The Exorcist: Believer is definitely a sequel to The Exorcist, but it may or may not be a sequel to the rest of the franchise. Since it’s a Blumhouse production directed by David Gordon Green, it could go either way.

Believer is definitely an exorcism film though… only now we get two, two, two possessed little girls in one. Yes, two little girls, two families in meltdown mode, and one simultaneous exorcism.

The film starts out fairly slow, trying to emulate the pacing of the original film. It doesn’t jump into the religiosity immediately and, indeed, doesn’t seem to be interested in the usual “gotta scare them quick” mentality. In fact, one of the earliest things it does to unsettle is an uncomfortable medical exam that hints back to Regan’s medical trauma in the first flick.

Maybe it takes too much time before getting around to the good bits. It’s a decent film but it’s not so good that it earns enough goodwill for the slow burn. But credit for establishing the families before dropping the demon hammer.

When we do finally arrive at the expected exorcism, the film doesn’t hew TOO far from what we’ve seen before. But it does do one thing different… two little girls makes for some pretty chaotic exorcism scenes. Instead of dealing with one wily demon, we have two hissing, spitting liars filling the audio track with noise. It’s a pretty chaotic sequence with some vile little manipulations… but it also ends pretty abruptly. It felt like they were just building up to something when they pull up stakes and declare it over.

I suspect they are setting up for a sequel and maybe we’ll get another David Gordon Green trilogy. I wouldn’t be against the idea but they better do something more impactful to justify more. It’s not a bad movie and it’s better than most of the sequels… but it’s still pretty underwhelming.

Score: 78