The Exorcist: Believer is insultingly transparent, explaining its intended substance instead of achieving it. There's painfully blunt dialogue, unearned plot points, repetitive scenes, shoehorned detours, unclear rules, mock themes, and unsatisfying setup/payoff. The drama is woefully underdeveloped, cheapening characters, relationships, motivations, conflicts, and stakes. Its acting has good possession performances, but the main protagonist teeters on disengaged. All of this leads to a story so forced that it becomes grating. The Exorcist: Believer is a hollow retread of the original without any emotional investment or creativity. It's a rough draft rather than a finished script.
Technically, The Exorcist: Believer is dull, clunky, underwhelming, and distant. The music is a generic nonfactor. Its editing has inserts, jump cuts, dissolves, montages, uneven pacing, dragging momentum, and try-hard scares. The production design is drab and arbitrary. Its dreary imagery combines movement, composition, angles, and framing with dim lighting and gray colors. The sound adds risers, muffling, split cuts, and emphasis, yet fumbles ADR and overuses stings and smash cuts. Its casting is thin and wholly wastes its cameo. The effects have good makeup but weak CGI. Ultimately, The Exorcist: Believer doesn't offer enough entertainment or intellectual value.
Writing: 3/10
Direction: 3/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Acting: 6/10
Editing: 4/10
Sound: 6/10
Score/Soundtrack: 4/10
Production Design: 5/10
Casting: 6/10
Effects: 6/10
Overall Score: 4.9/10
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