Director David Gordon Green returns from spearheading the recent “Halloween” sequel trilogy to continue another beloved franchise through “The Exorcist: Believer,” possessing the audience along with the two girls fallen victim to the demons.  

There are now two families that must deal with the mystery of what has happened to their daughters after they disappeared in the woods one day after school. The two girls, Angela and Katherine, are found three days later, traumatized and showing signs of possession. Aided by Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil, the mother of the possessed Regan from the original film, the families are left trying to pull the demons out of their daughters.  

While technically a sequel, “The Exorcist: Believer” is more of a standalone. The original is referenced, and some characters overlap, but this film makes the right choice to keep its focus on its own story and use the original film as only a means of providing context to the world.   

There may be two possessed children, but the focus is on Leslie Odom Jr.’s Victor Fielding, the father of one of the girls who lost his wife in a tragic accident right before she gave birth. The film excels at setting up Odom’s character and his dynamic with his daughter, Angela, played by Lidya Jewett; however, the same cannot be said for the other family.   

Rather than splitting the focus between the two, the film makes the decision to be almost entirely from Odom’s perspective. While this allows an emotional bond to form between Odom and the audience, it significantly steals the attention away from developing the other family in the film. 

Including the perspective of the other family could have created a more serious dilemma, where the viewers could see how different families navigate the same frightful situation.  

The other semimajor character within the film is the returning Burstyn, performed by MacNeil. While Burstyn is an eye-catching part of the trailer, her appearance in the film only catches audiences up to her point in life since the original film. Fans who are looking for a film that heavily involves her will be disappointed. Still, the film was better delivered through the new characters than if the director chose to overly focus on selling nostalgia.  

As for the horror in the film, there were some genuinely good effects and makeup; however, films in this series truly excel when they can capture the fear and desperation that a family would incur if their own daughters were possessed be an evil spirit. All of this was done very well, although the film unfortunately falls back on a few easy to deliver jump-scares.  

 The film does think of clever new ways to enhance the meaning of the “The Exorcist” name and provides a pretty satisfying conclusion to these characters’ stories in the process.   

This is just the start of Green’s new sequel trilogy, and it will be intriguing to see where things will go next. Much like Green’s take on “Halloween,” “The Exorcist: Believer” does not end with loose threads.  

Hopefully, this is not an indication that history is repeating itself and Green has a plan this time, rather than making one solid film only to follow it up with two somewhat directionless sequels.    

“The Exorcist: Believer” is available to watch in theaters now.