Russell Crowe is back to face his demons (again) in The Exorcism, the upcoming cursed-movie-set horror from director Joshua John Miller (The Final Girls) hitting theaters on June 7 – and today’s first trailer from Vertical promises that things are about to get gloriously sacrilegious.
Also starring Ryan Simpkins (the Fear Street trilogy) Sam Worthington (Avatar: The Way of Water), Chloe Bailey (Praise This), Adam Goldberg (The Equalizer) and David Hyde Pierce (Frasier), The Exorcism follows:
Anthony Miller (Crowe), a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play.
Scream legend Kevin Williamson produced the religious horror, formerly known as The Georgetown Project, alongside Ben Fast and Bill Block.
In a director’s statement, Miller (who co-wrote the script with M.A. Fortin (The Final Girls)), revealed more about his inspiration for The Exorcism and what he hopes the film will achieve within the genre:
The origins of the film stem from my childhood spent watching my father, Jason Miller, playing the doomed Father Karras flinging himself out a window at the climax of The Exorcist. If that wasn’t haunting enough on its own, my dad never shied away from telling me stories of just how “cursed” the movie was: the mysterious fires that plagued the production, the strange deaths, the lifelong injuries— the list went on and on. The lore of any “cursed film” has captivated me ever since. With The Exorcism, we wanted to update the possession movie formula (“Heroic man rescues woman from forces she’s too weak and simple to battle herself!”) for a world where no one group owns goodness and decency over another. We were gifted with an extraordinary cast and creative team to tell a story about how we’re all vulnerable to darkness, to perpetuating it, if we fail to face our demons.
Following its theatrical release, The Exorcism will hit Shudder later this year. Here’s that brand new trailer and a shiny new poster!:
