The Exorcist: Believer is a 2023 American supernatural horror film directed by David Gordon Green, who co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Sattler from a story by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and Green. The sixth installment in The Exorcist franchise, it serves as a sequel to The Exorcist (1973). The film stars Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia O‘Neill in her film debut, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz and Ann Dowd, along with Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair reprising their roles from the original film. Its plot follows a photographer who must confront the nadir of evil when his daughter and her best friend are possessed.
Jason Blum served as a producer on the film through his Blumhouse Productions banner, alongside David and James G. Robinson through their Morgan Creek Entertainment banner, in association with executive producers Green and McBride's Rough House Pictures. The project began as a sequel to the original film in December 2020. Universal Pictures collaborated with Peacock to acquire distribution rights in June 2021 for $400 million, with intentions of launching a new trilogy of The Exorcist films. Principal photography took place between November 2022 and March 2023 on a production budget of $30 million.
The Exorcist: Believer was released in the United States on October 6, 2023, and has grossed $121 million worldwide, receiving negative reviews from critics. Despite the reception, a sequel, entitled The Exorcist: Deceiver, is scheduled to be released on April 18, 2025.
Plot
In Haiti, photographer Victor Fielding and his pregnant wife Sorenne, blessed by a voodoo practitioner, are on their honeymoon until a massive earthquake ensues. Sorenne is gravely injured; she tells Victor to protect their unborn daughter, Angela. Paramedics tell Victor he must choose to save either his wife or his child.
Thirteen years later, Victor has lost his faith in God since Sorenne's death, while raising Angela on his own in Georgia. One day after school, Angela ventures into the woods with her Baptist best friend Katherine to perform a séance in an attempt to contact Angela's mother. Victor realizes his daughter is missing and contacts Katherine's parents, Miranda and Tony, as a three-day manhunt ensues.
The girls are found in a barn on the third day; though traumatized, they seem relatively normal and are taken home, having only suffered burn marks to their feet. The next day, Angela suddenly attacks Victor and begins convulsing, while Katherine has an outburst during a church service in which the sacrament of Holy Communion is observed. Victor admits Angela into a hospital where their nurse neighbor Ann attends to her, and Miranda begins to theorize that the girls traveled to Hell and brought a demon back with them, hence the burns to their feet.
The girls' condition worsens as their burns become more severe. Ann, convinced that Angela is possessed after the latter reveals her knowledge of Ann's experience in the novitiate as a prospective nun, which ended after a pregnancy that resulted in an abortion, gives Victor a memoir written by Chris MacNeil, who experienced a similar situation with her daughter Regan in 1973. Chris has spent her life researching exorcisms in every culture while becoming world-renowned for her studies. However, Regan became distant from her mother due to the memoir's success and has not seen her since.
Victor searches for Chris and takes her to the hospital to see Angela before going to Katherine's home. While Victor attends to Miranda and Tony, Chris goes upstairs and begins to perform her own deliverance ritual on Katherine. Katherine stabs Chris multiple times in the eyes with a cross, blinding her, and she is rushed to the hospital.
Victor, Miranda, Tony, and Ann reach out to the Church for an exorcism. Chris advises Victor to use methods from all different cultures, and the group seeks the help of Don Revans, Katherine's family's Baptist pastor; Stuart, a Pentecostal preacher; and Dr. Beehibe, a rootwork healer. The group plans an ecumenical exorcism, but the local Catholic diocese forbids Father Maddox from participating as they feel that the children are suffering from a psychiatric disorder.
The girls are tied to chairs as the group proceeds with the exorcism. Ann uses a crucifix with the Saint Benedict Medal engraved on it to battle the demon. The demon reveals that Victor did not choose to keep Angela alive thirteen years ago; he chose Sorenne but she died from her injuries. As Ann reads from the biblical text of Ezekiel 16 while holy water is poured on the children, the demon begins to shriek.
