What have we done to deserve this?
So many horror franchises comprise one classic and a dozen sequels that, despite the consistent rankness of their content, continue to be unearthed for completist “marathons” in late October. Who are we kidding about Halloween films that aren’t Halloween? The Exorcist “franchise” has had a messier critical history than most. Someone is always pretending that Exorcist II: The Heretic is worth your time. There are sane arguments for taking The Exorcist III seriously. And so on. I wouldn’t bet against some future boffin declaring this latest episode an underappreciated classic. It meets all the requirements: it’s terrible; many will certainly fail to appreciate it.
After one tolerable Halloween film and two succeeding duds, David Gordon Green, working from a script co-written with Peter Sattler, claims to be delivering a direct sequel to the first film (also his approach with Halloween). Really? Remove the brief appearance by Ellen Burstyn – it really does lift straight out – and you’d be hard pressed to make direct connection with William Friedkin’s 1973 classic. It is about an exorcism. But so are quite a few horror flicks. Yes, someone’s head spins round. You could call that homage.
To be fair, the first half of Believer is tolerable enough. Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom jnr), a photographer from the southern States, is holidaying in Haiti with his pregnant wife when an earthquake hits and leaves Mrs Fielding in critical condition. Only she or the baby can be saved. A decade and a bit later, we find our hero raising his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) in relative harmony. So that’s how that went. Their happiness is shattered when Angela and her pal go missing in the woods. The two eventually turn up in apparent good health, but, before too long, they are frothing at the mouth and spitting out obscenities. You know the score.
The actors are all strong. The gradual ratcheting of menace is well carried off. Enough uncertainty is set up for anyone unaware this was an Exorcist sequel to hope for unexpected revelations. Sadly, the moment the protagonist settles on a supernatural explanation, Exorcist: Believer spins off into all the wrong sorts of chaos.
Now in her 10th decade, Burstyn appears as Chris MacNeil, mother to the once demonic Regan, for the first time in 50 years. The current Chris has – most implausibly – written a book about her experiences and become a sort of spokesperson for the possessed. Victor consults her. She visits the girls. She gets the wrong side of them. She spends the rest of the film in hospital. Okay, the part doesn’t appear to have taken that much out of her – she barely has to step from her mark – but both she and the character deserve better.
Anyway, once she is dispatched, the film sets about juggling four or five equally unappealing subplots. Ann Dowd is next door as a believer who, when a youth, failed to become a nun. Practitioners of voodoo are on hand. The local Protestant minister takes an interest. So does the Roman Catholic padre, but, this being a different era, he runs up against objections from the hierarchy. By the close there is barely enough space around the two possessed girls to swing a rosary.
As in Green’s latter two Halloween films, we sense a desperate attempt to cut together random footage that stubbornly resists any such amalgamation. One is ultimately left wondering what exactly has been retained from the original project. A few themes. A few effects. A bit of Tubular Bells. Ah here it comes in the final 10 seconds. Some queasily neat tidying up that, appropriately enough, risks triggering the regurgitation of green bile from unlucky audiences. Bleugh! Two more episodes to come, apparently.
