SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — ‘The Exorcist Believer’ is arriving in theaters Oct. 5th, and ABC4’s Film and TV Critic Patrick Beatty spoke with Director David Gordon Green and Executive Producer Jason Blum about the legacy of the franchise, the do’s and don’ts of making a good sequel, and about the use of faith and religion in horror.

‘The Exorcist’ (1973) has been touted as one of the greatest horror films of all time, and it has the gold to prove it, winning two Academy Awards the year it came out. Its sequels, ‘The Exorcist Part II and Part III were met with more mixed reviews, yet the franchise continued to hold a conversation in the entertainment landscape through soft reboots, prequels, and now with a legacy sequel of the original.

A legacy sequel is a film that follows the same timeline as the original, but takes place further along the timeline, often focusing on new characters with the original ones still present in the plot. We saw this recently with the Halloween sequels in Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends (all directed by David Gordon Green). Asking Jason Blum what he believes are the do’s and don’ts of crafting a legacy sequel he said:

It’s always daunting cause people have so many expectations around what the reinvention will be. I think the do’s and don’ts generally are you wanna make something that feels new and different enough that there’s a reason for it to exist, but not SO new and different that there’s no connection to the original movie.

Jason Blum Blumhouse Productions

When asked what the rehearsal process was like for the new film as opposed to the Halloween films, Green said:

For me, we started before we even got into the rehearsal of the script. We started in a room with people- with all our spiritual advisors and our consultants, and had everyone ask questions, because we’re going into terrain of spiritual uncertainty. So we wanted to have those conversations and bring those to surface before we got into the architecture of the scene needed to inhabit.

David Gordon Green ‘The Exorcist: Believer’

The Exorcist: Believer opens October 5th, you can check out the full interview here and check out the review on ABC4 See It or Skip It.