Mike Flanagan's Forgotten 2016 Horror Movie Shows How He Can Save The Exorcist Franchise

The Exorcist: Deceiver is in talks with Mike Flanagan to replace David Gordon Green in the director’s chair, and one forgotten project in his filmography shows just how he can save the revived horror franchise. Blumhouse and Halloween‘s David Gordon Green brought back the possession-driven franchise in 2023 with The Exorcist: Believer, revolving around a single father whose daughter and her best friend go missing, only to be found and exhibiting signs of possession. In an effort to save the pair, the parents turn to various religious experts and returning character Chris MacNeil for help.

Though initially intended to kickstart a new trilogy much like Green did with Blumhouse’s Halloween movies, the franchise’s future was left unclear after Green departed The Exorcist: Deceiver and the studio pulled it from its release calendar. It was later reported in May 2024 that acclaimed horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan was in talks to direct the next installment, though was left unclear if he would be involved in the writing process. While he may yet to be confirmed for the sequel, there is one movie in his past that would make him the perfect fit to redeem The Exorcist.

What Went Wrong With The Exorcist Sequel?

Heading into The Exorcist: Believer‘s release, there was some skepticism of Green’s ability to revive the franchise for modern audiences after his second and third Halloween movies saw increasingly worse reviews from critics and lackluster box office returns. Matters were made only worse when reviews started rolling out for the movie, with it garnering not only failing to break the franchise’s negative Rotten Tomatoes movie streak, but also one of Green’s worst in nearly a decade. Check out how Believer‘s scores compare to the other Exorcist movies below:

Unlike his prior success with 2018’s Halloween, there were clearly a number of reasons why The Exorcist: Believer failed to match Green’s horror debut. Between a script that failed to bring anything new to the franchise, underutilized Ellen Burstyn’s return as Chris after her previous rejections to return and didn’t effectively set up the proposed new trilogy of movies, it was clear that the filmmaker’s reach had far exceeded his grasp, as he never quite landed on what direction to take with the 2023 movie.

Even before its release, Green was seemingly having doubts about his potential to carry The Exorcist franchise forward beyond Believer, having expressed that he may not be the one to helm the first sequel, Deceiver, and instead leave his roadmap for the sequels up to someone else. A report after Believer‘s underwhelming box office opening and reviews further indicated that Blumhouse and the creative team may be changing their approach to the sequels, with Green’s decision to step down from the trilogy to helm an indie dramedy seeming like an indication he wanted to return to his roots.

Mike Flanagan Previously Redeemed The Ouija Franchise

Across his near-15-year career, Flanagan is largely known for creating original and terrifying tales, or for bringing a fresh perspective to iconic properties, namely those of Stephen King with Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. But one rare standout in his filmography is that of 2016’s Ouija: Origin of Evil, which served as his first major foray into franchise filmmaking as he looked to build on the characters and story established by Blumhouse’s 2014 box office hit. Before this, Flanagan had only made original projects, including his breakout 2013 hit Oculus and Netflix home invasion thriller Hush.

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While some may better know Flanagan now for The Haunting anthology and the recently released The Fall of the House of Usher, his work on Ouija: Origin of Evil is actually a very promising sign of just how the filmmaker can revive The Exorcist franchise after Believer‘s missteps. The first Ouija movie infamously released to a widespread critical panning, currently holding a 6% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 24% from audiences. Origin of Evil, on the other hand, boasts a stellar 83% “Certified Fresh” from critics, albeit a more mixed 57% from audiences on the review aggregate.

Ouija: Origin of Evil is available to stream on Netflix.

With Ouija: Origin of Evil, Flanagan showed a remarkable ability to take a largely underwhelming horror effort and spin it into something that was not only plenty horrifying, but also richly layered with emotional character development and a moving story. Even more impressive was that the filmmaker did so without making any major changes to the story threads put forth in the original movie, instead finding new and intelligent ways to expand upon them without completely undermining another filmmaker’s work.

Midnight Mass Also Shows Flanagan’s Religion In Horror Expertise

In addition to the Ouija prequel, another celebrated title in Flanagan’s filmography that proves him to be the perfect person to helm the next Exorcist movie is his 2021 Netflix miniseries, Midnight Mass. Described by the filmmaker as a passion project he spent a decade developing, the show revolved around a small island town who begin to experience a series of miracles after the arrival of a mysterious, charismatic young priest, who holds a darker secret behind these occurrences.

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Flanagan not only pulled from his own past going through sobriety for Midnight Mass, but also looked to his Catholic upbringing and later studies of various religions to create a thematically impactful journey about the nature of faith. While The Exorcist movies may be better known as a standard possession horror story, author William Peter Blatty layered both his original novel and script for the 1973 movie with far deeper themes exploring faith and the conflict between faith and doubt, as Chris’ initial attempts to solve Regan’s situation were from a rational standpoint rather than a spiritual one.

Green certainly attempted to touch upon some of these themes in The Exorcist: Believer, particularly with his decision to have the climactic exorcism scene feature various religious figures working together to cleanse the possessed Katherine and Angela. Unlike Flanagan’s work on Midnight Mass, however, Green’s efforts felt more surface level, with many critics even criticizing it as more of a gimmick than a meaningful exploration.

The Exorcist Can Also Make Up For Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep Box Office Flop

More than just finding a person more suited to explore the various themes of its franchise, Flanagan signing on for The Exorcist: Deceiver could also make up for 2019’s Doctor Sleep underperforming at the box office. His adaptation of Stephen King’s Shining novels and Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie was met with largely positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, but failed to gain the same traction at the box office as IT: Chapter Two and Pet Sematary that same year, only bringing in $72.3 million against its reported $55 million production budget, while the former two made $473.1 million and $113.1 million, respectively.

Doctor Sleep has since garnered a strong cult following from both King and Flanagan fans, but much like Ouija: Origin of Evil, it remains one of the latter’s more underrated and forgotten projects with mainstream audiences. While Believer‘s poor critical and box office showing could still harm The Exorcist: Deceiver‘s chances at being a success, regardless of who is at the helm, having Flanagan on board in the director’s chair could very well lead to the sequel redeeming the trilogy plans in audience’s minds and give him another shot at franchise filmmaking.

The Exorcist: Deceiver

The second part of David Gordon Green’s new Exorcist trilogy, The Exorcist: Deceiver, picks up after the events of the 2023 supernatural horror film based on the works of William Peter Blatty. 

Studio(s)

Morgan Creek Entertainment

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures , Peacock

Writers

David Gordon Green