The Exorcist: Believer director breaks down first trailer and Ellen Burstyn's return
Director David Gordon Green was around 14 years old when he saw William Friedkin's classic 1974 horror movie The Exorcist. "The first time I watched it was in a library with headphones on," he tells EW. "I would watch it 10 minutes at a time. It was about all I could take. It felt like a realistic journey. It wasn't like a Nightmare on Elm Street movie where you could surrender to the fantasy. It was something that felt a little deeper, a little bit more internal, and so that's what has always stuck with me about it."
Green is hoping to provoke in audiences the same sense of grounded terror with his film The Exorcist: Believer, the trailer for which debuted Tuesday after screening before showings of Oppenheimer this past weekend. The first in a planned three-film continuation of the Exorcist franchise, the movie details the plight of two friends, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia Marcum).
"The concept of this movie is two young girls disappear after school one day. When they return, they are in a different mental state and exhibiting some peculiar attributes," says Green, who directed the recent trilogy of Halloween films. "We come to learn that they are in a synchronized possession."
Katherine's parents are played by Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz, while Angela's widower father is portrayed by Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. Green describes the latter's character as someone who "puts all of his energy and love into his daughter. Then [he is] faced as a single father with this issue and [does] not have a strong spiritual community or connection to his physical community."
Green's real casting coup is securing the return of Ellen Burstyn to the franchise. In the 1974 film, Burstyn played Chris MacNeil, the actress-mother of Linda Blair's possessed Regan, but she did not appear in John Boorman's much-maligned 1977 sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic nor in any of the franchise's subsequent entries until now. "Her character ended up becoming fascinated by exorcism and studying the rites and rituals of possession throughout culture," Green says of MacNeil's life following the events depicted in Friedkin's film. "[She] became a bit of an expert. Not an exorcist herself, but renowned for the books that she's written."
Asked if Blair will appear in The Exorcist: Believer, or the subsequent films, Green sidesteps the question, but reveals that the film "alludes to her character in a number of ways." The director does confirm reports that Blair visited the set. "We were lucky and had Linda as a technical advisor," Green says. "She helped us bring excellent performances out of young actresses. It was really valuable having a relationship with her and being able to get her as a part of this conversation."
Green's Halloween was a direct sequel to John Carpenter's original 1978 film of the same name, which essentially ignored the franchise entries that followed the first movie. Is the director taking a similar approach here, effectively pretending that the series' sequels and prequels don't exist?
"To be honest, I'm not avoiding any of them, but I don't know them very well," says Green, whose other credits include 2008's Pineapple Express and 2017's Stronger. "I've seen all of them. I've seen Exorcist III more than any of them. I know that one very well. Say what you will about Exorcist II, but it ain't shy. It is a fearless epic of ideas, but [we're] not necessarily following a character from Exorcist: The Beginning. We're not looking into that. It's not that type of a franchise that needs to check boxes, but I've got two more movies, so maybe I'll find some threads to unravel from one of those."
The Exorcist: Believer is written by Green and Peter Sattler, and also stars Ann Dowd. The film is produced by Blumhouse and Morgan Creek and is distributed by Universal.
The Exorcist: Believer will be released in theaters this Oct. 13, and Universal announced the follow-up film, The Exorcist: Deceiver, will arrive April 18, 2025.
Watch the film's trailer above.
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