Reading the YouTube comments, it appears genre fans are hopeful Mike Flanagan’s take on The Exorcist franchise will deliver genuine scares. They also point out that The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer shares a lot of similarities with 1990’s The Exorcist III, based on William Peter Blatty’s Legion.
Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson stars as NYC Detective. Julie Miller, Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (Backrooms) plays Father William, and Sasha Calle (The Rip) is Detective Gina Restrepo. Oscar nominee Diane Lane (Feud), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet), Actor Award winner Scoot McNairy (Furious), Emmy winner Gil Bellows (Carrie), Emmy winner Laurence Fishburne (the John Wick franchise), and Emmy winner John Leguizamo (The Odyssey) also star.
Universal Pictures offers this synopsis:
“Thirteen years ago, New York City detective Julie Miller (Johansson) ended the terror reign of satanic serial killer Father Sunday. The case made her a hero, and she has thrown herself into her work ever since. Now a new killer scrawls her name in an altar boy’s blood on the walls of a church crypt, dragging her back into the darkness she believed she had buried with him.
Aided by former prison chaplain Father William (Ejiofor), who heard Father Sunday’s final confession, and sharp rookie detective Gina Restrepo (Calle), Detective Miller will discover a filament linking a lineage of serial killers, from H.H. Holmes to the Zodiac, that could corrupt everything and everyone she loves with an evil that goes well beyond the mortal.”
Diane Lane plays Mary, Detective Miller’s mother, who has moved in with her to help raise her grandson Max (Jupe). Scoot McNairy plays paroled convict Clay Silver and Gil Bellows stars as Peter Nicks, a former acolyte of Father Sunday. Laurence Fishburne stars as revered priest Father Nichol, and John Leguizamo is Father Sunday.
Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, Carrie the series) wrote and directed the supernatural crime thriller. Flanagan, David Robinson, and Jason Blum serve as producers, with Alexandra Magistro and Ryan Turek as executive producers.
The Exorcist: Martyrs opens in theaters on March 12, 2027.
