The Exorcist: Martyrs was promising from the get-go, with horror master Mike Flanagan taking the helm as writer and director, accompanied by a star-studded cast. On Wednesday, we got a first look at Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs with a short teaser. Now, the first full trailer for the supernatural thriller movie is officially out, and it promises a good time for fans of the original as well as those jumping into the franchise for the first time.
Flanagan is one of the best-known horror filmmakers in the modern world. He has created an array of Netflix horror shows, such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of House of Usher, and Midnight Mass, and he adapted several iconic Stephen King novels like Gerald’s Game, Life of Chuck, and Carrie. Flanagan has dipped his toes in all kinds of horror flicks, no matter the subgenre. And now, he’s putting his spin on the classic supernatural-horror franchise, The Exorcist.
The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer shows first look at Johansson’s detective
The story of The Exorcist: Martyrs follows Scarlet Johansson’s character, New York City detective Julie Miller, who previously brought a satanic serial killer named Father Sunday to justice. According to an official synopsis of Martyrs, “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.”
Miller is aided by former prison chaplain Father William (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and rookie detective Gina Restrepo (Sasha Calle). Also starring are Diane Lane as Mary, Detective Miller’s mother, and Jacobi Jupe as Max, Julie’s son. Rounding out the cast are Scoot McNairy, Gil Bellows, Laurence Fishburne, and John Leguizamo as Father Sunday.
Samantha Sloyan has recently worked with Mike Flanagan on his Prime Video series, Carrie, which debuted this week. She plays Margaret White in the modern-day adaptation of Stephen King’s first published novel. She will play a currently unnamed small role in Martyrs, so she has first-hand knowledge about the film. In a recent interview with Polygon, Sloyan called The Exorcist: Martyrs the “scariest thing” she’s seen Flanagan do.
Though The Exorcist franchise has been inconsistent over the past 50 years (see The Exorcist: Believer), the original is considered one of the scariest horror movies of all time. So, the standards are still pretty high when it comes to the franchise. We’ll see where Flanagan’s entry lands when The Exorcist: Martyrs arrives in movie theaters Mar. 12, 2027.