Director Mike Flanagan is planning his upcoming The Exorcist sequel and it seems that things are going well. More on the horror sequel below.
Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind The Haunting Of Hill House, The Fall Of The House Of Usher and Midnight Mass, is due to direct a new sequel to The Exorcist. After The Exorcist: Believer (directed by David Gordon Green, who’s since exited the franchise) was a bit of a dud, all eyes are on Flanagan to deliver the goods with the next one.
Flanagan is currently promoting The Life Of Chuck, another Stephen King adaptation, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The director previously adapted Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game from King’s stories and is hard at work adapting the infamously difficult The Dark Tower.
Flanagan’s take on The Exorcist has been described as “radical” and The Hollywood Reporter asked Flanagan where all the confidence comes from.
“We aren’t making this easy on ourselves,” Flanagan laughed. “But I’ve always felt that there’s no point in going into a franchise or into a property that monolithic unless there’s something new you can bring.”
Flanagan also revealed he lobbied to land the job. “I chased The Exorcist very aggressively because I was convinced I had something that I could add. This is an opportunity to do something that I believe has never been done within the franchise — something that honours what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia.”
Flanagan has built his entire name and career on making pretty spooky horror films and TV shows – we’re still emotionally scarred by the Bent-Neck Lady from The Haunting Of Hill House – but The Exorcist might take the cake in terms of pure scare-factor.
“I really just saw an opportunity to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made. I know expectations are high. No one’s more intimidated than I am,” Flanagan said.
The new The Exorcist film will be “an all-new story set in The Exorcist universe and is not a sequel to 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer” as reported by Deadline. There’s no timeline on when we might see the film – Flanagan is a busy man, after all – but we’ll keep you updated.
