‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Review: David Gordon Green’s Reboot Trots Out the Same Old Tropes, Minus the Dread

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Hollywood loves to repeat success, and now more than ever it needs to. If there’s a promising way to draw people into movie theaters that the industry doesn’t capitalize on, it will only be colluding in the decay of its own future. So when I came out of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” having experienced, for the first time in a while, what it was like a share a concert film with an ecstatic audience, one of my first thoughts was, “How could they do this again?” You might say that’s a silly question, since it has one obvious answer: They can’t.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Old Dads,” a Netflix comedy about three middle-aged dads in Los Angeles, each trying to deal with the delayed pleasures and perils of fatherhood, sounds like a Hollywood satire to watch along with “Bad Moms,” or maybe the sort of broad burlesque of child-rearing that would star someone like John Cena. Actually, though, it’s not that sort of movie. It was directed and co-written by Bill Burr, who also stars in it, and it’s been spun out of the kind of prickly incorrect observations that are the hallmark of Burr’s stand-up comedy — and also the kind of squirm comedy that powers his anthology series “Immoral Compass.” “Old Dads” isn’t nearly as good as “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but at times it feels like three episodes of that show jammed together — that is, if Larry David were a Gen-X firecracker whose anger-management issues make Larry look like a pussycat.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an eyebrow raiser in the wake of a zany box office season turned upside down by the actors strike, and ruled by Taylor Swift: Universal/Blumhouse‘s feature take of videogame, Five Nights at Freddy’s, is shaping up for an opening around $40M. That would be the second-best opening at the fall box office YTD after Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour‘s $92.8M start. The pic hits theaters and Peacock on Oct. 27.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic One sign of a terrific actor is that he can hold you even when he’s not doing anything. Pierce Brosnan is like that. I wouldn’t call him a minimalist, though he never wastes a word or a movement; he has the precision of an expensive watch.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If there’s a pop musician of the last 60 years who deserves a great documentary, it’s Antonio Carlos Jobim. Some might bristle at my description of him as “pop.” In Brazil, where Jobim, one of the prime architects of bossa nova, is considered a national treasure, he’s simply thought of as a composer, placed on a pedestal along with classical Brazilian composers like Heitor Villa-Lobos. Jobim’s gorgeously complex chord structures — the aural equivalent of melty-colored Impressionist paintings — were arguably more jazz than pop.

David Gordon Green may have made “Halloween Ends” last year, but does the “Halloween” franchise ever really end? Deadline reports that Miramax Television emerges victorious in a steep bidding war against Blumhouse Productions and A24 for the TV rights to “Halloween.” The deal with Trancas International Films allows Miramax to develop and co-produce a TV series based on the IP, including a first-look agreement on other TV projects for the international marketplace.

The Halloween universe is set to expand.

As noted in this intro to a “Happy Sad Confused” conversation with David Gordon Green, the filmmaker behind “The Exorcist: Believer,” the director’s career is confusing to many. He began as an indie arthouse filmmaker (“All The Real Girls,” “Undertow“); then started directing studio comedies, many of which were produced by Judd Apatow (“Your Highness,” “The Sitter“), and then, of course, he’s gone off on his recent horror detour which has included a “Halloween” trilogy that started in 2018 and what’s intended to be a new “Exorcist” trilogy that started this year with “Believer.” The Lost, Unmade & Abandoned Projects Of Director David Gordon Green The reality is that from the very beginning, Green claims he was a cinematic omnivore who looked at Steven Soderbergh, a filmmaker who’s tackled every genre under the sun, as his guiding light model.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Horror master John Carpenter told the Los Angeles Times that he’s heard about the negative reaction to Universal and Blumhouse’s “Exorcist” reboot, which currently sits at a paltry 23% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to under $30 million at the box office. Universal spent $400 million on rights to the franchise with the intent of starting a new trilogy. The reboot, titled “The Exorcist: Believer,” is directed by David Gordon Green, who worked with Carpenter on the most recent “Halloween” reboot trilogy.

Alright, “Exorcist: Believer,” Universal and Blumhouse Pictures’ legacy sequel of 1973’s “The Exorcist,” directed by David Gordon Green hit theaters last weekend and the results were, well, kinda mid. Yes, it’s a legacy sequel, so much like the newest “Halloween” trilogy (also made by Green, Universal and Blumhouse), it disregards all the other sequels and essentially only takes place after the original film).

When you look at David Gordon Green’s career, it’s really difficult to nail down just what type of filmmaker he is. Does he make indie films? Comedies? Reboot horror franchises? Yes, yes, and yes.

Refresh for latest…: Just as it came in lower than hoped for domestically, Universal/Blumhouse/Morgan Creek’s The Exorcist: Believer didn’t fully convert overseas audiences, summoning a $17.9M international box office debut for $45.1M global. The R-rated David Gordon Green-directed reboot/sequel did see some of its 52 launch markets give it a No. 1 start, while in like-for-likes, the bow is above M3GAN, Evil Dead Rise, Scream VI and Smile. (As regards the latter, recall that it legged out with terrific holds, so the comparison may not stick down the line since scores on Believer are not good, and Taylor Swift is on deck.) 

J. Kim Murphy Nearly 50 years after William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” landed in theaters to leg out a run as the highest-grossing feature of 1973, a new sequel to it is opening on top of the box office. Universal’s “The Exorcist: Believer” compelled audiences to the tune of an $11.9 million opening day from 3,663 locations, a number including $2.85 million in previews.

release of “The Exorcist: Believer,” filmgoers will once again witness young, possessed girls blaspheming, shrieking and levitating as their parents try to wrest a godless demon from their bodies.What they likely won’t see, however, is their fellow audience members fainting, vomiting and fleeing the theater in terror. That chaotic scene was what was widely reported to have happened all over the world when “The Exorcist” hit theaters nearly 50 years ago in December 1973.In early 1974, a security guard at a Midtown East cinema described screenings of the horror flick to the New York Times.

the 1954 big-screen classic starring Humphrey Bogart as Lieutenant Commander Philip Queeg, he of the nervously-twirled metal balls and questionable sanity.The movie premieres Oct. 6 on Paramount+ with Showtime (paramountplus.qflm.net/9WG5D0) — and Oct. 8 on Showtime (9 p.m.) — and features an all-star cast, including Kiefer Sutherland as Queeg and the late Lance Reddick, all of whom deliver bravura performances.

David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer kept the horror peace train going at the box office with $2.85M in previews last night on its way to a potential high $20M to $30M start at the box office.

“The Exorcist: Believer” hits theaters this weekend, fifty years after the release of William Friedkin‘s 1973 original. And given Friedkin’s passing earlier this year, David Gordon Green will never know what the late director thinks about his film.

By this point, with advance reviews, it’s clear that critics aren’t high on David Gordon Green‘s new horror reboot, “The Exorcist: Believer.” So, sorry to fans of the series, but this isn’t the long-awaited sequel that will boost its cultural cache. But if fans and audiences won’t get what they want from “The Exorcist: Believer,” did anyone on the cast and crew? READ MORE: Jason Blum On ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Release Date Change: “We Bowed Our Heads To Taylor Swift” According to a new THR interview with Ellyn Burstyn, the 90-year-old actress did.

There are myriad talking entry points to “Exorcist: Believer”—David Gordon Green’s latest horror legacy sequel and the follow-up to his “Halloween” trilogy. For one, it’s awful, but it’s also fascinating, chock-full of thought-provoking ideas— impossible to fully disregard even when the film goes off the rails.

In the long history of horror films since the dawn of cinema, it would be hard to imagine any of them quite having the particular impact of 1973’s The Exorcist which became the first horror film ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, along with nine other nominations including Best Actress for Ellen Burstyn. It eventually won two Academy Awards for William Peter Blatty’s screenplay based on his 1971 novel, and for the bone chilling Sound work. When I saw it as a young kid in its original incarnation at the National Theatre in Westwood (now no longer existing), there were lines like you have never seen wrapping completely around the block. Warner Bros. even put a nurse on duty in the lobby for those who passed out, no mere gimmick because it actually happened. Nothing I have seen since in the genre has matched that one for me, but it wasn’t for Hollywood not trying. There are countless imitations, even a couple of failed direct sequels including the dreadful 1977 followup, Exorcist II: The Heretic, and the forgettable Exorcist III: Legion in 1990. There have been TV series attempts, an origin angle with Exorcist: The Beginning in 2004, and countless others using the come-on Exorcist in their title. Earlier this year we even had another film, based on the Vatican’s longtime real life demon slayer, The Pope’s Exorcist which thanks to a dedicated performance by Russell Crowe worked quite well on its own terms