Ellen Burstyn speaks about Returning as Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist: Believer

The scariest movie is back this Halloween season with a terrifying new chapter. The Exorcist: Believer, directed by the maestro of the horror genre, David Gordon Green, will see Academy award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn reprise her role of Chris MacNeil and dive into the world of the devil. Two spine-chilling trailers for the film were shared by Universal Pictures earlier in September.

Together, Green and Burstyn imagined the journey that MacNeil began after her daughter Regan’s brutal exorcism in 1973. Since the events of the first film, MacNeil has dedicated her life to helping others understand the phenomenon of possession—especially other parents who have gone through hardships of the unexplained.

Talking about her part in the film, Burstyn says, “Chris has had 50 years of living, and I thought, ‘Who has she become? What are the experiences that happened to her in those 50 years, and how does that affect the person she is now?’ That interested me creatively. We are, in any moment of time, the sum total of everything that has happened to us and how that has become part of our character. That was an interesting challenge to explore.”

The Exorcist: Believer will be out in theatres worldwide and will be available in India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on 6th October 2023.