The Exorcist: Believer is a film part of The Exorcist franchise that released on the 6th of October 2023 with its sequel "Deceiver" said to have been released on the 18th of April 2025, though is said to be on hold after the film was dropped from schedules due to its poor performance, its current status is that plans are still in works as confirmed by Jason Blum though no longer has a confirmed new release date.
The movie was originally meant to be released on the 13th of the same month but was given an earlier release so it would not have to compete with the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie. It stars Leslie Odom Jr, Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum, along with Ellen Burstyn reprising her role as Chris MacNeil and Linda Blair reprising her role as Regan MacNeil towards the end as a cameo.
Synopsis[]
Two schoolgirls, Angela Fielding (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia Marcum) head into the woods after school is over for the day only to end up being missing for a few days but are soon revealed to be possessed, after learning this, Angela's father (Leslie Odom Jr) and Katherine's parents head out to find someone who has dealt with these forces before, a woman named Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn)
Plot[]
During a trip to Haiti, Victor is taking photos whilst his pregnant wife is shopping, she is lead by a young boy to a group of women who bless her, as their day draws to a close, Sorenne goes to lay down on the bed where she and her husband are staying only for a earthquake to hit, she alongside everyone else in the complex rush for the stairs but she is soon found in critical condition where upon being introduced to another doctor, Victor is given a choice since both Sorenne and their child can't both be saved he is given the option whether to save his wife and let their unborn daughter die or save his daughter and let his wife die. Thirteen years pass since the earthquake and Victor is now a single father to young Angela who expresses her sadness to her dad after watching a documentary about pigs being slaughtered, Victor eventually manages to convince Angela to get to the car, he notices a purple scarf around his daughter and asks where she got it from but she lies and insists she bought it herself with her allowance however her dad realises where she got it from and takes it away, his neighbour Ann comes out and brings up the issue with the Fieldings bins, Victor gives a somewhat friendly response as he then takes his daughter to school.
Once at school, Victor drops Angela off but parks in front of the area where the bus needs to go insisting to the driver he won't be long, Angela then brings up the earlier conversation she had about going around to Katherine's, Victor finally agrees but makes his daughter promise she has to be home for dinner to which Angela happily agrees to. During class, Angela and another girl are talking to each other much to the annoyance of both their classmates and teacher, the school day ends and Katherine and Angela make their way to the woods where Angela plans on doing a ritual to try contact the spirit of her deceased mother, Katherine brings her to a certain area and they start the ritual, albeit teasing each other when doing so by whispering each other's names. As it gets later, Victor returns home only to discover his daughter is missing, he calls up his neighbour and asks if Angela went to their house like she said she would but is told neither her or Katherine are home since Katherine apparently was meant to be elsewhere that day. Police are called in to find the missing children and Victor tries finding answers in the homeless shelter but only gets inappropriate comments, he flips the table and leaves in disgust and returns home only to find Tony and two women blessing Angela's room but tells the three to immediately leave. After three days, it begins to rain heavily and a farmer tells his son to go get a blanket for a horse that is laying on the ground, he runs inside looking for one but discovers Angela and Katherine huddled in a back corner, he calls his dad and the two girls are eventually sent to the hospital.
When Victor finally reunites with his daughter, Detective Konik prompts Angela to tell her father how long she thinks she was gone for, Angela seemingly becomes angry as she doesn't want to answer but Konik asks her again instead telling her to say what she had told her and the officers, Angela finally speaks up and tells her dad she says she and Katherine had been in the woods and believed they were just gone for a few hours only for Victor to admit it had been three days, both Katherine and Angela go through some medical tests to make sure they're fine mentally and psychically however they both have the same injuries, scars on their stomachs and their feet scarred and fingernails covered in blood both having no memory of how it happened. Both girls are eventually able to be taken home and Victor tries to get the truth, Angela tells the truth saying it was to to speak to her mother but there was no response from the other side, as she looks on she sees a possessed version of herself and sternly tells her dad to leave her alone now, Victor agrees and leaves his daughter to rest. Katherine is also at home as she stands looking into the bathroom mirror as her mother walks in to check on her, Katherine asks if it's okay if she can sleep with her parents that night, Miranda, given the circumstances of what had happened agrees and leaves to go to bed. Victor is brushing his teeth when the light flickers on and off and Angela appears, Victor convinces her to go back to bed and she does so only to come back under the impression he said something to which he denies it and sends his daughter back to her room.
The next morning, Victor is up cooking breakfast and goes to give it to his daughter who is still sleeping which surprises him, he notices a foul smell and finds out that Angela had wet the bed, he gets her up and helps her to the bathroom and runs her a bath, when he goes to collect the stained duvet, he goes to check on Angela again only to discover her no longer in the bathroom and the water to be what appears to be blood, he finds a tooth and then goes to find his daughter only to be attacked by her. Angela runs out of the room and begins convulsing as Victor quickly gets her to the hospital, Angela is restrained on a bed and wheeled into a room as she screams, in the hallway, Victor asks Ann if she had seen anything like it before only for Ann to reply with a no.
That Sunday, Katherine and her family attend church and Katherine appears disinterested as she begins removing her shoes, Tony tells his daughter to stop and she seemingly does for a moment as the pastor welcomes Katherine back after being missing, as the choir began their song, Katherine had seemingly left her seat and when asked where she went, her younger brother told his mom that he didn't know, Miranda tells Tony they need to find their daughter only for her to wander back through as she repeats the words "The body and the blood" as she walks down the aisle still missing her shoes, she continues repeating the same phrase in which the pastor did before she is quickly stopped by her parents who gather around her.
Now back at the hospital, Victor and the Wests wait outside wondering what's wrong with their daughters, Miranda compares the amount of days they vanished to the amount of days when Jesus Christ returned, she goes on to explain after he was crucified, he went to hell to announce his leadership, Victor then asks if she thinks their daughters went to hell and came back possessed by the devil. That night, Ann is looking after Angela and takes her temperature which comes up as an error twice, she turns around for a moment only to then look back at the now awake Angela who begins talking in a demonic voice mentioning something that directly targets Ann. Blood starts staining the sheet around Angela's lower half as the demonic presence within her laughs in amusement. Victor is lead through the local mental institution where he believes Angela should be . As he gets home, he is confronted by Ann who mentions her faith, Victor gets fed up with wanting to hear it and goes to head back inside only to be stopped by Ann who mentions she originally had plans to become a nun but at some point got with a guy who got her pregnant, she admits to having an abortion but tells Victor that Angela somehow knew what name the baby would have been called with Ann firmly telling her neighbour that she had never told anybody that secret, Victor then heads back into his house.
As Victor sits inside his home, he goes through the book he was given with up close shots talking about a familiar incident, he looks through the photos taken at the hospital and focuses on the one where Angela had scars on her stomach, he then begins doing extra research on the author of the book Chris MacNeil where he finds an interview on Youtube where a much younger Chris talks about the incident that happened when Regan was young. He calls up Tony who further explains who Chris is and Victor heads out to find her.
As he leaves his car, he his greeted by a dog which gets Chris' attention, she watches on as Victor approaches her house and he holds up her book, he's let inside the house and admits something is wrong with his daughter. As Chris explains the all too familiar incident, she goes on to explain that Regan wasn't a huge fan of its success and had moved away and not spoken to her mother since, she goes on explaining she wasn't allowed to witness the exorcism which she believes is down to not being a church go-er however she was there when Regan's demonic behaviour became visible. Chris soon agrees to help the trouble single dad and the two head to the institute where Angela is being kept, Angela becomes restless and has finished carving Regan's name near the window, as Victor and Chris approach the window, Angela lays under the bed acting strange with Chris admitting she knows why she's there.
That night, the two head to the West house and Victor almost gives up believing nobody is home but Chris notices Katherine at the window and tells him there is, they enter and Victor eventually finds Miranda, her other two kids and soon Tony, he gets them to leave as Chris is drawn to following Katherine upstairs, the now evidentially possessed girl mocks Chris claiming to know where Regan is, the demon laughs on declaring Regan is in hell but Chris shows no emotion instead trying to cast the demonic force out of the young girl instead, Katherine flails around in bed screaming begging for "Mother, help me!" referencing the possession years before. Eventually, Katherine grabs a cross and impales it into Chris' eyes claiming if she wants to know where her daughter is, she is to open her eyes, Victor finds the now screaming and blind Chris who is soon taken to the hospital and has something places over her eyes.
As Father Maddox and Ann attempt to get permission for an exorcism, its eventually decided that even though given the circumstances it just can't happen. Maddox and Ann return to the Fielding house where Maddox gives the bad news, Victor still says they're going through the exorcism with or without the Father, Ann is given the bible and told to do it instead with Ann agreeing, everyone but Maddox heads inside and finds the two girls now tied to the chairs with their backs against each other, as they each start trying to exercise the demons out, the girls wake up to mock their attempts, it seemingly works at first as Katherine begins throwing up some form of black goop but it starts getting worse as as soon as the cross is picked up and made to heat up, burning Victor after telling his daughter to try get the demon out herself. With both hearts in sync, it comes to light that one girl can only be saved with the other one dying in the process, Angela begins to speak up claiming Victor never wanted her with Victor shaking his head, it cuts back to the earthquake scene with Sorenne and then to Victor making his choice, he had picked for his wife to live however Angela was miraculously born instead with Sorenne dying, both girls seemingly beg as neither want to die, everyone is conflicted and watches on upset as both beg to live, Maddox comes into the house and places his hands upon the heads of the two girls, he begins saying a prayer which works at first only for Katherine and Angela to move their heads and as they do, it affects Maddox whose neck is snapped and he dies, his body bleeding out on the floor in front of everyone in attendance.
In the room where Tony fled, he finally leaves and yells that he chooses Katherine to save, as he does, everyone screams at his choice and watches on as Angela begins to rise and floats in the air as the presence within her finally leaves however she collapses to the floor and her heart monitor flatlines. Katherine is soon freed and cries out as her mother hugs her however things take another dark turn when Angela comes back to life and Katherine flatlines, CPR is attempted however It's too late and Katherine dies with the adults realising they had been tricked. Everyone goes outside where Katherine's body is taken away and Ann stands on the porch watching the aftermath as police and paramedics arrive.
Some time later, Ann and Kanik talk, Ann goes on talking about hope as Angela heads into the school, Victor visits his wife's grave ("Sorenne Fielding, 1988-2010, Beloved wife and mother) as Ann continues to talk about how it will be difficult for everyone to deal with everything that has just happened. As Chris sits blind in the hospital, the door opens and she calls for Victor only for the person to walk inside and grab Chris' hand and lean down as Regan then says Its her, Chris and Regan embrace after not seeing each other in years.
Cast[]
- Leslie Odom Jr. as Victor Fielding
- Ann Dowd as Ann
- Jennifer Nettles as Miranda
- Norbert Leo Butz as Tony
- Lidya Jewett as Angela Fielding
- Olivia Marcum as Katherine West
- Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil
- Okwui Okpokwasili as Dr. Beehibe
- Raphael Sbarge as Pastor
- Chloe Traicos as Jodea Maxwell
- E.J. Bonilla as Father Maddox
- Antoni Corone as Father Phillips
- Tracey Graves as Sorenne Fielding
- Lize Johnston as Lamashtu
- Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil (cameo)
Production[]
The Exorcist: Believer was announced in August of 2023 when Morgan Creek Entertainment made their announcement that they would be remaking a new instalment within the franchise as a way to reboot it. In December of that year, it was confirmed that the project was going to happen and then David Gordon Green became its director with Jason Blum, David Robinson and James Robinson serving as its producer, in the following year it was confirmed that the reboot would include a new trilogy with its sequel titled Deceiver eventually gaining a release date of the 18th of April 2025. Since the movie was on hold due to the ongoing pandemic at the time, the movie's writing team alongside Blum himself would go over the story as early as 2020.
Casting[]
It was soon revealed that Believer would include Leslie Odom Jr (Known for Hamilton) as a single father to Angela Fielding, Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum and Okwui Okpokwasili were soon casted with Raphael Sbarge being added to the project as an unnamed pastor, the cast also includes Jennifer Nettles who has been reported to have a primary role within the movie, Ellen Burstyn came back to reprise her role as Chris Macneil who helps the parents of Katherine and Angela since she struggled in the past having to deal with a possessed Regan.
Filming[]
Around early 2022, Burstyn had confirmed she had finished filming her scenes. Due to her age and her risk of catching COVID-19, the crew made sure Burstyn's scenes were completed but still made sure she was safe and managed to get her scenes completed. Although Linda Blair herself features as an advisor on set, she does not have a role in the movie as stated by Green who told Total Film that "I was really lucky to have her read the script, but she was not interested in a significant role and stepping back into that. We brought her in as an advisor because we're dealing with young people, and we want to take them to dangerous places safely". In November that year, filming began in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgie with Burstyn having to return to filming re-shoots, filming however had to be paused mid-December due to it being the holidays as well as Odom dealing with "an unspecified health issue" but was able to continue soon after and had been completed March of 2023.
Original release[]
Believer was originally meant to release the following week on Friday the 13th however to avoid competition with Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, Believer had been moved to the 6th with box office projections placing the film "opening to above $30 million at the box office".
Trailers[]
Behind the scenes[]
Behind The Scenes of The Exorcist: Believer