There is not much to say about William Friedkin's 1973 horror drama The Exorcist that has not already been said. It is one of the best films of all time as well as one of the most famous, grossing $441 million in its numerous theatrical appearances over the decades and defining a genre for years to come with its iconic image of a young girl whose innocence is destroyed. Conversely, there will be nothing famous or iconic to come out of The Exorcist: Believer, a legacy sequel that violates everything it claims to value from the original.
Directed and co-written by David Gordon Green, the film takes place in the modern day and is about the return of Pazuzu, the same demon that terrorized Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) 50 years prior, except now he has possessed two young girls. This is the first installment in a new Exorcist trilogy by Universal Pictures and Blumhouse with the successor, The Exorcist: Deceiver, set to release on April 18th, 2025.
The Exorcist: Believer: How Did William Friedkin Feel About the Sequel?
The acclaimed director passed away earlier this year and will never see the follow-up to his horror classic, yet his thoughts were already made.
What Happens in The Exorcist: Believer?
Believer opens in Haiti where an earthquake severely injures the pregnant wife of Victor Felding (Leslie Odom Jr.), forcing him to choose between saving her or their unborn baby. Cut to the present day and Victor, who has since lost his faith, is raising his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) by himself; the assumption that Victor chose Angela will serve as the emotional foundation for the rest of the story.
Similarly to Denis Villeneuve's 2013 thriller Prisoners, Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia O'Neill), whose family is devoutly Baptist, go missing after the two run off into the woods and perform a séance in order to communicate with Angela's mother. They are found with burned feet three days later in a barn that is 30 miles away from where they were last seen under the belief that they had only been gone for a few hours. Their conditions quickly worsen when Victor is attacked by a convulsing Angela, who gets admitted to a hospital and is accused of demonic possession by her nurse/neighbor Ann (Ann Dowd) after Angela inexplicably shares knowledge of Ann's past sins. So, at what point does this become an Exorcist sequel?
Victor takes a leap of faith and reaches out to Chris MacNeil as Ellen Burstyn makes her long-awaited return to the franchise. Chris has become a world-renowned exorcism scholar with her book "A Mother's Explanation" despite having been told the importance of shrouding these events in secrecy. This development has also ruined her relationship with Regan, who luckily had no memory of her trauma until her mom exploited it in her book, sending her into hiding for the past 40 years. Nevertheless, Chris agrees to help Victor when she realizes that it is, indeed, Pazuzu who is controlling the girls. How well does that go? Chris foolishly decides to perform a solo exorcism on Katherine and she takes a crucifix to gauge Chris' eyes out.
How Does The Exorcist: Believer End?
Chris lies blind in the hospital and tells Victor that the only way to defeat Pazuzu is to harness the power of all religions and cultures in a community exorcism, similar to the finale of Green's Halloween Kills. Their team consists of a rootwork healer/witch doctor (hinted in the film's opening), Katherine's family's pastor, a Pentecostal preacher, and a Catholic priest who goes against the orders of the diocese to participate.
During the exorcism, Pazuzu, in an attempt to disrupt the group's efforts, reveals that Victor chose to save his wife over Angela. Naturally, the time comes for another fateful dilemma: Pazuzu will kill both of the girls unless the amateur exorcists choose a survivor. Just for fun, he also snaps the priest's neck. The families are stewing in anguish until Katherine's father promptly yells that he chooses his daughter, only for Pazuzu to announce that the girl they chose would be their sacrifice. Thus, Katherine dies with her soul being dragged to hell while Angela wakes up and reunites with Victor, whose faith is restored. Not much solace for Katherine's family in all this. Chris is also given the reunion she has longed for when Regan enters the room and, without indicating who she is, embraces her mother who will never again see her beloved daughter.