Horror fans have been fed this week as story details for horror creator Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist have been unveiled. The upcoming supernatural horror film is based on the terrifying 1971 novel of the same name by author William Blatty, which was first adapted for the big screen by filmmaking legend William Friedkin in 1973’s The Exorcist; one of horror’s greatest and most influential creations.

Friedkin’s film was followed by two sequels in 1977 and 1990, as well as two prequels in 2004 and 2005. 2023 saw an attempt at a spin-off franchise by David Gordon Green, who (momentarily) resurrected the Halloween films in 2018, 2021 and 2022, titled The Exorcist: Believer. The film was a commercial and critical bomb, prompting the studio to scrap the planned trilogy completely and allow Flanagan to make a new reboot of the franchise with his own take, with news of his film, The Exorcist: Martyrs, announced in May 2024.

The reboot will see new faces Scarlett Johansson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Leguizamo, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane join Flanagan regulars Rahul Kohli, Carla Gugino, Hamish Linklater, Gil Bellows, Carl Lumbly, Robert Longstreet, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Benjamin Pajak, and Carla Gugino.

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Source DanielRPK has revealed the synopsis reads that a cop, who’s also a single mother, played by Johansson, is drawn back to a major past career achievement involving taking down a Satanic pack of serial killers. Now, thirteen years on, she faces a new, sinister evil when a fresh batch of murders land at her desk. If that isn’t enough, her daughter, born a year after the Satanic killers were caught, becomes a victim of demonic possession.

Ejiofor, who saw acclaim in the horror genre this year in Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, will take on the role of a priest involved with the investigation, while Lane appears as Johansson’s mother. Additionally, Calle and Kohli will appear as two fellow police officers, while Fishburne is tasked with taking on the franchise staple of the exorcism as a priest.

Flanagan has thrown a log on the fire, promising fans his take on the iconic horror story is one “never been done within the franchise” yet will land as “something that honours what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia.” The filmmaker is most known for his Netflix contribution, The Haunting of anthology series, and is also set to take on two other definitive horror books: Stephen King’s Carrie as a series and also King’s The Mist.

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