The Exorcist: Believer Reviews Pan “Unscary,” “Soulless” Sequel

The power of The Exorcist: Believer is anything but compelling, according to the first reactions from critics. David Gordon Green, who directed Blumhouse’s Halloween reboot trilogy, revives The Exorcist franchise with the 50-years-later sequel to William Friedkin’s original 1973 horror classic. But is the film — the first in a planned trilogy from Universal Pictures, Blumhouse, and Morgan Creek Productions — a head-scratcher, or a head-spinner? It seems most critics agree Believer is both: the Exorcist revival is being called “dull,” “unscary,” and “soulless” after debuting on Rotten Tomatoes Wednesday with a 24% “rotten” from professional critics.

Currently sitting at 30% “rotten” on the Tomatometer, The Exorcist: Believer ranks below the 1973 original (“certified fresh” at 78%) and 1990’s The Exorcist III (58% “rotten”), the threequel written and directed by Exorcist author William Peter Blatty. At 30%, Believer is tied with 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist, and is better critically received than 2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning (a dismal 11% “rotten”) and 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic (an unholy 9% “rotten”). 

The new Exorcist movie follows Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.), who has raised his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), on his own after the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years earlier. When Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia O’Neill)disappear in the woods — only to return three days later with no memoryof what happened to them — it unleashes a chain of events that will forceVictor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror anddesperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anythinglike it before: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, reprising her role for the first time since the 1973 film).

“Unfortunately, what Green and co. did with Halloween islooking more and more like an exception that proves the rule that thislegacy sequel/reboot (‘requel’) formula isn’t a great one. Exorcist: Believercaptures the ‘legacy’ of the original in name only – even afterdragging the original film star Ellen Burstyn back into the franchise,” writes Kofi Outlaw in ComicBook‘s review. “The Exorcist: Believer feels like it will go down as an oddand misguided attempt at a direct sequel – one that fails to provide anynew soul to the franchise worth possessing.”

Here’s what critics are saying about The Exorcist: Believer:

The Globe and Mail: “The Exorcist: Believerstill reeks of sulfur-scented soullessness. The moviegoing body may bewilling, but the cinematic flesh is weak… will turn the most faithful horror fan into an athiest.”

RogerEbert.com: “The Exorcist: Believer is a pretty good movie that’s so stuffedwith characters and not-quite-developed ideas that you may come awayfrom it thinking about what it could have been instead… It’s probably the first Exorcist sequel since 1977’s fitfullybrilliant Exorcist II: The Heretic to capture the persistent sense ofthe uncanny that made William Friedkin’s first entry in the series asmash hit.” 

Bloody Disgusting: “What made The Exorcist soscary and enduring wasn’t its concepts of faith or lack thereof but itsauthentic characters grappling with relatable issues as they venturefurther into the dark abyss of evil. Believer doesn’t spend enough time with any of its characters and instead rushes through all the requisite beats of an Exorcist movie right until it fizzles. Its bold, cynical commentary and occasionally effective imagery get lost in the shuffle. Believer is handsomely shot, at least, but mostly, it’s just unscary and soulless.” 

Variety: “The standard Exorcist retread delivers the trappings — girl withmottled skin and purple scarred lips writhing in her nightgown,disembodied Beelzebub voice, the wholedark-side-of-ecclesiastical-kitsch head trip — in a way that now feelsnearly as ritualized as an exorcism. And when you watch David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer,a craftsmanly yet cautious franchise reboot/sequel that’s beencalculated to exploit every nuance of our retro ’70s horror nostalgia,you may wonder: How shocking and scary, how awesome in its ickiness, howhorrifying can a movie really be when its entire purpose is todeliver, on cue, every trope that decades of demonic-possession movieshave geared us to expect? The devil may take many forms, but perhaps wecan all agree that he should never be a rerun.” 

ScreenCrush: “In hindsight, The Exorcist: Believer posterI found tossed in a urinal in the movie theater bathroom beforetonight’s press screening was probably a bad omen. You might even callit a sign from God. And like so many of the foolish mortals in this newfilm, I failed to heed His warnings. For my sins, I was damned for thenext 111 minutes… People routinely label Exorcist II: The Heretic as one of the worst sequels ever made, but at least that movie was going for something. Whatever its flaws, it had some ideas and it is never boring. The Exorcist: Believer commits that sin, and so many more.”

IndieWire: “An execrable film that’s redeemed by almost nothing besides LeslieOdom Jr.’s well-modulated lead performance and the ambient sense ofunease that Green casts over the story’s first half, Believer is socreatively spineless and bereft of its own ideas that its entire conceptof sacrilege is limited to imperiling its franchise’s legacy. Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a sticking point if “Believer” didn’t also do such a lazy job of exhuming itsfranchise’s legacy. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a more damningself-own in any recent film than the scene in which the demons inside ofGreen’s possessed tweens attempt to prove their unholiness by…repeating the exact same line of dialogue that riled audiences 50 yearsago.”

The Hollywood Reporter: “That watered-down version of an inspired horror theme is symptomatic of amovie that starts out full of promise but fumbles the material as thestakes get higher. It’s no surprise that Believer is lesseffective than its venerable progenitor. That it’s considerably lessdaring than a movie made half a century ago compounds thedisappointment.”

The Exorcist: Believer opens in theaters October 6th.