Fred Norris / courtesy picture
Joshua John Miller and his private and artistic companion, M.A. Fortin, by no means got down to make a film about an exorcism as a result of, as Fortin says to Miller, “Your father stars within the best considered one of all time.”
Miller’s dad was the actor Jason Miller, who performed Father Damien Karras in “The Exorcist.” He usually advised Joshua tales of the purportedly haunted set, recounting fires that began across the manufacturing and the accidents and deaths that might influence those that labored on the movie.
That real-life expertise was one of many massive inspirations for “The Exorcism,” a brand new film Joshua directed and co-wrote with Fortin, wherein Russell Crowe performs Anthony Miller, an actor portraying a priest in what appears to be like to be a contemporary “Exorcist” remake whereas dwelling together with his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins).
Though the meta parallels are on show — from the daddy’s issues with alcohol to the household’s final title “Miller” — Joshua and Fortin needed to make use of the story as a springboard to cowl extra formidable themes.
“There was simply one thing in regards to the time and the private {and professional} experiences that we’d undergone,” Fortin mentioned. “The language of exorcism films abruptly felt weirdly compelling to us — the truth that they’re all the identical form of verse, refrain, verse, the place the Catholic Cortana is inviolable, good and it’ll prevent. Additionally, girls are at all times those you understand who’re going to be possessed as a result of they’re receptive — it’s very sexist.
“Additionally, there appears to be a type of nastiness that has been unleashed, and it appeared on the time particularly that males have been those who have been particularly receptive to and prone to it,” he continued. “It made us marvel how we may fuck round with the exorcism style. Additionally as queer folks, we’ve been a pair for 20 years, and I particularly had some nuns in my background for a sizzling minute. I’ve at all times had a tenuous relationship with the Church and with its relationship in direction of queer folks.”
Joshua John Miller, left and M.A. Fortin
Armed with all of these concepts, the pair determined to construct the narrative round an in-story set that’s combative and in the end harmful for Anthony. Beforehand, Joshua and Fortin’s greatest tasks collectively have been creating the USA Community crime sequence “Queen of the South” and writing the 2015 horror comedy “The Remaining Ladies,” which gave them loads of expertise with caustic personalities within the business.
“[Fortin] and I had knowledgeable expertise years in the past on a mission,” Joshua mentioned. “It was so traumatizing and emotionally violent that it shook up our world in an excessive method. I assume you might say we noticed the satan. In that second, you both develop from that have otherwise you shrink. I believe that made its method into this film lots, subconsciously.”
The duo was unafraid to look straight into the darkness with their script, which speaks frankly about points together with dependancy, which Joshua spent a lot of his life watching his father take care of.
“I believe the thought of writing about dependancy is rooted in our personal experiences and the folks round us,” Joshua mentioned. “As a child, I used to be witnessing my dad’s deep, painful wrestle with dependancy. That was very current in my life for me, most likely an excessive amount of to be fairly trustworthy. Nevertheless it taught me to wish to be the higher variation, the higher model. My father got here from a time that romanticized indulgence — ‘that’s what artists did.’”
These troublesome, masculinity-examining conversations manifest in different areas of the script as nicely, reminiscent of scenes when a personality’s abuse by the hands of the Church is mentioned — not commonplace fare for a typical horror film.
“When it comes to traumas, I believe that’s not one thing folks count on in a horror movie, per se,” Joshua mentioned. “I believe most studios wish to have soar scares solely and a semblance of pathos. From the start, we at all times knew we have been going to struggle for the emotionality. If in case you have that, you then’ll be extra scared, you’ll be extra invested. It’s at all times been about specializing in the characters and relationships.”
One other space Joshua and Fortin needed to look at was Lee’s budding lesbian relationship with a younger actress on set, performed by Chloe Bailey.
“Rising up, there was a sure phase of Judeo-Christians that might not speaking sufficient about how queer folks have been both damned or outright evil,” Fortin mentioned. “There’s something so disfiguring about having to develop up in that. It feels large to me {that a} pop film that’s a lot a Catholic story additionally facilities younger queer girls as being merely on the aspect of fine. It argues — quietly, with out politicizing it — that two queer girls are a part of God’s plan and never the rest. It’s a small factor, nevertheless it simply feels essential to us.”
Joshua held agency too when he needed to struggle to maintain in a short love scene between the 2 characters.
“At one level, somebody mentioned, ‘Effectively, it’s not “Euphoria”-type lesbian intercourse, so why do we’d like this storyline?’ It was actually one of the vital misogynistic issues I’ve ever heard,” he mentioned. “We have been each devastated upon listening to that be aware, however I’m a fighter — it was integral. There’s no method I’d have stood behind this film. Thank God we have been in a position to carry that storyline again to life. It’s like saying take out part of your self.”
In the end, Joshua and Fortin are inspired that audiences will stick to them on this emotionally-dense journey, which exhibits the darkness, gentle and complexity in lots of relationships — together with the bond which impressed the film within the first place.
“I can truthfully say among the finest occasions I had with my dad have been once I was nonetheless ingesting and I may have these form of moments that have been our assembly level,” Joshua says. “‘That’s what males do.’”