For months, Mike Flanagan’s new The Exorcist movie has been rumored to be titled The Exorcist: Martyrs. Now, that title has officially been confirmed by Esquire, which has also unveiled the first details and images from the highly anticipated horror movie. The film also has a new release date, March 12th, 2027, and the trailer is expected to drop this Friday!
Scarlett Johansson stars as Detective Julie Miller, an NYPD homicide detective and single mother whose investigation into a series of gruesome murders eventually leads her toward something far more terrifying than a human killer. The movie combines a serial- killer thriller with supernatural horror, with Flanagan specifically citing Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs, and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist as inspirations for the genre blend.
Flanagan has previously said that his goal with The Exorcist was to make something that would “invigorate” the franchise and give audiences something they haven’t seen before. Based on the details revealed by Esquire, he may have accomplished that.
What is The Exorcist: Martyrs about?
The Exorcist: Martyrs follows Detective Julie Miller, who has devoted her career to catching criminals and making her corner of the world a safer place. She is also the single mother of a 12-year-old son named Max, with her mother Mary helping care for him when Julie’s demanding job keeps her away from home. The investigation at the center of the movie begins with a serial killer played by John Leguizamo. The killer, known by the criminal pseudonym “Father Sunday,” has been staging murders based on the gruesome martyrdoms of Roman Catholic saints.
The killings are not simply designed to shock. According to Flanagan, Father Sunday’s murders are intended to attack the religious beliefs of the people who encounter them. “Anyone raised Catholic, and even those who aren’t but have any kind of religious or historical literacy, are going to recognize a lot of that in the trailer, just in the crime scenes that we’re staging. That iconography’s right there,” Flanagan tells Esquire.
Julie Miller eventually apprehends Father Sunday, and she is present when the serial killer is executed. But his death doesn’t bring an end to the mystery. In fact, it appears to be only the beginning.
John Leguizamo plays a serial killer named Father Sunday
Leguizamo’s Father Sunday is put to death early in the story, but the execution doesn’t go according to plan. The sequence is intriguing because Flanagan discussed it with Esquire shortly after a real-life botched execution made headlines. The execution also introduces another disturbing visual element. Some of the men participating in the execution wear masks to conceal their identities. Flanagan explains that this is based on something that does occasionally happen in real executions, with participants wearing masks to protect their anonymity.
Father Sunday’s death does nothing to stop the killings. Julie and fellow NYPD homicide detective Gina Restrepo, played by Sasha Calle, continue investigating as the case begins to point toward something that may not be human.
The Exorcist: Martyrs mixes Se7en with The Exorcist
Flanagan tells Esquire that he wanted to explore how the supernatural horror of The Exorcist and the procedural mechanics of a serial killer thriller could work together:
“How can we explore those ideas in a serial-killer thriller in a way that starts to combine these subgenres a little, that takes what we love about a movie like Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs and combines it with what we love about a movie like The Exorcist? We’re talking about humans under the influence—or in some cases direct control—of evil itself.”
There is still a demonic possession in the movie, because, as Flanagan jokingly puts it, The Exorcist “does have that one job from the title.” But the filmmaker promises that possession is only one piece of a much larger story.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Laurence Fishburne play priests
Every Exorcist movie needs a priest, and The Exorcist: Martyrs has two. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Father William, a former prison chaplain who presided over Father Sunday’s execution. In the years following that night, Father William has experienced a crisis of faith because of what happened during the execution. Laurence Fishburne also plays a priest who is brought into the investigation because of his knowledge of ancient rituals.
The case eventually becomes personal for Julie, putting both her mother and her young son in danger. Diane Lane plays Julie’s mother, Mary, while Jacobi Jupe plays Max.
The Exorcist: Martyrs is inspired by The Exorcist III
Flanagan isn’t ignoring the previous Exorcist movies, even though Martyrs is designed to tell a new story with new characters. While William Friedkin’s 1973 The Exorcist remains the franchise’s most popular film, Flanagan has also singled out The Exorcist III as an important influence. The 1990 movie was directed by original Exorcist novelist William Peter Blatty and adapted from his sequel novel Legion.
Flanagan has described Legion as “a wonderful novel.”
Mike Flanagan promises a very different Exorcist movie
The biggest question surrounding The Exorcist: Martyrs has always been how closely it will resemble the classic 1973 film. Flanagan has been adamant that he isn’t remaking Friedkin’s movie, nor is he trying to continue the story established by David Gordon Green’s 2023 film The Exorcist: Believer. Instead, he wants to tell a completely new story within the Exorcist universe. “We wanted very much for this to stand on its own two legs, encapsulating a brand-new plotline with brand-new characters,” Flanagan tells Esquire.
He also reiterates that audiences should not expect another retread of the original:
“I think the first job is to tell people they’re not seeing a retread of The Exorcist. They’re not seeing any attempt to reboot or remake or to step into the Friedkin film. They’re actually seeing a story within the Exorcist universe that has not been told before, that is unique within the franchise and taking it in a very different direction than it’s gone in the past. That’s what I’m hoping. We’re doing something very, very different than what people might’ve expected.”
When will The Exorcist: Martyrs be released?
Universal Pictures currently has Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 12, 2027. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Sasha Calle, Jacobi Jupe, and John Leguizamo, along with several of Flanagan’s frequent collaborators.
Esquire’s first look gives us our best idea yet of what Flanagan has been cooking up, and the combination of The Exorcist, Se7en, and The Silence of the Lambs is an intriguing one. From what we’re hearing so far, the elements are making me think of movies like The First Power and Fallen.
Does The Exorcist: Martyrs sound interesting to you? Take a look at the first images, then let us know by leaving a comment below. The first trailer for the film is expected to drop online this Friday.
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