Author Grady Hendrix described his second novel, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, as “Beaches meets The Exorcist.” It emphasized sentimentality and humor over scares, though it wasn’t afraid to inject a few frights. The adaptation tries to faithfully capture the events of the book within its constraints and format, but this rushed retelling struggles to worm its way into your heart.
It’s 1988. High school sophomores Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) have been inseparable best friends since the fourth grade. Their tight bond gets tested after a disastrous slumber party leaves Gretchen behaving differently. She’s moodier, more aloof, and occasionally downright mean. Is it hormonal, social pressures, or something more? Abby begins to suspect that Gretchen’s been possessed.
Director Damon Thomas, working from Jenna Lamia’s screenplay, keeps an irreverent, breezy tone. Kitschy décor, terrible wigs, and popular decade-specific needle drops broadcast the ‘80s setting. Abby and Gretchen share giggles over their Boy George crushes and chat classroom woes with pals Glee (Cathy Ang) and Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu). Just enough time gets spent establishing each girl’s insecurities and dynamics before the fateful trip into the woods that changes everything.
The usual signs of possession run through a bubblegum teen comedy filter. Think Mean Girls; as Gretchen slowly succumbs to demonic possession, she exploits her friends’ security to get catty or torment them. Despite the ‘80s high school setting and the creative ways Gretchen hurts her friends, the narrative never shifts from the exorcism formula. Underneath the nostalgia lies the familiar story we’ve seen before.
Unlike the novel, which can afford these relationships to develop organically, the adaptation’s brisk runtime hurdles through each plot point. Thomas and Lamia try to adhere too faithfully to the events of the source material. We’re never as invested in the central friendship as the story demands, and subplots get swept aside quickly. Most of the humor falls flat, too. Christopher Lowell struggles to get a laugh from the weirdly yogurt-obsessed, bible-thumping meathead-slash-aspiring exorcist, Christian Lemon.
The film occasionally dabbles with the potential for a subversion of the possession story; Abby tries to help Gretchen through what she suspects to be sexual assault trauma. It opens the possibility of a fresh metaphor for the possession, but the idea gets abandoned hastily to return to the novel’s blueprint. It builds to a finale that’s far cutesier and more fantastical than horror-comedy.
The straightforward possession story struggles to overcome its low stakes and rushed narrative. The film tells us that Abby and Gretchen have been lifelong best friends, but there’s no sense of history or chemistry between the pair that indicates a strong friendship. It makes it tough to care as the demon wreaks havoc on Abby’s social life, and rough visual effects further undermine it during the more ambitious or iconic novel moments. There is a playfulness about it all and a cloying sweetness that might win over a young demographic. Otherwise, this one makes for a rather dull trip into the past.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism debuts on Prime Video on September 30, 2022.
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