Summary
WhileMike Flanagan’s addition toThe Exorcistfranchise sounds exciting, I don’t think any movie could realistically live up to the original movie’s impact, so his remake has me a bit worried. Director David Gordon Green’s 2018Halloweenreboot was a critical and commercial success, spawning a new trilogy that continued with 2021’sHalloween Killsand 2022’sHalloween Ends. These follow-ups failed to earn the same acclaim as 2018’s reboot in what turned out to be a concerning sign of the director’s horror output. Gordon Green’sThe Exorcist: Believerdidn’t workand failed to impress critics, resulting in its sequels being scrapped and the franchise being reworked.
At first, I was excited to hear aboutdirector Mike Flanagan’s upcomingExorcistmovie. Rather than trying to salvageThe Exorcist: Believer’s ending, Flanagan’s “radical new take” will reportedly see the experienced horror director take the series in an entirely new direction. However, the franchise still faces one problem that is unique to the series, and I fear even a director as experienced and acclaimed as Flanagan can’t work around this issue.The Exorcistwas genuinely transgressive in its time and, while it may not be as scary for contemporary viewers, it remains an atypically disturbing Hollywood horror.
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The Cultural Impact Of The Exorcist Is Tough To Overstate
Put simply, you really couldn’t makeThe Exorcisttoday.
Growing up as an Irish Catholic, I knew multiple grown adults who were afraid to watchThe Exorcistin its entirety. It’s easy to forget when so many movies have borrowed from, built upon and parodied the original, but I’d argue that no mainstream studio hit has ever depicted anything as horrifying as the original movie’s possession scenes. Moreover, no modern movie could outdo the original. For all ofFlanagan’s well-earned Rotten Tomatoes successes, the director’s critical acclaim doesn’t change this inconvenient fact aboutThe Exorcist’s singular place in cinema history. Put simply, you really couldn’t makeThe Exorcisttoday.
This statement is thrown around about many movies from Hollywood’s earlier era, and usually, I think it is reactionary nonsense. However, seeing the sort of comparatively anodyne content that has earned backlash and boycott threats tells me that a mainstream studio movie that featured a child mutilating herself with a crucifix wouldn’t fly in 2024.The Exorcistis way more shocking than viewers give it credit forand trying to match its intensity, let alone outdo its shock factor, would almost certainly lead to public outcry. That’s not even accounting for decades of gory movies and TV raising audience tolerance.
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Few Movies Have Come Close To Matching The Exorcist’s Impact
A major issue cited in most ofThe Exorcist: Believer’s bad reviewswas that the sequel didn’t match the original movie’s scare factor, but this is an inherently unrealistic expectation.The Exorcistexposed audiences to genuinely upsetting scenes of child endangerment, profanity, and blasphemy at a time when bloody violence had only been seen onscreen for a few years.Bonnie and Clyde, Spaghetti Westerns, andThe Wild Bunchwere just about introducing the public to gory, explicit violence when director William Friedkin offered them one of the most pitilessly shocking movies ever produced within the studio system.
In contrast,modern audiences have seen decades of gruesome violence in movies and television as censorship norms relaxed, and that’s without me even mentioning the existence of the Internet.The Exorcist: Believercouldn’t even come close to matchingThe Exorcist’s shock value, and nor couldThe Pope’s Exorcist,Late Night With the Devil,The First Omen, orImmaculate. Any recent movie that has tried to even followThe Exorcist’s footsteps failed since the original movie pushed the boundaries of what could be depicted onscreen. Despite some standout shocks in his earlier movies, Flanagan isn’t heavily invested in controversy-baiting horror.
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As someone also raised Catholic, I’m certain that Flanagan can capture the dark side of the religion’s beliefs likeThe Exorcist’s original author William Peter Blatty did throughout his oeuvre.
That said, I’m still looking forward to what Flanagan does with the franchise. After all, while 2021’sMidnight Masswas a Stephen King love letter, it was also a chance for Flanagan to prove that his fascination with faith makes him a perfect fit forThe Exorcistseries. As someone also raised Catholic, I’m certain that Flanagan can capture the dark side of the religion’s beliefs likeThe Exorcist’s original author William Peter Blatty did throughout his oeuvre. Flanagan’sExorcistreboot could complicate the series as whole via his thoughtful critiques of organized religion, already highlighted inMidnight Mass.
Flanagan’sExorcistmovie could offer a more morally ambiguous portrayal of the church, something that earlier movies in the series lacked.The Exorcist: Believer gestured at this half-heartedly with its infamously corny throwaway line about patriarchy. However, Flanagan’s movie could offer a characteristically erudite commentary on Catholicism’s changing cultural face since the original movie’s release.Flanagan’s colorful, comical Netflix seriesThe Fall Of The House of Usherproved that his versatility, so hisExorcistmovie remains an exciting prospect. Still, I’m not convinced that anyone will produce a movie as authentically shocking as the original anytime soon.
If Anyone Can Save The Exorcist, It’s Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist Sequel Still Has A Lot Of Potential
One of the biggest failures ofThe Exorcist: Believerwas its lack of imagination.
Replicating the impact of the originalExorcistwould be an almost impossible task in 2024, so there is an argument to be made thatMike Flanagan’sExorcistmovie should offer viewers a fresh view of the franchise. One of the biggest failures ofThe Exorcist: Believerwas its lack of imagination. Gordon Green repeated the approach he brought to 2018’sHalloweenwith the reboot, bringing back a few legacy characters but mostly following the original movie’s plot beats with a few minor changes. This succeeded thanks toHalloween’s slasher movie setup but failed profoundly when he couldn’t equalThe Exorcist.
AlthoughDoctor Sleep’s Baseball Boy scene and the most shocking moment inGerald’s Gameprove Mike Flanagan can push audiences, I don’t think the director would be wise to try outdoingThe Exorcist’s disturbing elements.
In contrast,The Exorcist’s underrated TV adaptationaccepted early on that it would never feel like the original movie due to its medium shift, the passage of time, cultural changes, and TV’s tighter censorship. As a result, the show was free to succeed modestly on its own terms. AlthoughDoctor Sleep’s Baseball Boy scene and the most shocking moment inGerald’s Gameprove Mike Flanagan can push audiences, I don’t think the director would be wise to try outdoingThe Exorcist’s disturbing elements. Instead,Mike FlanaganandTheExorcistmovie should play into his strengths by offering viewers something totally different.
