It’s a good time to be a horror fan, and that’s partly thanks to Blumhouse, who deserves credit for contributing to the genre’s renaissance as of late. The studio has worked with the best horror filmmakers of the day like The Haunting of Hill House’s Mike Flanagan, Get Out’s Jordan Peele and The Invisible Man’s Leigh Whannell. Now, they’ll be revisiting one of the most terrifying movies of all time, The Exorcist, with a sequel headed our way in October 2023. And according to the company’s founder, Jason Blum, the decision to bring back Exorcist was influenced by the latest Halloween movies.
Blumhouse brought back Michael Myers and Laurie Strode for a brand new trilogy starring the original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, 40 years after the events of the first movie. When speaking to CinePOP, Jason Blum shared how the 2018 film’s success has since inspired the production company to return to the haunting demon story:
What I hope to do with The Exorcist is the same thing we did with Halloween, you know. Halloween, the first movie was great, and the second movie was okay, and the rest of them were not very good. And then we came in and kind of rejiggered it, and people liked it, so I hope we can do the same thing with The Exorcist. Everyone thinks we're gonna fall on our face, but I think we have the same filmmaker, the same writer, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride. And I think we'll reinvent The Exorcist so that it'll feel fresh, new, different, related to the first movie, but also really, really scary.
As Jason Blum shared, the same filmmakers behind the new Halloween trilogy, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride are making the next Exorcist movie. And much like their other horror hit, the sequel will ignore the events of the other four films and continue the events of the 1973 original instead. Blum is producing the film alongside Universal and Peacock, as it will be made for the streaming service as well.
The movie has already enlisted an original cast member from the 1973 classic, Ellen Burstyn. The 88-year-old actress will reprise her role as Chris MacNeil, a famous actress who temporarily moves to Georgetown with her 12-year-old daughter, Regan, to star in a film there. The horrors begin when Regan becomes possessed by a demon, which Chris then seeks to exorcise out of her. Joining MacNeil so far in the cast is Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr, who will play a father who seeks out help for his child, who becomes possessed this time around.
Much like Halloween, it sounds like The Exorcist sequel is repeating a few of the best aspects of the new franchise, such as bringing back an original character and focusing on the storyline of the first movie, rather than completely rebooting it or getting stuck in the continuity of the other movies. Ahead of its release though, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills is coming to theaters and Peacock on October 15, and its concluding chapter, Halloween Ends, will be released in October 2022.
