Mark Kermode reviews The Exorcist: Believer - Kermode and Mayo's Take

so you have eight minutes to talk about the Exodus believer starting now one of the problems with all the Exodus spin-offs with the exception of Exodus 3 which was by William Peter blatty is that they have completely misunderstood the original so the message of the original amongst the many messages it's not about the girl it's about everybody else in the house it's about the priest also message of the original you don't tell the audience what the message of the original is they have to feel it that's kind of essential to the thing so Exorcist 2 worst movie ever made it is all about the girl let's go let's spit a leopard and get on the back of a locust and fly to Africa Exorcist Dominion the most boring movie ever made featuring a lengthy sequence in which someone sits down and explains the plot of the entire movie which was so boring that after Morgan Freeman made it after Morgan Creek Morgan Freeman made it they dropped the whole movie and decided to start again with a different director and then made Exorcist the beginning which is the stupidest movie ever made which climax is in an all-singing all dancing all spider walking sequence literally featuring hits on 45 style vocal samples from the original Exorcist while somebody crawls around the inside of a cave and shouts things wow now we have this uh The Exorcist Believer from David Gordon green which you know it it would like us to see it as a recall you know a reboot sequel to The Exorcist from the makers of the Halloween series if you remember we we liked the new Halloween and then and then we didn't this is in fact better seen as a recall from the director of Pineapple Express and your highness although I should say it is less funny and indeed less scary than either of those movies it is not good the story is this following an earthquake in Port-au-Prince Victor played by Leslie Odom Jr has to decide between saving his wife and his baby 13 years later he lives with his daughter Angela she misses her mum and one evening she sneaks off into the woods with her friend Catherine they have candles they have a picture of the mum they have a medallion and they do a seancy type thing they then disappear for three days when they turn up they're found in a barn but they don't remember anything they seem to be okay but then they start behaving weirdly particularly in church in Church there's a small girl as a girl walking down the aisle and she's got the trailer basically it's wine yeah so Catherine's mum's a Christian and believes in possession and Dowd is a medic with a not so secret past who um about which uh Angela the other girl knows in the same way that Reagan knew about father charis's mother oh she gives Victor a book which is a book written by Chris McNeil right the mother of Reagan McNeil called a mother's explanation which is an account of her daughter's possession well first point Chris McNeil would not have written a book about her mother's possession one of the key things about the first film is that they are trying to keep everything secret and as in the source case the 1949 Randy case they don't want any publicity oh anyway turns out that as a result of writing the book Reagan has gone into hiding and no longer speaks to her mother well there's a shock in the book Victor to reads a thing which says that on the body of Reagan during this possession appeared the words uh help me note to writers in the original film it is explicitly made clear that Chris does not know that that writing appears on her daughter's body because Sharon actually says to Charis I didn't want Chris to see this also note to writers turning Ellen bursting into a basil Exposition character who just gets to read huge screeds of explanatory dialogue is not the best use of Ellen bursting originally the you know the original specifically avoided any explanation this explains everything from the heart of thinking even worse Chris who has seen two priests die while trying to perform an exorcism in the first film now is brought out of retirement and seriously love Ellen bursting and I hope that she has done wonderful things with the money they paid her for doing this turns up and decides to have a go and the result is one of the film's Touchstone stupid scenes in which the most notoriously shocking scene from the original Exorcist is turned into a stabby Punch and Judy pantomime which at least means that bursting won't have to witness anything further and gets to have a bit of a lie down everything then goes completely formulaic heads get turned vomit gets spewed bodies get levitated we move towards an Avengers Assemble finale in which everyone decides to have a go at one point and Dowd actually says I live in the name of Jesus I'll give it everything I've got and everyone goes that sounds like a good idea elsewhere somebody else declares this is putrid which I have to say I did laugh at that and then somebody else explains it's vapor from inside them they're at a critical temperature it's the start of an eruption so the girls have now turned into boiling kettles despite the absolute stupidity of it all it is staggeringly dull it's hard not to compare it to the original because every other shot is a direct shot quote from the original so opens with dogs fighting oh yeah like the dogs in Iraq Angela's stealing bacon from her father's plate oh it's like Reagan stealing the cookies from the jar Victor telling Angela oh you're very mature oh like Chris McNeil sold Reagan you look so mature the scene in the boxing club when he's hitting the punch bag like Damien Carris the Eerie lights going on off in the house like in the McNeil house a shot of a light in the window like the poster from the original the medical examination which is horrible and the way the doctors say you're going to feel something cold and there'll be a bit of pressure which which is the same the injection with the sedative the Demonic flash phase although this time the Demonic flash face actually looks like the Marilyn Manson character from the nun Catherine wearing a blue dress like some kind of Reagan cosplay at a Halloween party the terrible sub Mercedes McCain Bridge demon voice I mean at least Colleen Dewhurst did a better job of it in Exorcist three Warners when the original came out sued the makers of um Abby which got pulled from Studios which was a kind of like black exploitation film which they said was ripped off of The Exorcist they also sued the makers of behind the door which is a U.S Italian co-production which they said was a rip-off of The Exorcist both of those movies are more accomplished Than The Exorcist believer Roger Ebert reviewing Beyond the Door said it's all trash but it's scary trash this is just trash it is not scary at all on the subject of which there's a there's a Turkish Exorcist called Satan which I think actually fundamentally understands the original movie better than this does when I was in that chip shop near you which is run by a Turkish family the guy that told me it's not pronounced Satan it's pronounced shaitan and I said okay and never was something you know more correctly done it is apparently the beginning of a Trilogy after which in the trilogy yes it's the Elvis Trilogy after which we have Exorcist deceiver presumably followed in the third Case by Exorcist a sleeper it is a movie made by people who have seen the original but have not seen the original they've watched it but they haven't understood it they have quoted it without ever taking on board any of what it meant the film has nothing to do with the Exorcist other than its original title and the I have to say I mean as I said bursting I'm you know I really really hope that bursting takes the money that she got from this and gets something wonderful out of it it is okay fine that's the end of that it is dumb dumb boring just it's as bad as it could have been and then some and it's so dull what's the best bit about it it ends if you want a sequel to The Exorcist go and look at the reconstructed Legion which is on the Blu-ray of Exorcist 3 as for Exodus the believer it starts out as Exorcist to the heretic which William freaking famously called The Hairy tick and say was the product of a demented mind then it goes a bit empty Event Horizon as they all go to hell and then bring something back then it turns into utterly silly Sophie's choice for reasons which totally fail me before finally becoming even more rubbish repossessed thanks very much for watching this video hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it while you hear check out all the other videos because they're cool too aren't they yeah and if you want to keep up to date with everything combo De Mayo's take then check out our social channels I mean why wouldn't you I mean I would I have done excellent

Channel: Kermode and Mayo's Take

Views: 290,336

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode and Mayo's Take, Film Review, TV Review

Id: 9EYocIaYFYE

Length: 8min 6sec (486 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2023