Leslie Odom Jr. heads a cast that includes Ann Dowd and Ellen Burstyn, the latter reprising her role from William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic for the first time.
‘The Creator’ Review: John David Washington Gets Caught Up in AI War in Gareth Edwards’ Baggy, Sentimental Sci-Fi Epic. For those of us former Catholic school kids with vivid recall of being scared witless in our younger years by that 1973 classic, the new film is as deceptive a trickster as the Satanic visitor that takes up residence this time in not just one innocent girl but two.
Arguably the biggest blunder Green makes is diluting the imprint of Catholicism on the story. Instead of making the cleansing of impure spirits the exclusive domain of a shadowy arm of the Church that answers to the Vatican, the movie throws in Pentecostal holy rollers, spiritual healing methods and folk medicine rooted in African culture and — God save us — the power of group solidarity.
The story picks up 13 years later, with Victor and Angela living in happy harmony in small-town Georgia. But when Angela and her friend Katherine wander into the woods and attempt to summon the spirit of Angela’s late mother, of course they summon something far less wholesome. As much as Jewett and O’Neill do a solid job showing the alarming progression from their dazed return — discovered in the barn of a farm 30 miles from where they were last spotted, with no memory of the preceding three days — a couple of key factors make their possession less effective than that of Linda Blair’s Regan in the original.
The same goes for the bag of tricks that was once terrifying, including levitation, violent convulsions and creative barfing, this time swapping pea-soup for black sludge and curls of smoke. Every new freakout moment gradually just starts to feel like more for the sake of more, rather than showing us imaginative new ideas.
In addition to the ever-reliable Dowd, the chief asset here is Odom, who brings unfailing integrity to his performance even where the script doesn’t earn it.
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