Indiewire film critic David Ehrlich has bizarrely blasted The Exorcist: Believer for what he is calling its “anti-abortion messaging.”
Spoiler warning. In his unqualified pan, the critic appears to have a problem with the ex-nun character played by The Handmaid’s Tale star Ann Dowd, who “still regrets the abortion she had before taking her vows.”
In a subsequent post on X, he called the movie, which opens Friday, a “hellishly bad legacy sequel made even worse by its weird anti-abortion messaging.”
The Exorcist: Believer is a hellishly bad legacy sequel made even worse by its weird anti-abortion messaging. a catastrophic start to David Gordon Green’s $400 million reboot trilogy.
my review: https://t.co/CtUF3jNqCs pic.twitter.com/UGZL00tFw3
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) October 4, 2023
He also castigated the movie as being “hyper-conservative” — citing as evidence that the protagonist played by Hamilton star Leslie Odom, Jr., is punished “for prioritizing the well-being of his wife over the safety of her fetus.”
The critic also takes a swipe at Christianity, claiming that the exorcist horror subgenre inherently confirms the tenets of Christianity, which is apparently a no-no in his eyes.
The Exorcist: Believer is receiving some of the worst reviews of the year.
The installment is expected to be the first of three new Exorcist movies from Universal, which reportedly shelled out $400 million for the rights, with an eye to using the movies as streaming fodder for Peacock.
Ellen Burstyn has returned for the first time since the 1973 movie, reprising her role as Chris MacNeil.
The new movie is directed by David Gordon Green, the former indie darling who has segued into a horror director. He recently helmed the most recent Halloween movies, starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
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