Exorcist: Believer Releasing Early For Hilarious Reason
1973’s The Exorcist is perhaps the best-known religious/exorcism horror movie in existence, and its much-anticipated sequel, titled The Exorcist: Believer, received an earlier premier date thanks to none other than Taylor Swift and the power of her fandom. Oh, the horror.
The power of Taylor Swift compelled The Exorcist: Believer to be released three days early, giving up Friday the 13 in the face of a horde of Swifties.
According to a tweet by Jason Blum, the producer of The Exorcist: Believer, the film’s premiere date moves from October 13 (yes, it’s a Friday) to October 10 to avoid coinciding with a concert film version of Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour, which launched March 13 and is planned to continue through November 23, 2024. The Eras tour has been one of the biggest tours of all time, and while many people considered moving their own scheduled events to avoid coinciding with tour dates, the fans of The Exorcist actually have Taylor Swift to thank for rushing the release date.
To be entirely honest, it’s unclear whether the rushed release of The Exorcist: Believer really has anything to do with Swift’s film tour or is Blum just making a really well-thought-out joke. One thing is sure: fans of both Taylor Swift and The Exorcist won’t have to make any hard decision regarding which event to go to in case of an overlap—which has been effectively eliminated at this point. So, those terrified and emotionally scarred by David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist will now also have the opportunity to mend their frightened souls with some of Swift’s music.
Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is not only the largest and most profitable in history, with the new concert film, she’s going to set box office records, and The Exocrist: Believer is only her first victim.
The Exorcist: Believer is the sequel to the original Oscar-winning horror film from 1973, starring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair. The upcoming film is a direct sequel to the original—the first of three planned movies—whose narrative follows the parents of demonically possessed girls as they’re trying to find an expert on the matters of possession, someone who has experienced something similar before. That someone just happens to be Chris MacNeil, portrayed by Burstyn half a century after the release of the original film.
The original The Exorcist, released in 1973 based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, had a significant cultural impact, and it’s often cited as one of the most influential and iconic horror films of all time. The movie was a massive box office success and one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, having made an estimated $441 million globally on a mere $12 million budget. That more than $3 billion adjusted for inflation, which would effectively make it the highest-grossing film of all time.
Ellen Burstyn, star of the original film, is coming back for The Exorcist: Believer.
But the success of the original The Exorcist encompasses more than mere numbers. The film laid the foundations of religious/exorcism horrors that later horror releases would emulate and expand upon. Not only that, but some of its elements, such as the head spinning, the green pea soup vomit, and the iconic staircase scene, have been parodied (see Scary Movie 2), referenced, or homaged in countless movies, shows, and other media. This only means that the upcoming sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, has some pretty big shoes to fill—we just hope it doesn’t disappoint.
