Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Exorcist: Believer!
Summary
- The new villain, Lamashtu, in The Exorcist: Believer is too powerful, and the religious figures can't stop him, leading to a lackluster ending.
- Lamashtu wins in the end, as he tricks the parents into sacrificing a child, and the exorcism achieves little to nothing.
- The ending of The Exorcist: Believer undermines its message of inter-faith cooperation and fails to deliver a satisfying resolution.
While The Exorcist: Believer has many issues, the biggest problems with the long-awaited sequel are epitomized by its muddled ending, which doesn't work for a number of reasons. The first Exorcist movie was met with critical, commercial, and awards favor upon its release in 1973, and its legacy as a seminal piece of horror cinema has only improved since then. However, its many follow-ups, including The Exorcist: Believer, have failed to repeat the original's success and impact.
Still, expectations were high for director David Gordon Green’s 2023 sequel reboot given his recent work reviving the Halloween franchise. Intended to be the first movie in a new trilogy, The Exorcist: Believer sees the original movie’s heroine, Chris MacNeil (played again by Ellen Burstyn), return to the franchise in a legacy cameo. However, the misjudged ending of The Exorcist: Believer proves that the latest attempt to revive the franchise is thoroughly wrong-headed, with a slew of plot problems derailing any attempt to bring the series back to glory.
8 Lamashtu Is Too Powerful Of A Villain
Where The Exorcist had Pazuzu, The Exorcist: Believer has a new villainous demon in the form of Lamashtu, and this biblical evil proves to be much too powerful in the movie’s final act. While The Exorcist’s demon did do a lot of damage to Regan and killed both of the priests who attempted to exorcize her, Pazuzu was ultimately outwitted when Father Karras gave his life to defeat the demon. In contrast, Lamashtu is barely even fazed by the multitude of religious figures who attempt to take him down in The Exorcist: Believer.
Lamashtu kills Father Maddox in an instant, then tells the parents to choose which child will die, and none of the religious figures can do anything to stop him. The demon also blinds The Exorcist: Believer’s Chris MacNeil, and the movie's ending doesn’t give viewers any reason to believe that the evil has been meaningfully vanquished. This is an even bigger problem for The Exorcist: Believer because it makes a point of bringing together a multi-faith council of religious representatives in its inclusive exorcism. However, their presence doesn’t seem to disrupt Lamashtu’s sadistic plans all that much.
7 Lamashtu Wins In The Exorcist: Believer
Not only does Lamashtu not end up exorcized from Katherine’s body in The Exorcist: Believer’s ending, he doesn’t even seem to be driven out of Angela. Instead, Lamashtu decides that his work is done once he tricks the parents into choosing a child sacrifice. While The Exorcist: Believer’s Linda Blair cameo is clearly intended to lessen the sting of this nasty last-minute twist, the reality remains that the faithful congregation didn’t succeed in stopping the demon’s plan. For all viewers know, Lamashtu may have only wanted to take on the two souls in the first place, meaning the exorcism achieved next to nothing.
6 The Exorcist: Believer Lost The Original Movie’s Tragedy
The ending of the original Exorcist is moving because the faithless priest sacrifices himself to save Regan. In dying, Karras regains his faith as he realizes that he believes not only in a higher power but also in his ability to make a difference in the lives of others. In contrast, at the end of The Exorcist: Believer, the demon just gets what he wants and none of the assembled healers can stand in his way. One of the reasons The Exorcist: Believer's reviews are so bad is this nihilistic ending, since it jars with the movie’s apparent message about inter-faith cooperation.
5 The Exorcist: Believer’s Ending Undermines Its Message
The Exorcist: Believer’s exorcism is more inclusive than the original movie’s ritual, with a range of religions represented in this updated sequel. The movie brings together a cross-faith council to defeat its demon, including a Catholic priest, lay people, a Pentecostal preacher, a Baptist pastor, and a rootwork healer. This is much more diverse than The Exorcist’s two Catholic priests, but it is undermined by the fact that they fail completely. The group can’t stop Lamashtu’s plan and instead ends up getting both Father Maddox and Katherine killed.
4 The Exorcist: Believer’s Big Death Is Predictable
The Exorcist: Believer presents Lamashtu’s cruel revelation as a twist, but hardly any viewers who were paying attention to the preceding movie could have been shocked by the demon’s deception. When Lamashtu announces that only one girl will live, viewers are left to wonder if the movie's main character is going to die or if it will be her friend, who gets far less screen time and plot focus. While Chris’s nasty fate in The Exorcist: Believer is gruesome, the fact that the movie didn’t kill her off made it more obvious that the ending would need a major character death while still avoiding the main heroine's demise.
3 The Exorcist: Believer Dropped Its Coolest Character
Speaking of Chris, Regan’s mother getting her eyes gouged out around the movie's midpoint is a major mistake. This does subvert viewer expectations, as most fans likely expected Chris to play a role in the exorcism. However, subversion for its own sake isn’t always a positive thing, and Chris missing out on the movie's ending is a major letdown that undermines her role and lowers the stakes. Even Regan’s return can’t fix this misstep, and if anything, this development makes matters worse.
2 The Exorcist: Believer's Ending Makes A Classic Reboot Mistake
Regan only appears after the entire exorcism is over, meaning the biggest cameo comes after everything has been resolved. While it is cool to see Linda Blair in The Exorcist: Believer, giving her a more substantial role in the exorcism itself would have been a much more effective utilization of the famous heroine. If Regan got to save one of the girls, The Exorcist: Believer could have offered viewers an updated image of her as an adult version of her legendary character. Instead, she is barely even glimpsed.
1 The Exorcist: Believer Gives Away Both Big Deaths
The Catholic Church refuses to sanction the exorcism in case someone dies, so it is no surprise when the Catholic priest dies, as does one of the girls. The Catholic priest was obviously going to be the one to die when it was his church that warned them against the exorcism, while one of the girls dying ironically makes the church seem right in retrospect. Since Chris criticizes the church earlier in The Exorcist: Believer, this is another case of the movie working against its own story. It is these disappointing mistakes that make The Exorcist: Believer’s ending such a letdown.