David Gordon Green Brings Humanity to Exorcism Tropes in The Exorcist: Believer
David Gorden Green’s desperate attempt to find humanity in horror films continues with The Exorcist: Believer. It’s a bit “Evil Dies Tonight!” for my Halloween Kills fans out there, which isn’t meant as a snarky kill shot. Green’s direct sequel to The Exorcist follows his Halloween template by featuring iconic characters dealing with decades-long trauma, while leaning on rally-the-town optimism found in 1950s titles like The Blob. Though Green may alienate some audiences with choices nowhere near as terrifying as William Friedkin’s original, something about the film’s heart endears beyond another exorcism retread satisfied to follow the same blasphemous beats.
Believer is more than just two exorcisms for the price of one. Leslie Odom Jr. plays single father Victor Fielding, a man of renounced faith who had to choose between his unborn child and beloved wife during a Haitian earthquake. Thirteen years later, Victor lives in Georgia with a healthy Angela (Lidya Jewett), forming an exceptionally close father-daughter bond due to the loss they both endured. Victor pushes on, thinking he’s experienced the worst tragedy imaginable — until Angela and her classmate Katherine (Olivia Marcum) go missing for three days and come back under the influence of something unholy.
Most interestingly, Green attempts to reconcile the presentation of Catholicism as an ultimate savior throughout the history of exorcism cinema. The screenplay, co-written by Peter Sattler, Scott Teems, and Danny McBride, expresses an underlying hopefulness that brings together religious groups who can work harmoniously despite separate beliefs. There’s a superteam element to the film’s third act, uniting practicing allies against a common demonic foe, that rebukes the idea of Catholics as an exorcism’s best or only heroes. Green aims to broaden cultural and theological representation in the subgenre.
Believer also wants to balance this contemporary sensibility with neck-twisting nostalgia, with less successful results. A ninety-year-old Ellen Burstyn ties Believer back to The Exorcist by reprising her role as Chris MacNeil, if only to throw a bone toward fans; she could be lifted out of the movie entirely without much fuss. That’s less true of Victor’s unconvincing 180-degree turn from protesting all forms of higher-power beliefs in the first half of the movie; Green’s plot bops around ideas while falling back on common subgenre tropes like a billion Exorcist wannabes prior.
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