First ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Trailer Reveals a Chilling New Chapter From David Gordon Green (Video)

Unsurprisingly, Universal and Blumhouse’s “The Exorcist: Believer” — a brand new horror chapter in the beloved franchise that hits theaters on Oct. 13, 2023 (you can watch the first trailer above) — started with Max von Sydow.

Co-writer/director David Gordon Green had already started thinking about tackling a new take on “The Exorcist” but after von Sydow, who co-starred in both “The Exorcist” and its deeply insane sequel “The Exorcist II: The Heretic,” died, Green started a deep dive. It wasn’t just his Ingmar Bergman collaboration either but “his spectacular body of work.”

“I wasn’t really thinking about what I’m going to do with this film yet,” Green told TheWrap. “I was just thinking more about the intimidating landscape of being a part of that franchise. I wasn’t settled into a theme. But in watching some of those films, they tap, in a beautiful way, into the infinite spiritual realms, question marks that are out there artfully and spiritually.”

One idea Green wanted to explore was “root work” – an aspect of voodooism and what Green refers to as a “traditional healing process that began in West African culture.” It also serves, as Green said, as one of the “unlikely remedies of potential possession.” His mind began to expand.

“I couldn’t wrap my head around a one-philosophy type of ‘Exorcist’ movie,” Green said. He started reading about different religious interpretations of possession, including the idea of “synchronized possession,” which is something the new movie tackles head-on.

“My mind was blown and I started making phone calls and started talking to the quote, unquote experts because it’s a very unique subject matter and people have experienced things or claimed to have experienced things,” Green said. “And I just wanted to invite all these voices and stories and theories into my creative whirlpool.”

If he focused on a synchronized possession, it was his way “to tell a fresh story.” Multiple possessions meant “multiple spiritual perspectives.”

The new “Exorcist” movie follows Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) who “disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them” (according to the official synopsis). Angela’s father (Leslie Odom, Jr.) is desperate to cure the girls and seeks help in a familiar face from the “Exorcist” franchise. Green said that he looked to “find a way to balance the beauty and artfulness that, I guess, the death of Max von Sydow inspired. That was the goal.”

He knew that the task of updating “The Exorcist” would be daunting, especially considering how many filmmakers (including John Boorman and Paul Schrader) had tried in the years since 1973. “If you ask anybody what their favorite scary movies are, ‘The Exorcist’ is one of them,” Green said. “Although it works in a very different technical fashion than today’s scary movies. And you want to make sure you’re not misrepresenting what you’re trying to create because you’re wanting to make a movie that delves into some of these primal anxieties and horrors that we have as a culture, as parents, as vulnerable beings on this earth.”

Green’s journey with “The Exorcist” took three years “of exploring, of meeting people, of being confused, of being frustrated, of being inspired.” Now, Green said, his journey is nearing its conclusion, as he’s in “the home stretch of the edit.” “I’m very excited,” Green said. “It’s weird.”

For Green, who was coming off of making three “Halloween” movies (also for Universal and Blumhouse), it was a different sort of challenge. With “Halloween,” the “genetics” (as Green calls them) of “Laurie Strode and Michael Myers and the theme song,” were a “different sub-genre of horror.” With “The Exorcist: Believer,” Green said he is “trying to be as authentic as possible.” He thought of “In Cold Blood,” Richard Brooks’ 1967 adaptation of Truman Capote’s nonfiction classic. “It’s not a horror movie, it’s just a movie that feels f–king horrifying to watch,” Green said. “And it is still hard for me to watch that movie at night. It’s not a horror movie. It’s just one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.”

The original “Exorcist,” for Green, falls into this category. “It feels like it’s happening to people that I can see myself knowing on this earth,” Green said. “Halloween,” in comparison, “is such a heightened, stylistic version of something that’s engineered to scare you, because that’s the rollercoaster of a slasher genre is. Those are really fun nuances to try to create and propel and experience with an audience,” Green said. “But this is more of a considered earthly, relatable journey of horror.”

One place that “The Exorcist: Believer” and Green’s “Halloween” trilogy (which concluded last year with the outstanding, oddly polarizing “Halloween Ends”) overlap is in their staging of a glorious homecoming for the franchise’s big star – for “Halloween” that meant having Jamie Lee Curtis return. For “The Exorcist: Believer” it meant bringing back Ellen Burstyn for the first time since the original film in 1974.

Working with the legendary actress was a “true honor” for Green, especially considering three of his favorite films of all time star Burstyn (that’d be “The Last Picture Show,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and, of course, “The Exorcist”). “Just to be able to have this person that’s still with us creating things, and I get to invite her into a collaboration and utilize her voice and inspiration is amazing,” Green said. “And then now she’s my friend, so I can just be a goofball on funny texts to her and send her stupid memes is really cool.”

The goal for the new movie, Green said, was to create a role that “rhymes” with her performance in the original film, “That is Chris McNeil in the wake of Georgetown 1973, and personalize it for her, personalizing it for me, and then making something that I think is profound to both of us.” It was important to take, just as he had with the last “Halloween,” “a big swing.” “Anybody can make a ‘Halloween’ movie, but unless you’re personalizing it, it’s not yours,” Green said.

Green continued: “I feel like for me and Ellen, who didn’t know each other prior to this experience, but we get in the ring and I don’t know what I’m about to deal with. This could just be a fan service type of role that we’re going to buy into, or this could be a real collaboration with a very special spiritual essence on this Earth, and that’s what it became. [I was] getting her navigation, not just on what her character could do but how this process works, how this production could be special.” Green admits that he’s “not William Friedkin,” the director on the first “Exorcist,” who seemingly thrived in chaos (the director fired a gun on set to get a startled reaction out of cast members, among other things). “I make different types of movies and have different types of work environments. And to be able to have her conversing and laughing and playful as we’re sculpting it together,” Green said of Burstyn. “That was cool.”

Of course, Green’s journey with “The Exorcist” – with or without Burstyn – is far from over. When he signed onto the project, it was for a trilogy of films (part of a deal that cost Universal a whopping $400 million). Universal has already named and dated the follow-up (“The Exorcist: Deceiver” will be out on April 18, 2025) although has not announced a director for that film. When TheWrap asked if he was still coming back for the other two “Exorcist” movies he said, “I think so.”

“I think the smartest thing to do is to see how it plays and then see what makes the most sense. And what makes the most sense for me is not always what’s the most successful. Sometimes, for me, it’s what did you leave untold? Or what did you not execute that you can go exercise that muscle? Or what’s the least obvious thing, or least expected thing, or how do you challenge yourself?” Green explained. The filmmaker stresses that he’s “not a horror movie director.” “I did direct some horror movies, but I also direct a lot of ridiculous, absurd, stupid comedies that I’m really proud of,” Green said.

Green said the question that always looms largest is: “How do I challenge myself?” “And that may be by going in against the grain. These things are just as much internal creative dialogues I have with myself and my collaborators, which fortunately for me, that collaborative circus is pretty consistent. We all push each other and persuade each other in certain creative choices. I think that’s probably the smartest thing,” Green said. As for the second and third films? “We’ve got a lot of ideas. I’ve actually got scripts, outlines, and things like that that I’m playing with, but kind of want to see where it lands,” Green said. Maybe he’s waiting for the power of Christ – or some other unseen force – to compel him.

“The Exorcist: Believer” haunts theaters on Oct. 13, 2023.

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