Shocktober 2024 - The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
“Did the power of Christ compel you?” – Katherine
Veterans of last year’s Shocktober will recall that I covered The Exorcist and its two sequels last year. Links to those entries are here, over here and right here. Yeah, much as I have grown to appreciate The Exorcist more each time I watch it, those sequels were unworthy and awful. Particularly Exorcist II: The Heretic, labelled by many as one of the worst films ever made.
I can understand how difficult it is to make a sequel to a film as well known, and admired as The Exorcist is, because it’s true that over the fifty-one years it’s been around it has gained a notoriety that gives it a well-deserved legendary status. At the time of putting together last year’s list, I had a notion of pretty much theming most of Shocktober 2023 around the franchise, including the two prequels and ending with Exorcist: Believer, which was released at the time. Frankly, watching the sequels on disc was such a miserable experience that I abandoned the prequels and a trip to the cinema. Enough was enough.
Seeing the director’s cut of The Exorcist which, as most director’s cuts tend to do, improved on the theatrical cut with the inclusion of several exposition scenes that filled in some confusing plot holes, but more importantly restored the infamous scene where Regan spider-walks downstairs. It made the classic even more of a classic. Which brought me fully refreshed to Exorcist: Believer.
Straight off the bat, my instinct was telling me at finally, after fifty years, the sequel that The Exorcist deserved had arrived. I left it all too soon last year. Believer was to be the first part of a planned trilogy by Blumhouse Productions, but however happy I am with this latest entry, other critics weren’t and the box office wasn’t spectacular, so those plans have been abandoned with a planned reboot coming instead. But, y’know – never mind. This movie doesn’t really need a sequel because it’s so well made, it serves not only as a direct sequel to The Exorcist ignoring the events of the previous two, but also brings with it a really satisfying sense of closure.
The film begins in Port Au Prince, Haiti with Victor and Sorenne Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr & Tracey Graves) on their honeymoon. Sorenne is heavily pregnant, and suffers critical injuries when an earthquake hits the area. At the hospital, Victor is given a grim choice, he can either have his wife saved or his unborn baby.
We move forward in time 13 years, and Victor is raising his daughter Angela (Lydia Jewett) alone. He has abandoned his faith since the tragedy, and like the original film there are several scenes showing us how normal a family these two are. This makes what’s to come all the more disturbing because the message is clear – this could happen to anybody. Angela wants to contact her dead mother, and she tries, with her best friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill), to conduct a séance in a woodland area next to their school. What happens next is every parent’s worst nightmare – the girls go missing.
The scenes between Victor and Katherine’s parents Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz) are tense, as both parties are suspicious of each other, convinced that their daughter is the one led astray by the other one. I’ve never (thankfully) had a child go missing, but I’m pretty sure this is exactly how it would’ve gone.
Three days later, the girls are found hiding in a barn with no idea how much time has passed. And they’re thirty miles away. Medical tests show that they haven’t been sexually assaulted, but have severe burns on their bare feet which the girls can’t explain, they have no recollection of what’s happened to them.
However, they soon start to exhibit signs of deep psychological trauma which begins to manifest itself with physical symptoms like violent convulsions. Victor’s neighbour Ann (Ann Dowd) who is the attending nurse at the hospital is convinced Angela is possessed when the child starts taunting her about her long ago plans to become a nun and the baby she aborted which caused her to abandon those plans. These are things Ann has never told another living soul, but has lived with, in guilt, all her life. Ann gives Victor a book to read, which might persuade him that she’s right. The book is the memoir of Chris McNeil, the mother of Regan.
In the meantime, Katherine, much to the despair and concern of her Baptist parents is disrupting religious services at their chapel. The situation is deteriorating, and the overall sense of menace is incredibly well handled. Having read the book, and in desperation, Victor seeks out the aid and advice of Chris McNeil (the welcome return of Ellen Burstyn to the role). In their opening discussion, Victor asks her where Regan is (a question we all want answered) and is told that Chris has no clue. They’re estranged and haven’t seen each other in years. She does however agree to help.
Visiting Katherine, Chris performs a deliverance ritual, but Katherine grabs a cross and in a graphic and unexpected scene, stabs Chris with it in both eyes, blinding her. The parents reach out to the Church for an exorcism via local priest Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla) but are declined, on the ground that the Church feels the girls are suffering a psychological disorder, so the families unite with some friends and associates to conduct their own exorcism with advice from the now hospitalised Chris.
The exorcism is harrowing, to say the least. With the girls strapped back-to-back to chairs, which are in turn bolted to the floor. The possessing demon uses every trick available to ensure its own victory, including revealing that after the earthquake, in the hospital, Victor’s choice was to save his wife not his child, but her injuries were too severe. One final trick is to force the parents to choose which child is to die, because only one will survive. This again pits the parents against each other. The deception is that the one chosen to die is the one who will live. (You’ll have to watch the film to see which one makes it.)
In a beautiful and memorable final scene, Chris is in her hospital room when someone enters, approaches her and holds her hand. The camera pulls back and it’s Regan (Linda Blair) finally reunited with her mother. And that’s why I feel this doesn’t need a sequel.
That ending is perfect.