The first trailer for demon possession horror The Exorcism, starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe, has been released… not to be confused with the demon possession horror The Pope’s Exorcist, starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe, which came out last year.
In this one, Crowe stars as a troubled actor who begins to unravel while filming a supernatural horror movie. The joke there is too obvious to make. In any case, The Exorcism hails from director Joshua John Miller, and will see an exclusive cinema release from June 7th.
Also starring in the pic are Sam Worthington (best known for his starring role in the Avatar films), Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, and David Hyde Pierce. Ryan Sympkins co-stars as Crowe’s estranged daughter, who begins to suspect her father’s troubles are more sinister than a relapse into former addiction issues. Miller co-writes the horror with repeat collaborator M.A. Fortin.
Possession horror runs in the director’s family: Miller said the idea for this film stemmed from his childhood spent watching his father, Jason Miller, playing the doomed Father Karras flinging himself out a window at the climax of 1973’s The Exorcist. “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,” he said in a statement. “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.”
