The Exorcist: Believer Footage Reaction: Blumhouse Brings Double The Demonic Possession [CinemaCon 2023]
The horror film that terrified and defined a generation is finally coming back to the big screen. David Gordon Green's new vision of "The Exorcist," titled "The Exorcist: Believer," has been teased for years now, but almost nothing has been shown from it. That is, until now, because CinemaCon attendees got to see the first footage of the legacy sequel during Universal Studios' panel.
But first, let's refresh our memories and souls a bit. "The Exorcist: Believer" centers around Leslie Odom Jr.'s character and his daughter, played by Lidya Jewett, as she begins acting strangely and inhuman. Making things even worse is that his daughter's friend, played by Olivia Marcum, is experiencing similar phenomena. Fearing the worst, he encounters Chris MacNeil, once again played by Ellen Burstyn, and the two are forced to come face-to-face with a familiarly dangerous demonic force. Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Raphael Sbarge also star in the film.
Keep in mind, this is the first entry in a trilogy, so don't expect this story to be wrapped up in a neat little puke-colored bow. However, you can expect to see some familiar names involved in this new batch of films. The aforementioned Nettles played a small but pivotal role in Green's HBO series "The Righteous Gemstones," and frequent collaborators Danny McBride and Scott Teems contributed to the new franchise's story.
An excellent day
At this year's CinemaCon, horror mogul Jason Blum took the stage to say the movie "extends and updates" this franchise in the same way that the "Halloween" franchise did.
/Film's very own Ben Pearson was in the audience for this first look at "The Exorcist: Believer," and it sounds pretty gnarly already. The footage opens with the two girls disappearing from their school for three days, even if the daughter thought they were gone for only a few hours. Odom Jr.'s character is understandably freaked out, especially since they were both found alone in the woods.
That's far from the only freaky occurrence in this footage. Marcum's character arrives in a church looking bloody and disturbed, repeating "the body and the blood" in a demonic voice. After the daughter scratches a name onto her skin, good ol' Chris MacNeil arrives to be this trilogy's Laurie Strode. When the two girls become fully possessed, she's ready to destroy the forces of Pazuzu once and for all.
According to Pearson, there are a few notable jump scares in this footage along with potentially shocking imagery. Hey, would you expect anything less from an "Exorcist" film? We certainly wouldn't, and considering the 1973 classic has had a weird franchise history, we hope "The Exorcist: Believer" finally continues its story the way it deserves to be told.
We won't know for sure, though, until it arrives in theaters on October 13, 2023.