Director Joshua John Miller’s “The Exorcism” opens nationwide June 21, but one theater showing it holds a particularly special place in his heart: Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theater in Hollywood. Not only will Vista be screening “The Exorcism” in 35mm, but Tarantino has programmed Russ Meyer’s 1965 cult classic “Faster, Pussycat!” Kill! Kill!” as the midnight show after Miller’s film on June 21 and 22. “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” stars Miller’s mother, Susan Bernard, who died five years ago, and “The Exorcism” is a film inspired by his father, Jason Miller, who played Father Karras in “The Exorcist” and ended by working in low-budget horror films like “Mom” and “The Eternal”.
In “The Exorcism,” Russell Crowe plays an actor with a troubled past who sees a chance for redemption in a new role as a priest in a remake of a famous horror film – unnamed in the screenplay by Miller and MA Fortin, but clearly “The Exorcist”. .” However, strange accidents strike during filming and Crowe’s character begins to unravel, seeming to be a victim of possession himself. The film cleverly reprises the stories Miller (and every other horror fan) has heard his whole life about “The Exorcist” being a cursed film, although the greatness of “The Exorcism” lies in how he reaches something deeper; in its penetrating character study of an actor falling apart, it plays like a horror version of John Cassavetes’ “Opening Night,” which Miller says was entirely intentional.
“People have asked, ‘Were there any cursed events on the set of ‘The Exorcist’ and how was your father affected by that mythology?'” Miller told IndieWire. “And I would say fame was his biggest curse.” The same year “The Exorcist” was released, Miller won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play “That Championship Season,” while a few years earlier he was selling plasma to help his family. “This supernova effect created a shadow that was almost impossible to get out from under it, and I think it haunted him deeply. After “The Exorcist,” he really wanted to make a film of his play, and it was a Herculean effort that never came to fruition the way he had imagined. It was a disaster in the way he imagined his success, and I think it haunted him as well.
Jason Miller’s despair at never being able to live up to his early success ultimately haunted not only him but his entire family as he succumbed to alcoholism and drug addiction, much like Crowe’s character in ” The Exorcism.” “Sometimes it’s hard to have empathy when you’re the child of an addict,” Miller said. “Most of the time you’re just pissed. But as the years go by, you grow up and realize that your father can be both good and bad. The two things can coexist. It was a film that attempted to paint a portrait of someone who always seemed to me to be deeply tortured by regrets and this avalanche of bad choices. The mythology of the cursed film was just the icing on the cake – I was really much more interested in this underground psychological warfare going on within him.
While “The Exorcism” is a tribute to her father, Miller’s previous screenplay “The Final Girls” was a love letter to her mother, whose role in “Faster, Pussycat!” Kill! Kill!” came as a surprise to Miller when he was a teenager. “The first time I heard about this movie was when a friend came up to me in high school and said, ‘I saw your mother in an X-rated movie,'” Miller said. “I went to the video store and they wouldn’t let me rent it because it was “X-rated.” I went to my mom and said, “Are you in an X-rated movie?” saying, “Oh my God, my mother was a porn star?”
Bernard explained to his son that the film was not pornography but a work of art celebrating female sexuality. “She said, ‘Russ had a vision and I want you to see it. It’s a beautiful film,” Miller said. “I watched it and fell in love with it, and I still do. As a queer person, I think there’s a reason why queer people love his films There is such a revolt against any form of heteronormative representation of sexuality that it feels like it’s a gay friendly space. Women have so much power and it exists as well. Russ showed that there was a place for transgressive cinema and that you could work outside the system and create your own empire, no matter how big it was. He said, “I’m going to do this.” that I want and I don’t want to join the system. I’m going to be punk rock and I’m going to go make my films here.’
This example helped Miller find his own place as a transgressive filmmaker and embrace his genre roots as a child actor in films like “Near Dark,” “Class of 1999” and “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.” “As a child actor, all I ever wanted was to be on a TV show,” Miller said. “I didn’t really have a conventional family, so somehow being a kid in an ABC family seemed like the perfect way to have one. But no one chose me because I guess I felt like I was going to kill everyone. So I was cast in films as a vampire, as a murderer. Eventually, Miller realized that the world of horror and B-movies was not something to escape but something to celebrate. “It took me a while to realize that this is where I belong and these people are my tribe. »
In keeping with that spirit, Miller says that for his next film, he’ll likely return to something slightly lower budget and outside the system than “The Exorcism.” “I think this is where I belong,” he said. For now, he’s just excited to share the Vista with his mother on opening weekend and honor the B-movie legacy he inherited from her and his father. “I love watching my mom in this movie and realizing that she accepted the fact that she was part of something really cool rather than something that embarrassed her. It’s a bit supernatural that opening night falls on the fifth anniversary of his passing, but it will be somewhere in the building on celluloid.
“The Exorcism” opens Friday, June 21.