"God played a trick on you..."
"There's something I saw in your book that made me come here today. I took some photos in the hospital. I want to help my daughter, like you helped yours. Like you helped Regan."
— Victor Fielding
The Exorcist: Believer is a 2023 horror film from director David Gordon Green, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Peter Sattler and Danny McBride. It is the sixth film in the Exorcist series, and a direct sequel to the original trilogy, as well as the first in a new trilogy. Ellen Burstyn reprises her role as Chris MacNeil and is joined by Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia O'Neill, Jennifer Nettles, and Norbert Leo Butz.
Two young girls, Angela and Katherine (Jewett and O'Neill), go missing in the woods for three days after playing a game to talk to spirits. After they are found, the girls begin to display terrifying behavior, leading to the realization that they are possessed. Their parents (Odom Jr, Nettles, Butz) consult help from any available religious source, along with help from Chris MacNeil (Burstyn).
A sequel, subtitled Deceiver, was originally set for an April 2025 release date, but was removed from the release schedule after Gordon Green left the project to focus on smaller film and television work.
The Exorcist: Believer contains examples of:
- All There in the Script: The fact that the demon possessing the girls is Lamashtu and not Pazuzu is not mentioned at all in the film proper, only revealed in interviews with the film’s director.
- Bittersweet Ending: Angela is freed of her possession and returns to a normal life with her father, but Katherine dies and her parents end up mourning her. Chris also ends up blind after being attacked by the possessed Katherine, but she is reunited with Regan after a long estrangement.
- The Cameo: Linda Blair returns in the final scene as Regan to reunite with Chris.
- Chekhov's Gun: The purple scarf that Sorenne wore on the day she died. Angela takes it at the start of the film in the (likely mistaken) belief that it would create a stronger connection to her mother's spirit when summoning her, and Victor is able to use it at the end to help anchor Angela and drive Lamashtu out.
- Christianity is Catholic: A strong theme of the film is averting this trope. Katherine's family attends a Baptist church, and their pastor is a strong support for them. Stuart attends a Pentecostal church and is friends with a hoodoo practitioner who also becomes involved. The actual exorcism combines the Roman Rite with the Baptist and Pentecostal prayer and the hoodoo ritual.
- Downer Beginning: The film's opening scene takes place during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, with Victor losing his wife Sorenne and being given the choice of saving either her or the unborn Angela.
- Dragged Off to Hell: After Katherine is inadvertently chosen to die, Lamashtu takes her soul and drags it down to Hell.
- Exorcist Head: When Father Maddox tries to exorcise the girls, Katherine's head begins turning 360 degrees like Regan did. The same starts to happen to Maddox, except his head only makes it backwards until he collapses dead.
- Exact Words: The demon, speaking through the girls to their parents, tells them that "One girl lives. One girl dies. You get to choose." However, it never says that they're choosing which girl lives, leading a desperate Tony to ultimately declare in the ending that he chooses his daughter Katherine, ultimately leading to her being the one dying instead.
- Eye Scream: The possessed Katherine gouges out Chris's eyes with a cross.
- Foreshadowing: The Catholic Church refuses to sanction the exorcism on the girls because of the danger that someone on either side of the ritual might die. By the end of the film both Katherine and Father Maddox have been killed as a result of the exorcism.
- Irony: Chris expresses a wish to "see [Regan]'s sweet face again." Chris and Regan are reunited, but Chris never gets to see Regan or anything else again.
- Lighter and Softer: Surprisingly, the film is this in many regards compared to the original film. While their possession does come with some violent moments, much of the behaviour that the girls demonstrate is decidedly tamer compared to Regan, especially the more sexual and gross-out elements that made the original possession famous. Notably, one of the most famous elements of Regan's possession, the projectile vomiting, doesn't come into play at all until the very end of the film, and even then, it's during a scene where it's implied that Angela is actually expelling the demon from her body.
- The Lost Lenore: Victor lost his wife Sorenne during an earthquake in Haiti, forcing the doctors to deliver Angela via c-section to save her.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Victor and Angela are shown never wearing shoes in their own house, with Victor in particular seeming to prefer going either barefoot or in socks when at home. This actually becomes a minor plot point in the film's final act, as the group that Victor pulls together to help exorcise the girls all take off their shoes upon entering his home, with Tony's initial refusal to do so seemingly supporting that he believes the entire endeavour is a waste of time. It isn't until he realises how serious things have gotten, and how it's possible that the exorcism may actually work, that he removes his shoes shortly before the finale.
- The Reveal: The film's opening shows that, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, the doctors told Victor that they could save either Sorenne or their unborn child, but not both. The final act reveals that Victor actually asked them to save Sorenne, but that they were unsuccessful, leaving Angela as the one to survive. The choice clearly weighs heavily on Victor, who does everything he can to save his daughter in the subsequent events of the film, even after Lamashtu tries to torment him with the fact that he chose not to save Angela in the first place.
- Sadistic Choice: Lamashtu plans to let one of the girls live while the other one dies, and makes their parents choose who goes. Katherine ends up dying while Angela survives.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Father Maddox initially is completely loyal to what the church higher-ups say and refuses to assist the group for that reason. He begins to get Character Development when he disobeys his superiors and helps the ritual, only to accomplish nothing and almost-immediately die.
- Shout-Out: One of the possessed girls is named Angela, which is the same name that Regan McNeil used as her new identity in The Exorcist TV series.
Katherine: One girl lives. One girl dies.
Angela: You get to choose.
Angela: You get to choose.
