Summary
- Mike Flanagan will direct a new Exorcist movie, but not a Believer sequel due to its poor reviews and box office.
- It is said to be a "radical new take" on the Exorcist franchise.
- Most details are currently under wraps.
Horror fan favorite writer-director Mike Flanagan will helm a new sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver was pulled from its planned release date amid major creative overhauls.
Now, Blumhouse confirms Flanagan will direct what is being called a "radical new take" on the Exorcist franchise. Specifics of what that means are currently being kept under wraps, but it will not be The Exorcist: Deceiver. As the director of this new iteration of the franchise, Flanagan will be returning to the fold at Blumhouse, where he made several of his early horror movies, including 2016's Hush and 2013's Oculus. Flanagan said in a statement:
The Exorcist is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold, and terrifying within its universe. Reuniting with my friends at Blumhouse, with whom I’ve made some of my favorite pieces of work, only makes this more exciting.
Mike Flanagan Is The Perfect Person To Turn The Exorcist Around
The Horror Director Has Made A Career Out Of Defying Franchise Expectations
Blumhouse reuniting with Flanagan could be very good news for their Exorcist movies. The filmmaker has already proven his ability to rehabilitate one of their horror franchises when he took on a prequel to Blumhouse's poorly-reviewed horror hit Ouija, a movie that had a major Rotten Tomatoes splat, but nevertheless grossed $103.6 million against a small budget of roughly $5 million. He turned the follow-up into a critical smash that massively outdid the original. Below, see how the Rotten Tomatoes scores compare for both movies:
Title |
RT Critic Score |
RT Audience Score |
|---|---|---|
Ouija (2014) |
6% |
24% |
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016) |
83% |
57% |
Although audiences were less warm on Origin of Evil than critics, who gave it a Certified Fresh score, Flanagan's take on the material nevertheless earned more than twice the original movie's score. Since then, the filmmaker has taken on more and more beloved source material for his successful horror projects, winning over audiences with unlikely features, including the Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and the Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House, which adapted the Shirley Jackson novel that was adapted into the 1963 Robert Wise classic The Haunting.
Other Mike Flanagan Netflix horrors that succeeded despite legendary source material include The Haunting of Bly Manor (adapting Henry James' The Turn of the Screw) and The Fall of the House of Usher (loosely adapting the Poe story). With this proven track record of handling classic horror properties with care, Flanagan may be the perfect filmmaker to tackle The Exorcist. It remains to be seen if audiences respond to the new movie in the same way as some of his previous well-received projects, but his name being attached could quite easily help clear any negative reactions stirred up by Believer.
Source: THR
The Exorcist
- Release Date
- December 26, 1973
- Runtime
- 122 minutes
- Director
- William Friedkin
Cast
Max Von Sydow-
Linda Blair
WHERE TO WATCH
The Exorcist is a supernatural horror film based on the novel released in 1971 and was directed by William Friedkin. When a young girl is ed by a powerful demon, two Catholic priests are brought to her home to attempt an exorcism to expunge the demon.
- Writers
- William Peter Blatty
- Sequel(s)
- The Exorcist III
- Franchise(s)
- The Exorcist
- Studio(s)
- Hoya Productions
- Distributor(s)
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Budget
- $12 million
- Main Genre
- Horror
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