I’ve been burned by Exorcist sequels before, so I went into this first look with my arms crossed. Ten seconds in, Mike Flanagan had me uncross them. The Exorcist: Martyrs is Universal and Blumhouse’s new take on the franchise, written and directed by Flanagan. It releases in US theatres on Friday, March 12, 2027, with the full trailer due this Friday.
Scarlett Johansson leads as a single-mother cop who watches the execution of a notorious satanic serial killer, only for the crimes to continue supernaturally and target her 12-year-old son. John Leguizamo plays Father Sunday, the killer at the centre of it, and the cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Hamish Linklater, Carl Lumbly and Carla Gugino. The talent here is frankly ridiculous.
What the trailer promises
This first look sells grim, procedural horror in the Se7en register: a city, a cop, a killer, and a sense that something older than evidence is driving the case. Flanagan has already called the film “viciously dark” and “unsafely dark at times,” and the teaser backs that up without showing its whole hand. It promises a story about guilt, motherhood and ritual more than a parade of jump scares.
What it holds back is the actual exorcism. There are priests joining the investigation, but the supernatural mechanics stay mostly in shadow. That restraint is smart. It lets Johansson carry the emotional stakes before the horror turns literal.
The moment everyone will talk about
For me, it is the suggestion that the execution is not the end. The killer dies, and then the crimes keep going. That pivot, from true-crime dread to something impossible, is the line that will light up every group chat after the trailer ends.
Where this sits
For Johansson, this feels like a strong late-prime genre lead, built on face and nerve rather than franchise armour. For Universal and Blumhouse, it is a second swing at an Exorcist revival after Believer, and it is clearly a bet on Flanagan’s voice to reset the series as an event.
Honest verdict? Yes, this looks worth the ticket. It looks like a studio horror film that trusts its director, its star and its audience to sit in the dark. I’ll be there opening weekend.
Watch the original: Universal Pictures on YouTube
Source: BroBible
