The director of The Exorcist, William Friedkin, has made a doc about the Vatican’s most famed exorcist with The Devil & Father Amorth.
Source: The Exorcist’s William Friedkin to Release Exorcism Documentary in April by David Crow 1-18-2018
William Friedkin holds the distinction of directing the first major—and by far the still scariest—exorcism movie ever made.
Indeed, The Exorcist became a cultural phenomenon unlike any other horror movie before or since when it was released the day after Christmas in 1973.
Adapted from William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel (Blatty also wrote the screenplay), The Exorcist sold more tickets than The Force Awakens or The Avengers because it hit a nerve for moviegoers at the time, especially those who grapple with, or revel in, faith: it wasn’t really a horror movie. The Exorcist is a blunt drama about the loss of faith when faced with all-consuming evil.
“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.”
William Friedkin
Or more precisely, it’s a film written by a believer but directed by a skeptic, the latter of whom used every filmmaking trick in the book to make him and his audience believe in demonic spirits.
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