One of the most chilling passages in biblical scripture is when Christ confronts a man possessed by an “unclean spirit.” “My name is Legion,” the being declares in Mark 5:9. But what if it’s not possible to stop it? What if you can’t protect yourself—or anyone else?
That hopelessness is what encroaches on Scarlett Johansson’s homicide detective in The Exorcist: Martyrs, filmmaker Mike Flanagan’s new chapter in the demonic-possession series, which aims to reignite old fears that date back not just to the 1973 original movie but to something primal and immemorial. That act, that behavior, that kind of crime, that kind of atrocity, it’s hard to believe it could be conceived of and committed by a human being.” This disbelief over evil can be countered by belief in decency. Flanagan, best known for The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and the new Carrie series, says that’s what compels him to tell supernatural stories.
They are allegories for the otherwise unspeakable. A lot of the slack is picked up by her own mother, Mary.” Then Detective Miller encounters someone who is very much like the Bible’s man living among the tombs: a nightmarish presence that can’t be captured, contained, or brought to a halt. Leguizamo’s killer was known by the criminal pseudonym “Father Sunday,” whose MO was staging bloody murder scenes reminiscent of the brutal martyrdom of individual Roman Catholic saints—torturous slayings that were often designed to shatter the beliefs of the faithful who followed the victims.
That iconography’s right there,” Flanagan says. Johansson’s Detective Miller is among the witnesses as “Father Sunday” is put to death, but not all of the people carrying out this act of justice are willing to openly face what they are doing. So that’s what you’re seeing in that picture.” As you might predict, the end of Father Sunday does not mean the end of the killing, which continues to trouble Johansson’s character and fellow NYPD homicide detective Gina Restrepo, played by Sasha Calle, who’s best known as Supergirl from the Flash film.
Martyrs is crafted as a crime procedural, even if it is building a case against a wickedness that is otherworldly. Flanagan says he asked himself, “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.” While William Friedkin’s The Exorcist remains an unassailable classic, the various follow-ups, including 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic and 2023’s attempted reboot The Exorcist: Believer, have often failed to live up to audience expectations.
A prequel from the early 2000s had such a troubled production that it was entirely remade before it was released. One exception that has amassed a cult following despite its flaws is 1990’s The Exorcist III, directed by the original Exorcist novelist William Peter Blatty and based on his sequel novel Legion. It has one of the most effective and memorable jump-scares ever, and Flanagan praises the book as “a wonderful novel” that helped inspire his own version.
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