The first in a planned trilogy is considered a direct sequel to the 1973 film from the late William Friedkin reincarnated by the recent Halloween franchise helmsman David Gordon Green.
The Exorcist: Believer stars Leslie Odom, Jr. Jennifer Nettles, Ann Dowd, and Ellen Burstyn in what stresses a stylized grittiness and whizzing imagery. As it opens from a Haitian earthquake where mother dies during childbirth.
Green and co-scenarist Peter Sattler simply miss the mark by a lot to avoid the confrontation of evil and embracing faith in favor of freak-out-horror. So, why were compelling motifs is really just hinted t with much spectacle through demonic possession in some jump-scare fashion.
Atheist and troubled father Victor (Odom) has a part of much gravitas but it doesn’t reviser very much after a convocation in the woods, and the later retention of the Roman Catholic Church, Country star Nettles plays the God-fearing mother, while Burstyn is mostly sidelined as returning character Chris MacNeil needed for her experiencer with once-possessed now estranged daughter Regan (Linda Blair).
There are monologues that add to what increasingly becomes more absurd that include reliable Ann Dowd as a nurse in on the starling was of two girls. Maybe even a bit amusing for some when it comes to recognition as clerics engage in the eponymous event. It’s more of a degradation than homage when it comes to believing in this The Exorcist in what once minced a genuine sense of fear.