Why the “The Exorcist: Martyrs” Trailer Promises to Resurrect Our Worst Nightmare
Some franchises don't need a trailer to scare us. The name alone does the job. Today, October 9, 2026, Universal released the first official trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs. If you caught the teaser earlier this week, you already knew what to expect: long silences, and images that stay with you after the screen goes dark.
The name behind the project carries real weight. Mike Flanagan, the director of "Doctor Sleep" and creator of "Midnight Mass," was given essentially free rein to take the franchise wherever he wanted. Anyone who has watched The Haunting of Hill House or Midnight Mass knows his method. He builds horror out of grief, guilt, and crises of faith, and the scares come after. For a franchise that has spent years stumbling, it's the right fit.
THE SCRIPT OF ANGUISH
Written and directed by Flanagan, the film tells a story that takes place in the world of The Exorcist, but stands on its own, with all-new characters. It is neither a remake of William Friedkin's classic nor a direct sequel to The Exorcist: Believer (2023).
At the center is an NYPD homicide detective. Scarlett Johansson plays Julie Miller, a single mother whose son has just turned 12. The film promises an ancient, visceral evil tied to a serial killer who has already been executed. The killer, known as Father Sunday and played by John Leguizamo, staged crime scenes inspired by the martyrdoms of Catholic saints. That's where the title comes from.
The most disturbing part is the idea that the execution ended nothing. The detective did everything right. She caught the man and watched the sentence carried out, and the evil is still here. Flanagan cites Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III as influences. He also describes the possession as something that leaves the bedroom and the torment of a family behind and moves into a serial-killer mystery. The question he keeps returning to in interviews is the film's backbone: what do we do about the problem of evil?
The cast reinforces the tone. Besides Johansson and Leguizamo, the film features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Sasha Calle, and Rahul Kohli, along with several familiar faces from Flanagan's regular company. And exorcism fans can rest easy: the director has confirmed there will be an exorcism, "the one job" the title demands.
THE CURSE THAT REFUSES TO DIE
Anyone who talks about The Exorcist ends up talking about the legend that follows it. Since the 1973 production, the story goes that the set was a place where things went wrong. A fire destroyed much of the sets, sparing, of all things, the possessed girl's bedroom. Deaths among the crew and in the orbit of the cast during filming fed the idea that something was collecting a price. Friedkin is said to have had the set blessed, and priests were reportedly a regular presence during production.
It's worth separating what's documented from what's folklore. The legend has grown over the decades, and some of it is behind-the-scenes embellishment. But that's exactly why it works. Horror audiences love to believe that certain films carry something with them.
Flanagan seems to understand that. He isn't leaning on nostalgia. He has said he wants to do something "never done within the franchise" that honors what came before without being built on nostalgia. If the curse is real, he turns it into atmosphere. The trailer suggests the horror this time isn't in the dark bedroom of a Georgetown house. It's in interrogation rooms, in execution chambers, and in the daily life of a woman trying to protect her child from something that should not exist.
CONCLUSION: THE WAIT
The film is set to hit theaters in March 2027, and today's trailer does what matters most: it makes audiences want to see the movie while making them hesitate. It's a rare combination. There's a director they trust, a leading lady with serious star power, a villain who feels memorable from the start, and a franchise that needs a redemption worthy of its own myth.
After so many attempts to bring The Exorcist back from the dead, what we feel now is the old mix of excitement and dread. The question is whether Flanagan will scare us the way only he can, and we won't have the answer until March. Until then, you might want to sleep with the lights on.
