The Exorcist: Believer Ending Explained

The Exorcist Believer raises the stakes on the premise of the original film by having not one but two young girls possessed by a devilish demon. However,  as we break down in our official review of Exorcist: Believer, director David Gordon Green's new vision of an Exorcist movie gets muddled and lost in its storytelling and themes. In that sense, a lot of viewers may come away from seeing Exorcist Believer with more questions than answers about exactly what happened at the end of the film – and what it's all supposed to mean. 

Allow us to provide some answers: 

The story of Exorcist: Believer sees widowed skeptic Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) face the second worst time of his life when his teenage daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) goes missing in the woods with her school friend Katherine (Olivia O'Neill). When the girls return three days later they come back changed, and over the course of the movie, we explore the very different lives each girl experienced. 

There's a lot of subtext conflict between Victor and Katherine's parents Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), right from the start. Whereas Katherine's family is devoutly religious and surrounded by the church community, Victor keeps himself and Angela isolated and reliant on one another, having lost his faith after the death of his wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves). While Miranda and Tony are quick to accept that possession is the root of the problem, it takes Victor much longer to come around. With the help and sacrifice of Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), Victor is forced to face the evil in front of him and rekindle the faith needed to fight it. 

The Exorcist: Believer Ending Explained

When Victor finally does accept that Angela's soul is battling the devil, he joins Katherine's parents in forming a coalition of representatives from different faiths, who each bring their own forms of exorcism to the table. The group tries to perform the exorcism on Katherine and Angela, but the demon eventually retaliates by offering an unthinkable choice: the faithful choose one girl to live, and one girl to die. However, despite the demon playing on the promise he made his wife to protect Angela – plus his dark decision to save his wife over the baby during birth – Victor will not choose to sacrifice a life to save his daughter. Despite his pronounced faith and devotion, Katherine's father Tony buckles under the fear of loss and betrays his faith, choosing to save his own daughter at the expense of Victor's.

To his horror, Tony learns what it is to make a Devil's bargain when the demon tricks him and takes Katherine's life instead of Angela's.  

The point that The Exorcist: Believer tries to convey is that God's blessings and mercy can carry us through the darkest of times we face, if we simply believe, keep faith, and keep going forward with loving hearts for others. As a final illustration of that divine influence, we see Chris MacNeil finally reunite with her daughter Regan (Linda Blair), when the latter ends their estrangement out of concern for her mother, who was blinded by the demon. 

As for whether or not The Exorcist: Believer conveys that message effectively? That's up for debate. The film is now in theaters.