New Exorcist: Believer Featurette Puts Ellen Burstyn in the Spotlight

The last time we saw movie star Chris MacNeil, she’d just been through quite an ordeal in Georgetown involving a demon and her tweenage daughter. That was back in 1973—so what’s she been up to since then? That’s a question Ellen Burstyn asked herself when reprising the character for The Exorcist: Believer.

“Playing a character that I created 50 years ago, I thought—she’s had 50 years of living. Who has she become?” Burstyn says in a new featurette just released ahead of David Gordon Green’s upcoming horror sequel. We know Chris wrote a book (you can catch a glimpse of it in this clip), and frankly we’d dearly love to read A Mother’s Explanation: From Possession to Now ourselves and get her take on the whole Pazuzu situation. The fact that a book emerged, and that Ann Dowd’s character is familiar with Chris’ story, suggests the MacNeils eventually took their experience public. That might have been unavoidable given the various deaths that were tied into it, but it’s not something suggested by that last scene in The Exorcist, in which Chris remarks gratefully that her daughter doesn’t remember anything about what happened to her.

You have to love that Burstyn is so matter-of-fact about possessions being, uh, a real thing: “There have been possessions throughout history, it’s not just in one location or one religion or one culture. It’s universal.” It’s that kind of conviction that propels her quietly badass portrayal of Chris MacNeil—and Burstyn’s return to the character is the number-one reason we’re so intrigued to see The Exorcist: Believer when it blows in through that open window you really should keep closed on October 6.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.