Reviews are starting to pour in for "The Exorcist: Believer". Is it a worthy sequel to believe in? Or is it yet another installment that's going to make us vomit pea soup all over the nearest priest?
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00:00 Reviews are starting to pour in for The Exorcist Believer.
00:04 Is it a worthy sequel to Believe In?
00:06 Or is it yet another installment that's going to make us vomit pea soup all over the nearest
00:11 priest?
00:12 50 years ago, The Exorcist changed horror as we know it.
00:16 Director William Friedkin's 1973 film was far from the first great entry in the genre,
00:21 but it brought an almost documentary-like sense of realism to its story of a young girl
00:25 who catches a really bad case of demonic possession.
00:27 "How long are you planning to stay in Reagan?"
00:30 "Until she rots and lies stinking in the earth."
00:33 The outcome was one of the most exalted horror films of all time, and one that would inspire
00:38 enough bad imitators to make your head spin like a possessed Reagan McNeil.
00:42 The latest attempt at matching Friedkin's achievement comes from David Gordon Green,
00:47 a former indie wonderkid who knows a thing or two about tackling sacred horror properties
00:52 after helming Blumhouse's Halloween trilogy.
00:54 "Everyone's entitled to one good scare."
00:58 Titled The Exorcist Believer, the film reunites Green and Blumhouse for a story about two
01:03 girls who begin showing surefire signs of being controlled by a nasty entity after going
01:08 missing in the woods for a few days.
01:10 Like Green's Halloween, this one is a legacy sequel that sees original Exorcist star Ellen
01:15 Burstyn reprising her role as Chris McNeil, who tries to help the kids in crisis, being
01:20 that she's one of the few living people with experience in these matters.
01:24 "We've met before, Mother."
01:28 As you may recall, the finale of Green's Halloween trilogy, Halloween Ends, proved
01:32 to be one of the more divisive horror films of recent memory.
01:36 Turns out, some folks are already pointing out that the same thing is going to happen
01:39 with Believer.
01:41 However, where critics were increasingly divided on Green's Halloween trilogy the further along
01:45 it went, they're comparatively unified in their disdain for Believer so far.
01:50 At the time of this video, the film has a critic score of only 25 percent on Rotten
01:54 Tomatoes, after 64 reviews.
01:57 Upon seeing the film, SlashFilm's own Whitney Sebold wrote,
02:00 "The Exorcist Believer is as haphazard, uninteresting, and frustratingly shallow as any of the many,
02:06 many, many Exorcist imitators.
02:09 Green, free to narratively link his film directly to Friedkin's, only churned out another generic
02:13 knockoff.
02:15 It's the least interesting Exorcist film to date."
02:18 Echoing that sentiment, Mashable acknowledged the original Exorcist is a tough act to follow
02:22 in their review, but felt that Green's sequel nevertheless commits the cardinal sin of simply
02:27 being boring.
02:29 Critic Bellon Edwards explained,
02:30 "Limited scares, underdeveloped characters, and a hackneyed message about unity will make
02:35 you yearn for escape, even as the movie tees up for a sequel."
02:39 Indeed, where you could readily find critics eager and willing to defend Green's Halloween
02:44 sequels, even some of the more positive reviews for Believer tend to come with a big ol' asterisk.
02:49 For example, The Guardian observed that it's easier to appreciate the film as a fun schlockfest
02:54 rather than a continuation of Friedkin's classic.
02:57 Critic Benjamin Lee wrote,
02:58 "Taken as just that, it's serviceable.
03:01 A silly, gloopy Halloween shocker that offers just about enough goofy entertainment for
03:05 an undemanding, fright night crowd."
03:07 "The body and the blood!
03:08 The body and the blood!
03:09 The body and the blood!"
03:12 Several horror enthusiasts have also started weighing in on Believer after preview screenings.
03:17 One blogger wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter,
03:19 "Exorcist Believer is way too predictable and very much on the corny side.
03:24 Was not a fan in the least.
03:25 Great cast.
03:26 The kids, especially, were terrific and really nailed their roles.
03:30 Wesley Odom Jr. was fantastic as the lead as well."
03:33 On the opposite end of the spectrum, another X user wrote,
03:36 "I shockingly liked The Exorcist Believer as a film and it's David Gordon Green's most
03:41 mature character study since George Washington in 2000.
03:44 But it's barely a horror film."
03:46 Meanwhile, YouTuber Sydney Volpe indicated that your reaction to Green's Halloween trilogy
03:51 may be a good litmus test for how you'll feel about Believer.
03:55 She wrote,
03:56 "The Exorcist Believer is exactly what one would expect from a David Gordon Green exorcist
03:59 movie.
04:00 Take that as you will.
04:02 As a Halloween-ends defender, I didn't hate it.
04:05 As an exorcist lover, it just doesn't stack up, despite trying some new things.
04:09 Demons are too nice these days."
04:11 "I don't want to go to hell."
04:15 In summation, folks don't seem quite as split on Green's Exorcist movie so far as they were
04:19 on his Halloween trilogy.
04:21 That could easily change once more people have seen it.
04:24 But for now, it appears you could say this is one legacy horror sequel that has failed
04:28 to make a Believer out of the masses.
04:30 Thanks for watching.