Genre: Horror
Duration: 1h 51minCountry: United States of America
Director: David Gordon Green
A half century ago, the great William Friedkin directed “The Exorcist,” blowing box-office records and audiences’ minds. Now David Gordon Green, not content with mining the “Halloween” franchise for a trilogy of uneven follow-ups, has returned to visit the same fate on one of the highest-grossing films of the 1970s. Kicking off with “The Exorcist: Believer,” this latest recycling project will continue with “The Exorcist: Deceiver,” planned for 2025. No word yet on the third.
If your main gripe with the original was its preoccupation with a single victim and the dogma of just one religious denomination, then this overpopulated sequel has you covered. Clearly believing that more is more, Green and Peter Sattler’s screenplay (which ignores the intervening franchise entries) gives us double the possessed, more than triple the faiths and a passel of enthusiastic exorcists. Keep them straight if you can.

Lidya Jewett, left, and Olivia O’Neill in “The Exorcist: Believer.”Credit...Universal Pictures
