The Exorcist: Believer fears nothing except Taylor Swift—specifically, her surprise concert film, which nudged the horror revival’s opening date forward a week. But from the looks of its visceral latest trailer, audiences will have plenty of nightmares when David Gordon Green’s movie opens October 6.
The new trailer opens with an eerily illuminated window that pays homage to one of the signature images from William Friedkin’s original film—then gives us lots of Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil, confronting a demon from her past that is obviously delighted about the reunion. There’s also a lot of more of Ann Dowd’s helpful neighbour character in this one, giving us a frightening mini-lecture on the nature of evil.
And, of course, we get a better look at the families who’re facing possession this time around—families, because now there are two tween victims. Leslie Odom, Jr. plays the father of Angela (Lidya Jewett), born just as her mother died during an earthquake in Haiti, and Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz play the parents of Katherine (Olivia O’Neill). The best friends go missing while walking through the woods—then return with no memory of their three-day absence. It’s soon clear something isn’t right… something only Chris MacNeil, whose own daughter was the same age as Angela and Katherine when you-know-what happened in Georgetown, can help with.
While the two trailers we’ve gotten so far don’t show enough of the story to tell us if The Exorcist: Believer will unleash any curveballs in the possession subgenre—thanks to the enduring popularity and influence of the 1973 original, we’ve seen a lot of these types of stories in the last 50 years—that cast is outstanding. Green’s Halloween revival trilogy was uneven overall, but that first 2018 film was terrific, elevated even further by Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance as Laurie Strode. Will Burstyn’s participation as her legacy character do the same for Believer? Will Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil get a cameo or are Green and company saving that for another entry in the planned Exorcist trilogy?
We’ll find out October 6, when The Exorcist: Believer—directed by Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler and Green, from a story by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and Green, and based on characters created by William Peter Blatty—hits theatres.
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