“The Exorcist: Believer,” which will serve as a direct sequel to the original film from 1973, had its first plot details revealed at CinemaCon…
The first details surrounding the upcoming sequel to “The Exorcist” have finally been revealed including the title — “The Exorcist: Believer.”
The film is directed by David Gordon Green, who is best known for his recent work on the “Halloween” trilogy that brought back original star Jamie Lee Curtis to reprise her role in three movies that served as direct sequel to the original John Carpenter classic from 1978.
Green will look to do the same with his updated sequel for “The Exorcist: Believer,” which will follow the events of the original film from 1973 but ignore all of the other films in the series.
Much like he did with “Halloween,” Green was able to bring back one of the original stars from the first film with Ellen Burstyn reprising her role as Chris MacNeil — the mother who witnesses her daughter Regan being possessed by a demon and the priests tasked with saving her soul.
The first footage from the film was shown at CinemaCon — the annual event where studios present teasers and trailers for upcoming movies to theater owners from across the globe — with Green and Blumhouse founder Jason Blum addressing the audience. Blum said he couldn’t imagine a better person to take over “The Exorcist” franchise than Green while the director praised the chance to work with Burstyn, who earned a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for her role in the original film.
“Just as Jamie Lee returned to the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween, I was honored to work with Ellen Burstyn, who again appears as Chris MacNeil,” Green said. “[She’s] altered by what she witnessed with the occurrence of her daughter Regan in Georgetown.”
All that was known about the largely secretive project was that Green’s film would serve as a direct sequel to “The Exorcist” and Burstyn was returning as Chris MacNeil but now the first real details about the plot have been revealed.
The film follows two girls who go missing after school but when they finally return, they believe they’ve only been gone for a few hours when in reality it’s been several days. The girls start exhibiting strange behavior, which concerns their parents played by Leslie Odom Jr. and Jennifer Nettles, and they soon begin to believe that a demon may have possessed both children.
That results in a call being made to Chris MacNeil, who lived through a similar situation decades earlier, and so she arrives to offer her assistance to the concerned parents. When Chris finally confronts the children to see the symptoms they’re exhibiting, one of the girls turns to her with a demonic voice and calls her “mother.”
“We tried to delve back into what it would be like to have evil take over the body of not just one but two children,” Green said.
If all goes well, “The Exorcist: Believer” is expected to serve as the first of a new three film trilogy that Green would helm much like he did with “Halloween,” “Halloween Kills” and the much maligned “Halloween Ends.” Of course, Green has big shoes to fill with “The Exorcist,” which was adapted from a novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time.
“The Exorcist” also went onto earn 10 Academy Award nominations and two wins while also being credited as the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture.
The footage shown at CinemaCon hasn’t been released yet but it’s likely a trailer will debut sometime in the near future with “The Exorcist: Believer” set to drop in theaters on October 13.
