There may be no holier ground in horror than 鈥淭he Exorcist." As endlessly as 1973 film has been ripped off and resurrected, its power remains unalloyed, its place in movie history consecrated.
Why is it that, after we've seen seen so many heads twist around, can still turn heads? Much, surely, is owed to its patient, restrained approach, icy atmospheres and and evocative, uncluttered imagery 鈥� all conjured in the dawning dread of post-1960s America.
But the possession of young Regan MacNeil still haunts, I think, for its absolute belief in good and evil. It's a supernatural movie that treats the supernatural as straightforwardly natural. The devil is as real and present as all those
There were flop sequels that followed and plenty of spinoffs that failed to grip. But now, just two months after the death of Friedkin and a few months shy of the original's 50th anniversary, comes a sequel from director David Gordon Green.
Hollywood's propensity for reaching back to old classics may be, by now, enough to inspire the kind of projectile vomiting Friedkin made famous. 鈥淭he Exorcist: Believer" was produced by Blumhouse with the intent of launching a new series of films, but it feels guided largely by affection and respect for Friedkin's original rather than more cynical motivations.
The film's main additions are that, this time, there are two possessed girls (double the fun?) and the Catholic Church is no longer the sole or even the primary demon battler. This is a multidenominational 鈥淓xorcist,鈥� yet also a less profoundly spiritual one.
Green, one of today's most protean filmmakers, has been at this before. He in a trilogy that started off promisingly with an update to the slasher suburban nightmare before .
It's easier to recycle 鈥淗alloween鈥� than it is 鈥淭he Exorcist.鈥� Yet the first thing you notice about 鈥淏eliever鈥� is its sure-handedness. Green, working from a script he wrote with Peter Sattler from a story by Green, Danny McBride and Scott Teems, moves nimbly in setting the atmosphere, refraining from the kinds of flashy camera movement or schlocky scares often found in horror films. There's craftsmanship in how 鈥淏eliever鈥� is stitched together 鈥� at least at first.
Thirteen years after the death of his pregnant wife in an earthquake in Haiti, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) lives with his 13-year-old daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett). They are close and Victor is a little overprotective. When Angela and a friend Katherine (Olivia O鈥橬eill) walk through the woods after school and start performing a seance by candlelight, it's not hard to guess where this might be going.
But 鈥淭he Exorcist: Believer鈥� initially gets its hooks into you thanks to the agility of the filmmaking, the levelheaded presence of Odom Jr. and a fine performance by newcomer Jewett. The girls go missing for several days and, when they return, no longer seem themselves. As things begin to get ugly, the film's attention shifts to the parents 鈥� this is more a movie about parenting than it is about faith 鈥� including the blurrily characterized parents of Katherine (Norbert Leo Butz and Jennifer Nettles), whose bond with their daughter may be less than Victor's with Angela.
If 鈥淭he Exorcist鈥� seemed to summon demons, the best 鈥淭he Exorcist: Believer" can do is to conjure tropes. Fingers claw. Heads turn. Bodies levitate. Once the film gets both possessed girls tied down in chairs, back to back, with a cobbled-together team of spiritual defenders around them, 鈥淏eliever鈥� bogs down in a prolonged torture chamber of horror cliches.
Green, who has long had a keen eye for casting, populates the film with some fine actors. Ellen Burstyn, Oscar-nominated for 鈥淭he Exorcist,鈥� returns as Chris MacNeil, though it may be the film's biggest mistake to so quickly and gruesomely dispatch its most potent performer. Ann Dowd, as a nurse who lives next door, also adds to the film's dramatic heft.
But 鈥淭he Exorcist: Believer鈥� never manages anything like the deep terror of the original, and the film's climactic scenes pass by with a lifeless predictability. Been there, exhumed that. It may be that to get near the dark danger of 鈥淭he Exorcist鈥� you have to climb your own steps and fight your own demons.
"The Exorcist: Believer,鈥� a Universal Pictures release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for or some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references. Running time: 111 minutes. Two stars out of four.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
