“The Exorcist: Confession”: It’s a shame how the horror movie treats the original!

David Gordon Green (“Pineapple Express”) could not please all fans and critics with his “Halloween” trilogy, but the direct sequels to John Carpenter’s “Halloween – The Night of Horrors” have more than left their mark on box office profits. “The Exorcist: Confession” will now build on this success and kick off a new trilogy that is a direct continuation of William Friedkin’s landmark “The exorcist“understands.

After seeing “The Exorcist: Confession” I wish David Gordon Green and Blumhouse anything but no black marks. The reason isn’t that the film relies heavily on jump scares, is uninspired, or has nothing new to gain from the exorcism theme itself. Even the treatment of returnee Ellen Burstyn isn’t necessarily a determining factor in my anger towards this film. David Gordon Green and Co. on the other hand, make the mistake of ruthlessly simplifying the original. And that hurts.

That’s what “The Exorcist: Confession” is about

After his wife dies in an earthquake in Haiti, photographer Victor Fieldings (Leslie Odom Jr.) is left alone to care for his now 12-year-old daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett). Actually, he is too careful about the well-being of his child, but when he lets her visit his girlfriend after school, something happens: Angela and Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear – and are only found three days later.

What exactly happened during the time the girls disappeared? As Angela’s behavior becomes so strange that medical tests are no longer sufficient, Victor turns not only to a Catholic priest (EJ Bonilla) and a voodoo priestess (Okwui Okpokwasili), but also to bestselling author Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn). , who had to go through something similar with her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) a few years ago…

What impudence!

There is no doubt that William Friedkin approaches the conflict between science and church with holy seriousness. However, the Oscar-winning filmmaker maintained a thrilling ambiguity until the end, which doesn’t mark “The Exorcist” as a paean to Catholicism but rather provides a source of friction. After William Friedkin’s masterpiece, there was probably no viewer who felt moved by the film to join the church.

The Exorcist: Confession

Starting date

October 5, 2023

|
1 hour 51 minutes

By
David Gordon Green

Of
Leslie Odom Jr.,
Ellen Bursten,
Ann Dowd

User rating

2.9

Movie releases

3.0

Demonstrations (410)

Because even though an exorcism ultimately seems like the answer to ridding Regan of evil, ‘The Exorcist’ continually relies on breaks that – unlike David Gordon Green’s thoroughly stupid sequel – in no way elevate the church to a sun-drenched place of meeting. The two priests who perform the exorcism on Regan (played by Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) are suicidal, broken characters. Two men who pull themselves together again to be allowed to die. They do not draw strength from their faith, but rather are lost by it.

Advertising in matters of piety

This also fits into the overall tone of ‘The Exorcist’, in which each character is confronted with an all-pervading sense of desolation. ‘The Exorcist: Confession’, on the other hand, can almost be described as Christian propaganda. Not just because Ellen Burstyn starts a completely absurd monologue about the overarching importance of religious cohesion (which David Gordon Green then stages entirely unironically in bright colors and slow motion as a promotional video).

The main character, Victor Fielding’s only function is to convert. The man, who is initially quite doubtful about God, church and faith, is brought into a godly grip by his strict religious environment to realize that the titular confession of God’s power is the only way out to save his daughter. That is not only questionable, but in this unambiguity also an insult to the original, which is much more subtle and therefore all the more violent.

‘The Exorcist: Confession’ brims with doubt, fitting in a time when clear answers are preferred. It is extremely reactionary, will be (very) well received by an evangelical audience and is therefore everything William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” never wanted to be: one-dimensional, simple-minded and a slap in the face to anyone who cared about the film with expectations is offered a worthy sequel. Instead, David Gordon Green and Co. understood. not what Friedkin was really about.