- Directed by David Gordon Green
- Written by Peter Sattler, David Gordon Green, Scott Teems
- Stars Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn,
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIxpPMyGcpU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was okay in most ways. The cast and direction are skillful. The special effects were impressive. It’s just that the first Exorcist movie was original and shocking. This just seemed like a modern upgrade of more of the same, with two girls this time instead of one. There weren’t really surprises or anything new.
Synopsis
We begin in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where Sorenne shops at the market. After that, she goes to a spiritual healer who blesses her baby; she’s very pregnant. Victor is there; he’s her husband. He doesn’t believe in the locals’ blessings. Suddenly, there’s a massive earthquake, and Sorenne’s hotel collapses on her. Victor takes her to a doctor, but she’s badly hurt. The doctor can save either her or the baby, and it’s up to Victor to choose…
We cut to Percy, Georgia, sometime later. Angela digs through her dead mother’s photos as her father, Victor, gets her ready for school. Ann, the naggy neighbor lady, yells at Victor for leaving the trash on the curb. Victor goes to the gym and then to work, taking family photos. After school, Angela and her friend, Catherine, go into the woods to do a ritual to talk to spirits.
When Victor gets home late, Angela’s not there. Victor gets together with Catherine’s parents to search the woods. Victor finds a shoe. The police check the surveillance cameras and follow them as far as they can, but they don’t know more than that. There’s a homeless encampment nearby, but that doesn’t come to anything either.
Victor goes home after a long day of searching and finds that Stuart, a friend, has invited Dr. Beehibe, some spiritualist, to bless the house again. Victor throws everyone out.
Elsewhere, a farmer and his son deal with a sick cow, and the farmer’s son finds the two girls in his barn. At the hospital, Angela thinks she’s been gone for a few hours. It’s been three days. She doesn’t remember anything, but her feet are all messed up; same with Catherine. They do a bunch of tests, and neither girl shows any evidence of any assault. We start seeing some weird stuff around Angela.
In the morning, Angela has wet the bed, which isn’t normal for her. Angela attacks Victor and then goes into a seizure. Her fingers and toenails are all torn up, which no one can explain.
Catherina and her family go to church like they always do, and Catherine isn’t looking super healthy either. When Communion time rolls around, Catherine has snuck out. During the rest of the sermon, Catherine comes back in, and she’s… not right.
Catherine’s mother thinks demons possess the girls, but she sounds like a crazy woman, so Victor is skeptical. Ann, the neighbor who is also a nurse, tells Victor about a woman who wrote a book about a very similar experience: Chris MacNeil, from the original “Exorcist” (1973) film. Victor says he’s going to check Angela into a mental institution. Ann is convincing, so he looks at the book and checks out Chris MacNeill on YouTube. Over the decades, she’s become an expert on possession and exorcisms.
Victor goes to see Chris. Regan and she fought over the book, and they don’t speak any more. They both go back to Angela’s hospital, where they meet up with Ann and Father Maddox, a local priest. They go over to Catherine’s house, and the place is a mess. Catherine asks if Chris is looking for Regan. After a bit of arguing, Catherine stabs Chris’s eyes out with a cross.
Father Maddox goes to the church leaders and asks to do an exorcism. Victor talks to Dr. Beehibe, who explains the traditional ways of dealing with problems. They set up a pair of chairs in Victor’s living room with symbols and everything at the ready. Father Maddox reports that the church said no to the exorcism, but he gives them some pointers.
The parents and their preachers argue, so Ann takes charge of the situation. Both girls are hooked to medical monitors and the various people start the exorcism. Catherine says, “You’re all going to die!” There is much screaming and freakiness. The evil kids get personal with Victor’s history. It’s all looking very bleak.
…Until Father Maddox comes in, disobeying his orders and helping anyway. He does the exorcism, and the demon-possessed girls start wailing. That doesn’t go on for very long before the priest’s head turns all the way around. Priest heads aren’t meant to do that, so he dies on the spot.
Things get out of hand very quickly after that as both girls levitate around the room. Both girls fall down, dead. Angela wakes up again, but Catherine doesn’t.
The police and paramedics come and question everybody.
Eventually, Angela gets better and goes back to school. It’ll all be fine now, right? We cut back to the hospital, where Chris MacNeill is still recovering. Regan comes in for a visit. Maybe they’ll forgive each other now.
Commentary
It’s a modern continuation of the original classic demon-possession film. It’s well-acted and well-written. It takes many of the tropes and brings them back in new ways. Still, the first film was shocking and original. This is “more of the same.” There’s nothing here that shocked me. This time, there are two of them, but that doesn’t add much.
The music is sort of reminiscent of the theme from the original, but it’s different enough that it’s not nearly as effective. The special effects are perfectly fine.
This time, they make it clear that the devil isn’t only afraid of Catholic priests; most every culture has some exorcism ritual, and they all can work. Or at least that was the point it was making until the Catholic priest came in at the last minute to save the day. OK, that still didn’t happen, but you can tell they lost the message somewhere.
It was fine.
#exorcist #exorcism #demon #possession