Joshua John Miller and his personal and creative partner, M.A. Fortin, never set out to make a movie about an exorcism because, as Fortin says to Miller, “Your father stars in the greatest one of all time.”
Miller’s dad was the actor Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras in “The Exorcist.” He often told Joshua stories of the purportedly haunted set, recounting fires that started around the production and the injuries and deaths that would impact those who worked on the film.
That real-life experience was one of the big inspirations for “The Exorcism,” a new movie Joshua directed and co-wrote with Fortin, in which Russell Crowe plays Anthony Miller, an actor portraying a priest in what looks to be a modern “Exorcist” remake while living with his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins).