The Big Picture

Universal is bringing back The Exorcist for a trilogy of sequels, with the first film, The Exorcist: Believer, set to release on October 6th. The new film follows a group of parents whose children become possessed and seek answers from Chris MacNeil, played by Ellen Burstyn, who starred in the original film. Director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum discuss the pressure of continuing the beloved franchise, the editing process, and the selection of a new demon for the film.

50 years ago, a little girl’s demonic possession launched a new film — and eventually an entire franchise — into the pantheon of horror greats with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. In the years since, the original 1973 film has spawned two sequels, two prequels, and a short-lived television series. Now, with the popularity of the horror genre, and classic horror franchises at an all-time high, Universal is bringing the world of The Exorcist back for a trilogy of sequel film, the first of which, The Exorcist: Believer, hits theaters on October 6.

Directed by David Gordon Greene, and produced in part by superstar horror producer Jason Blum, The Exorcist: Believer follows Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), as well as other parents played by Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz whose children become possessed. In their search for answers, they track down Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, reprising her role from the original film), whose daughter Regan (Linda Blair) had a, shall we say, similar demonic experience.

In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Green and Blum discuss the pressure of continuing such a well-known and beloved franchise. They also talk about paying tribute to the original film, how much of the new trilogy they have figured out, and how editing really brings the film together. And because it’s not an Exorcist film without a few demons, they also discuss the process in selecting the right demon for a new generation of Exorcist stories.

COLLIDER: I am very impressed with what you pulled off with this film. I’m curious, did you actually put a little more pressure on yourself on this one because it’s The Exorcist, it’s 50 years later, and also because Universal bought a trilogy and spent a bunch of money to work with you guys on these films?

JASON BLUM: I definitely felt pressure in a different way. It’s an unfamiliar way to make especially theatrical movies for us, so it was a new experience for me. There’s double pressure. There’s pressure of the IP of The Exorcist and pressure of the unique deal around the three movies. So, I’d definitely say I felt a little bit of added pressure.

DAVID GORDON GREEN: I’m always my own worst critic, and putting pressure on myself in ways that may or may not be the healthiest. But to me, it’s trying to bring an integrity to a franchise that means a lot to me as a movie geek. So, just get the right team together, work your ass off, and make a movie.

Are you directing the trilogy or just directing this one?

GREEN: We’ll see, we’ll see. [Laughs]

BLUM: We’ll see.

GREEN: The idea is we built a road map that I think has so many different avenues that we could take. The world of exorcism and possession is so vast. The world of spirituality is so curious to me that there are so many questions that I have. As the movie finds itself existing in the world over the next few weeks, I think a lot of those questions will be answered.

Image via Universal

I think the reviews are gonna be very good. I really want you to continue. Just throwing that out there. When Universal signed on, you guys worked with them to make a trilogy. Knowing this is the first of three, how much did you figure out where you ultimately want to go, and how much is it movie by movie?

GREEN: I like to know where I think I’m gonna go. Then, when there’s an opportunity or an improvisation or a detour that feels appealing or a sparkly light over there, I wanna make sure I’m not so meticulously locked into a structure or a concept that I can’t deviate. Because so many of the things that I love about making movies are those opportunities that arise in frustration, or it’s raining, and you were looking for the sunshine, and then what you find is so amazing. Those adventures can be so creative for me. So I think it’s having a good plan and a good team and then being able to roll with the punches and have some fun.

I really enjoyed some of your abrupt edits and some of your cuts. Very well done. I also want to commend you on where and when you use demon shots, and I’m just curious if you guys can talk about where and when, not overdoing it, but making sure it’s there.

GREEN: First of all, to credit my editor, Tim Alverson, who was very studied in the original film and the beautiful sound design work, that on Friedkin’s film, they had those hard edits, those outs without seeing the reaction or the response, sometimes in the middle of a sound. Abrupt and jarring edits I thought were really effective and keep you uncomfortable through that experience. He brought that concept to this film.

Then, in terms of the demons, this is not a big jump scare movie in terms of the contemporary tropes of jump scares because we’re looking at the original film again. There are a couple of startling moments with Ellen in the attic in the original film or those almost subliminal Pazuzu shots that they drop into it at the most horrifying times. So we’re studying that, expanding on it a little bit, making sure that this film is designed for a contemporary audience, and finding what that line is of when you can linger in the world of character development and the slow burn of it, and when you need to punch them in the gut and twist.

I love talking about the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. What did you guys learn when you started to screen the film for friends and family or test screenings that ultimately impacted the finished film?

GREEN: I love the screening process. It does start with friends and family. I have screenings every week for a new unsuspecting audience. Sometimes you go to the deepest, darkest Exorcist fans, sometimes you go to a religious guru, sometimes you go to just a group of moms and dads that don’t know anything about it. You want to see how different audiences respond to it. I know within my community and my friendships it’s fun to get people outside of the industry that aren’t so cynical about what movies are. Maybe they’re not even a horror aficionado, they don’t even like horror movies, and you wanna see what appeals to them or doesn’t appeal to them about this.

One of the things that I was really conscious of in this movie is, as opposed to a Halloween movie where there is a lot of humor infused into even the scary moments, sometimes the aftermath of a scary moment is there to breathe and laugh about, here it was trying to find where you do need tension breakers. I don’t know that this movie has anything funny in it, but there are moments of things that are so off-putting or weird or awkward that your body can’t do anything but have that laugh. And so you study an audience’s reaction to the movie, and you don’t necessarily alter the movie for that purpose—sometimes you do—but it’s nice to be aware of how you’re communicating with an audience in a horror film.

BLUM: I would agree with that. In this movie specifically, we changed pacing stuff. We changed a bunch of stuff. No different than any other movie when, just exactly what David said, you screen. I always learned the most from watching the audience take in the movie as opposed to all the comments after, although we look at those, too, obviously. But you can really feel when you’re sitting in a room with an audience watching a movie when they’re with it and in it and when you’re losing them, and that’s very important information for the edit.

GREEN: I’ll also say, some things that you would think an audience would need to know for the story you’re telling, but then you realize—like there would be some medical procedure sequences—and then you realize, “We’ve seen a lot of movies. We can cut to the chase a little bit.” And so if we’re looking to condense time, you can take out some of the obvious things that, if you were gonna tell the story, you might want them in, but then you realize the audience that is entering this movie, regardless of their vernacular of movies, they don’t need to be told all the details. Ambiguity sometimes is a lot more satisfying for that experience than spelling everything out for everyone.

How did you decide on the specific demon you wanted in this movie?

GREEN: So, for the specific demon, which I still haven’t said out loud, we studied Pazuzu from the original film and the relationships within demonology to other friends and family of Pazuzu, and how that might apply to our story. That was actually one of the very first things that got us rolling, is thinking of what we’re responding to and what is this demon after? What is it seeking? Then we got Christopher Nelson, his incredible makeup team, to do these creations that are very subtly dropped in there, but again, effective when you get those glimpses. It’s kind of unnerving.

The Exorcist: Believer is in theaters and IMAX this weekend.