Summary
Mike Flanagan is working on a newExorcistmovie, and it has to learn from the missteps of his last legacy horror sequel,Doctor Sleep, his follow-up toThe Shining. Last October, David Gordon Green’sThe Exorcist: Believerarrived as a bitter disappointment, both critically and commercially. Although it was initially planned as the first chapter of a newExorcisttrilogy, the underperformance ofBelieverhas led the studio to cancel the trilogy in favor of a total reboot of the franchise;the reboot is currently scheduled to be released on August 02, 2025.
Flanagan has been tapped to write, direct, and produce the newExorcistfilm. The studio clearly has faith in his vision, and that faith is well-placed. Flanagan is one of the best horror filmmakers working today, having helmed gems likeHushandGerald’s Game, and he proved withMidnight Massthat he can handle religious-themed horror with aplomb. This won’t be the first time Flanagan has made a sequel to a beloved horror classic. In 2019, he adapted Stephen King’sShiningsequelDoctor Sleep. Flanagan’sExorcistreboot needs to learn from the biggest mistake he made withDoctor Sleep.
Doctor Sleep Is A Great Movie Until It Leans Too Much Into Being A Shining Sequel
The third act is like a Shining-based theme park ride
With his adaptation ofDoctor Sleep, Flanagan set out to make a sequel to both King’s originalShiningnovel andStanley Kubrick’s iconic but very unfaithful movie adaptation. And against all odds, Flanagan managed to walk this line effectively, pleasing fans of both King and Kubrick.Doctor Sleephas shot-for-shot recreations of some of the Kubrick film’s most memorable moments, but it also has King’s original ending, with the Overlook being set on fire in the climactic sequence.Doctor Sleephas a lot of reverence forThe Shining– and, unfortunately, that’s its biggest problem.
In its first two acts,Doctor Sleepis a really great horror movie in its own right. It has a compelling new story about grown-up Danny Torrance, terrifying visuals like a room being tilted on its side, and an impeccable performance by Rebecca Ferguson as cult leader Rose the Hat. ButDoctor Sleepstarts to fall apart in its third act when it becomes a hodgepodge oficonic moments fromThe Shining.This cameo-filled finale plays like aShiningtheme park ride, and it ruins the movie. Flanagan needs to avoid making the same mistake with hisExorcistreboot.
Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist Movie Needs To Avoid Making The Same Mistake
Flanagan can’t make an Exorcist movie that’s obsessed with the original
Flanagan’sExorcistmovieneeds to avoid falling into the same trap asDoctor Sleep.Doctor Sleeprecaptures the palpable tension and supernatural terror of the Kubrick classic, but it’s afraid to forge its own path. It takes Danny to the Gold Room bar where Jack first encountered the ghosts of the Overlook, the staircase where Wendy hit Jack with a baseball bat, and the bathroom where Jack came after his family with an axe –it’s more like a tour of iconic filming locations fromThe Shiningthan an organic conclusion toDoctor Sleep’s narrative.
With hisExorcistmovie,Flanagan needs to avoid showing too much reverence for the original film. If the big finale of Flanagan’sExorcistfilm sees its main character visiting the staircase where Father Karras died and the bedroom where Pazuzu was exorcized from Regan, then it won’t stand on its own two feet. It’ll just play like an extended wink to the audience.The Exorcist: Believeralready proved that this franchise needs more than just a love letter to the original movie.
The Exorcist: Believer Proved The Franchise Needs To Stop Dwelling On The Past
The Exorcist: Believer got way too hung up on the original film
Themany missteps ofThe Exorcist: Believerprove that the franchise needs to stop dwelling on the past and forge a new path for the future. The film does have its own storyline – two different kids are possessed and only one of them can make it out alive – but that storyline is entirely made up of clichéd scenes of possessed kids doing generic possessed kid stuff.The Exorcist: Believercommits more to referencing the original moviethan it commits to telling this story.
Some of those nods to the original come at the expense of the story’s integrity. InThe Exorcist: Believer, it’s revealed that Chris MacNeil has turned her experiences with Regan’s possession into a tell-all memoir. This is completely at odds with this character’s painstaking efforts to keep her daughter’s demonic struggles out of the public eye in the original movie.The Exorcistisn’tStar Wars; it doesn’t need an affectionate legacy sequel playing on the audience’s nostalgia. It needs a horrifying new tale of demonic possession with new characters and new scares – and, hopefully, Flanagan can deliver just that.
The Exorcist
Cast
The Exorcist is a supernatural horror film based on the novel released in 1971 and was directed by William Friedkin. When a young girl is passed by a powerful demon, two Catholic priests are brought to her home to attempt an exorcism to expunge the demon.
