Well, if I ever believed in The Exorcist as a franchise then consider this me officially having a crisis of faith.
Of course, I never had any faith in The Exorcist to carry a franchise. I didn’t even know there was official sequels until I started reading and watching reviews for this movie. Let’s not jump too far ahead though.
Normally I’m very cynical about legacy sequels, especially of the kind we’ve gotten lately. I was also skeptical of David Gordon Green after the last two Halloween movies that he made. Fortunately though for this movie, my Gram absolutely LOVED the exorcist. She always told me it was her favorite movie. When I told her that a sequel was coming up, she had the same skepticism that I did, but was insistent that we would go and give it a try whenever it came out.
I have to credit my Gram with my love of horror movies. When I would go and stay with her and my Papa, I would go back and forth between them. Usually Papa would be watching the Leafs game in the living room and Gram was in the bedroom watching horror movies. On one such visit (when I was probably far too young to watch these kinds of movies) Gram was at home recovering from surgery she had related to her breast cancer. She just so happened to be watching Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood at the time and I stayed and watched it with her. From that day on, our unique bond was sealed. As I got older we watched countless horror movies together at home and at the theater. She would even join my friends and I in high school to see the latest horror offerings. For those familiar with the genre, you know there is everything from bad language, to gore, to nudity. None of it was enough to phase us. I don’t know how many of you have seen lots of boobs with your grandmother but I’m certain I am up there for most all time. I’m not sure I’m particularly proud of that fact, but it was uniquely us and I certainly was happy to brag to all my friends about how cool my Gram was for wanting to join us for all of these movies.
Unfortunately, my Gram passed away just over a year ago now. A promise is a promise though, so today I went to see The Exorcist: Believer with my brother Ty, our friend Sam, and we bought an extra ticket right beside us for Gram.
So what did I think? Well I think Gram and I would have had on heck of a fun conversation about this one on the ride home. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have been a conversation full of positive things to say about the movie.
I really did want to enjoy this one and I hoped with all that I had that this movie would be able to be more than just a cheap use of what amounted to very expensive rights that Universal Studios reportedly paid for The Exorcist IP. Already though, the studios have two more sequels in the works despite the lackluster critical and financial success of The Exorcist: Believer.
So what exactly went wrong? Well the biggest issue for me was just how generic this movie was. You could’ve slapped any of the numerous horror IPs to this movie and it would’ve felt the same. It was a generic story that lacked the originality of what has come before but also didn’t go further than what came before it.
My Gram would tell me stories about how shocking her experience was when she first watched The Exorcist back in the day. Unfortunately, this sequel wasn’t even true to the spirit of the first one as it felt very tame and had much less shocking and horrifying moments than most horror fare these days.
Beyond that, the performances were pretty bland, but I don’t really blame the cast. Some of them I have seen shine in other roles, but I think the writing and the movie itself didn’t offer up much for them to do anything with.
This might sound lame, but one of the many reasons the first Exorcist movie resonated then and has remained so prominent still is that it pushed the envelope and dared to be different.
What I would’ve done for this movie to be a new daring piece that split people along lines about how far the movie went instead of both audiences and critics all in agreement about the mediocrity of what we received.
Verdict
If it isn’t clear from what you’ve read so far, I definitely can’t recommend this one. Even if you’re curious, don’t waste your time and money because they don’t deserve it. Some early reports have emerged that apparently some serious changes are being looked at for this franchise. I only hope they can learn some good lessons from this failure and put this IP in the hands of some hungry filmmakers that want to use this opportunity to leave their mark.
Are there any other horror movies you’re going to watch this Halloween season? Let me know what ones are on your watch list and please share your thoughts about my review as well! Thanks for reading and being part of my Screen Love Affair!
Adriana Wiszniewska