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The Exorcist: Believer Receives Official Rating: Is The Horror Sequel Rated R or PG-13?
The Exorcist: Believer hits theaters Friday, October 13.
It might be a good time to start blessing that holy water and brushing up on your Vatican-approved prayers. Why? Well, we're just about two months away from the return of The Exorcist franchise in director David Gordon Green's Believer.
Meant to kick off a brand-new trilogy of horror films (à la Green's recent revival of the Halloween IP), the soft revival takes place 50 years after the 1973 original and, as a result, ignores all of the continuity established by the sequels that followed.
RELATED: The Exorcist: Believer Does Not Feature Original Demon Pazuzu - So Which Demon Could It Be?
Hamilton alum Leslie Odom Jr. stars as Victor Fielding, a widower grappling with the fact that his daughter and her best friend (the girls are played by Lidya Jewett Olivia Marcum) have somehow become possessed by a demon. Totally out of his depth, Victor seeks the guidance of an expert: none other than Ellen Burstyn's Chris MacNeil. She's become something of an authority on the matter since her own daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), was taken over by Pazuzu half a century before.
What is The Exorcist: Believer rated?
It should come as no surprise that the film has been given a R designation (just like the original) for "some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references," according to FilmRatings.com.
Had it been anything below that, fans would have most likely revolted. Trying to shave down the shocking visuals and abrasive profanity in an effort to gain a more universal rating would be a tough change in the wake of the true horror the late William Friedkin accomplished with the '73 original.
Eliciting a powerful reaction of terror, disgust, and outrage is the entire point — and why that movie proved to be so groundbreaking in its time. How Green plans to recreate that unprecedented, visceral response from the audience perspective in an era when nearly all horror movies follow the shock-and-awe rubric set down by The Exorcist remains to be seen.
What were other Exorcist movies rated?
All four sequels that followed in the wake of Friedkin's R-rated horror game-changer were rated R as well. Those movies are Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Exorcist III (1990), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005).
The Exorcist: Believer hits theaters Friday, October 13. A sequel — officially titled The Exorcist: Deceiver — is tentatively slated to open on April 18, 2025. The title and release date (tentative or otherwise) for the third movie have not been announced yet.
Want more demonic thrills in the meantime? The Exorcist III and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist are now streaming on Peacock!
