Why is ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ rated R?

The sixth film in The Exorcist franchise is officially upon us, and The Exorcist: Believer is, by all accounts, awful.

It’s not groundbreaking, like the original, and it’s not accidental comedy, like some of its follow-up peers — instead, Believer seems to be a dull failure. The audiences who’ve made time for the film are blasting it as a misfire, noting that — while director David Gordon Green has a talent for indie films — big budget horror may not be his bag.

The release has been labeled as a “waste of time,” “disappointing,” and straight-up “terrible” by viewers, and critics are in agreement. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the flick holds a measly 22 percent on the Tomatometer score, which is only slightly boosted by its still-rotten 59 percent audience score.

All of this begs a vital question: Why, if the “fear” factor isn’t there, is Believer rated R? The harsher rating makes a film less likely to succeed, as it restricts access for some audience members, and could be a culprit behind the film’s failure to launch. So why, without a guaranteed victory, did the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) slap an R label on the film?

The Exorcist: Believer‘s R rating, explained

CARA’s official reasoning is that Believer is:

“Rated R for some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references.”

Before you get too flustered over Believer‘s rating, it’s worth noting that every single Exorcist film, since the very start, has been rated R. This is a common rating for horror flicks, which always veer toward the higher side of the rating system. The Exorcist film series has earned this consistent rating thanks to its grim subject matter, language (dang those demons have potty mouths), and likely the religious overtones in the “disturbing imagery”.

So, an R rating is likely a perfect fit for the flick even if the actual scary factor fails to come through. An R rating isn’t all about the fear, after all. It considers every aspect of the story, and there are plenty of qualifying factors packed into Believer‘s nearly two-hour runtime.