Remakes, sequels, and spin-offs have become the predominant feature of Hollywood’s new releases.
They are typically bad – either aggressively woke or a shallow cash grab playing to American nostalgia. But none have been as offensively terrible as the latest installment in the “Exorcist” franchise. (RELATED: Hollywood Libs Destroy Another Piece Of Western Heritage)
“The Exorcist: Believer,” in theaters now, has made grand claims to be the first true sequel to the 1973 original. “Fifty years ago, one of the most terrifying horror stories gripped the world, and now, something even more disturbing is happening to two teenage girls,” a teaser in a vintage film reel reads. Ellen Bursytn, now 90 years old, has returned to reprise her role asChris MacNeil for the first time in the long history of the franchise. Parallel motifs are laced throughout – fighting dogs, demonic levitation – while low angle street shots, dowdy clothing, and even the somewhat hokey make-up feel like a deliberate attempt to transport the viewer back to the 70s. Aesthetics aside, however, the film is a total inversion of the original.
This is #TheExorcistBeliever – In Theaters Now. pic.twitter.com/iq1wIQ8an9
— The Exorcist: Believer (@TheExorcistBlvr) October 5, 2023
At its core, the original is much more than a horror flick, but a film about faith and doubt. After searching in vain for a rational, scientific explanation, Chris turns to religion to save her daughter, Regan, from demonic possession. Father Karras, a psychiatrist-priest wrestling with his own belief, reluctantly agrees to perform the exorcism. The entirety of the film builds toward the seemingly insurmountable feat of overcoming doubt — Karras can only save her when he rejects his own doubt and wills the demon to “come into [him].” There is true evil in this world, and rationality alone cannot defeat it. As director William Friedkin said himself, he could not have made the film if he did not “strongly believe in the teachings of Jesus.” (RELATED: The Scariest Movie Of All Time Could Never Be Made Today)
“Believer” rejects this Christian worldview, instead embracing a noxious mix of multiculturalism and secular humanism. In the same time the original spent building suspense through the interplay of faith and doubt, “Believer” dedicates its first hour to an ambiguously chilling set-up. Two young girls disappear during a quasi-séance in the woods, only to return to their families three days later with no recollection of where they had been. It could set the stage for a wide variety of horror tropes that permeate the modern psyche – child abduction, murder, or any type of spooky, unexplainable disappearance. The notion of distinctly religious horror is much weaker in the public consciousness than it was 50 years ago. Only in the second half of the film is it hinted that the girls are experiencing anything resembling demonic possession.
From the beginning, it’s made clear the protagonist father, Tanner, is not just experiencing doubt, but outright rejects any religious faith. He doesn’t question whether God is real, but firmly asserts that God is a myth that all societies invent to explain what they can’t understand. Yet he concedes there is something unexplainable going on with the girls – something empirically spooky and supernatural, but not necessarily rooted in religious conviction. Seeing is believing; there is no internal struggle to be had.
The soundtrack to your nightmares. #TheExorcistBeliever Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by David Wingo and Amman Abbasi is now streaming on digital. https://t.co/9JRxajvqTX pic.twitter.com/Xw13URqKF2
— The Exorcist: Believer (@TheExorcistBlvr) October 7, 2023
The film hammers this point home with the re-introduction of MacNeil, who informs us – after a quick jab at the Church’s “patriarchy” – how she spent the past 50 years studying exorcisms throughout all customs and cultures. After speaking with her, Tanner agrees to an exorcism, albeit a uniquely modern one.
Catholic priests are revealed as cowards, unwilling to partake in the ritual out of fear and the families convene a multicultural team of exorcists. After detailing her abortion in an earlier scene, a failed novitiate nun heroically steps up to fill the role of the Catholic priest, showing women are both more competent and braver than men, even in the realm of the faith. She teams up with the born-again preacher, the Baptist minister, and the fire-spitting voodoo priestess – all unite to save the girls. But save them from what exactly?
“What do you think evil is?” Paula asks. “I’ll tell you what I think it is. We’re born in this world with hope and dreams and the desire to be happy. It has one wish– to make us lose faith, to kill it in us. And the Devil never gives up.”
Detaching possession from Catholic theology and the spiritual from the supernatural, the film has nothing left to offer but secular humanism – the idea that human reason alone can serve as the basis of morality. The logical corollary is that there is no evil incarnate, no original sin; the only evil in this world is that we do to each other. Evil, the Devil himself, transforms into the very modern notion of being only that which limits our true selves. Exorcism becomes a metaphor, as the parents are forced to choose which girl will live and which will die – only humanity can save itself.