It’s 50 years since William Friedkin’s The Exorcist changed the face of horror movies forever, becoming a massive commercial and critical hit, as it became the first scary movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Set in Georgetown, this story of a 12-year-old girl Regan, possessed by a demon named Pazuzu, is a meditation on faith that has been much copied, but never bettered. As David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer hits cinemas (it took $45m around the globe over its first weekend), it’s time for us to get you up to speed on this demonic franchise.

The film you have to see

Start at the beginning. If you’ve never seen it, The Exorcist remains a towering achievement. William Peter Blatty won an Oscar for adapting his own novel, as two priests Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) and Father Karras (Jason Miller) attempt to cast out Pazuzu from Regan (Linda Blair). The (literally) head-spinning practical effects were staggering, alongside Friedkin’s inspired use of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells for the soundtrack. Much has been written about the Exorcist ‘curse’, with various accidents befalling its production, as well as the controversy it stirred up: evangelist Billy Graham insisted ‘the Devil is in every frame of that film’. But at the heart of it, this is the story of a mother, Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), and her love for her daughter, as she’s willing to do anything to get her back. A Director’s Cut later reinstated the ‘spider-walk’ scene, where the possessed Regan walks backwards down the stairs on her hands with a mouthful of blood. Eeew.

Where to continue

Sensibly, you might want to head out and watch The Exorcist: Believer, David Gordon Green’s new film that does essentially what his recent Halloween trilogy did with that horror franchise by ignoring all the previous sequels. Acting as a follow-on to the original, Believer is the first of a planned trilogy (the second, Deceiver, is due in 2025) after Universal paid (or overpaid, some might say) $400m for the rights back in 2021. 

Gordon Green’s film has the coup of featuring Burstyn in an Exorcist movie for the first time since the original, in a story about not one but two girls (Angela and Katherine) who are infiltrated by a demon. Leslie Odom Jr stars as the father of Angela, while horror king Jason Blum produces. Of course, it doesn’t touch the original, but the double possession and its bleak outlook gives this franchise a fresh and nasty twist. 

The oddities
Why have one Exorcist prequel when you can have two? In 2002, Paul Schrader (the writer of Raging Bull, First Reformed and Taxi Driver no less) was hired to write a film about the young Father Merrin, who has lost his faith and is working as an archaeologist in Africa. The great Stellan Skarsgård was cast in the central role. ‘It’s like Shane with a crucifix,’ commented Schrader at the time. Which all sounded very promising, until executives at Morgan Creek Productions, the company behind the film, decided it wasn’t and got Renny Harlin to reshoot elements, releasing it in 2004 as Exorcist: The Beginning. Not to be put off, Schrader released his own cut a year later, under the title: Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist. Blatty himself was impressed by Schrader’s version, which far outstripped the Harlin abomination. 

The films that can burn in hell

No Friedkin, Blatty or Burstyn involved, although Blair and Von Sydow returned, but Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) remains a heresy. Exorcist expert Mark Kermode called it ‘demonstrably the worst film ever made’, and while that might be going too far, its story about a priest investigating the death of Father Merrin flops hard. Remarkably, it was directed by the great John Boorman, the man behind Deliverance. The film’s cool reception meant there wouldn’t be another Exorcist film until 1990’s The Exorcist III, which ignores the predecessor’s events. Blatty came on to direct that one, bringing back a support character from the original movie in the shape of Lieutenant William F Kinderman (this time played by George C Scott who took over from Lee J Cobb). Jason Miller also returned as Father Karras, but again, muddled plotting and meddling executives saw to it that the film failed to realise its full potential. 

The Exorcist: Believer is in cinemas now.