A New Horror Movie Tackles An Ongoing Film Fascination: The 'Cursed' Movie

Before I ever saw William Friedkin's classic horror film "The Exorcist," my mother gleefully shared with me all of the horrific urban legends and unexplained mysteries that surrounded the film's production. She believed, as do countless others, that "The Exorcist" was one of many cursed films. The face of a possessed Regan MacNeil was terrifying, to be sure, but movie magic meant to scare me couldn't hold a candle to the inexplicable dread that had me convinced filmmakers daring to tell this story made them a target for actual evil. While I'm old enough now to know better than to believe in cursed films, it's still a fascinating rabbit hole to fall into. Hell, the horror movie streaming app Shudder even has a two-season documentary series called, you guessed it, "Cursed Films" discussing cinema's most controversial and conspiracy-surrounded film sets. Now, a new narrative horror film is dabbling in the world of cursed films, with a DNA connection to one of the most famous.

Joshua John Miller and M.A. Fortin's "The Exorcism" was first announced as "The Georgetown Project," a reference to the neighborhood where "The Exorcist" was filmed. The story follows a troubled actor named Anthony Miller played by Russell Crowe, who takes a role in a supernatural horror film about a young, possessed girl, when suddenly strange things start happening to the man and those on the set of the film. Are mysterious goings on a coincidence? Or is there something far more sinister at play? This is the second feature collaboration between Miller and Fortin, whose previous venture, "The Final Girls," dealt with the daughter of a famous actress in a summer camp slasher movie getting sucked into the film that made her mom famous in a fight for her life.

Both films are rooted in Miller's own DNA — as the child star-turned-actor is also the son of the late, great Jason Miller, who played Father Karras in "The Exorcist."

In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Miller said that the idea for "The Exorcism" was inspired by his own childhood — watching his father famously die in "The Exorcist" by throwing himself out a window, rolling down a flight of stairs to purge a demon out of his body after exorcising it from Regan MacNeil. "If that wasn't haunting enough on its own, my dad never shied away from telling me stories of just how 'cursed' the movie was: the mysterious fires that plagued the production, the strange deaths, the lifelong injuries — the list went on and on. The lore of any 'cursed film' has captivated me ever since," said Miller. For the record, the "Exorcist Stairs" as they're known are now an officially recognized historical landmark.

"With 'The Exorcism,' we wanted to update the possession movie formula ('Heroic man rescues woman from forces she's too weak and simple to battle herself!') for a world where no one group owns goodness and decency over another," he continued. "We were gifted with an extraordinary cast and creative team to tell a story about how we're all vulnerable to darkness, to perpetuating it, if we fail to face our demons." Joining Crowe is a stellar supporting cast including Sam Worthington ("Avatar: The Way of Water"), Chloe Bailey ("Swarm"), Adam Goldberg ("The Equalizer"), and David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier"). The film was shot way back in 2019, but is finally coming out now thanks to the independent distributor Vertical Entertainment, who have put out critical darlings like "Wyrm," "Lorelei," and "Miss Juneteenth," as well as "The Final Girls."

When "The Final Girls" was first released in 2015, I had the opportunity to interview Miller and Fortin. Unfortunately, it was for a publication that has since been sucked into the void of corporate buyouts and shutdowns, but I'll never forget hearing Miller talk about the film. "The Final Girls" is an incredibly fun (and funny) story about people getting sucked into a cheesy '80s horror movie, but it's also about a young woman grieving the death of her mother — an actress whose cinematic legacy includes being famously killed by a masked slasher on screen.

It's a bit of a mind-trip to think about what that might feel like for someone, to know that they can always "see" their parents through their work, but know that their most memorable performance also shows them in their final moments. I'm paraphrasing here, but Miller talked about how complicated it was to watch his father die in arguably the most well-known horror film ever made and wrote "The Final Girls" to work through those feelings. It seems like "The Exorcism" is continuing that process through a different medium, facing the horrors of "The Exorcist" and its supposed cursed film reputation dead-on.

Crowe's character is named "Anthony Miller," and while that's obviously not "Jason Miller," it's pretty dang close. Ryan Simpkins stars as Anthony's kiddo, Lee, but it's not clear if this character is an avatar for the writer/director or one of Jason's older children including Miller's half-brother, "The Lost Boys" star Jason Patric. Regardless, few creatives are as intrinsically linked to the legendary cursed status of "The Exorcist" as Miller, and it'll be fascinating to see how the final film explores that familial connection.

"The Exorcism" is due out on June 7, 2024.