Directed by David Gordon Green (Halloween (2018); Halloween Kills; Halloween Ends) — Screenplay by Peter Sattler and David Gordon Green — Story by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green.

Based on the 1971 William Peter Blatty novel of the same name, William Friedkin’s 1973 film The Exorcist is often cited as one of the scariest films ever made. It is a brilliant film with unforgettable imagery, lines, and performances. Though what constitutes as being scary is ultimately subjective and can change over time, I think everyone with a working understanding of film history would agree that it is a culturally significant and iconic work of filmmaking that frightened audiences back then and, frankly, still does. Through sequels, attempts to recapture the immense power of The Exorcist largely failed. The original direct sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic is largely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, and attempts to make a prequel in the mid-to-early 2000s led to two versions of the same film, neither of which are remembered favorably. The one and only time it has worked — at least to some of us — to carry on with The Exorcist on the big screen was in 1990 when William Peter Blatty stepped behind the camera to craft a sequel with The Exorcist III, which features the always watchable George C. Scott in a lead role, as well as an unforgettable and effective jump-scare. Now, in 2023, studio heads have spent $400 million to distribute a sequel trilogy starting with this film, The Exorcist: Believer, from director David Gordon Green, who famously directed the recent Halloween sequel trilogy, which, like with this film, was also a Blumhouse-Universal collaboration. Now, while I wanted to like it, Green’s Halloween trilogy was a pretty significant disappointment to me. Similarly, I really wanted to like The Exorcist: Believer, but it, ultimately, doesn’t do enough to set it apart from other films like it. It’s a disappointingly inert start to the Exorcist sequel trilogy.