The newest Exorcist movie, “The Exorcist: Believer,” was released on Oct. 6 and has set out to leave audiences across the country scared.
The movie’s plot follows two girls who disappear, only to be found three days later with no memory of where they had gone. Once they return, they don’t seem the same as before.
The two possessed girls, played by Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill, did a great job with their performances. They look, sound, and act petrified throughout the entire movie, while being consistent and not letting it feel repetitive.
However, this movie does a pretty poor job on the horror aspect. It relies on incredibly cheap jumpscares for its scariest moments, which left me feeling disappointed and even annoyed at one point.
One of the best moments in this movie occurs during a conversation. A demon appears behind a character extremely quickly. I thought it was a really good scare at first, until I realized it had basically been almost completely stolen from one of the best parts from James Wan’s “Insidious.”
All of the effects throughout are done really well, and weren’t too distracting or cheap looking. The makeup done on the two girls looked great and worked really well to add to the dark gloom of the film.
Overall, this movie falls very flat to me. Being a legacy sequel to such an iconic horror movie, it tries a little too hard to connect itself to the original, which only drags it down. The ending feels cheap and a little dumb while not providing anything to be scared about. If I had to rate “The Exorcist: Believer,” I would give it a 3/10.
