The way things are going, with so many Exorcist movies in the last 50 years, the decisions makers in Hollywood will probably never realize that equaling the horror and quality of the original “The Exorcist” released in 1973 will ever be achieved.
The stories of the audience’s reaction to the original film were unprecedented in movie history. This included: Many moviegoers vomiting at the horrific graphic images on screen. Others fainted or just left the theater, nauseous and trembling before the film was even half over. People were telling their friends and family members to “not go” to see this movie. This level of red-hot interest in a horror movie has never happened since The Exorcist was released, 50 long years ago. Since 1973 there have been 7 Exorcist movies, and several other movies with the word Exorcist in the title, including the recent and very bad “The Pope’s Exorcist”, reviewed in this blog, starring Russel Crowe.
The reason why the original Exorcist will always be more horrifying, is a documentary itself, to analyze why this movie is always at the top of all lists of the scariest and most unsettling movies ever made. No horror director has ever gotten close to matching the original, including the latest installment, “The Exorcists: Believer”. With this new film, there is a good attempt at the beginning to at least be different, with two young girls walking in the woods, and then walking into what looked like a man-made ditch (something that two young girls would never do), and then becoming lost for 3 days. Then somehow transported to a farm, some 30 miles away, thinking they were only lost for a few hours. Soon after they are found, they slowly become possessed and the rest of this story is the obvious exorcism climax scene for both girls, which I thought was poorly done with not enough buildup before the final climax scenes.
This film has three well-known actors, Leslie Odom Jr., who plays the father of one of the girls, and Ellen Burstyn who plays Chris MacNeil, the mother of Regan, the girl who was possessed in the original movie. I was rather surprised to see Linda Blair at the end of this movie, considering that her part in the original film at age 14 has caused her more downside than upside in her acting career. After starring in a movie like the Exorcist that was so horrifying, it would be impossible to play any other part because the audience will always think of you as that possessed young child. Becomming type-cast in any role has been the curse of far too many television and movie actors.
The ultimate problem with this Exorcist sequel, with another one following in 2025 “Exorcist: Deceiver” is that there was not enough originality, and an ending that was dissapointing, rather than new and ground breaking. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are a very low 20%, with my rating 30 and a solid miss for this one.
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