Sometimes a test-screening just turns out to be a major disaster. It happens. You will always have an audience that’s pumped to be there and willing to bypass some flaws just out of the sheer rush and excitement of being the first ones to catch a film. Others times …
The reactions I’ve heard for David Gordon Green’s “Exorcist: Believer” are NOT GOOD. It screened last night in NYC and I can’t find a single positive reaction. Maybe a reader who liked it can send me an email.
Then I went on Letterboxd and found more negative reactions. So, all around, this is turning into a disaster. I wouldn’t he surprised if reshoots are in the works for this one. It’s said to be too long and not frightening.
Green was, at some point in time, a filmmaker I respected, but he’s now gone so far off the deep end in Hollywood claptrap that, I’m not afraid to say it, he’s sold out.
Dire times in the industry and I don’t necessarily blame him for going the paycheck route, you either have to make a living or suffer with your art — he’s chosen the former.
Once upon a time, the 47-year-old filmmaker was heralded as the heir to Terrence Malick with his first four films, “George Washington,” “All the Real Girls,” “Undertow” and “Snow Angels.” Then the business changed, there were less opportunities for independent visions to thrive and Green went the mainstream route, albeit, at first, successfully with “Pineapple Express,” and the underrated comedy “The Sitter.”
Green has since dabbled here and there with more-than-decent indies (“Joe,” “Stronger,” “Prince Avalanche”), but now he’s become a full-on whore for Blumhouse. His last one, “Halloween Ends” was cheap and exploitative.
This is an especially concerning film from Green since it comes out at a time of exciting daring for the horror genre (Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Jeremy Saulnier, David Robert Mitchell).
As I said, you can’t blame a guy for wanting to make a living. Not Everybody is Martin Scorsese or Ridley Scott, just walking into a studio or streamer and saying "Give me truckloads of money so that I may realize my vision" while the executives just stare in starstruck silence, honored to be in their presence.
Green's earlier movies never made much money at the arthouse, than he went the R-rated comedy route but that genre’s dead theatrically now as well. So, he’s now become Blumehouse’s go-to filmmaker for rebooted horror.
Gyllenhaal says women face systemic barriers in an industry that may not value the kinds of films they want to make. Roy Price’s response? Watch “The Bride.”