Blumhouse spent so much money winning the rights to the iconic horror franchise The Exorcist that it came as a huge blow to both the studio and fans when its first reboot, The Exorcist: Believer, stumbled in 2023. The studio quickly put an all-new take into development, this time bringing in modern horror maverick Mike Flanagan to right the ship. Now we know what that officially looks like with the first full The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer.
Blumhouse showed off a Martyrs teaser earlier in the week, which received mostly favorable feedback from those who weren’t fans of The Exorcist: Believer. The full trailer debuted Thursday night as part of Blumhouse’s Other Mommy Fan Event, which went over like gangbusters. Now, everyone who missed the event can see what they missed. And it looks like the most promising Exorcist movie since The Exorcist III.
Flanagan feels like a natural choice to take another swing at the franchise. The filmmaker has built a reputation for horror that gets under your skin by giving its characters real emotional weight, from The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass to Doctor Sleep, his continuation of another beloved horror classic. He’s also a longtime admirer of the material, and his new film takes inspiration from The Exorcist III, blending a serial-killer investigation with the supernatural terror that made the original film a landmark. Rather than remake William Friedkin’s 1973 classic or simply repeat its story, Flanagan has described Martyrs as a new story in the established Exorcist universe.
The new approach comes after The Exorcist: Believer struggled to win over critics and left Universal and Blumhouse facing tough questions about the franchise’s future. Directed by David Gordon Green, the 2023 film earned around $136 million worldwide against a reported $30 million production budget, so the box office alone doesn’t tell the whole story. The problem was the scale of the franchise investment: Universal reportedly paid $400 million for the rights to The original Exorcist movie franchise with plans for a new trilogy. Believer received a 22% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers taking issue with its lack of fresh ideas and scares. The film’s reception fell short of what the studio needed from such an expensive franchise revival, and Green ultimately exited the planned follow-ups. Flanagan now has the opportunity to give audiences a reason to believe in the series again.
The Exorcist: Martyrs stars Scarlett Johansson as Julie Miller, an NYPD homicide detective and single mother whose investigation leads her to a serial killer known as Father Sunday, played by John Leguizamo. The killer stages murders inspired by the brutal martyrdom of Catholic saints, and although Miller witnesses his execution, the nightmare is far from over. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Father William, a former prison chaplain whose faith has been shaken by the execution, while Sasha Calle plays Miller’s fellow detective. The cast also includes Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jacobi Jupe, and several familiar faces from Flanagan’s previous projects.
Universal Pictures will bring The Exorcist: Martyrs exclusively to theaters on March 12, 2027. That gives Flanagan a chance to deliver a fresh chapter in one of horror’s most recognizable franchises, with a story that reaches beyond the familiar possession setup and into the darkest corners of human evil. After Believer, the devil has some work to do if he wants audiences back in church.
