2025 has acted as the defining year for what many consider to be a modern golden age of horror. As of this writing, five of the top 24 highest-grossing movies globally are true, bona fide horror movies, and several from the year at least merit a place in the conversation now that awards season is upon us. Ryan Coogler’s bloody vampire masterpiece Sinners even has legitimate Oscar buzz.
While there are still plenty of truly outstanding original horror movies hitting theaters every month now, perhaps more important is the resurgence of beloved franchises of the past. The Final Destination, Conjuring, and even 28 Days Later all got new entries that landed at the box office and with critics, and there are more new chapters to classic franchises on the horizon.
One of the most intriguing is Mike Flanagan’s reboot of The Exorcist series. After David Gordon Green and his team failed to resurrect it with the widely-panned The Exorcist: Believer in 2023, Flanagan went back to the drawing board. We now know that Scarlett Johansson will star in the reboot, marking a career first for her and continuing a significant trend that has played a key role in the horror genre taking over Hollywood.
A-Listers Like Scarlett Johansson Continue To Embrace True Horror
Scarlett Johansson is merely the latest megastar to fall victim to the sweet siren song of the grim and gruesome. For the first time ever (at least in any meaningful capacity), true A-listers, and by extension the cinema industry at large, are treating horror as prestigious. It’s no longer seen as a second-tier, B-level style of filmmaking, typically dismissed by the Academy and other major awards bodies.
In the most significant horror movies of each year, it’s now relatively common practice to see major stars (some of whom, like Johansson, have never dabbled in horror before) leading the way. 2025’s Weapons, Sinners, and 28 Years Later were all loaded with stars, and in 2024 Demi Moore, Lucy Liu, Hugh Grant, Nicolas Cage, Halle Berry, Sarah Paulson, and Dan Stevens all starred in true horror movies.
Scarlett Johansson’s pivot into the genre is significant, but it’s simply the latest entry in a trend that’s been going strong for years at this point. Frankly, her turn towards horror couldn’t have come in a better spot, as she’ll take over one of the oldest and most beloved corners of the genre, desperately in need of a new star.
The Exorcist franchise has had several entries including the recent flop, but none have even sniffed the brilliance of William Friedkin’s iconic original, which was itself nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. While there are no guarantees that the next iteration will fare any better, with a modern master of horror like Mike Flanagan at the helm and Scarlett Johansson now in the spotlight, it has the ingredients to be a smash hit.
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William Peter Blatty
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The Exorcist