MOVIE NEWS – Fifty years ago, The Exorcist was a real sensation and is considered one of the best horror films of all time. It was the first horror film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and it was rumored at the time to be so divisive that even the Pope expressed his displeasure, while other church dignitaries defended the film, saying it faithfully portrayed the Catholic rite. performed an exorcism. There were several sequels to the classic, which were received mixed by the audience and critics, while the TV series that started in 2016 and lasted for two seasons was able to sneak into the favor of the viewers.

Since the nimbus of the original film and the theme is unassailable, the Universal studio did not regret 400 million dollars two years ago to buy all the rights to the franchise. The aim was to get the green light for a trilogy, which is a direct sequel to the original film and expands more thoroughly on what the 1973 film had to say. The soul of the project is screenwriter-director David Gordon Green, who in the last few years has breathed new life into the Halloween franchise to the extent of a trilogy, with overwhelming success.

Green is well aware that today’s audience is much more skeptical about exorcisms than the viewers of fifty years ago, so he places the message of his new trilogy in a wider, metaphorical perspective.

“For today’s man, satanic possession has been significantly reinterpreted, rather it means a serious psychological trauma that can be related to the most terrible mental illnesses, including destructive addiction,” Green replied to The Sidney Morning to a question from the Australian newspaper Herald. – Such things are more tangible for the modern audience, since they can rear their head in our immediate environment, in our family, as is the case with the hero of our film, whose little daughter is possessed by a demon.”

When it was revealed that The Exorcist rights had been sold and The Exorcist: Believer was in the works, fans thought it was a remake , and it is not a continuation, so they started circulating a protest petition on the Internet. Green was not aware of this, but he is aware of the risks of his business. “If you touch something sacred, which is deeply respected by many, you should expect to be attacked. But it’s worth the risk, because it’s part of creative work.”

The director expects that the new approach – the exorcism in the new film is not only carried out according to the Catholic rite, but representatives of other religions are also involved – and the fact that the protagonist of the first film, Ellen Burstyn, is still one of the actors of the events, they will make the business a success. Old fans will see that no sacrilege has been committed, and new generations of viewers will discover for themselves a perhaps lesser-known subgenre, where the devil really lives in the details.

(The Exorcist: Believer – domestic release: October 12, 2023)

Source: UIP