Plot:
Two young girls become possessed, and their parents will do anything to free them of their possession.
Review:
Photographer Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.) is with his pregnant wife in Haiti when she’s killed in an accident during an earthquake, but luckily the baby is born, and Victor raises his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) as a single parent. Angela and her best friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) are two happy-go-lucky kids, but when they’re out playing one afternoon they don’t return home. Days pass, and Victor and Katherine’s parents go crazy not knowing what has happened, and a police search yields only the shoes and trinkets belonging to the kids. Days later the girls reappear, but it’s clear that something is amiss: Angela is agitated and incontinent, while Katherine has a bizarre outburst at church in front of the whole congregation. Both girls are hospitalized and begin exhibiting strange symptoms, including flesh rotting and startling behavior that is not only out of character for these kids, but clearly supernatural. A nurse recommends that Victor seek out an author named Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) who wrote about her experience with her daughter Reagan who was demon possessed 50 years previously, and when Victor finds her, Chris agrees to observe Angela and Katherine, whom she determines to also be possessed. The next steps would be to call in an exorcist to extract the demon – or demons – from these girls without causing any further harm, but what follows is far worse than any of them could have guessed or predicted.
A legitimate sequel to the original The Exorcist, Believer is much better than expected, with a compelling story with the usual over-the-top accouterments of the possession subgenre of horror. There’s no explanation whatsoever for the possession angle (which makes it more mysterious), and the climax has all the crazy stuff you’d expect. Including Burstyn was nice, but not really necessary, and there’s a surprise cameo at the very end that fans should appreciate. David Gordon Green’s direction is good, and while the movie isn’t especially distinct, it delivers on all fronts for those expecting Exorcist trappings.
Universal’s new 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray / Digital Combo pack of The Exorcist: Believer is out on December 19th, and comes with six featurettes, and a feature commentary.
BONUS FEATURES on 4K UHD, BLU-RAYTM, DVD AND DIGITAL:
- MAKING A BELIEVER – Filmmakers and cast reveal their collective approach to bringing differing perspectives into this drama about synchronized possessions.
- ELLEN AND LINDA: REUNITED – THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER expertly weaves the fates of Chris and Regan MacNeil into its story. Witness a moment of cinema history as these two Hollywood icons meet on-set for the first time in years.
- STAGES OF POSESSION – Hear from Lidya Jewett, Olivia O’Neill, and special makeup FX designer Christopher Nelson as they discuss the physical and mental changes the girls go through as they advance through the possession.
- THE OPENING – The first scene of the film takes place in Haiti, a location far from the rest of the story. Filmmakers and star Leslie Odom, Jr. discuss how this scene sets up the rest of the film.
- EDITING AN EXORCISM – THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER culminates with a riveting exorcism scene featuring all the main characters. Director David Gordon Green and editor Tim Alverson explore the challenges of editing such a big scene.
- MATTERS OF FAITH – Experts in theology weigh in on how they consulted filmmakers to ensure depictions of the religious ceremonies in the film were as accurate as possible.
- FEATURE COMMENTARY – with co-writer/director David Gordon Green, executive producer Ryan Turek, co-writer Peter Sattler, and special makeup FX designer Christopher Nelson.
