[Film Review] My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022)

Another beloved horror novel has been given the movie treatment this October as Grady Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022) hit Amazon Prime. Based on the 2016 novel, which many of us bought for its beautiful ‘80s VHS-style cover, My Best Friend’s Exorcism focuses on the relationship between best friends Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) after a night at a lake house goes very wrong. 

Set in the 1980s, Abby and Gretchen are friends despite their very different lives. Abby is on scholarship at the local Catholic high school, her parents regularly fail to make her lunch, and Gretchen is the one person she can rely on. Meanwhile, Gretchen comes from a very well-to-do family, has an overbearing mother, and an enormous house. But the bond between the girls is strong, and they’re pretty confident their friendship can survive anything. 

After heading to a mutual friend’s lake house for the weekend, both girls dabble in LSD, and while the drug seems to have little effect on either of them, they decide to explore a shack at the edge of the property which is said to house Satanic rituals. Once inside, Abby and Gretchen get scared, and in the confusion, they are separated. While Abby manages to flee into the woods, Gretchen is left behind and attacked by something unseen. 

In the days that follow Gretchen’s attack, her behaviour starts to change greatly, with Abby being the only one who seems to take any notice. But is her friendship enough to tackle whatever is really going on inside Gretchen?

It’s hard not to compare a film to the book version, especially when you enjoyed the book so much, but My Best Friend’s Exorcism falls quite flat on a few levels. There’s not as much exploration of Abby and Gretchen’s friendship as there should have been considering the entire narrative and Gretchen’s fate hinges on what good friends they are. There’s also the addition of Gretchen moving away putting even more of a strain on their relationship, which doesn’t happen in the book. 

What does work well in the movie is the ambiguity between what is going on with Gretchen. There are worries that she may have been sexually assaulted at the cabin, or that her drug use has caused her personality to change significantly. However, this is slightly undermined by the fact the audience is often shown scenes of Gretchen very clearly acting possessed, such as levitating off her bed. But overall, it is an interesting exploration of how people react to teenage girls and how quick parents and teachers are to try and sweep problems under the carpet rather than deal with the real issues. 

Things start to fall apart a little towards the end, and much like the beginning is missing that deeper context of the friendship, the ending tries to fit a little too much into a very short space of time. The revelation of what is happening to Gretchen is a little too straightforward, and the effects definitely leave something to be desired. 

Amiah Miller does a fantastic job of playing Gretchen, switching between her extreme moods impressively. However, Elsie Fisher plays a quite annoying character that is very similar to her annoying character from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), which makes it quite hard to root for her as the main character.

Overall, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is a lovely slice of ‘80s horror action if you’re looking to fill the Stranger Things (2016) hole in your life. However, the film could have been so much more interesting, and I think fans of the book will be even more disappointed.

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