This may be the 6^th film in the stop-start Exorcist franchise but based on the opening hour and the lack of supernatural happenings, you’d think you were watching a different movie.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) builds a credible relationship between a single father, Victor (Odom Jr), and his teenage daughter, Angela (Jewett).  It’s that delicate, inevitable time where she’d rather hang out with her own friends than her not-so-exciting dad.

What follows is any parent’s worst nightmare – Angela doesn’t return home from school one evening.  The police become involved, the nearby forest is scoured, personal belongings turn up… but there’s no sign of Angela.  Another student, Katherine, has also gone missing and security camera footage from the school shows the pair were together when last seen.  A panicked Victor struggles to keep his emotions in check – a natural reaction given the circumstances.

Then, three days later, the two girls are found by a stranger in the back of a barn.  They have no sense of time (they didn’t even realise they were missing) and cannot explain what happened to them.  A doctor gives them a clean bill of health and they return home.  It’s at this point, roughly half-way through the movie, where the demonic elements are introduced.  Both Angela and Katherine start doing some really weird stuff and, guided by a next-door neighbour (Dowd) who has seen this kind of thing before, a priest and a shrewd veteran (Burstyn) are called in for assistance.

It builds to a lacklustre finale where the only surprise is the lack of originality.  I realised a film called “The Exorcist” should contain an exorcism but when that moment finally arrives, it’s a bland, tiring, not-so-scary one.  This might have shocked audiences back in 1973 when the first movie was released but it feels “dated” today.  The horror genre is continually evolving and when you compare The Exorcist: Believer with more adventurous material, such as this year’s surprise hit Talk to Me, its limitations become even clearer.

Academy Award nominee Leslie Odom Jr (One Night in Miami) is the standout cast member with his performance as the softly spoken Victor.  The rest don’t have much to work with.  While it’s nice to see 90-year-old Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore) reprise one of her most famous roles, her involvement is little more than a heightened, unnecessary cameo.  Without giving too much away, the use of her character in the final act is laughably bad.

Intended to kickstart a new trilogy, The Exorcist: Believer starts with a bang but finishes with a whimper.