There’s a lot to unpack in The Exorcism, the new film from writer/director Joshua John Miller and co-writer M.A. Fortin, not the least of which is where the movie came from, and what it’s trying to achieve. For Miller, the son of the late actor Jason Miller (Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist), he says that in addition to being a love letter to his dad, it’s also “a FU letter to Hollywood a little bit.”The Exorcism stars Russell Crowe in a meta-tale about a troubled actor unraveling on the set of his new horror film, but one has to wonder if it’s his past addictions getting the better of him, or if something supernatural is at work?

Sitting down with Fangoria for an in-depth interview ahead of The Exorcism’s release on June 21, 2024, Joshua John Miller and M.A. Fortin discussed not only how the film subverts genre expectations, but how personal it was for both of them, who have been longtime partners in life, and in movies. Miller, who co-wrote the film The Final Girls with Fortin, says that while that movie may have been a love letter to his mother, The Exorcism is a love letter to his father. He also calls The Exorcism “a FU letter to Hollywood a little bit.”

“[We wanted to] subvert the expectations of the genre. But it was definitely also obviously personal. There are personal elements, and I think
Final Girls
is very much, obviously, a love letter to my mom, and
I think
The Exorcism
was a love letter, obviously to my dad, but also a FU letter to Hollywood a little bit
, because we wanted to sort of tell a story that Hollywood men making movies in the studio system or working the studio system is a deal with the devil.“

The Exorcism (2024)

Release Date

June 7, 2024

The Exorcism also stars David Hyde Pierce and is produced by Kevin Williamson’s Outerbanks Entertainment and Miramax, both of which have a long history with horror, but even still, both Miller and Fortin say they were surprised that Miramax was willing to take a chance on the film considering that the filmmakers don’t think of it as your typical horror movie. Miller adds:

Joshua John Miller Says People Are Going to Call Him An “A**hole”

Miller and Fortin also sat down with MovieWeb for our own chat with the two about The Exorcism, which Fortin says was originally titled The Georgetown Project, a reference to the film that Russell Crowe is making in the movie. It wasn’t until recently that the title of The Exorcism was adopted, which Miller says comes from a place of nostalgia, something he says is very prominent in today’s society.

“I think the world presently is complicated, obviously, globally, domestically, socially, and I think that there’s a huge premium placed on nostalgia…our need to be nostalgic, and reexamine the things from our childhood, or another time, and I think that’s part of us grieving the past, and wanting to try and return to it in certain ways because we’re sad it no longer exists.”

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The Exorcism’s Director Recalls First Seeing His Dad’s ‘Dangerous Movie’

Joshua John Miller remembers being “pretty young” when he watched his father, Jason Miller, in The Exorcist for the first time.

He would go on to say that if people are expecting The Exorcism (which also stars Chole Bailey) to be like the film his father starred in way back in 1973, they’re in for a disappointment. He says that some people will probably even call him an “a**hole.”

“I think there’s gonna be people who are going to jump on the rise with us, and then
I think people are going to be like, ‘You’re an a**hole!
Why isn’t this giving me Exorcism 101 [vibes]?’”