Halloween Ends director teases his "f**ked-up" Exorcist reboot

After the release of Halloween Ends, David Gordon Green is set to focus on another revival of an iconic horror movie: The Exorcist. But as filming on the latter continues, he insists that the two re-dos are completely different beasts. 

"They're nothing alike," the director stated in a new interview with Collider, when asked how the projects compare. "Halloween is a horror movie, it's a slasher movie, it's midnight madness, good time at the movies, eat some popcorn. 

"The Exorcist is a very researched drama about fucked-up things – spirituality, religion, mental health, family  – and it's… you can overlap those two in these very different subgenres of horror, but the approach technically, creatively, is very different."

Just like how Halloween (2018) brought back Jamie Lee Curtis to play the franchise's first protagonist Laurie Strode, Green's Exorcist, which was written by Peter Sattler and Scott Teems and is a direct sequel to the 1973 film, will see Ellen Burstyn portray Chris MacNeill once again. In the William Friedkin-helmed original, Chris enlists the help of two enigmatic to save her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), who has been possessed by a mysterious entity. 

The new movie is expected to launch a trilogy, much like how Halloween did, and in the same chat, Green explained the benefits of using actors familiar with the work already, too. "For me, I love having an anchor of perspective, and so I feel like I'm dealing with, this isn't historical subject matter, but I'm dealing with historic, cinematic characters, and I've got the iconic actress that played this part fifty years ago, and she's there to ask questions," he said. "She's there to evaluate, give me notes on the script, and she's become like my spiritual guru that I go to, which…just the way that the film affected her life, we found ways that the story we're creating affected Chris MacNeil in certain ways.

"She's a part of this ensemble… the leads of the film are Leslie Odom Jr. and Ann Dowd… and then Ellen is a part of that journey, returning to that role."

Halloween Ends releases in the US and the UK on Friday, October 14. The Exorcist isn't expected until 2023. While we wait, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time for some viewing inspiration this spooky season.