Film Review – The Exorcist: Believer

Emerging as the third feature about exorcisms released in the last year, “The Exorcist: Believer” is meant to be the most significant production of them all. It’s a sequel to the 1973 William Friedkin classic, reconnecting, in some ways, to the story of Chris MacNeil and her daughter, Regan, even managing to bring back actress Ellen Burstyn to reprise her role as the weary mother who’s been to Hell and back. The project is directed by David Gordon Green, a helmer with an iffy oeuvre, but he’s the guy who made Michael Myers headline news again with his popular but poorly conceived “Halloween” revival trilogy. The idea here is to return “The Exorcist” to media domination, but something went wrong along the way, primarily in the execution of this satanic possession story. “Believer” is a frightfully uninspired horror movie and a terrible “Exorcist” film, with Green making an episode of bad television instead of an intensely frightening cinematic offering, unable to match past franchise highs with this misbegotten brand name resurrection. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com