The strange behavior the two girls begin to display are not potent enough to exude any real chills. Angela is used as a human jump scare more than once and Katherine’s breakdown during a church service starts in an interesting manner but becomes preposterous, robbing the moment of any intended creepiness.

With nowhere else to turn, Victor tracks down Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), as she has famously been through this with her own daughter. The inclusion of Burstyn’s character is a desperate attempt at bridging a direct connection to “The Exorcist”. The fact that Chris authored a bestselling book about her and Regan’s experience betrays the design of the character. By the end of the 1973 film, MacNeil was taking her daughter far away from where it happened so they could put it all behind them. To have her do such an opportunistic act is unbelievable and dramatically insincere. Where the film takes the character is rather silly in its execution and Chris’ place in the finale is ludicrous. The writers should have made her return more potent. As it stands, Burstyn’s character is basically product placement.

By the time we get to the big exorcism finale, Green blows any good will earned as the script desecrates a famous line from the first film (ridiculously used for comic effect) and not doing anything new with the exorcism ritual. While it is understandable that any film about possession must hit certain bullet points (the reading of the scriptures, holy water, demonic tongues and bile coming from the mouths of the possessed, etc.), that is all the director does. Green’s only addition is an unnecessary moment of CGI that simply doesn’t work and looks completely phony. The scares just cannot seem to land.

It certainly doesn’t bode well for a horror picture about the devil possessing souls to have the demonic possession segments be the most uninteresting, but “The Exorcist: Believer” is not a complete failure. While the big exorcism payoff doesn’t work and a final montage of “hope” fails to ignite emotion, there is a lot of good to be found in what Green and his writers have done.

The first half of the film is heavy in crafting natural character progressions that helps the audience understand actions and decisions they will make later. Until the final act, there is a proper and inescapable aura of dread built through patient cinematography and disturbing art direction. Finally, Amman Abbasi and David Wingo’s eerie score is used to good effect, underplaying itself as it properly colors the horrors of the tale.

As Green started strong with his recent “Halloween” trilogy, the next two entries became progressively less enticing. Let’s hope the filmmaker goes the other way this time, where each entry gets better, as “The Exorcist: Believer” is to be the first of a planned three film arc.

The power of respecting Friedkin’s classic (and the legion of fans who hold it dear) compels you.