How the makers of the demonic new sequel tried to avoid the notorious 'Exorcist' curse

David Gordon Green and Jason Blum know a thing or three about bringing a seemingly deceased horror classic back from the dead.

The veteran writer-director and Blumhouse super-producer teamed up to resurrect Halloween in a new trilogy that began in 2018 and wrapped in 2022, scaring up more than $495 million worldwide in the process.

Now, the duo is back at it again with The Exorcist: Believer, a sequel to William Friedkin’s seminal (and infamous) 1973 film about a demonically possessed girl. Like with their Halloween entries, Believer is a direct follow-up to the original, ignoring all prior sequels (there have been four Exorcist films since the first) in the canon.

“I love the term ‘trotting on sacred ground’ because to me as a kid that grew up just the biggest movie geek in town, [I loved] finding those inspirations, finding those movies, that resonated with me,” Green tells Yahoo Entertainment (watch below). “Now at the point where these titles are under my stewardship, so to speak, I have to make ’em personal. So I’m always looking back to that 11-, 12-, 13-, 14-year-old movie geek in me to think, ‘What would I want to see and what's going to make that kid proud?’

“And to connect the moments in my life that were so overwhelmingly inspired by the exposure to these films. And then now to be able to try to do the same thing, making them as a creator, as a creative participant in this, trying to bring that same sensitivity and make it as personal as I can.”

The Exorcist: Believer follows two small-town teenage girls (Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum) who disappear for three days after holding a séance in the woods. When they reappear, they’ve got the devil in them — sending one’s widowed father (Leslie Odom Jr.) to track down a parent experienced with this sort of thing: Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil from 1973’s Exorcist.

Beyond Burstyn returning to the franchise 50 years later, Blum explained how Believer aspired to channel the original.

“I think what was so unnerving about the 1973 movie is how real it felt,” he says. “Horror movies up until that time… they seemed more out there. And I think the reason that movie resonated so much is that it just felt like it was a documentary, like it was really happening. And I think if there was one thing that we spoke about and that David and Leslie Odom Jr. And Ellen Burstyn and [co-star] Anne Dowd, I think one thing that they did terrifically well is they created this sense that it was real. That this was a real dad, real parents, real children, and this was a real event. Especially [during] the first half of the movie, you feel like you're watching a documentary. And I would say that's the DNA that the two movies share.”

One thing Green and Blum surely hope the two movies don’t share: the so-called “Exorcist curse.”

Friedkin’s film, loosely based on a true story and teeming with motifs of Christianity and demonology, was plagued by series of peculiar and tragic events during its production and aftermath.

Shooting was delayed six weeks after a fire destroyed every set in the MacNeil house, save for the room of possessed teen Regan (Linda Blair). Another set was later damaged by water. Both Burstyn and Blair suffered back injuries, with the latter developing scoliosis. A carpenter reportedly cut his thumb off, and a lighting technician lost a toe.

There were also several deaths linked to the film, including that of actor Jack MacGowran, who played the eccentric film director killed by Regan; MacGowran died of complications from the flu a week after wrapping his scenes. Vasiliki Maliaros, who played Father Damien Karras’s ailing mother, died a month later (albeit at 89 years old). The film’s night watchman and the operator of the refrigeration system for Regan's room also reportedly died. And years later, Paul Bateson, the actor who plays the technician in the blood-soaked angiography scene, was convicted of murdering a journalist, on top of being a suspected serial killer.

On Believer, “We surrounded ourselves with spiritual consultants for every religion that we were representing in the movie,” Green says when asked if they were worried about the curse.

“As insurance,” Blum says, laughing.

Adds Green: “We knew what we were getting into in terms of some of the spiritual trigger points and subject matter of the movie and tried to protect ourselves the best we could. And that’s by just bringing in honesty of communication, asking questions and making sure that this environment isn't overwhelmed with that sense of negativity. Where the movie can go to very dark places, we wanted to make sure that there [was] a trust in a community within the collaborators.”

The Exorcist: Believer opens Friday, Oct. 6 in theaters.