The Exorcist: Believer Gets First Footage At CinemaCon 2023

The Exorcist franchise, like the supernatural entities the movies are about, is hard to get rid of. The sixth film in the franchise is on the way later this year, and we've seen the first footage at CinemaCon 2023.

In The Exorcist: Believer, two girls become possessed. After being dropped off at school, they never come home. They're finally found in the woods after three days, thinking that they were gone for more like three hours. It quickly becomes clear that the girls are possessed. One of them walks into a church during communion, drenched in what is either blood or grape juice--pretty much the same thing--screaming "The Body and the Blood" in a demonic voice.

Ellen Burstyn returns from the original to reprise her role as Chris MacNeil, the mother of the original possession victim, Regan. One of the girls' fathers, played by Leslie Odom Jr., goes to her for help. She faces off against one of the possessed girls and tells her, "We've met before." Does that mean Pazuzu is back?

We get lots of shots of the demon controlling and hurting the girls, including what looks like upside-down crosses having been carved into their foreheads.

The Exorcist: Believer is the first in a new Exorcist trilogy being directed by David Gordon Green, hot off the Halloween trilogy, using a script that Green co-wrote with Peter Sattler, based on a story written by Green with Scott Teems and Danny McBride, both of whom he worked with on the Halloween trilogy. The movie stars Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Nettles, and Ann Dowd. The Exorcist: Believer is scheduled to hit theaters on October 13, 2023.