Spiritually confusing and scarcely scary, The Exorcist: Believer features director David Gordon Green failing to create a memorable religious horror retro-sequel to the 1973 horror classic.

It almost sounds like a joke: “A Catholic, a Protestant, and an atheist walking into an exorcism…”.  Yet this is exactly the scenario set-up in The Exorcist: Believer, the latest attempt by Blumhouse Studios – via director David Gordon Green – to resurrect a long dormant horror franchise for modern day audiences. The Exorcist: Believer, though, misses the mark on what made the original Exorcist(released 50 years ago) such a terrifying and profound movie.

Although directed by the late, great William Friedkin, the soul of The Exorcist lies in the writing of the also departed William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the source material of the same name which was based on a real life case of demonic possession during the 1960s. A devout Catholic, Blatty’s intention was to present a story of faith in God and the power of goodness through a supernatural depiction of evil at its most macabre: the possession and defilement of an innocent nine-year-old girl. Blatty, in short, wanted to “scare people back to church.”

The only thing The Exorcist: Believer inspires is tedium from the filmmaking on display. As well as competing against decades of better demonic-possession film, it is very clear that the themes Blatty established in the original Exorcist is beyond the comprehension of Green and his team of writers (among them the eternally sophomoric Danny McBride.)

Green’s handing of the theme of faith from a Christian perspective is especially perplexing, with the “we all believe in the same God” philosophy in the characters’ plan of attack against the films’ demonic forces, frustrating in its ignorance towards Catholic ritual.

The Exorcist: Believer stars Lamar Odom Jr. as Victor Fielding, a widowed father to 12-year-old daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) who lost his faith after the death of his wife during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. When Angela and her best friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) disappear, the pair are found three days later and soon display strange and violent behaviour that gives way to the supernatural. Cue the obvious conclusion: it must be demonic possession.

This is where things get frustratingly bad. Victor seeks out the help of Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), a former actress who becomes an “exorcist expert” after the demonic possession of her daughter Regan (Linda Blair). In the casting of Burstyn, there is no doubt Green hoped that this Exorcist retro-sequel would get the same OG bump that the Blumhouse Halloween trilogy got with the return of Jamie Lee Curtis.

It is a move that backfires spectacularly. Not only is Burstyn terrible in her reprisal as MacNeil, the “evolution” of her character from tortured mother to exorcist know-it-all reeks of annoying equity storytelling. A moment where McNeil criticizes her daughters priest heroes for their “patriarchy” is sure to have Blatty rolling in his grave.

Much like most of the Exorcist films, The Exorcist: Believer is a failure of climatic proportions and a simpletons attempt at following a religious-horror masterpiece. Let’s pray that David Gordon Green’s failure will stop the proposed Blumhouse Exorcist trilogy in its tracks.