Mike Flanagan reportedly in talks to move into creaky, abandoned Exorcist franchise

Few directors have devoted themselves more thoroughly to horror in the modern era than Mike Flanagan. Primarily in TV (but with occasional forays into film, like 2019 Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep), Midnight Mass creator Flanagan has exhibited a commitment to the genre that’s genuinely admirable, crafting ghost stories, vampire tales, and other supernatural fare in ways that don’t skimp on either the scares or the feelings. Now he’s reportedly in talks to tackle one of the genre’s biggest names, one that’s defeated pretty much every director who’s tried to tackle it since the franchise’s first, seismic outing: The Exorcist.

This is per Deadline (and with nobody involved willing to comment, so get your grains of salt ready), but Flanagan is reportedly in talks with Blumhouse and Universal to take over the film franchise, which is pretty deep into “projectile vomiting pea soup all over itself” territory after the latter studio shelled out a reportedly huge amount for the rights to the series, only to walk away with the decidedly lackluster The Exorcist: Believer. ($170 million at the box office, working from what was technically just a $30 million budget, which is pretty good for horror—but with godawful reviews, a ton of up-front costs to chew through, and a general impression of squandering the franchise’s already tarnished name.) Reception to the film was bad enough that director David Gordon Green, who’d previously done an eye-catching, if divisive, treatment of the Halloween franchise with his recent trilogy, felt comfortable dipping out on the whole project back in January, leaving the fate of the already-scheduled Exorcist: Deceiver uncertain.

It’s not new to note that The Exorcist has defied pretty much every effort to follow up its unprecedented box office success from back in 1973, which saw it become what is still the most successful R-rated movie of all time, adjusted for inflation. Our former colleague Katie Rife covered the series exhaustively (sans Believer) back in 2016 with an installment of Run The Series, highlighting how Paul Schrader, Renny Harlin, and John Boorman all failed, at various points, to create a worthy successor to William Friedkin’s understated masterpiece. (Only original author William Peter Blatty, adapting his own unrelated story into 1990 cult favorite Exorcist III, comes out even somewhat unscathed.) But if someone were going to break the curse—understand the careful managing of the real and surreal required to make fear of demonic possession feel oh-so-lucratively real for the movie-going audience—we wouldn’t necessarily bet against Flanagan. (Even if, on a personal note, we might prefer to see him do a demonic possession story unburdened by the franchise’s baggage, instead.) A bigger question might be whether the man himself wants the gig, though, given how many cinematic hopes have been dashed against these particular rocks already.