Last August, it was revealed that a reboot of horror classic The Exorcist was in the works. The news was not met overwhelmingly well, with some fans even starting a petition to have the film stopped (the petition is just 30 signatures short of its goal). Now, Jason Blum of contemporary horror game-changers Blumhouse has revealed that the studio does have plans to make a new Exorcist film — and hints that like 2018’s Halloween reboot, it might ignore the sequels that came before it.
Speaking to Den of Geek, Blum said of the project, “I love to do [these] kinds of movies because people are very emotional about it…I think it’s a high bar and it’s a challenge to do the movie. Remember, most of the audience coming to this—95% of the audience who will, if we do our job right, come to see this movie—will not have seen the first Exorcist or even heard of it.”
“[The new Exorcist sequel is] going to be like David [Gordon Green’s] Halloween sequel,” he went on to say. “I think it’s going to pleasantly surprise all the skeptics out there. We had a lot of skeptics about Halloween and David turned them around, and I think he’s going to turn it around with The Exorcist.”
One implication taken from this is that the new Exorcist film might ignore the sequels that came before it, as did 2018’s Halloween reboot. This choice was universally appreciated by fans, who found the circuitous events of the sequels cumbersome for the Halloween franchise. This would benefit The Exorcist, as the sequels are considered some of the more questionable films of all time, especially compared to the original (despite Exorcist III‘s cult status).
“I want to make a movie for people that know and love the first Exorcist and are furious that we’re doing this,” continued Blum, “but somehow drag themselves to the theater. I want them to come out happy. And I want to make a movie that people who’ve never heard of The Exorcist really enjoy. I think David did that with Halloween. I think he’ll do that with The Exorcist also.”
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Words by Chris Krovatin
