before things take a more sinister turn. 

I really wanted to like this new interpretation of The Exorcist but as a whole it is just so half baked, so under cooked and quite frankly just plain boring. There is very little stakes which isn't helped by poor characters and development. There's even one characters accent which changes multiple times throughout. It's so off putting and takes you right out of the experience that with a few tweaks here and there could've made for a much more haunting experience. Speaking of the scare factor there is very little here to truly dive into. Something I did notice is the use of loud bangs and other weird noises to transition into scenes for cheap jump scares and it was so annoying and aggravating I just wanted it to stop but it went on and on. 

The third act of this movie is pretty rough with little to no real stakes like I mentioned as the exorcism itself takes place. The demonic possession was tenfold in the original and here it doesn't get showcased nearly enough instead we get focus on the families of the victims a lot more which is fine but there needed to be a better balance I felt. The Exorcist : Believer isn't truly awful but it's pretty bad which is unfortunate. I wouldn't even recommend seeing whether you've seen the original or not it's just not really worth your time which could be better spent elsewhere especially in the spooky season. 

★★