The first entry in a $400 million trilogy with all eyes on it possesses an even steeper uphill battle than before

You’d be hard-pressed to find a solitary soul within the horror community who doesn’t agree that William Friedkin’s The Exorcist is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror features to ever grace the silver screen. But as polarizing as Friedkin’s head-turning directional project turned out to be back in the ‘70s, David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer cannot seem to stop the art of critical possession from slandering the movie with horrid reviews.

These less-than-favorable reviews have been scattered all over X (formerly known as Twitter), with one passionate user in particular insisting that the 2023 follow-up includes a variety of “bad choices” that die-hards are definitely not going to appreciate. In fact, a similar situation occurred when Halloween Ends was released last October — which Green was also responsible for helming.

Of course, when you step back and consider the fact that The Exorcist is seen as an untouchable original piece of cinematic horror that drastically changed the landscape of the genre, it’s not all too surprising that any film trying to compete or compare is going to be buried underneath it. That being said, the X user did simultaneously offer the choice for folks to see the movie for themselves, but the opinion of the project sucking certainly didn’t shift at all.

It’s not yet been made clear if even the return of Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil can save the first entry in the rebooted trilogy from damnation, but not even giving the movie a chance first seems like a backward way of thinking. For those interested, The Exorcist: Believer begins haunting theaters starting Oct. 6.