Starring  Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Ellen Burstyn

Directed by David Gordon Green

Universal, out now

When two young girls show signs of demonic possession, it unleashes a chain of events that exposes the nadir of evil.

As with his Halloween reboot/sequel trilogy writer/director David Gordon Green takes an established franchise and ignores all entries after the original. Unfortunately, in common with his Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, he adds nothing of value with his take on The Exorcist.

After William Friedkin’s electric The Exorcist (1973) lit up the box office, the inevitable sequels have been mostly poor – Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) – with only The Exorcist III (1990) adding something new.

Ellen Burstyn returns as Regan’s mother, Chris MacNeil, adding a touch of class to the hysterical proceedings, which are ridiculous and non-sensical. It’s the sort of movie where people do things that defy belief, and we’re just expected to go along with it.

Verdict: There’s an interesting reworking of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, but otherwise this is another unnecessary legacy franchise reboot. 4/10

Nick Joy