Lynn Ritchie

I went in with the mindset of NOT comparing this to the original, as there never will be a suitable comparison to that masterpiece. That served me well. The beginning was well crafted and spooky, with all of the disturbing suspense driven standards, however I still came away disappointed. It felt like we were robbed a bit. I wanted to know HOW the girls managed to conjure such a powerful demon (it cannot be from a simple pendulum game young girls play in the forest...there has GOT to be more to it), more interaction with the girls before their exorcism, more exploration into little Katherine's life and possession - her arc felt almost like an after thought. That would have given a richness to it, more emotional ties to them all and their stories. It felt...empty. The exorcism felt like they threw everything AND the kitchen sink at it, and in doing so it lost all effectiveness. There was Baptist, Evangelical, Voodoo Priestess, non-believers, and an almost Nun...with little to absolutely no explanation on any of their exorcism practices (frankly, the Baptist minister seemed like he was given a full pass here and proved no help...which is an unfortunate miss on the production choices). The Priestess seemed to be the only one making progress but again, NO explanation on WHY. Then of course, the Catholic Priest comes in and seems to miraculously have the right "presence" (because clearly no other religion works against demons...heavy sarcasm here), only to have even him fail. The ONLY saving grace to make a pull on your emotions was the "Sophie's Choice". That was powerful and filled with angst and pain. Aftermath...again. Nothing. No cleansing, no further explanation, no exploration into is the Demon really gone? Or lurking? Or do we care? Overall, the movie is good - please give it a watch, but I would be remiss to not point out the obvious omissions. They ALMOST had PERFECTION...but it slipped away, just like the demon. Maybe the sequel they will learn from this and give us more...one can hope! Go see it, rent it, stream it, form your own opinion: it is worth that. 😊