Bonus: The Exorcist: Believer

[00:00:00] Bonus Chapter! Let's talk a supernatural horror film. Let's get into The Exorcist Believer from 2023. This one is directed by David Gordon Green who did the Halloween reboot final trilogy. It stars LaFortune Joseph, Leslie Odom Jr., Tracy

[00:00:25] Graves, not really a big cast. And the synopsis is when two girls disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, the father of one girl seeks out Chris McNeil who's been forever altered

[00:00:39] by what happened to her daughter 50 years ago. So this one is a sort of sequel to The Exorcist in some ways I guess a reboot but I didn't even realize that this one was coming out maybe until a month before it did. I had seen and still

[00:00:56] love the original Exorcist. I'm slowly making my way through the other films and I will be doing a Exorcist franchise bonus show at some point as well so keep an eye out for that. I heard pretty bad things about the movie. I heard it was

[00:01:14] one of the worst in the franchise and David Gordon Green ruined it and I think especially coming off Halloween Ends people are like well he ruined something else. I don't dislike Halloween Ends. I don't think it's amazing but I definitely

[00:01:27] don't think it's a horrible film like some people do. I think the movie is serviceable. I would say it's comparing it to the three Halloween films this is his least effective. I don't think it's a train wreck. I think it's entertaining.

[00:01:41] It's got some good scares and chilling moments. The initial setup of these two girls going missing and then coming back and totally freaking out because they've been possessed and the family's not knowing what to think and going to every

[00:01:56] possible outlet to try and figure out what's going on and the girls acting super super crazy and unhinged. I think all that works for me. The final exorcism of both girls is an interesting idea. Some people rag on that as like

[00:02:14] wow what an amazing idea. I wonder how long it took him to come up with that in terms of reinventing the franchise. I don't really fault the movie for not doing anything crazy new. I thought the dual exorcism was well done. I like the

[00:02:28] look of the room and the twists and turns with the families trying to debate alright if one girl dies then will my daughter be saved and vice versa? Are they both gonna die? Are they both gonna live? I think all those twists and turns work

[00:02:43] for me. The reintroduction and it's not a spoiler because I guess it is in the synopsis bringing back of a character from the original I think that's very effective and her injury I won't spoil

[00:02:58] it because it is new her injury in the exorcism attempt in the middle of the movie is very good and that whole part works for me. Some people don't like the look of the possessed girls in terms of the makeup or whatever else they did. I

[00:03:14] don't mind it I think it works it's gross and weird and just nasty and so I didn't have a problem with the design. I like the score I think it looks good the direction is solid so it's definitely not one I've only seen three exorcist

[00:03:30] movies now total. I will be going through them all in the next couple of weeks hopefully this would be towards the bottom but I still again it's not a terrible movie I thought it was a serviceable horror film and there is

[00:03:43] something about demons and possession and exorcisms and Catholic horror I guess to coin a term there like that stuff is just inherently intriguing to me I don't know exactly why but I'm drawn to that sort of genre and world so if you

[00:04:00] haven't seen any exorcist films you could start with this one you don't really need to have seen the other so that is sort of similar to the Halloween films that David Gordon Green did where you could understand enough to enjoy it

[00:04:13] on its own and I know that they are gonna be doing I think at least two more which I'll watch maybe I'm part of the problem but I like these movies I'm a sucker for them they don't reinvent the genre they don't become best the decade

[00:04:26] but this one was still enjoyable for me so give it a look could do worse I think there are worse movies out there especially dealing with this sort of idea oh and Leslie Odom jr. love him he is excellent in the movie probably the best

[00:04:43] part I think the two performances by the girls are excellent the church sequence where the one girl walks into the sermon and she's covered in blood and she's spouting off demonic nonsense I like that so it'll I don't know it works for

[00:05:03] me maybe I was right time right place right mood but I was enjoying it so that is a three out of five