Are There Redeeming Qualities To The Exorcist Believer, A Film Michael Knowles Does Not Recommend?

‘Tis the season to be leary of unredeeming, badly made horror films.

Let me first say that I have not watched this film, as I have my own ethic about watching Hollywood films which I will go into at further length in the future. But this is a brief exploration on Hollywood films from the perspective of a Christian who has worked in the film industry. The question I wish to propose to you today is, are there any redeeming qualities, or any value that can be drawn from a film like Exorcist: Believer?

Films are multifaceted experiences. People work hard on films and watch films for very nuanced reasons, but watching it just to watch it is like saying you cannot screen your content and can’t refuse when Hollywood force-feeds you garbage. For some, they have a hard job, it’s true. Reviewers do have it as a job, so we can’t judge them for the simple act of watching or reviewing a film, but what they say about it, yes, yes we can. They do this job so you don’t have to do it. Curating a special relationship with a reviewer can be a very important thing to do, if you want good content, and as stated, we all should care about this. So, please don’t do yourself a disservice by watching whatever film Hollywood sends out, simply because you enjoy Hollywood slop. Instead, you ought to learn to consume better content, and content made by better people.

Am I judging Hollywood films as slop, and judging someone who makes Hollywood slop as opportunistic and without integrity? Maybe not on a personal level, but on a professional level, yes. Any reviewer who says this content is good for kids, and it really isn’t, well… please immediately write that reviewer off immediately. Any filmmaker who works on whatever film they can work on just to be paid, no matter if that film happens to be porn, well… please stop supporting that filmmaker.

No I do not equate porn to horror. There are actually powerfully meaningful and relevant horror films, but there is also a kind of horror, a sub-genre of horror called “torture porn” which is called that for a reason. And there are gratuitously bloody or gory films that sneak through that really have virtually no merit to them whatsoever. Porn is gratuitous, so a gratuitously horrific film can, likewise, be just as meritless.

Just some background: I started in the film industry in 2007 with locally-made horror films because that’s what was being made locally. There wasn’t much else to work on, and at the time I didn’t even know what the film was going to be, it was called a sci-fi at first. I had some reservations about it once it started to get more bloody, but I was invested in the story, my co-workers, and in the sci-fi aspects. Should I have not worked on it? Absolutely not. We all live and learn, and I got incredible experience from this film. I’d still work on it today, if I had the chance. But, would I prefer to work on a different genre? Absolutely. Now, I’d be willing to work on most any genre, except anything gratuitous (including porn, and a lot of horror), or anything with a bad message in the script. This isn’t to judge the filmmakers or to call them bad people, but because I seek to see better films in the marketplace, and not worse ones. These are important cultural considerations about what we want to put out into the world, and it’s something viewers need to begin to consider far more seriously.

So, likewise with viewing films, I think people should learn to be more discerning on what content they view. Just like filmmakers and actors. Back in the day, it was a more trusting time. You didn’t necessarily expect casting couches and disgusting content, but this was only because I was young and naive. Now, I see the damage all of this has done, and I wish that I had focused on better things, instead of spending my time doing whatever was in front of me.

Back to The Exorcist: Believer, the truth is that I know that some of the people who worked on this film are actually good Christians. I wish I knew what they had been thinking when they signed on to this picture, maybe I would have more grace. But as it is, our nation is going through a hard time to get through the vile ideologies that have been shoved down our throat from Hollywood, and the least we can do is to be a source of healing and protection for so many who have been harmed by this cultural malaise.

So, let’s be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Let’s stop subscribing to Hollywood streaming services, and stop working on films just because it is the better paycheck. If we are an actor, let’s stop letting filmmakers do body scans of us so that they can feel free to use our likeness in perpetuity. It sets a bad precedence when we allow this. These are all scenarios in which we can make a difference to improve our country and our culture, instead of us just thinking of our own immediate benefit, or just “fitting in” with the crowd. If we want to be the change in Hollywood, and in culture, often the buck stops with us, and right now, it does.

So, be the change you wish to see. Don’t watch this garbage. Don’t make this garbage. Don’t act in these garbage films. Then find the better stuff to do, and make a difference by doing that instead. The boycotts we are doing is making a difference, so let’s keep turning up the heat on Hollywood, and watch as change occurs.

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