Mike Flanagan is currently one of horror cinema and television’s most prominent and revered auteurs thanks to titles like Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, Oculus, and many more. Up next for him is a new take on horror history’s scariest movie: William Friedkin’s classic adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. When speaking with Josh Horowitz for a live episode of his Happy Sad Confused podcast at New York Comic Con, he put to rest any trepidation fans might have.
This is especially important after the critical and commercial failure of David Gordon Green’s forgettable The Exorcist: Believer. That film was so panned it eradicated the goodwill earned by his 2018 Halloween even more than that reboot’s two diminishing returns sequels. Plans of Green continuing a new Exorcist trilogy were scrapped, and Flanagan was brought in to do something different. Flanagan’s objective is simple (via Vulture):
My goal is to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made, and [I’m] trying to make something that scares the s**t out of me.
Admirable Inspiration
Flanagan provided New York Comic Con attendees with quite a bit of information regarding his impending Exorcist flick. Of course, nothing concrete, but informative tidbits nonetheless. It seems he’s looking back at what’s come before, while avoiding retreading ground that has already been tread to perfection. After all, Friedkin’s film was a groundbreaking, perfect masterpiece that did even better at the box office than it did with critics.
“The Exorcist is one of those movies that was incredibly formative for me. I saw it too young and it f***ed me up. They’ve made so many sequels, prequels, and none have come close. You can’t do The Exorcist. There’s no point in remaking it. There’s no point in trying to do that story again or better than the way it was done.
“So you have to do something new. And you have to do something that rhymes with it and that harmonizes with it, but that isn’t trying to replace it…a completely new thing. It’s not a retread. It’s not a remake. It’s not an update.
Flanagan’s assertion that no follow-up to The Exorcist has ever held a candle to it is stone-cold accurate. But, there’s one entry that has seen its stock rise over the years: The Exorcist III. It seems that Flanagan sees that adaptation of Blatty’s Legion in a positive light as well.
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Why? Because in crafting his new film, he’s studying not only William Friedkin’s film. He’s studying that third entry (directed by Blatty himself), as well.
“It has some ideas that I think are just ripe to be explored further. And I love that movie. It has the best jump scare maybe in cinematic history. That hallway sequence in the hospital is so f***ing astonishing if you haven’t seen it.”
He’s right. For anyone who hasn’t seen The Exorcist III, it’s an interesting off-shoot of the original film, and it absolutely contains one of the best jump scares of all time. It’s dragged out just enough to hold tension without becoming exhausted, and then it snaps at you like a viper. It seems Flanagan is taking inspiration from the best elements of the IP, and if anyone is going to lead the franchise forward in a way that’s satisfying for fans (and financial backers), it’s him.