When asked to play the troubled daughter of Russell Crowe’s troubled actor in “The Exorcism,” an offshoot of the classic horror hit “The Exorcist,” Ryan Simpkins was ready.
“You hear ‘The Exorcist’ and you think one thing. Then I read the script and was like, ‘I have to do this!’ It’s such a great part. She’s so cool and there was so much depth to her. And,” Simpkins, 25, added in a Zoom interview, “we take those expectations and really flip them on their head.”
This “Exorcism” is personal for Joshua John Miller, its writer-director. He’s the son of Jason Miller, whose acting debut as Father Karras in “The Exorcist” made him a star and complicated both their lives.
The stories surrounding that horror phenomenon that Jason told Joshua growing up inspired “Exorcism.”
While the Miller father-son relationship is not exhumed, “Exorcism” reverberates with an actor (Russell Crowe) in crisis who needs support from Lee, his emotionally conflicted daughter.
“Lee’s really passionate, although she’s not free to be herself or speak her mind. But she comes from a really tragic place,” Simpkins said. “Her dad was really absent in her life. When her mom died, she was left alone.
“She’s a child put into this really adult circumstance and now she has to rekindle this relationship with her father, which is obviously a complicated one.
“It comes from a place of betrayal: You weren’t there. But there’s hope against hope that they can rekindle this relationship. Even though he’s failed her time and time again in the past. She’s opening these opportunities for him to do his best.
“She’s parenting her parent, which is a terrible position for a kid to be in.”
Evil possession? Lee and her dad are engulfed in a horror show which wonders whether truly evil spirits are at work.
“You have to buy into the reality of this father-daughter relationship if the rest of the reality settles in,” Simkins said. “The horror represents a part of real life. It represents misogyny, troubles with addiction.”
As for working in the shadow of one of history’s most monumental and revered films,
“Because we love it, we’re able to confront it. Which is saying a lot, because ‘The Exorcist’ is a perfectly made movie.
“But there are misogynistic tropes — a helpless young woman saved by this man. As we examine why those folks are present and how we can change them, in our movie Russell’s the one whose power is stripped away and I’m the one who wants to find my power to save him.
“That’s exciting!”
“The Exorcism” is in theaters