The Exorcist Dedication in Cinema: Where Does This Movie Fit in the Horror Saga?

The Exorcist – Dedication, the first film in the trilogy and the sequel to William Friedkin’s iconic film that hit theaters in 1974, hits theaters this Wednesday, October 11th.

Directed by David Gordon Green and produced by Jason Blum, already at the helm of the new Halloween trilogy alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, The Exorcist – Allegiance opens in the US today.

This film, restricted to children under 12, tells the story of Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.), who is raising his daughter Angela (Lydia Jewett) alone. One day, Angela and her friend Catherine (Olivia O’Neill) disappear into the woods, only to reappear 72 hours later with no memory of what happened…

Since then, strange events follow each other and Victor has to face terrible evil forces. Desperate and terrified, she echoes the only person alive who has ever witnessed such events: Chris McNeill (Ellen Boorstyn).

We were able to speak to promote the film David Gordon Green and Jason Bloom.

The director discusses how the 1973 feature film influenced him: “I wasn’t even born when the movie came out, but it’s amazing that it became a phenomenon not only in the film industry, but in the culture in general. At the time, most people didn’t even know what exorcism was. .

People didn’t even know what exorcism was until William Friedkin’s movie

There are so many copycats and spin-off movies these days that are inspired by the original. In The Exorcist: Devotion, we’re trying to not only bring a little nostalgia with new characters and familiar music, but also integrate some of the themes into a modern context and pay homage to the franchise.

He adds: “The original Exorcist is not a jump scare movie. I remember the first time I saw it. When Regan gets the tap in the back and we see the blood… it’s so real that you realize this movie manages to scare you as long as you’re being authentic.”

A modernization of the original film

With Devotion, the duo attempted to modernize the original film while retaining the core themes of faith and skepticism, loss of innocence, parenthood and, of course, demonic possession.

The Exorcist – Devotion is a modern retelling.

In the press kit, Jason Bloom also makes a Halloween connection: “Like our 2018 version of Halloween, there is an entire generation of fans who may not be familiar with the William Friedkin film. The Exorcist – Loyalty is a modern re-reading that touches on several themes of our time: a father raising his teenage daughter alone and discovering a whole community of people ready to help him in ways he honestly never thought possible. could count one day. This film combines the characters and narrative elements from the first film that horror fans will love.”.

We forget the results

If the new Halloween trilogy required films to “delete” Laurie Strode’s character (Jamie Lee Curtis) would die in Halloween: Resurrection (2002), there was no need to do the same for The Exorcist.

David Gordon Green tells us:Unlike Halloween, where we literally had to delete movies, here we don’t need to delete anything. William Friedkin’s film is our main reference, that’s where we got our inspiration from. We didn’t consider the 2 sequels, but since Chris wasn’t there, we didn’t have the same problem that we had for Halloween.”

It adds to our microphone: “I know the original very well and we tried to keep that power and some of the meaning of the film and then see how we could interpret it in a way that a modern audience would appreciate it. “

The duo therefore did not consider the sequels The Exorcist 2 – John Boorman’s The Heretic (1978) and William Peter Blatt’s The Exorcist III (1990). Exorcist – Loyalty is Exorcist, the first direct extension of the name.

If Linda Blair had reprized the role of Regan in the film John Burman, Ellen Burstyn He never agreed to return before.

The Return of Ellen Boorstyn

This is the first time the actor has agreed to play the role of Chris again. The 90-year-old actor refused many versions The Exorcist 2 before finally accepting the proposal Jason Bloom and David Gordon Green.

Ellen Boorstyn, who has been very involved with the Actors Studio of which she is co-president, has pledged complete transparency. The Hollywood Reporter In August 2022: “I rejected many versions of The Exorcist 2. I refused every time. This time they offered me money and I refused again. Then they surprised me and came back with a doubled offer. It was a lot of money, I needed time to think.

It was an opportunity to create a scholarship for talented young artists who cannot afford Actors Studio courses. It was a real desire on my part and I realized that I have found a solution to this problem.”

“Ellen Boorstyn’s presence in this film provides a very strong connection between this new opus and Friedkin’s work.

Producer David Robinson states in the press kit: “Without Elena, the film would not exist. He is an extraordinary actor and we knew what he would bring to the film and his co-stars. He is the soul of this story.”

Jason Bloom adds:Ellen Boorstyn’s presence in this film provides a very strong connection between this new opus and Friedkin’s work. For all fans – starting with me! “It’s very satisfying.”.

The director explains that for some time he tried to convince Ellen Burstyn to participate in the project. “A few years ago I contacted him to propose. At first we thought a lot about whether we wanted to develop this project together.

When I was able to send him the script, I went to New York to meet him. He had a lot of questions for me and I had to come up with a lot of ideas. Very quickly, we realized that he had the enthusiasm, the energy and the ideas to feed the character he created fifty years ago, but also to evoke the way in which people barely give a damn thanks to those around them – an essential theme. movie. To solve these issues, he took inspiration from his own life“.

The sequel has not yet been written…

Like Halloween, The Exorcist will be a trilogy, but due to the writers and actors strike that has paralyzed Hollywood, the next two films have yet to be written.

Jason Bloom tells us:We are going to make two more films. We haven’t started working on it yet, but the plan is to make three exorcist movies. We have a roadmap that changes and fluctuates and it will probably change again based on the reception of the film, but we have a kind of general plan.”

Exorcist – Loyalty Must see in cinema.