The Exorcist: Believer | Film Review

When Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) go missing in the woods and return 3 days later displaying strange behaviour, Angela's father (Leslie Odom Jr.) seeks help from Chris MacNeil (Ellen Bustyn), who went through a similar experience with her daughter 50 years prior.

I actually watched this film quite a while ago, wrote notes for a review, and then completely forgot to review it - which might give you a hint about how I found it!

More often than not, exorcism movies (or movies that feature exorcisms) have been a miss for me recently. I've never loved the genre, but lately, it's felt a little bit saturated and not always good.

So I went into this one a bit sceptical.

The film gives the audience a good first impression of the characters, and I was invested in their lives very quickly.

The acting was great - particularly the girls playing Angela and Katherine. They were amazing!

The story starts off as being a lot more original than other movies of the same genre, which lured me into thinking I would finally love an exorcism movie!

But then, as with a lot of exorcism movies, it had a very boring middle section. I lost interest in the characters at this time and my interest was never really regained, and I realised that whether I was interested or not, I never really got to know the characters deeply enough.

I think this issue could have been solved by ensuring that we got to see more of the characters before the possession took place. If we were rooting for them, it would have made everything that came next more effective.

I didn't love the ending, but I appreciated that it took a risk and didn't end how a film like this usually would.

But one thing I did like was the connection to the original exorcist movie.

Overall, I'm trying to find the root of my dislike of exorcism movies, and I think it's a cross between not finding them scary and having seen them too many times before. So while I liked this one more than the average exorcism movie, I'm still a bit tired of the genre.

5/10