“The franchise has had its ups and downs,” Flanagan noted. He added, “I would argue the show is one of the ‘ups’ in a big way, and I thought it was just brilliant.” The director was quick to give a shout-out to Jeremy Slater’s “Exorcist” TV series, which lasted just two seasons but served as a direct sequel to Friedkin’s film. When another panelist mentioned Ben Daniels’ performance as the series lead, Flanagan called him “fantastic.” The filmmaker also saw the show as a great example of a tricky type of follow-up — the likes of which doesn’t always connect with horror fans. “Talk about how to do a legacy sequel, because damn, did that work,” he explained.
Flanagan went on to recommend both William Peter Blatty’s “Exorcist” sequel novel “Legion” (“If you’ve never read Blatty’s novel ‘Legion,’ it’s phenomenal”) and “The Exorcist III” (he says “the jump scare in the hallways is maybe the greatest one, ever”). Despite his clear love for the franchise, the filmmaker also wryly acknowledged that not every “Exorcist” movie is a success. “With ‘The Exorcist,’ there’s a lot of pressure but thankfully there are a lot of bodies on the field of people who have stepped on landmines–” he began to joke, and the audience’s laughter drowned out the presumable punchline about failed “Exorcist” projects warning him about where not to step.
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