Is The Exorcist: Believer woke?
The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
Movie
Released: January 1, 2023
Wokeness Score
7/10
Strongly Ideological
Woke messaging is very prominent and often feels forced or shoehorned in. Characters and plot are primarily shaped to serve the ideology. Many viewers feel the agenda overshadows the entertainment.
Key Summary Points
- Black single father protagonist and diverse interfaith exorcism team push racial and religious inclusion messaging.
- Haitian voodoo ceremony and non-Western spirituality portrayed positively as empowering rather than exotic or dangerous.
- Female former nun leads exorcism, sidelining Catholic priest and critiquing traditional Church structures on gender.
Wokeness Analysis
The Exorcist: Believer incorporates several elements that prioritize progressive messaging over pure horror storytelling. The lead role of Victor Fielding is played by Black actor Leslie Odom Jr. as a single father raising a mixed-race daughter, emphasizing Black representation in a traditionally white-centric franchise. The backstory involves a Haitian earthquake and a voodoo-influenced ceremony for the pregnant wife, framing non-Western spiritual practices positively as sources of strength rather than superstition. The exorcism sequence features an interfaith team including a former nun leading the ritual, a Baptist pastor, a Catholic priest sidelined by the Church, and other diverse figures, promoting religious pluralism and implicitly critiquing Catholic exclusivity by allowing a woman to officiate much of the rite. This setup delivers a message about unity across faiths and cultures to combat evil, which feels shoehorned to serve ideological inclusion rather than advancing the core possession narrative. Conservative-leaning reviews note these choices as attempts at diversity and ecumenism that dilute the original film's focused Catholic confrontation with the demonic. While the plot centers on two possessed girls and calls back to the 1973 classic, the casting, religious diversity, and gender role reversals make the ideology prominent, leading many viewers to perceive it as agenda-driven rather than organic entertainment.
Plot
The Exorcist: Believer follows single father Victor Fielding, a photographer who lost his wife in a Haitian earthquake years earlier while she was pregnant with their daughter Angela. Now raising the 13-year-old girl alone in Georgia, Victor faces terror when Angela and her friend Katherine disappear into the woods and return days later exhibiting signs of demonic possession. Desperate for help, Victor seeks out Chris MacNeil, the survivor from the original 1973 film, leading to an unconventional exorcism involving multiple religious figures. The story blends supernatural horror with elements of faith, community, and personal loss, though critics found it lacking in scares compared to its predecessor.