The first trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs arrived October 9, and it does not look like any Exorcist film before it. Mike Flanagan, the director behind The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, has reframed the franchise as a serial killer procedural. Possession as the backdrop to a detective story. It is a significant pivot.
Scarlett Johansson plays NYPD detective Julie Miller, who ended the reign of a Satanic serial killer called Father Sunday over a decade ago. A new killer now draws her back into that darkness. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Father William, a priest who heard Father Sunday's final confession. John Leguizamo plays Father Sunday. The supporting cast includes Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Carla Gugino, Sasha Calle, Hamish Linklater, and Carl Lumbly.
Blumhouse and Universal reset the franchise after David Gordon Green's The Exorcist: Believer received scathing reviews. Flanagan appeared at BlumFest at New York Comic-Con on October 10, where he described the film as "unlike any other Exorcist movie," according to Complex. Getting the film to be genuinely frightening was a stated priority.
The franchise has always struggled to replicate Friedkin's 1973 original. Flanagan's approach suggests he is not trying to. A cast anchored by Johansson, Ejiofor, and Fishburne points toward something closer to a thriller than an exorcism set piece. Whether that recalibration lands is the real question. The Exorcist: Martyrs opens March 12, 2027.
