I loved The Exorcist film from the 70's. Honestly, some of the sequels and prequels are really well done for their time and the original is one of the scariest movies I've ever watched. When I was a teen and watched for the first time, it haunted me; my dreams and thoughts were shook up for a good couple of weeks.
However, this version? I cannot take it seriously. The screenplay is weak, poorly written and connected, very jilted, like a bunch of kids wrote this the night before it was due in high school and didn't bother to go back and edit it.
The acting is where this movie falls apart. The mother, a supposed "doctor" doesn't believe (initially) in demonic possessions, but her convictions aren't strong enough or based in science. I feel as though she should have been more indignant about it and gave us alternatives, like a differential diagnosis for what was going on. She just flatly refuses. I feel like when she speaks, she's never seen the script before and someone is holding up cue cards and she left her glasses at home. The monotony of her voice is as flat as her character.
Every character was cast poorly. The brother was the most believable out of the entire lot. They don't understand how to build tension and feelings. It's 100% the whole time, like someone in a traditional orchestra, where instead of playing the notes as written and with differences in volume and emotion, like from pianissimo to forte, they play it all as loud as they can, their instruments untuned, not playing with the other orchestra's instruments, and the conductor, or the director in this case, doesn't read music 😂
The girl at the beginning is so bratty and would win an award for the most whining and eye rolling. She literally doesn't become annoyed or throw in an eye roll. She whines at a ten and rolls her eyes every time she blinks. She isn't sinister in her possessed role, she's just trying to copy other possessed people from other films. She doesn't frighten me. Even the scene, where she accuses the dad of wanting her physically isn't disturbing or creepy. It's just strange and weird.
When she crashes upstairs and glass breaks after she starts screaming, the brother and dad literally take 20 seconds before they even react. If someone screamed and glass broke in *my* house? I would immediately jump and get up and actually act scared. The brother just looks annoyed with her and confused, not scared. The only believably scared person is the friend of the brother who was in the car crash.
Overall, give this a skip. I honestly cannot remember any worse acting in years of seeing low budget films. Instead of this, if you want a lower budget, made for tv movie, go watch "The Haunted" from 1991, free on YouTube. Or the incomparable Vincent Price, in his movie "The Last Man on Earth", free on YouTube. Both of these have low budgets, good acting and can be a bit of their time in regards to special effects, etc., but this movie, The Fallen, is 90 minutes of life you'll never get back. Skip it. It's not even ironically funny because the acting is so bad, like in "The Room" with Tommy Wiseau.
