The new film The Exorcist , subtitled Devotion , perfectly represents the biggest flaw in American horror franchises of the moment.
It’s an understatement to say that The Exorcist: Devotion did not convince us and a good majority of the cinema press. David Gordon Green ‘s film must, however, inaugurate a whole new trilogy, which should theoretically continue with The Exorcist: Deceiver , already dated for 2025. This shows the extent to which Blumhouse and Universal believe in the potential of the recently acquired franchise for the a whopping $400 million. They think they have found the perfect formula, the formula that has corrupted American horror cinema for several years .
LEGACY-WHAT?
Here it is, the ultimate formula, which should have raised the heirs of Pazuzu to the top of the box office: The Exorcist: Devotion is a “legacyquel”, a hideous neologism popularized – among others – by the fifth Scream and designating films claiming a direct connection with a great classic of popular cinema. Coming from the nostalgic vein tirelessly exploited by Hollywood in the 2010s, these feature films intend to ignore the numerous sequels to this or that slasher or blockbuster , while remaining part of a franchise logic.
A paradox which has repeatedly proven its popularity in the field of American horror. To date, the most famous representative of the “legacyquel”, their type specimen, is the 2018 Halloween , already directed by David Gordon Green. Jamie Lee Curtis continued her confrontation with Michael Myers, as if the numerous sequels inventing family ties between them had never existed. It was a real hit, which American studios inevitably took note of: $259 million at the worldwide box office for a $10 million budget, a renewed interest in the saga and a trilogy with guaranteed profitability.
Many of them took up this niche to receive their share of the loot. Spyglass and Paramount played this card (not without some mockery) in their reboot of Scream , also successful. Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, although they do not go so far as to deny the existence of their golden egg saga, have promised a wanesque return to basics in the promotion of the nevertheless very stupid Spiral (downright nicknamed “the legacy of Saw” in France). As for Bad Hombre, Fede’s ” Evil Dead remake ” Alvarez box, it tried its luck with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise , at the risk of completely distorting Tobe Hooper’s political statement.
The first two relaunched discontinued licenses and lined the pockets of their producers. Neither one nor two, Blumhouse, who had launched the hostilities, tried to find another juicy franchise to apply his method. And it was The Exorcist , acquired thanks to Universal for 400 million dollars and intended for the Halloween treatment . Except that its logic does not apply to everything and anything, since the saga The Exorcist … is only made up of legacyquels , before it was cool .
Painfully produced, each opus claimed to be a follow-up to Friedkin’s masterpiece , from Boorman’s eccentric blockbuster to the television series, including William Peter Blatty’s third part, directly titled The Exorcist: The Sequel . All bring back the original characters in one way or another and all have been received with suspicion. But the obsession of Jason Blum and his director proves above all that the systematization of the process can only do harm to mainstream American horror cinema.
BURSTYN FLAMES
It’s hard to doubt the sincerity that drives part of Halloween 2018. Jamie Lee Curtis was obviously delighted to return to her role as Laurie Strode. The same cannot, however, be said of Ellen Burstyn , once again playing the character of Chris MacNeil, Regan’s mother. This is one of the essential ingredients of the Gordon Green legacy: the return of the original protagonists, against all odds.
The actress was not very enthusiastic about the idea of participating in this reboot. “At the beginning, she was very skeptical” recalled the filmmaker at the microphone of A.frame . “His immediate response was: ‘God, no.’ I think people have offered her sequels a lot of times, so I told her, “If you’re not in my movie, at least be my friend.” » They would have hit it off and the director would then have been inspired by their conversations to enrich the scenario, which would have flattered her. A very beautiful story, Jean-Pierre Pernaut would have said.
Although Burstyn herself has confirmed her fondness for her colleague, the real reason for her presence is less appealing. To The Hollywood Reporter , she told in 2022:
“You know, what happened was I turned down a lot of versions of The Exorcist 2, I said no every time. This time they offered me a big chunk of money, but I still said no. And they surprised me by coming back and saying, “We’re doubling the offer.” I said, “OK, let me think about it.” I told myself that it was a lot of money, that I had to think about it.
I immediately thought: “I feel like the devil is asking me my price.” Then I thought: “My prize is a study program for talented students of our Master’s degree from Pace University. This is my prize.” So I went back and bid more and ended up getting what I wanted. And I have a study program for young actors. »
Or how to use your notoriety to do a good deed.
Blumhouse’s stubbornness, as well as the depth of his checkbook, nevertheless speaks volumes about the cynicism of his company . No longer a question of granting a worthy ending to a beloved character, but of reproducing the supposedly winning formula at all costs. A new form of normalization of the American horror pattern, which clearly poisons Devotion , since the sequences where the actress appears are among the worst in the film.
Worse still, they reduce the horrific component of the story and the associated tension, since by sending the main character trudging in search of Chris MacNeil against the backdrop of remixes of Tubular Bells , David Gordon Green and Peter Sattler remove the possessed girl from the story, well hidden in a psychiatric hospital. However, the terror of the original that Blumhouse desperately runs behind comes precisely from the respite that the screenplay does not grant to the viewer, forced to witness Regan’s ordeal in its entirety.
It is indeed the so-called miracle recipe, among other things, which weighs down the pace of this umpteenth reboot. And above all, it is no longer the guarantee of automatic success, since the production disappoints at the box office with 51 million amassed worldwide after two weeks of maximum exploitation, which would be more or less acceptable for its budget of 30 million, but which is very, very far from making the 400 million dollars of investment profitable, sequels or not.
Perhaps we can hope that American studios will take advantage of this to review their strategy, or even stop pulling old figures of horror cinema out of retirement to concentrate on new ones, as a certain Blumhouse studio did. not that long ago.
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