5: The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
Netflix doesn’t seem to be bringing out anything really big for Hallowe’en this year, with Mike Flanagan working elsewhere and Stranger Things coming for Thanksgiving to New Year, the biggest launch is Haunted Hotel.
But they did advertise getting this, two years after it came out in cinemas. From the creators of the Halloween “requel” trilogy and intended to launch a trilogy of its own, its box office performance was such that Universal cancelled already announced sequel Deceiver and any plans for the third which was probably going to be Redeemer but Golden Retriever would fit the rhyme better.
Well, it’s better than Exorcist II. None of its ideas are big or wild enough to be really absurd and it only made me laugh unintentionally a couple of times.
But apart from some specific tricks and a recurring character it’s no more connected than the many knockoffs the original has had and continues to have.
For the first half hour after a prologue it’s mostly a drama about parents dealing with their daughters suddenly going missing, and that part’s actually solid. But then they come back and it becomes an Exorcist movie.
I did like its use of that recurring character. And there’s some good shellshocked acting from those involved in the conflict. And there could be a whole other movie in the moment where Angela screams about wanting her mother - who died when she was born.
But it doesn’t try to match the original’s matter-of-fact style and instead looks like a regular horror film complete with dark dingy house setting and creepy things appearing in quick cuts. And the multi-faith exorcism feels very much chosen for mass appeal rather than the original's sincere Catholic approach. It doesn’t really add to the Exorcist kinda-sorta-series, and it being an official brand name Exorcist movie doesn’t add much to it in turn.
The medium: Captain Howdy. I mean Netflix.
Gameability: How much can your random group of characters mess up an exorcism?
The recurring character is Chris MacNeil, who gets a big hero moment and it doesn’t go well, raising the stakes pretty effectively.
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