For the first few minutes of The Exorcist: Believer I thought that maybe the reviews were wrong, that they had been too harsh, or maybe didn’t understand what the film was trying to do. It’s opening felt, to me, very much in line with the original film, until the earthquake hit, and from that moment on, the film steadily lost me, until, by the final act, I was just ready for the film to be over.

Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) is still missing his wife thirteen years later, but he has a wonderful daughter in Angela (Lidya Jewett), even if he is a little overprotective. When Angela and her friend, Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) go into the woods and disappear for three days, both familes are sent into a panic.

This panic escalates when the girls are returned, but aren’t quite the same as they were. When strange things and behaviour seem to become the norm, Victor begins to believe, against all his better judgement, that perhaps the girls are possessed, and he reaches out to the one person who has made a name for herself going through a similar experience, actor Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) for help.

But is it too late to save both girls, will the choice Victor made to save his daughter instead of his wife come back to haunt him? Will we care?

The film seems to be one bad choice after another, and wants to go for cheap scares, and VFX instead of telling an engaging tale.

The original film made great use of music and sound design to keep the audience on edge, but nothing of that nature seems to be at work here. There’s a complete waste of the legacy characters the film brings in, apparently Burstyn took the role simply for the money, which she then gave to charity.

You don’t find yourself invested in any of the characters, and it doesn’t matter what the two possessed girls went through, or are going through right up into the silly climax. There seemed to be a desire to do something bigger and scarier, but it just fumbles over and over, mixing in a potpourri of beliefs and faith.

The original film, for all the technical stuff happening behind the scenes to bring supernatural moments to life on screen, was really simple. It was a struggle with faith, the discovery of evil, and the effects it had on a young girl and her family. It’s simple, but woven into a powerful tale.

This time around they seemed to want to make a big layered story, and none of it works. It just ends up being disappointing. And the sad thing is, the production company is still committed to making the two follow-up sequels.

Maybe they’ll geet their ideas and story straight, because this one was a mess, and a waste.