David Green’s The Exorcist: Believer follows the story of two young girls, Angela and Katherine, who venture off together. Soon after the girls are found, they start to display signs of demonic possession. In distress, Angela’s father, Victor, reaches out to Chris MacNeil, whose daughter also faced possession (original Exorcist movie). 

Upon finishing the movie, I immediately rated it a six out of ten. 

The characters don’t have any fault; I thought the acting and casting were decent. I honestly liked the idea of a single dad and his daughter. Most movies involve the single-mother-with-kids dynamic, which can get played out. However, I don’t like how Katherine’s parents were aggressive towards Victor and sort of blamed him for their daughter’s disappearance. To be quite frank, I felt it was meant to be inherently racist, especially the microaggressions. I didn’t think it was fair to place blame on Victor because Katherine was the one who convinced her and Angela to trail off into the woods. I appreciate the directors and writers for highlighting the stereotype of not only being a single father, but a Black single father. It just adds a little insight into what my community goes through. 

Where the fault lies, in my opinion, is the plot. I liked the fact the directors had a pair of friends face possession together, but I didn’t like how there wasn’t a definite reason as to why they were possessed. With no initial reason, the movie seemed thrown together and somewhat random. I also felt the plot twist was pretty predictable, considering there are two young girls whose souls are on the way to the netherworlds. On the other hand, the graphics and mood of the movie were great. The consistent themes of blue really add to the atmosphere and presence of demonic possession. 

Aside from a few flaws, The Exorcist: Believer, definitely had potential; it was just not executed properly. So hopefully, the potential will be displayed to its fullest in the next film. To quench your hypothetical thirst, the cinema can be found on platforms such as Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube.