If you saw the 1973’s “The Exorcist” at a young age, it may have scared you like nothing before AND nothing since.
Revisit the William Friedkin-directed film decades later as an adult and it’s only so frightening, its once-unnerving effects now seeming like cute tricks.
And, yet, you can still reach back and feel a bit of that fear.
Now — just short of 50 years since the original hit theaters — arrives the kinda-scary, occasionally disturbing “Exorcist: The Believer.”
It is helmed by David Gordon Green, who has spent the last few years cranking out increasingly lame “Halloween” movies, all of which did pretty well at the box office when you consider their relatively low budgets.
Similar to 2018’s “Halloween,” “The Exorcist: Believer” treats only its franchise’s original film as canon, ignoring its collection of sequels and prequels.
And whereas a big selling point of that newer “Halloween” (confusingly given the same title as the original) was the inclusion of Jamie Lee Curtis as OG character Laurie Strode, “The Exorcist: Believer” trumpets the return to its horrors-filled world of veteran actress Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil for the first time since the original.
If you need a refresher, Chris sees her 12-year-old daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), become possessed by the devil and ultimately looks for a spiritual solution.
That, more or less, is the fate that befalls this film’s main character, Leslie Odom Jr.’s Victor Fielding.
We meet the photographer in Haiti, where an earthquake claims the life of his pregnant wife, Sorenne (Tracey Graves). Before the harrowing sequence ends, medical personnel tell Victor they can try to save either his wife or child but that one will die.
The film then moves ahead 13 years, to Georgia, where Victor is raising his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), whom he clearly adores. She is a smart girl and an achiever, but she’s getting to that age where she’d like to spend a bit less time with Dad and a bit more with friends, such as Olivia O’Neill’s Katherine.
Lying to her father about what she’s up to, Angela sneaks off with Katherine to perform a ritual in some nearby woods in the hopes of contacting the mother she never knew.
Soon, Victor realizes Angela is missing and gets in contact with Katherine’s equally alarmed parents, Miranda (Jennifer Nettles, “Harriet”) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz, “Justified: City Primeval”). They’re very different — the couple is proudly Christian, while Victor is not a believer — and clash, but all three are relieved when the girls are discovered 30 miles away in a barn.
It’s concerning, though, that the girls think they’ve been gone for a few hours, not the three days they’ve truly been missing. And although medical exams reveal nothing concerning, each soon begins to exhibit the type of bizarre behavior you expect in an “Exorcist” movie. (While most of Angela’s alarming actions take place at home, Katherine puts on a real show at church.)
A nurse with a religious background, Ann (Ann Dowd, “The Handmaid’s Tale”), works to convince Victor that Angela can’t be healed with medicine, leading him to Chris, whose book 10 years after her experience became a huge success but caused Regan to cut off contact with her.
“The Exorcist: Believer” is at its best in the middle, from the point when the girls are found up until the entirely obligatory exorcism. Green delivers the requisite unsettling imagery and jump scares and an overall feeling of dread.
Ultimately, though, the screenplay — co-written by Green and Peter Sattler, with Green sharing story credits with Scott Teems and Danny McBride — offers nothing new to the formula. And if you were worried “Believer” wouldn’t play the hits during the exorcism, fear not. It’s all there, and fans of the original will know to what we are referring.
Disappointingly, director of photography Michael Simmonds, who worked on the “Halloween” movies (as well as several episodes of McBride’s “The Righteous Gemstones”), brings the same bland look to this movie that he did to the Michael Myers-fueled trilogy.
On the plus side, some of the acting helps keep “Believer” engaging. While “Hamilton” alum Odom (“One Night in Miami”) holds your interest as the fiercely determined father, Jewett (“Good Girls”) and, especially, O’Neill — a newcomer, as Blair was at the time “The Exorcist” was made — give it their all as the possessed victims. Sure, the makeup, effects and creepy voice-overs do a lot of the heavy lifting, but they certainly do their part.
In limited scenes, Burstyn (“The Last Picture Show,” “Requiem for a Dream”) is effective, although it’s frustrating Green and Co. have Chris make the kind of dumb decision we’ve seen so many horror movie characters make. “Believer” does Chris a little dirty.
Universal and partner Blumhouse, a prolific and cost-conscious horror studio, intend to make a trilogy of movies, with “The Exorcist: Deceiver” on the books for 2025. And, yes, that follow-up is set up in exactly the manner you expect. (The power of cash compels you!)
As for this first installment, it could prove to be pretty affecting on someone of the right age, especially someone who’s not seen the original.
For everyone else, this will be merely the latest slice of warmed-over nostalgia — albeit one that has its moments.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’
Where: Theaters.
When: Oct. 6.
Rated: R for some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references.
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.5.
