‘The Exorcist: The Believer’: Journey to Haiti, Voodoo

Without Regan MacNeil’s girlfriend or Karras’ father, “The Exorcist” returns 50 years later with a renewed version that goes from a trip to Haiti to a voodoo ritual, and stars two young people of different social classes who suffer from demonic possession.

David Gordon Green, an experienced filmmaker in the productions derived from other franchises of horror films like “Halloween”, directs this work called “The Exorcist: The Believer”, which arrives in international cinemas this weekend.

The film is about the life of Tanner (Leslie Odom Jr.) from death of his wife pregnant twelve years earlier in the earthquake in Haiti.

From that marriage, Katherine (Lidya Jewett) was born, who disappears in the forest with her friend Angela (Olivia O’Neill) and return three days later with the evil entity within them, to the point that their families are forced to seek out the only person alive who has ever witnessed something like this: Chris MacNeil.

At the age of 90, the American actress Ellen Burstyn takes over the role that elevated her in the original “Exorcist” film, but now directed by Gordon Green in place of the recently deceased William Friedkin.

“It was a dream to be able to get in the ring with her and sculpt her image Chris MacNeil after 50 years. I presented my ideas to her, and then she shared her autobiography with me until it was presented in a meaningful way for the general public, but also for herself,” explained Gordon Green in an interview with EFE.

The new film, produced by Blumhouse, is, according to the director’s own words, a story that “seems very real” and with which they wanted to keep some references to the first part – there is a nod to Regan – but “updated with a contemporary tone”.

“We have two girls in the story. It was something new that we weren’t familiar with, so I started researching to make it look as real as possible thanks to the different perspectives from which we approach the conflicts,” explained Gordon Green.

A story written by Peter Sattler and Gordon Green based on Peter Blatt’s novel of the same name, with the addition of “a lot of research and academic and spiritual advisors”.

In fact, the director immersed himself in the animistic rituals captured in the film, and even the woman in the first scene of “The Exorcist: The Believer” is an “authentic Haitian voodoo priestess.”

“One of my goals was to integrate authentic voices and representatives of these philosophies and religion in our film,” he emphasized for EFE.

“The Exorcist: The Believer” will try to captivate fans of the saga that has seen the release of up to six other derivative films since 1973 with very limited success in many cases.

So Jason Blum, one of the producers of this version and also present in the interview for EFE, stated that he feels “just as much pressure to succeed at the box office as not to disappoint” fans who have high expectations for this title.

Without Mike Oldfield’s legendary soundtrack or the iconic steps of Georgetown (Washington DC), “The Exorcist: The Believer” tries to at least come close in feel to other demonic possession films that have been widely accepted in recent decades, such as “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005).

Ten Oscar nominations for “The Exorcist” and the milestone of becoming the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture by the Hollywood Academy are still far away. Meanwhile, Gordon Green and Blumhouse chose the perfect anniversary: ​​the 50th anniversary of Regan’s gruesome possession before Father Karras.