Mike Flanagan Confirmed To Direct “Radical New” Exorcist Movie - Not Believer Sequel
Summary
With the acclaimed filmmaker now confirmed to be working on the studio’s second attempt to revive the franchise, Mike Flanagan confirms Blumhouse’s nextExorcistmovie won’t include one of his trademarks. The indie horror studio had brought the iconic franchise back with 2023’sThe Exorcist: Believer, with plans to launch a new trilogy of stories from it helmed by David Gordon Green after their previous collaboration on theHalloweenlegacy sequel trilogy. Following its disappointing critical and commercial response, however, Green departed the sequel and Blumhouse forged ahead by scrapping these sequels, instead hiringFlanagan to write and direct a newExorcistinstallment.
During a recent appearance at the ATX TV Festival (perIndieWire), Flanagan offered some brief teases of what to expect from his take on theExorcistfranchise. While not sharing specifics regarding the movie’s story, he did confirm thatit will not include his trademark of extended character monologues about religion, jokingly sharing with Blumhouse executives that he “got it out of my system”, while also expressing that it doesn’t hold the same potential to scare audiences as it did with the original movie. See what Flanagan shared below:
Part of what I said to Blumhouse and Universal when we were discussing this was I don’t think this is a monologue project. The ritual itself is something of a monologue, but we’ve seen that. We’ve seen somebody shout prayers at somebody. That was scary 50 years ago, I don’t see that working here. [Paraphrasing unnamed executive] We just think it’s theatrical, and younger audiences drive horror. That’s a fact. A lot of the audiences who will come see this likely haven’t seen the original, and aren’t going to be impressed by any allusions to that.
So this isn’t really where you want to do the long monologues about religion. And I said, “I completely agree with you, and if it makes you feel any better, I made that show. I already got it out of my system. This should just be really scary.” That means with the character work, it’s still on me to make them real and emotionally relevant. But this isn’t the project where we should be monologuing.
Flanagan’s Exorcist Plan Is A Great New Direction For The Franchise
Flanagan’s joke regarding his propensity for extensive monologues about religion is sure to ring true to those who watchedNetflix’sMidnight Mass. Despite the show’s large acclaim from critics and audiences alike,there was some division over the monologue-heavy script, with some lamenting that it slowed the pace of the miniseries down, even if it carried some powerful commentary regarding religion as a whole. This isn’t the first time Flanagan has acknowledged these critiques, either, having assured that his immediate miniseries follow-up,The Midnight Club, would focus more on scares for its teen and young adult viewers.
Mike Flanagan’s Forgotten 2016 Horror Movie Shows How He Can Save The Exorcist Franchise
Mike Flanagan’s in talks to helm the next Exorcist movie, and his work on a forgotten 2016 horror prequel shows just how he can save the franchise.
While his promise of wanting to make something more directly scary is already a promising sign for the film, Flanagan’s overall plan for the nextExorcistmovie looks to bring a great new direction for the franchise as a whole. To his point, theoriginal William Friedkin-helmed classic did largely relish in the conflict between faith and skepticism, and how the latter could make things even worse for those dealing with the possessed. In his efforts to stay true to the original movie,Green’sExorcist: Believersimilarly explored these themes, but was deemed to have done so in a generally straightforward and predictable fashion.
Given many of the other poorly received sequels in the franchise failed to find the right balance between outright scares and deeper themes, Flanagan’s plans forThe Exorcistsound on track to deliver something new and fresh for the series. While he may not utilize monologues to tackle these deeper layers, his work on his other acclaimed projects shows he’s just as capable at delivering outright horror as he is something meaningful. Additionally, witha wealth of lore to pull from beyond Pazuzu and the MacNeil family’s history of demonic encounters, it will be interesting to see how Flanagan establishes his story amidthe decades-spanningExorcisttimeline.
The Exorcist: Believer
Cast
The Exorcist: Believer is a direct sequel to the original 1973 supernatural horror film by director David Gordon Green and follows Victor Fielding, a father who was forced to raise his daughter alone after his wife died twelve years prior. When Victor’s daughter and her friend go missing, the supernatural events that surround their disappearance force him to seek out the only person to have dealt with these horrors before - Chris MacNeil.
