What could be more terrifying than William Friedkin’s The Exorcist? How about a real exorcism caught on tape? Recently, Friedkin set out to make a documentary of the real rites of exorcism, similar to those we witnessed in his terrifying, ground-breaking, 1973 film. In Friedkin’s The Devil and Father Amorth, we will witness the real exorcism of an Italian woman performed by Father Gabriel Amorth. Yes, I said real.
In the early 1970s when I directed The Exorcist, I had not witnessed an exorcism but I wondered how close I had come to portraying reality,” Friedkin said. “I had been curious to meet Father Amorth for many years and when he granted permission to meet and film him in Rome last May, it was the opportunity to complete the circle and see how close that film came to reality.”
Last year during an interview with Variety he said, “I had to shoot it alone, obviously. The conditions were that I come along with no crew and no lights. So I used a Sony still camera that shot high-definition video. I had only that camera running and I was about two feet away from them, probably even closer. It was terrifying. I went from being afraid of what could happen to feeling a great deal of empathy with this woman’s pain and suffering, which is obvious in the film.”
Deadline is reporting that the documentary has been acquired by The Orchard for a theatrical release on April 20, 2018, followed by a digital release worldwide.