‘Exorcist’

Believer” is pretty solid stuff for an hour. The prologue, set in Haiti, puts photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) in a miserable situation. After a horrifying earthquake, doctors inform Victor that he can choose to save the life of his mortally wounded pregnant wife, Sorenne (Tracey Graves), or that of their unborn daughter. “Protect her,” Sorenne says, with her dying breath.

Thirteen years later, in a pleasant town in Georgia, Victor and daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) live a careful, methodical, emotionally bonded life. One fateful day after school, Angela and her churchy pal Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) venture into the woods, where they tra-la-la around with some spirit-conjuring and, for Angela, communing with her long-departed mother. Three days later, their parents out of their minds with panic, they’re found in a barn with no memory of where they’ve been or what has happened.

Doubling the possession count, the movie zigzags to its finale, featuring various heartsick and distraught adults going up against the devil. “The Exorcist: Believer” throws in a Catholic priest for old times’ sake, but we’re dealing this time with a multidenominational crew of well-meaning amateurs. The adults include Victor’s sullen neighbor, a nurse and onetime Catholic novitiate, played by Ann Dowd; Katherine’s true-believer Baptist parents (Norbert Leo Butz and Jennifer Nettles); Victor’s Pentecostal friend Stuart (Danny McCarthy); and, from the sidelines, more or less, Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, the mother of poor Regan of the 1973 “Exorcist” that started all this.

Burstyn hasn’t done an “Exorcist” since director William Friedkin’s 1973 smash, and the way the storyline treats her return as Chris, you hope the payday was worth it.

Many horror fans will likely roll with “The Exorcist:

Believer” for a while; Green and his editor, Timothy Alverson, establish a nervous, abrupt cutting rhythm to both scenes of chaos and simple drop-thekid-off-at-school moments. Green loves the slow zoom technique, very ’70s, and a restlessly roving camera, so that you’re never quite sure if what we’re watching is an establishing shot or the beginning of a full scene, or a fake-out. The gore level isn’t likely what many in the target audience are hoping to find here because, after all, they found it in the original. “The Exorcist: Believer” has its moments, but we’ve had a half-century of this stuff. And the filmmaker in charge has to show us something new; there’s more to life, and moviegoing, than coasting on cherished memories of projectile vomiting and head-swiveling.

MPA rating: R (for some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references)

Running time: 1:51

How to watch: In theaters