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In Joshua John Miller 's "The Exorcism,"  Russell Crowe plays Anthony Miller, an actor and recovering addict who is thrown into a role as a priest beset upon by demons. As Crowe dives into the role, under horrible and unflinching guidance from a director played by  Adam Goldberg , he is forced to confront his own personal "demons." But as more strange things begin to occur on set, the question becomes how much is him and how much is from something else at play? During his attempt to exorcise his demons, is Miller forced to confront actual demons plaguing the creation of this film?

Whenever the word exorcism is used in the cinematic realm, audience's first thoughts go to one of the ultimate horror classics, “ The Exorcist .” This film recognizes its ultimate predecessor and some other horror classics as well. Yet the connection between this film and the iconic original lies far deeper than this casual mentioning. Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller , who played Father Karras in "The Exorcist." Additionally, the title of the film featured in “The Exorcism” is “The Georgetown Project,” a sly reference to the part of the city in Washington, DC, where “The Exorcist” was filmed.  

The extremely cool feature of the film is that it looks like "The Exorcist" and seems to document the curious nature of the strange happenings that occurred during the actual filming of the classic in which Jason Miller starred. It's not beyond conception that many of the truly strange and well-documented occurrences during the filming in the seventies were re-created in this film. One can hear Jason sharing stories with his son that he has waited until now to share.

For this reason and others, “The Exorcism” becomes more of a meta-psychological thriller than a true horror film. While some creepy and unsettling events are in the film, none truly rise to a level most would recognize as horror. There are a few minor jump scares, but this film lives in its own realm.

Rarely does an actor get the opportunity to redeem a work, but Crowe’s work in this film is much better in depth and substance than the one he gave in “The Pope’s Exorcist.” Ryan Simpkins is very good as the rebellious yet loving daughter concerned for her father’s safety and sobriety. Kudos also go to Adam Goldberg for embodying one of the most dangerous types of directors an actor can face, one who disregards concern for the person and cares only for the work.

“The Exorcism” is an exercise in story and creative visuals that attempts to create a new type of horror.  It may not succeed, but the attempt is admirable.

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The Exorcism (2024)

Russell Crowe as Anthony Miller

Ryan Simpkins as Lee Miller

Sam Worthington as Joe

Chloe Bailey as Blake Holloway

Adam Goldberg as Peter

David Hyde Pierce as Father Conor

• Joshua John Miller
• M.A. Fortin

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The Exorcist: Believer

When two girls disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, the father of one girl seeks out Chris MacNeil, who's been forever altered by wha... Read all When two girls disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, the father of one girl seeks out Chris MacNeil, who's been forever altered by what happened to her daughter fifty years ago. When two girls disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, the father of one girl seeks out Chris MacNeil, who's been forever altered by what happened to her daughter fifty years ago.

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• Trivia On William Friedkin 's passing, writer and film critic Ed Whitfield posted this on Twitter(X) and Facebook : "William Friedkin once said to me, 'Ed, the guy who made those new Halloween sequels is about to make one to my movie, The Exorcist (1973) . That's right, my signature film is about to be extended by the man who made Pineapple Express (2008) . I don't want to be around when that happens. But if there's a spirit world, and I can come back, I plan to possess David Gordon Green and make his life a living hell.'" Friedkin actually died two months before the movie was released.
• Goofs The demon in this movie, according to the credits, is Lamashtu, therefore, when it sees Chris McNeil, the "We've met before" quote is factually wrong since Chris met Pazuzu instead.

Katherine : Did the power of Christ compel you?

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• $30,000,000 (estimated)
• $65,537,395
• $26,497,600
• Oct 8, 2023
• $136,284,218

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• Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• D-Cinema 96kHz 7.1
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The Exorcist: Believer's Rotten Tomatoes Score Proves The Franchise Needs To Die

"The Exorcist" from 1973 remains one of the greatest horror movies of all time,  and provided a template for an entire genre of demonic-possession films. Unfortunately, none of the "Exorcist" sequels and prequels hold a candle to the original, and that trend seems to continue with the newest offering — "The Exorcist: Believer."

As of this writing, the newest installment of the franchise has a 24% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes from 70 reviews. This officially puts it as the third-lowest-rated "Exorcist" film in history, right above 1977's "Exorcist II: The Heretic" (9%) and 2004's "Exorcist: The Beginning" (11%). 

Rotten Tomatoes cuts 1990's "The Exorcist III" (58%) a little more slack. And while 30% is usually considered an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score, it makes 2005's "Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist" one of the most successful films of its accursed kind. After decades of misguided attempts to live up to the legacy of "The Exorcist," maybe Hollywood should move on to a different horror franchise? Especially considering how, depending on how other reviews shake out, the most recent movie's score could continue plummeting lower than the depths of hell itself. 

The consensus appears to be that "The Exorcist: Believer" doesn't do anything more interesting or unique than its predecessors. Reviewers weren't kind, with William Bibbiani of The Wrap writing, "It's not ambitious enough to be interesting, nor is it powerful enough to get under the skin. It evades serious discussions of faith and uses the underlying depth of the series as a basis for little more than fan service and generic plot." With reviews like that, it's looking like this is one horror series that's better off dead. 

The Exorcist: Believer is more rotten than Pazuzu

Even the return of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil from the original "Exorcist" isn't enough to save the newest sequel. "The Exorcist: Believer" apparently throws a lot at the wall, hoping for something to stick and make it stand out and feel like it's moving the franchise forward. There are two girls possessed instead of just one, and several different belief systems are put to the test. But for critics like Dylan Roth of Observer,  nothing comes together as it should. "'Believer' is a film wherein everyone's effort — effort to underline a message, effort to deliver a nuanced performance, effort to be visually interesting, effort to shock the audience — is all a little too visible on screen," he wrote.

Looper's own Alistair Ryder gave credit where it's due, saying how "The Exorcist: Believer" does a good job of building up dread without relying on cheap jump scares. Even then, it can't help but feel like a pale imitation. "In a world where 'The Exorcist' doesn't exist, this film's strengths could be more deeply appreciated — but this isn't that world, and this new film's flaws are only more accentuated due to how much they'll be compared to the earlier film's strengths."

Such a reception doesn't bode well for the future of the franchise. "The Exorcist: Believer" is the first film in a planned trilogy, with the second installment, "The Exorcist: Deceiver,"  already scheduled for an April 18, 2025, release date. Of course, box office performance will likely have the biggest say in whether this new trilogy comes to fruition. For now, "The Exorcist: Believer" is scary for all the wrong reasons. 

‘The Exorcism’ Review: Russell Crowe Plays a Fallen Movie Star Playing a Priest in an Exorcist Movie. Is This the Sign of a Career Gone to Hell?

Crowe stars in his second exorcist film in a year. His acting isn't bad, but by the end the message seems to be: The power of residuals compels you.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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While we’re on the subject of art-and-life parallels, this is the second exorcist film that Russell Crowe has made in a little over a year (the first, “The Pope’s Exorcist,” was released in April 2023), and that might well be the sign of a once-hot movie star’s fall from grace. But Crowe remains too good an actor to phone in what he’s doing, and his performance as Tony has an undercurrent of shaggy despair unusual for the genre.

Early on, Tony’s 16-year-old daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), returns to his funky New York loft apartment after she gets kicked out of Catholic boarding school. For a while, we’re invested in whether Tony can mend fences with her, and whether he can turn his broken life around by portraying the priest in a movie whose director, played with amusing Machiavellian ruthlessness by Adam Goldberg, will do whatever it takes to wring a good performance out of his leading man, even it means abusing the hell out of him. (In this case that’s no metaphor.) “You still devout?” asks Goldberg’s Peter, saying it like it’s a dirty word. Tony is a former altar boy, so I guess that’s supposed to hit him hard.

On set, Lee bonds with Tony’s pop-musician costar, Blake (Chloe Bailey), the lead singer of Vampire Sorority. And Tony is coached by an on-set priest, Father Conor, a kind of intimacy-with-the-almighty coordinator played with amiable cynicism by David Hyde Pierce. There are omens, like Tony’s bloody nose on the first day of shooting. The bottom line is that Tony is not giving a good performance, and what’s standing in his way is his guilt for his sins, as well as the “mysterious” trauma that brought on his bad behavior. This is a movie that plays connect-the-dots with exorcist/Catholic/addict themes.

“The Exorcism” was directed by Joshua John Miller, who’s the son of Jason Miller, the late costar of “The Exorcist,” which creates, I guess, a kind of Satanic synergy. As the movie goes on, Tony starts slugging whiskey again, which on the story’s terms is a sign that the devil has appeared. The trouble is that a good exorcist movie requires a confrontation with the devil. Crowe is playing an actor playing an exorcist, and the way “The Exorcism” is structured what he needs to be is the therapeutic Father Merrin of his own soul. But the darker the movie gets, the less there is at stake, and the more that Crowe seems to be going through the motions of trying to save not his soul but his career. The power of residuals compels you.

Reviewed at Digital Arts, New York, June 13, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 93 MIN.

• Production: A Vertical Entertainment release of a Miramax, Outerbanks Entertainment production. Producers: Kevin Williamson, Ben Fast, Bill Block. Executive producers: Padraic McKinley, Scott Putman, Andrew Golov, Thomas Zadra.
• Crew: Director: Joshua John Miller. Screenplay: M.A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller. Camera: Simon Duggan. Editor: Matthew Woolley. Music: Daniel Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans.
• With: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpjkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, David Hyde Pierce.

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The Exorcist: Believer looks like a hellish double feature in first trailer

The first trailer for david gordon green’s the exorcist: believer introduces a new generation of unsuspecting mortals to an old, familiar demonic presence..

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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Though Warner Bros. ’ 1973 adaptation of The Exorcist is an iconic piece of horror cinema, none of the studio’s subsequent sequels ever really managed to make all that much of a splash. Only time will tell whether that also ends up being the case with Universal and Blumhouse’s new trilogy of Exorcist features from director David Gordon Green, but the first trailer for The Exorcist: Believer definitely makes it seem like the revival’s cooking with gas.

Set in the same continuity as the original film, The Exorcist: Believer tells the story of how widower Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) struggles to save the life of his young daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) after she and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) vanish suddenly one day only to reappear days later seemingly possessed by demonic entities.

Victor doesn’t need any prior experience with the supernatural to tell that something’s amiss with the girls after they both show up with little memory of where they’ve been, and Angela takes to sneaking up behind him in the middle of the night to say strange things. But when the girls begin to be overcome with convulsions and start speaking in inhumanly resonant, feral voices, some part of Victor knows that his neighbor’s (Ann Dowd) advice to seek out someone familiar with possessions is on the money.

As delicious as it is to hear snippets of “Tubular Bells” sprinkled throughout the trailer, it’s even better to see Ellen Burstyn return as an older, wiser Chris MacNeil, who remembers well what it took to expel a demon from her own daughter. It’s interesting to see that Believer ’s story will revolve around two possessions that have some sort of common thread and touch on spiritual practices outside of Catholicism that deal with demonic expulsion. But given how much of an influence the original Exorcist has had on the horror genre and its possession-focused subset, The Exorcist: Believer ’s success is likely going to hinge on just how well it’s able to truly unsettle and disturb audiences.

The Exorcist: Believer is slated to hit theaters on October 13th.

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Weekend Box Office

Weekend box office results: the exorcist: believer scares up a solid debut, david gordon green's second horror "re-quel" didn't do as well as 2018's halloween , but it made a respectable $27 million to claim the top spot for a week before taylor swift takes over..

TAGGED AS: Box Office , movies , news

Blumhouse, in association with Universal and Peacock, reportedly bought the rights to The Exorcist franchise for $400 million. That is a lot of dough, especially with an option to put the second and third films of a proposed trilogy straight to the streaming service as exclusives. The pandemic cut into the plans for David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy, with its second ( Kills ) and third ( Ends ) chapters going day-and-date streaming and failing to earn what his 2018 film grossed in theaters alone. Streaming is not the problem with The Exorcist: Believer ; it’s the reviews, and a weekend that is likely not going to be worth the investment.

King of the Crop: The Exorcist: Believer Scares Up Solid Debut

David Gordon Green’s Halloween opened to $76 million in 2018. Five years later, The Exorcist: Believer began with $27.2 million. That’s a better opening than the last Exorcist film put out by Warner Bros. in 2004 (Renny Harlin’s The Beginning ) after they dumped Paul Schrader’s version and ordered a reboot. But even that film’s haul — $18 million — is still roughly $29.2 million in 2023 dollars. Believer’ s numbers this weekend are below the $30+ million many had pegged for it, even before it moved up a week to avoid the Taylor Swift storm next week. Now its budget is reportedly in the $30 million range. So ignore that $400 million franchise pricetag for the moment — as that can be made back over time — and consider that the new film’s opening is not terrible in that regard. The question now is how the poor reviews will spill over into word-of-mouth going forward.

Whatever dreams Believer may have had of becoming a $100 million grosser this month have been all but dashed. Only seven films have ever opened in October to less than $30 million and hit that milestone, and we are talking about films with genuinely positive word-of-mouth like Meet the Parents , The Departed , Captain Phillips , Argo , The Ring , Look Who’s Talking , and Pulp Fiction . Not only have we not seen this happen since 2013, but four of those films rank over 90% with critics, and the lowest score was the talking baby at 55%. The Exorcist: Believer currently sits at 22% on the Tomatometer. Horror films that have opened over $20 million with Tomatometer scores below 30% in the month of October include Annabelle , Saw IV , Saw V , Saw 3-D , Paranormal Activity 4 , Dracula Untold , and The Grudge 2 , and they have a collective average multiple of just 2.04. The “C” Cinemascore does not bode well either — that could keep Believer’ s total under $60 million domestic — but it won’t need much internationally to cover its budget.

Rotten Returns: The Creator Slips a Spot, Expend4bles Already Out of Top 10

We wish there was another way to frame this but there isn’t. Gareth Edwards’ The Creator is going to be another loser for 20th Century Studios. The original sci-fi epic fell 56% down to $6.1 million this weekend, bringing its total to a paltry $24.9 million. Those numbers put it just ahead of George Clooney-makes-a-gun film, The American ($5.6 million second weekend / $24.21 million 10-day gross), and the Jennifer Garner-has-a-gun film, Peppermint ($6 million / $24.18 million). The latter finished with just over $35 million. The Creator is on pace for a similar total, and with only $18.3 million internationally, the $80 million production is looking like another $60+ million bomb for the company, roughly the seventh since Disney acquired Fox.

At least it isn’t Expend4bles , which fell out of the top 10 after just two weekends. The film grossed under a million dollars in its third frame and has made only $15.3 million to date with only another $11.1 million internationally, and it’s currently looking like a $100+ million loser for Millennium Media and Lionsgate.

The Top 10 and Beyond: Paw Patrol and Saw X Hold On,  Hocus Pocus Sneaks In

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie held on for second place this week with $11.7 million. That brings its total to $38.8 million in its first 10 days. That is over $7 million more than The Addams Family 2 had back in 2021 after making $10.1 million in its second weekend. That puts The Mighty Movie on a path somewhere north of $65 million. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day made $11.4 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $36.2 million — it ultimately finished with over $66 million. With the same $30 million budget as The Exorcist: Believer , Paw Patrol could end up still outgrossing the film that knocked it back this weekend.

Last week’s runner-up fell back to third place. Saw X will soon be usurped by Believer’ s grosses, but this week, it dropped 55% to $8.1 million — not bad considering the history of this franchise has seen much larger falls. Chapters 4-8 all fell more than 60% in their second weekend, and X now has $32.5 million after 10 days. Those numbers are not far removed from Sinister and The Grudge 2 , which had respective follow-up weekends of $8.8 million and $7.6 million, bringing their totals to $31.7 million and $31.3 million. If  Saw X can stay closely aligned with the former, it could get itself over $50 million, a number this franchise has not seen since the fifth installment in 2008. The film is already in profit for Lionsgate, which alone is a win for a company that has not had many of late.

When all is said and done this season, The Nun II could become the horror victor. After three weeks atop the box office, the Conjuring spin-off added $2.5 million in its fifth weekend and pushed its total over $81 million. The Equalizer 3 can lay claim as the season’s top film, with $88.8 million in its bank currently. That is, until next weekend when Taylor Swift wipes everyone out. 20th Century Studios also has A Haunting in Venice still out there, and after $2.7 million more this weekend, its numbers are at least better than The Creator (with $58.5 million overseas), even if they’re not enough to get anyone excited about a fourth outing for Branagh’s Poirot.

Fathom continues to profit off of the Duck Dynasty origin story The Blind , which made $3.9 million over the weekend, a 12% boost from last weekend despite losing 401 theaters. Its total stands at $10.4 million. Also in the origin of fortunes, Dumb Money made $2.1 million, bringing its total to $10.6 million. It could become the first (initially) limited release of the year to pass $12 million. How much more would it have made if it just started wide? Heck, the 30th anniversary of Hocus Pocus made it into the top 10, going wide in 1,430 theaters and grossing $1.5 million this weekend.

Going down the rabbit hole of limited releases this week, Rebecca Miller’s She Came to Me with Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei made $360,000 in 355 theaters, a $1,014 per-theater average. Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel made $335,000 in 267 theaters ($1,254 PTA), and Pedro Almodovar’s short film Strange Way of Life with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal made $205,000 in 276 theaters for a $742 PTA. However, A24’s Dicks: The Musical grossed $220,800 in just 7 theaters for a $31,542 PTA, the eighth best of 2023.

On the Vine: Taylor Swift Expected to Dominate

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour scared away multiple releases next week, and with $100+ million in pre-sales already, it is going to have one of the five best openings of the year. Can it beat Barbie’ s $162 million start?

Full List of Box Office Results: October 6-8, 2023

• $27.2 million ($27.2 million total)

• $11.7 million ($38.8 million total)

• $8.1 million ($32.5 million total)
• $6 million ($24.9 million total)

• $3.9 million ($10.4 million total)
• $2.7 million ($35.6 million total)
• $2.5 million ($81 million total)
• $2.1 million ($10.6 million total)
• $1.8 million ($88.8 million total)
• $1.5 million ($1.5 million total)

Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on  Business First AM  with Angela Miles and his  Movie Madness Podcast .

[box office figures via  Box Office Mojo ]

Thumbnail image by ©Universal Pictures

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News .

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The Exorcist Believer: When is the new Exorcist film out, The Exorcist Believer Rotten Tomatoes reviews, cast

Spooky season is finally here and there's no better way to celebrate the season of the witch with the long awaited, and updated, release of the sequel to William Friedkin's magnum opus, 1974's The Exorcist.

Originally penned as a book by William Peter Blatty, Friedkin brought the terrifying world of demonic possession to the big screen which left a number cinema-goers fainting and vomiting in the theatre and left a legacy on the horror genre few could dream of.

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However, did you know, almost 50 years after the 1974 original, a direct sequel to Friedkin's The Exorcist will return to our screens to bring the horror into the new century ahead of spooky season.

Including cast members from the original movie, The Exorcist: Believer will hope to have an impact that non of its subsequent prequels managed.

Here is everything you need to know about The Exorcist: Believer.

What is The Exorcist Believer about, is The Exorcist 2023 a sequel

While The Exorcist has already had two sequels - The Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III - however The Exorcist: Believer will be a direct sequel to the iconic 1974 film and the first of two sequels to come, with The Exorcist: Deceiver set for a 2025 release.

Produced by Jason Blum's production company Blumhouse (responsible for films such as Insidious and Sinister), the film will be set in present day and is to be directed by David Gordon Green, who was responsible for the recent Halloween reboot. The story begins when two young girls go missing from their family home. The children do return, however, their parents realise something isn't quite right.

The pair begin to act out and their bizarre behaviour begins to make the parents believe it could be the result of the supernatural which leads their parents to seek the help of experienced exorcists.

A trailer for the film is available to watch here .

The Exorcist Believer reviews

Early indications are worried with some early reviews rolling in claiming the film is not worthy of its franchises' lofty reputation - Rotten Tomatoes rank it as low as 23% for the earliest critics review.

However, Jason Blum, producer of the film, told fans: ""you come out kind of shaken, so be prepared" when speaking to Entertainment Weekly and the early reviews seems to align with the horror king's thoughts.

Despite that, viewers who attended the test screening of the film claim it is not scary and 'too long', while one reviewer claimed the film was "not ambitious enough to be interesting, nor is it powerful enough to get under the skin. It evades serious discussions of faith and uses the underlying depth of the series as a basis for little more than fan service and generic plot."

The Exorcist Believer, is Linda Blair in The Exorcist 2023

The young child star of William Friedkin's 1974 film will make a return in the modern day sequel 'Believer' as she reclaims her role of Regan MacNeil, however, we have no indication how big of a part she will play.

Ellen Burstyn, who played Regan's mother Chris in the original, is another of the returning cast members from the 70s horror classic. In 'Believer' she plays the same role as she advises a parents who have suffered the same fate as she did with Regan.

There is also confirmed roles for Leslie Odom Jr. as Victor Fielding, Raphael Sbarge who plays a Pastor, Lidya Jewett as Angela, Olivia Marcum as Katherine, E.J. Bonilla as Father Maddox and finally Antoni Corone as Father Phillips.

The Exorcist Believer release date, when is The Exorcist 2023 released, The Exorcist Believer running time and age rating

The Exorcist: Believer is set to be released on the big screen across the globe and will be released across UK cinemas by Universal on Friday 6 October 2023 just in time for Halloween. Originally intended to be released on October 13, it was moved due to the release of Taylor Swift's new album.

The Exorcist believer has a run time of exactly one hour and 15 minutes, while it has been handed a 15 by the BBFC for strong horror, violence, injury detail, very strong language.

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‘The Exorcism’ Review: Losing Faith

Russell Crowe stars as an actor playing an exorcist who’s battling his own demons.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

“The Exorcism” starts from an instantly compelling premise: On the set of a horror movie about an exorcist, demons lurk. Horror films often tap into ancient fears rooted in myth; this is just a more modern one. As one character tells another, “All kinds of things happen on the sets of devil movies.” Then she names a few examples: “‘The Omen,’ ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘Poltergeist.’” It’s true — over decades, stories of freak accidents and deaths on those sets have grown into the kind of lore that can power its own horror film.

That “The Exorcist” is named in this list is a little funny, since the film-within-the-film is clearly just a variant on William Friedkin’s influential 1973 classic. The nested movie is even called “The Georgetown Project,” a reference to the setting of “The Exorcist.” (“The Exorcism,” directed by Joshua John Miller from a screenplay he wrote with M.A. Fortin, seems named to provoke the comparison, too, though that also makes talking about it a little confusing.) What’s more, the first scene in “The Exorcism” reveals that “The Georgetown Project” is about a priest having a crisis of faith who is called to cast a demon out of a teenage girl, and that the house built on the soundstage is a dead ringer for the more famous movie’s set. In other words: In “The Exorcism,” they’re basically making “The Exorcist.”

Religious horror — which is to say, horror movies that specifically evoke religious imagery — can be hopelessly hokey, thoughtlessly appropriative, or thoughtful. I’d put “The Exorcist,” one of Hollywood’s best meditations on faith and doubt, in the thoughtful camp, and for the first half-hour of “The Exorcism,” I though it would land there too. It’s about a famous actor named Tony Miller (Russell Crowe, looking sufficiently tortured), whose addictions and grief have recently derailed his career and life. He is given a chance to star as a priest in “The Georgetown Project” by its cranky jerk of a director (Adam Goldberg) after the role is suddenly and violently vacated. Tony thinks it is the salvation he needs.

Catholic symbology plays an outsized role in horror — thanks, in no small part, to the influence of “The Exorcist.” Often movies end up grappling with whether the words, rites and sacramental objects of the Catholic church have power of their own, regardless of the beliefs and righteousness of the wielder. “The Exorcism” dips into this inquiry but goes further. In this movie, Catholicism is both the villain and the hero.

Tony’s sardonic 16-year-old daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), for instance, shows up at home because she has been suspended from her Catholic boarding school for protesting the principal’s choice to fire her gay guidance counselor. She and Tony have a fraught relationship given Tony’s checkered past, which, we come to realize, has something to do with a horrifying experience from his days as an altar boy.

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‘exorcist: believer’ gets horrifying reviews after studio gambled $400 million for rights.

The first film in an ambitious planned horror trilogy is being read last rites by critics after Universal shelled out $400 million for the rights alone. But could strong box office tracking make the studio's faith pay off?

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

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From a business perspective, at least, The Exorcist: Believer is suddenly looking scary.

The first film in a planned horror trilogy, Exorcist: Believer is getting rather poor reviews — scoring only a 28 22 20 23 percent average on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s hardly unusual for Exorcist films to leave critics unimpressed. The franchise may have launched with William Friedkin’s acclaimed 1973 classic, but none of its four previous sequels received much acclaim.

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The film has been tracking for a good weekend opening — a potential franchise best, actually — of $30 million to $35 million. It’s unclear if the reviews, which were published today, will impact ticket sales; horror films are often review-proof. The tracking is on par with the opening of New Line’s recently released The Nun 2 . Yet as producer Jason Blum pointed out to IndieWire in March, The Exorcist: Believer needs to generate some head-spinning box office returns. Blum’s 2018 reboot of the Halloween franchise (which, like Believer , was also directed by David Gordon Green) opened to $77 million.

“The riskiest movie I have ever made for sure is not out yet,” said Blum ( M3GAN , Get Out , The Black Phone ), who is regarded as the most prolific and successful horror hitmaker working today. “It’s  The Exorcist . Just because it’s so expensive. Usually the bar to success on everything we do because it’s inexpensive is incredibly low. For  The Exorcist , it’s high.”

The film centers on Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.), whose daughter (Lidya Jewett) and her friend (Olivia Marcum) become possessed. Ellen Burstyn also returns to the franchise in her first appearance since the original film.

The Believer reviews follow the latest offering in the low-budget Saw franchise, Lionsgate’s Saw X , scoring 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and A24’s similarly modestly priced horror title Talk to Me getting a 94 percent “Fresh” rating. Yet neither title came close to the $30 million domestic opening weekend revenue that’s predicted for Believer and was scored by The Nun 2 — which received only a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Director Green has been attached to helm the next film, The Exorcist: Deceiver , which is planned for 2025, and a third, as-yet-untitled film. In The Hollywood Reporter’ s review , critic David Rooney predicted, “Any love you had for David Gordon Green’s attempts to reanimate John Carpenter’s game-changing Halloween  franchise will probably more or less correspond to your feelings about  The Exorcist: Believer .”

The new Exorcist sequels might be less dependent on the first entry being a major hit than other franchises — like, for example, superhero movies — because fans are accustomed to horror movie franchises being hit-or-miss, and the Exorcist brand goes back decades.

The prospect of Believer potentially underperforming has to bring to mind the specter of another expensive attempt by Universal to launch a multifilm, horror-inspired franchise — its canceled Dark Universe classic monsters franchise, which kicked off with 2017’s The Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise.

Still, Universal executives might want to say a few prayers.

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The Exorcist: Believer: After the Initial Rotten Tomatoes Score, Will This Reboot Be Another Flop?

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The Exorcist: Believer Falls a Long Ways Short of Original According to First Reviews

Exorcist: believer producer explains the reason behind the franchise’s narrative reset, critics call this the best action movie ever made and now it's getting a remake.

For horror fans hoping that David Gordon Green's (overall) successful reboot of Halloween would translate equally well to the Exorcist franchise, we hate to be the bearer of bad news. The Exorcist: Believer is getting eviscerated by critics; as of this writing, it holds an outright dire Rotten Tomatoes score of 20%. Not only is that a lower score than any of Green's Halloween films, it's the third-lowest rating in the franchise. Only Exorcist II: The Heretic and Exorcist: The Beginning got worse reviews.

So what happened, considering Green showed such initial promise as a horror director with 2018's Halloween legacy sequel? Do the reviews spell box office disaster for his intended trilogy before it even begins?

Box Office Trouble?

The answer thus far seems to be no... at least for now. Current box office projections predict The Exorcist: Believer to earn between $30 and $36 million in its opening weekend, which easily puts it on track to break even on its $30 million budget. Factoring additional grosses from overseas markets, it seems all but guaranteed that the film will at least break even at such a low cost.

Considering horror is a consistently reliable source of steady box office income, this isn't surprising. Horror is famously a genre that is quick and easy to produce on a small budget; filmmakers don't need to get A-list actors to sell a project, as audiences go to horror films to be scared with each other as a communal experience, more than they do the stars involved. The Exorcist still holds up as a high watermark for the genre; even today, it remains an utterly chilling work still able to scare viewers senseless, and it's assured that its fans will see any new installment in the franchise.

The first reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes score of The Exorcist: Believer are scary bad.

But past a successful opening weekend, will The Exorcist: Believer be able to hold onto an audience? That seems like a much shakier prospect, considering the dismal reviews and how much word-of-mouth impacts the horror genre in particular.

Consider the curious case of The Devil Inside back in 2012; it was almost unanimously panned by critics but had what was, at the time, the third-best opening weekend for a January release ever, enough to easily earn back its $1 million budget. But audiences hated the film; it earned an ultra-rare "F" CinemaScore, stories spread about viewers booing at the end credits , and by the third weekend, it had completely disappeared from the box office top ten.

Additionally, there seems to be little overall enthusiasm for yet another Exorcist film. None of the sequels are beloved by fans; in comparison, the second and third installments of Halloween have small cult followings, and as polarizing as Rob Zombie's reboot films were, they still have their defenders. There's always been a built-in love for Michael Myers outside just the original Halloween that ensured it could sustain itself as a franchise, but with The Exorcist , it's much less of a guarantee.

Does David Gordon Green Need to Go Indie Again?

Of course, the other significant factor that has many concerned about Believer is the involvement of former indie darling director David Gordon Green. While the 2018 Halloween was well-liked by fans and critics alike for returning to basics, his goodwill among the horror community didn't take long to dry up. Halloween Kills received much less favorable reviews than its predecessor, and his trilogy capper, Halloween Ends, notoriously polarized fanboys, leaving many infuriated with its unexpected twist .

Reviews for The Exorcist: Believer regularly cite Green's direction as a major flaw; critics note that he brings almost nothing new to the table and relies too much on fan service, jump scares, and nostalgia rather than adding his own distinct vision to the franchise. His Halloween trilogy, for all its faults, at least tried to take the series in a different direction, but if word of mouth is to be believed, that doesn't seem to be the case for Believer .

It's a shame because Green is a clearly talented filmmaker capable of producing great work when working on his own terms and, crucially, when working outside the studio system. His 2000 debut, George Washington , remains an unsung gem, with visual poetry reminiscent of Terrence Malick at his best and keen empathy for its characters living on the margins. His sophomore feature, All the Real Girls , is also incredibly underrated, delicately exploring a blossoming relationship between a young couple while wisely staying true to the inevitable rifts that come up between them.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time that Green needed to go back to his roots. After helming 2008's hilarious Pineapple Express , Green's voice was drowned out as he tried to become a studio comedy director, and his subsequent films, Your Highness and The Sitter , were major critical and commercial disasters. Green seemed to understand he had to go back to basics, and indeed, he had a successful comeback with Prince Avalanche , Joe , and Stronger . Perhaps repeating this stunt would be the best move for his career right now because horror seems to be as ill a fit for him as studio comedies.

The Exorcist: Believer’s Ryan Turek shared the bold moves being taken by the franchise.

Another Failed Reboot?

While a successful opening weekend for The Exorcist: Believer seems assured at this point, it can't help but feel like it won't have legs beyond that and won't reach nearly the level of success of Green's Halloween trilogy (not helped by the fact that Taylor Swift's concert film opens the weekend after). And considering the poor critical reviews , general lack of nostalgia for The Exorcist beyond the original movie, and David Gordon Green's polarizing work in the horror genre, one has to wonder if, sometimes, some franchises should just stay dead.

• The Exorcist (2023) (2023)

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Russell crowe's new exorcism movie gets rotten tomatoes score — does it make the wait for the pope's exorcist 2 easier.

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This $131m movie saw denzel washington team up with mark wahlberg & i think it deserved better, 8 movie plot twists i wish i could forget to experience them again.

• The Exorcism holds a disappointing 32% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, citing weak narrative and acting.
• Previous film The Pope's Exorcist had a similar critical rating but received high audience approval.
• The Exorcism' s early reviews and box office results may not reflect its potential success among audiences.

The Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for Russell Crowe's new horror film The Exorcism . The film tells the story of an actor struggling with addiction and personal issues who goes to work on the set of a horror movie only for his psyche to unravel during the shoot. Crowe takes the lead role in The Exorcism , with a supporting cast that includes Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, and David Hyde Pierce.

Now, the Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for The Exorcism . At the time of writing, The Exorcism has a rotten 32% Tomatometer . This score comes from 22 critics, and is subject to change as the film is being released this weekend. As such, The Exorcism also does not have an audience score yet.

Why The Exorcism's Rotten Tomatoes Score Isn't Necessarily Dismal for the Film

Crowe had a similar movie do well with audiences.

So far, critics are saying that The Exorcism has a weak narrative and overdone acting from lead performer Crowe and many of the movie's supporting characters. Others commented on the film's disjointed tone , including Collider 's Emma Kiely, who said that " it can't find its footing between comedy and horror ." The San Francisco Chronicle 's Mick LaSalle was even more biting in his response, saying that the film " goes to hell in all sense of the phrase ." While a number of critics agree that The Exorcism has great cinematography, complaints about the acting and weak script were a common refrain.

The Exorcism 's negative reviews may be disappointing for viewers of Crowe's previous work, The Pope's Exorcist , who were looking for a Crowe horror to keep them satiated while waiting for the upcoming The Pope's Exorcist 2 . When looking back on The Pope's Exorcist , however, it is important to note that the film had only a 50% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. Even with this mediocre Tomatometer, The Pope's Exorcist managed to get an 81% approval rating among audiences. So too could The Exorcism break the critical curse by being well-liked by audiences .

Despite their similar titles and shared star, The Pope's Exorcist and The Exorcism have no relation to each other.

The Pope's Exorcist also had a unique success story when it comes to the box office. Made on an estimated $18 million budget , The Pope's Exorcist 's $76.9 million gross made the film profit, though it was not an exorbitant box office take home. Despite its modest earnings, The Pope's Exorcist went on to be a major streaming success, later topping the Netflix charts. As such, neither The Exorcism ' s early reviews nor what it ends up doing at the initial box office run are indicative of doom for the Crowe horror film .

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

The Exorcism (2024)

A troubled actor, Anthony Miller, portrayed by Russell Crowe, begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His daughter, Lee, played by Ryan Simpkins, suspects his erratic behavior might be due to his past addictions or something far more sinister. As the film progresses, the line between reality and the supernatural blurs, leading to a tense and chilling climax.

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Now that the review embargo for The Exorcist: Believer is gone, the movie currently sits at a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes

Regardless of your opinion on Rotten Tomatoes, I have to say, this does not bode well.

Aside from getting Ellen Burstyn back, the trailers look like any other shitty possession movie that came out in the wake of The Conjuring. It does not even remotely understand what made the original The Exorcist great (or even The Conjuring great, for that matter) and what makes shitty possession movies so shitty.

I'm now even more certain that for David Gordon Green, Halloween 2018 was merely a fluke.

If the movie somehow winds up being good, I'll be more than willing to eat my words, but I'm not holding my breath.

EDIT: 23% now.

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