Russell Crowe Is an Actor Possessed in Meta-Horror The Exorcism Trailer

What would possess Russell Crowe to do another exorcism movie? Perhaps it’s because The Pope’s Exorcist star plays a troubled horror movie actor seemingly cursed by a demon in The Exorcism, the new meta-horror movie produced by Scream franchise creator Kevin Williamson and Bill Block (Blumhouse’s Halloween trilogy). Vertical released the first trailer (below) for the directorial debut of Joshua John Miller (The Final Girls) — the son of actor Jason Miller, who portrayed troubled priest Father Damien Karras in the 1973 classic The Exorcist — putting a twist on the possession/exorcism genre.

“All kinds of messed up stuff happened when they were making movies like The Omen or The Exorcist,” Chloe Bailey says to Ryan Simpkins in the just-released trailer. Simpkins — known for their role in the Fear Street trilogy and the older sibling of Insidious star Ty Simpkins — plays Lee, the estranged daughter of actor Anthony Miller (Crowe), who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. Lee begins to wonder if her father is slipping back into past addictions… or if there’s something more sinister at play.

“The origins of the film stem from my childhood spent watching my father, Jason Miller, playing the doomed Father Karras flinging himself out a window at the climax of The Exorcist,” Miller said. “If that wasn’t haunting enough on its own, my dad never shied away from telling me stories of just how ‘cursed’ the movie was: the mysterious fires that plagued the production, the strange deaths, the lifelong injuries— the list went on and on. The lore of any ‘cursed film’ has captivated me ever since.”

“With The Exorcism, we wanted to update the possession movie formula (‘Heroic man rescues woman from forces she’s too weak and simple to battle herself!’) for a world where no one group owns goodness and decency over another. We were gifted with an extraordinary cast and creative team to tell a story about how we’re all vulnerable to darkness, to perpetuating it, if we fail to face our demons,” the director and co-writer added. “The devil may retaliate, but what other choice do we have?”

Along with Crowe and Simpkins, the cast includes Bailey (Grown-ish), Sam Worthington (Avatar: The Way of Water), Adam Goldberg (The Equalizer), and David Hyde Pierce (The Perfect Host). Miller co-wrote The Exorcism with M.A. Fortin (Queen of the South), and Williamson and Block produce with Ben Fast (Blumhouse and Miramax’s Sick).

The Exorcism is in theaters June 7.