Is 'The Exorcist: Martyrs' A Sequel To The Franchise's Best Movie?
Following the criticisms of The Exorcist: Believer (2023), it seemed like the iconic horror series had reached a dead end. Then, in came Mike Flanagan, who seems intent on reinvigorating the series with The Exorcist: Martyrs (2027). However, rather than leaning on the original 1973 film's child possession story, there's a deeper plot at work.
Following the botched execution of a serial killer, two detectives uncover a rash of religiously inspired killings that mirror the executed killer. In many ways, this concept calls back to the series' best movie, The Exorcist III (1990), but is Martyrs a true sequel to the film, and does it connect at all?
Is 'The Exorcist: Martyrs' a Sequel to 'The Exorcist III'?
In short, The Exorcist: Martyrs is not a sequel to The Exorcist III, but it clearly borrows inspiration from its foundation. The Exorcist III features the officer from The Exorcist (1973) on a case tied to murders that resemble the Gemini Killer. The problem is the killer was executed over a decade ago, and now a mentally ill patient is claiming he's the Gemini Killer.
The Exorcist: Martyrs follows a similar beat with a New York City detective solving murders that resemble religious saints as tied to the executed killer, Father Sunday. However, rather than tying it back to one killer, Martyrs expands on the idea of serial killers' evil and demonic possession. These similarities make it seem like a sequel to The Exorcist III, but instead speak to the larger theme of The Exorcist that is rarely expanded upon.
With Martyrs, we get to see what evil looks like on a larger scale and how some people embrace that evil to do awful things to one another. It may not be an outright sequel to The Exorcist III, but it does feel like a spiritual sequel in a lot of ways. The best part is that it can finally get more eyes on the best sequel in the franchise.
Why Is 'The Exorcist III' Still Underrated?
The Exorcist III is frequently considered the one movie in the franchise that no one wants to watch but is always listed as one that's not only worth watching but a genuinely great horror movie. Unfortunately, it followed one of the worst sequels in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). With the absurdity of that sequel, it was hard for audiences to get invested in another sequel that now looked entirely different from what came before.
There's also the iconography of the original The Exorcist, a horror film so scary and so great, it still has a dark stigma surrounding it. Plus, Reagan as a possessed child is utterly terrifying and will always be scarier than a possessed adult like in The Exorcist II.
As such, The Exorcist III remains underrated because people hold it up to what came before. But in reality, it was proof that this franchise should've never stayed tied to Reagan or possessed children in general. Instead, it's a franchise that should explore how eternal evil can twist humans to do the unthinkable and how good people have to sacrifice everything to stop it.
'The Exorcist: Martyrs' Could Save the Horror Franchise
The Exorcist franchise is a story of highs and lows, and it's a shame for a franchise that started with one of the greatest horror films ever made. When it stuck with the ideas that made the first so scary, it struggled or failed. Then, when it tried to be different, no one bothered to watch. But The Exorcist: Martyrs has the perfect opportunity to realize the series as it should finally be.
Mike Flanagan's horror works like The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and Midnight Mass (2021) have managed to balance genuine scares with a thematic reason for why everything is happening. With Martyrs, he's exploring evil in the world of serial killers and how possession could've played a role in that.
Doing so is a chance to show that demonic forces know how to do more than possess small children, and even evil forces that aren't demonic can also take control. It feels like The Exorcist III in that sense, but now we are finally getting a wider scope of how evil this universe can get. With that in mind, it may not be a sequel to the third movie, but it does continue the idea of finally seeing The Exorcist reach its full potential.
