Esquire has unveiled a first look at Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs.

With plot points kept under wraps until now, it has been revealed that the upcoming Scarlett Johansson-led reimagining will be a serial-killer thriller in the vein of Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs.

Martyrs sees Johansson play homicide detective Julie Miller, a single mother to 12-year-old Max (Hamnet star Jacobi Jupe). Her story becomes entangled with that of Father William (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a career prison chaplain who presides over the execution of a serial killer (John Leguizamo).

Dubbed “Father Sunday”, Leguizamo’s killer is a fulcrum in the plot, a vicious threat who stages “bloody murder scenes reminiscent of the brutal martyrdom of individual Roman Catholic saints”. The issue for Detective Miller is that, even after Father Sunday’s execution, the brutal killings continue.

“Hopefully it’s a lot more than a simple possession story,” Mike Flanagan told Esquire. “The connections to the serial-killer mystery are where it gets really fun and takes the possession out of the bedroom.”

Speaking with Phantasmag, the celebrated horror auteur described Martyrs as “wildly different” to previous instalments in the franchise, comparing his drastic reinvention to his modern-day update of Stephen King’s Carrie, which releases October 7th.

Releasing March 12, 2027, The Exorcist: Martyrs also stars Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Sasha Calle, Rahul Kohli, Hamish Linklater, Gil Bellows, Carl Lumbly, John Gallagher Jr., Benjamin Pajack, Carla Gugino, Robert Longstreet, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, and Kate Siegel.

See the first-look photos below.