The Exorcist: Believer will have twice as many demonic child possessions

Evil returns in the first footage from David Gordon Green's Exorcist sequel.

Green — who directed Jamie Lee Curtis' return in the recent Halloween revival trilogy — is once again resurrecting a beloved horror franchise, helming the upcoming film The Exorcist: Believer (in theaters Oct. 13). Green and Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum stopped by Universal Pictures' CinemaCon panel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where they revealed the film's official title and a first look.

"I knew that David was the right person to honor the original material and bring it into our day and age, in ways that both and expanded and updated it — like he did with Halloween," Blum told the crowd. "I was so excited to help bring his new take to the big screen."

The new Exorcist is a direct sequel to William Friedkin's 1973 original, which starred Linda Blair as possessed preteen Regan MacNeil. Original Exorcist star Ellen Burstyn returns for Believer, reprising her role as Regan's mother, Chris.

Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist'

Believer will focus on a new demonic case, following two young girls who are apparently possessed by an unholy force. Leslie Odom Jr. and Jennifer Nettles play the girls' parents, who turn to Chris MacNeil for help and her firsthand knowledge of demonic possession.

"Just as Jamie Lee returned to the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween, I was honored to work with Ellen Burstyn, who again appears as Chris MacNeil," Green said. "[She's] altered by what she witnessed with the occurrence of her daughter Reagan in Georgetown."

The footage, which has yet to be publicly released, elicited oohs and applause from the crowd, following the girls as they go missing after school. When they eventually return, the girls assume they've only been gone a few hours — only to learn that it's actually been days.

Creepiness ensues, as the girls' behavior continues to grow stranger. (There's a scene of one of them covered in communion wine, screaming in a church, and at one point we hear the iconic music from the original film.) Eventually Burstyn's character comes face to face with one of the possessed girls, who greets her as "mother."

"We tried to delve back into what it would be like to have evil take over the body of not just one but two children," Green added.

Adapted from William Peter Blatty's book, the original Exorcist is a horror classic, having raked in millions at the box office and earned 10 Academy Award nominations. (The film was also the first true horror movie to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.) There have been several follow-up attempts over the years, including 1977's Exorcist II, 1990's Exorcist III, and several prequels in the early 2000s. A TV show also premiered on Fox in 2016, running for two seasons before its cancellation.

Additional reporting by Lauren Huff in Las Vegas.

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