'It's not cheap scares': How 'The Exorcist: Believer' nods to original, charts new path

A lot of people witness “The Exorcist” for the first time peeking through their fingers because it’s so terrifying. A teenage David Gordon Green viewed it in “little chapters,” not because he needed a break from the hellish moments but to stay under the radar of hypervigilant librarians.

“I probably watched it 15 or 20 minutes at a time so as not to concern anybody,” says the filmmaker, then a 15-year-old Jesuit Catholic prep school freshman. He was curious about “The Exorcist” but because his parents were “very strict,” Green would sneak peeks via VHS tape at the public library.

The 1973 horror classic “meant a lot” to Green, 48, who continues the story with “The Exorcist: Believer” (in theaters Friday). After rebooting the “Halloween” movies for the next generation, Green now tackles “Exorcist” with a direct sequel to the late William Friedkin’s all-time chiller, starring a new pair of possessed children.

“It's not cheap scares,” Green says of the original movie. “You don't need heads spinning around and you don't need pea soup. These things are secondary little triggers that excite people and make history in their own way. What sticks out to me is just an honest story of a mother trying to save her daughter from something she can't explain.”

Green and producer Jason Blum discuss how “Believer” pays homage to an iconic work while also charting a new “Exorcist” path:

Like the original ‘Exorcist,’ the new ‘Believer’ embraces being a theological thriller

The 1973 "Exorcist" centered on movie star Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) working with a pair of exorcists (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) to help her possessed daughter Regan (Linda Blair). It took pop culture by storm and also was an Oscar contender (winning for adapted screenplay and snagging a best picture nomination), yet Friedkin famously disliked his film being referred to as a “horror” movie.

In a 2013 USA TODAY interview, Friedkin called it “a story about the power of Christ and the mystery of faith.” That was the mindset filmmakers had going into “Believer,” Blum says, hoping audiences come out “feeling like you had seen an account of a real story.”

Green adds that it’s not easy balancing the slow-burn nature of “the scariest movie ever made” with contemporary audience expectations. “When people are fainting in the theater (in 1973), it's because they're watching a girl get a spinal tap, not because there's somebody jumping out of the closet,” the director says.

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‘Exorcist’ sequel brings multiple religions to the fore – not just Catholicism

“Believer” centers on single dad Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), a skeptic who lost his faith after the death of his wife, whose daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her best friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) go missing for three days and return possessed by an evil spirit. But the exorcism isn’t just priest vs. demon – the girls are also helped by a Baptist pastor, a Pentecostal preacher and a root doctor. 

It was Green's idea to “open the conversation” to various theologies, and he considers himself “a spiritual buffet.” He wanted to bring people together for a common goal: “When we look into our mythologies that are around us every day and focus on what makes us similar, then unity becomes our spiritual superpower.”

Ellen Burstyn reprises her ‘Exorcist’ role, Linda Blair returns as ‘Believer’ consultant

When Blum and Green rebooted “Halloween,” their first calls were to director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis. Similarly, they reached out to “Exorcist” veterans about the new sequel. “Initially, Ellen was skeptical,” Blum says, but ultimately “saw eye-to-eye creatively” and agreed to come back as Chris, who Victor reaches out to for help in “Believer.”

Behind the scenes, Blair signed on as “a really wonderful, helpful consultant” for the young actresses, alongside their families and a child psychologist, Green says. “She is very blunt and has a very specific experience.” Blair – who was 13 when she shot the original “Exorcist” – worked with the girls and filmmakers during possession scenes on “how to get something intense and dramatic out of them without taking them to an unhealthy place.”

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The ‘Exorcist’ Easter eggs are plentiful, from ‘Tubular Bells’ to a vintage couch

Green sprinkled references to the original “Exorcist” throughout, from throwback scenes and plot points to the use of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells.” “It’s powerful and everybody's going to get it,” the director says. “Getting the rights to that was expensive but important.”

His favorite is one for the eagle-eyed fans: The couch in Chris MacNeil’s house when she meets Victor is the same one from her Georgetown place in the 1973 movie. That piece of furniture comes straight from Burstyn’s personal collection.

“Ellen took it home after (‘Exorcist’ completed) because she'd just got into an apartment and needed a couch. She didn't want the bad juju from the set, so she had it reupholstered,” Green says. “It’s something no audience in a million years would ever notice.”