The Big Picture

• The Exorcist: Believer disappoints with a forced and shallow ending that fails to add value to the story.
• The film attempts emotional resonance through contrived resolutions, overshadowing the potential for a more impactful narrative.
• The ending lacks the depth and creativity of the original, leaving viewers questioning the state of modern horror filmmaking.

To make a sequel to the original The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s spectacular possession story that will forever remain the pinnacle of horror, is a tall order. Not only does it cast a long shadow over the genre writ large, but any film trying to carry on its story will have to do a lot of heavy lifting to justify its existence. More often than not, some of these sequels have felt like fundamental misunderstandings of what made the original so great. Such is the case once more with The Exorcist: Believer, David Gordon Green’s soulless horror sequel that tries to build upon the existing foundation of the story set more than 50 years ago to incredibly mixed results. The film was both panned by critics and disappointed at the box office. Still, some of you may be tempted to see what everyone was complaining about. While the film itself may not be worth much discussion, its ending is worth going into detail as everything about it feels like a way of walking back on the potentially more interesting things it was going for. Spoilers ahead, obviously!

'The Exorcist: Believer' Throws in a Clumsy Twist

The main thrust of The Exorcist: Believer is about the complicated relationship between widower Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) who has become possessed. There is a whole other kid and family, though they are mostly a distraction that we’ll get to later. The most important detail in regards to the ending is that Angela’s mother died when pregnant with her. This was established in an early scene where the couple were traveling abroad in Haiti and the real historical earthquake happened. Victor was then told that he basically had to decide between saving his wife or their child. We didn’t initially see what choice he made, but seeing Angela alive seemed to imply that he chose to let his wife die. As it turns out, it was actually the opposite. He tried to save her, but that didn't work. He is then confronted about this by the demon who is possessing Angela, taunting him with this information and trying to guilt him with it. It’s all rather half-baked, feeling like it doesn’t add anything and may take away from the movie because of just how forced it is. There have been some who have been concerned about its deeper implications, but it honestly feels so poorly constructed that it doesn’t even seem to know what it is trying to say.

Following this, when it seems like everything may truly be lost, the other parents try to save their child by sacrificing Angela. As it turns out, this only results in their daughter being killed instead. Who would have thought making a deal with a demon would be a bad idea? The climactic exorcism over, Angela gets to return to her days of going to school while an empty chair now sits in their classroom. This is honestly a rather rude thing for a teacher to do if you think about it, but the film is trying to grasp at something resembling emotional resonance. This is also felt when Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), who returned about midway through the film only to be sidelined, reunites with her daughter Regan (Linda Blair), who shows up for one second to give her a hug after being otherwise gone the whole time. Is any of this earned? Nope, it’s all just about tying things up in a nice little bow. This is especially felt in a closing monologue that really starts to strip away what already little impact the film could have had.

Why Doesn't the End of 'The Exorcist: Believer' Work?

This all falls on the shoulders of the great Ann Dowd, who is more than able to give a solid speech. The trouble here is that her character, a nurse and neighbor to Victor, seems to exist to just smooth over any lingering pains the film had managed to excavate. She does it well, but it's a largely unnecessary monologue that is the equivalent of a shrug in how it seems to say that the experience all the characters went through is merely another thing in life. Unintentionally, it speaks to what feels like a problem with the film itself. When you just keep revisiting classic works like this, it is going to feel like you are simply reducing them to meaningless narrative fodder just so you can have a sequel. Making matters worse, you’ll then just get this closing speech that sands down any complications about what was lost to end on what is attempting to be a weirdly positive note for some reason. With everything now back to normal, it seems like this is now the setup for what is supposed to be two more films to come. That’s right, this is merely the beginning of an intended new Exorcist trilogy.

However, considering this film itself could barely justify its existence, there isn’t anything concrete in this ending to get excited about with what could happen next. There is nothing to break down or analyze as it is all rather straightforward, leaving little sense about why we should care about anything to follow in the future. The only thing of note to this ending is how little of an impact it leaves in comparison to the original. Where the original lingers in a bit more of a gray area between tragedy and triumph, this just waves that all away to explain everything to you even as there is nothing really that even needs it. It is a film with no questions or thoughts of its own, proving to be as shallow a sequel as you'll find. The only frightening thing to be found in its ending is that there may soon be more like it to come.

Since seeing this horror film back when it landed with a thud in theaters, the most lasting impression has been how empty it all ends up being. If there is anything still left to explain about the way it wraps up, it is in how modern filmmaking like this has lost the creativity and dread that defined the original. Where that felt fresh and frightening, this one just amounts to a cheap imitation that doesn't have anything new to offer. Perhaps a discussion could be had about how the final twist with the parents being pitted against each other was something at least different, but the emotional foundations just weren't there to ensure it hit as hard as it seemed to think it was. There are no lingering questions or fears other than about what the state of horror is when the most terrifying thing is how classics are being turned into films where the only truly demonic thing is how derivative it is.

The Exorcist: Believer is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.

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