Jason Blum Has Some Encouraging Words About The Upcoming Exorcist Sequels
Jason Blum is perhaps the king of modern horror in Hollywood. He has helped kickstart original franchises such as "Happy Death Day," "The Purge," and "Insidious," as well as reboots of iconic franchises/films such as "Halloween" and "The Invisible Man." In 2023, Blum will be reteaming with "Halloween Kills" filmmaker David Gordon Green to take on one of the most iconic horror films ever to grace the screen: "The Exorcist.". In fact Blum and Green are so confident in their new take on "The Exorcist", they'll be moving forward on an entire trilogy of sequels.
The sequels will star recent Academy Award nominee Leslie Odom Jr. as well as Ellen Burstyn, who starred in the 1973 original as bewildered mother Chris MacNeil. A lot of eyes are on these highly anticipated sequels to see if Green and Blum can come close to matching the horror of the original, but if Blum's words on are anything to go by, we could be in for a real treat.
The Exorcist sequels will be taking a page from the Halloween sequels
Blum spoke to Movieweb about the new trio of "Exorcist" films while doing press for the highly anticipated "Halloween Kills." "What I hope to do with The Exorcist is the same thing we did with Halloween," he said. "Halloween, the first movie was great, and the second movie was okay, and the rest of them were not very good. And then we came in and kind of re-jiggered it, and people liked it, so I hope we can do the same thing with The Exorcist. Everyone thinks we're gonna fall on our face, but I think, we have the same filmmaker, the same writer, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride. And I think we'll reinvent The Exorcist so that it'll feel fresh, new, different, but, you know, related to the first movie, but also really, really scary."
It looks like "The Exorcist" will be following the recent trend of legacy sequels that has dominated Hollywood for decades. This hasn't always worked out well, and for those that have been around since before Blum was a household name, there could be terrifying flashbacks for the wrong reasons. There was a time when big-screen horror was nothing more than the propped-up remnants of slasher icons like Jason Voorhees and Chucky before "Scream" breathed new life into the genre. While there have been a few blunders that have used this formula, none of those have been from Blum. With an established track record like his, "The Exorcist" definitely seems to be in the best hands.