Watch the Debut Trailer for The Exorcist: Believer

The Exorcist is widely regarded as the most terrifying film in history. And now, almost 50 years on, it’s getting a sequel.

The Exorcist: Believer follows single father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr), who’s embroiled in a supernatural chain of evil events when his daughter Angela disappears in the woods, then shows up three days later with no memory of the events.

The Exorcist: Believer sees Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn reprise her role as Chris MacNeil from the 1973 original. It was her, daughter Regan (Linda Blair), who was the subject of demonic possession five decades before.

Just as the modern Halloween sequels saw the return of a legacy character in Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, MacNeil’s occupying a damaged mentor role, advising the main character on what to do when evil rears its head. “Do you have any experience of possession?” Fielding asks, to which MacNeil replies, “Yes, more than I’d like.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the original film. Based on William Peter Blatty’s best-selling book and directed by William Friedkin, it earned 10 Academy Award nominations and was the first horror film ever nominated for Best Picture. It’s also very gory. Almost as gory as the Gen V trailer showing all-new Supes.

The Exorcist: Believer is the first sequel since 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and part one of a proposed trilogy. The Exorcist: Deceiver is set to release in 2025, and an untitled third film later.

The Exorcist: Believer hits cinemas October 13.