20 Upcoming Horror Movies That Might Surprise You
7. The Exorcist
It was tough not to roll your eyes when, mere months after the failure of 2023's The Exorcist: Believer, Universal announced that an Exorcist reboot had been fast-tracked into development.
Little that the franchise has produced since the original 1971 masterpiece has suggested it had the juice for an ongoing series of films, and much as Hollywood doesn't want to hear it, maybe it's just OK to let the Exorcist end?
Again, it's tough to feel much enthusiasm for an Exorcist reboot, but there is one major X factor at play here - the fact that Universal quite sensibly hired the brilliant Mike Flanagan (Hush, Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep) to write and direct.
Flanagan is just too good to deliver another phoned-in Exorcist movie, and his penchant for filtering familiar horror concepts through emotional, character-driven drama could easily result in the best Exorcist film since the first - a low bar, admittedly.
Even more promisingly, Flanagan's involvement has allowed the movie to secure an impressively qualified cast, including Scarlett Johansson, Jacobi Jupe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, John Leguizamo, and Sasha Calle.
While it feels weird to get one's hopes up about an Exorcist film at this point, if anyone can deliver the goods, it's Flanagan.