Terrifying exorcisms become storyline for new television series

By Abigail James (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
8/9/2016 (3 years ago)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)

The latest television portrayal of exorcisms will hit Fox network on September 23. Determined to provide an authentic portrayal of exorcisms, 'The Exorcist' team attempted to reach out to the Catholic church and hear from "real-life exorcists."

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "We were kind of met with a stony silence," explained executive producer and director Rupert Wyatt, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It wasn't until a Catholic priest from Chicago contacted 'The Exorcist' makers that they gained the insight they wanted.

"He [the priest] made it clear that it wasn't necessarily a lack of willing[ness] to talk to us...but it really comes down to protecting the exorcists," Wyatt explained on why the church possibly refused to speak to them. "They don't like to show their faces; they don't like to break their cover, and that comes from the fact that there are many, many potential cases than have nothing to do with what is ostensibly possession."

    
According to Wyatt, the anonymous priest explained that exorcists try to stay out of the public eye because they are often hounded for various reasons, and though he has never performed an exorcism himself, he expressed the number of exorcists and exorcisms in the United States has "grown exponentially."

The priest also stated that "possessed people are participants in their own possessions."

"It is based purely on the idea that when you are possessed, you are allowing the demon inside. [It's] when your will has been broken, so you were very much a participant in it," said Wyatt. "People can't just get possessed for no reason. They have to open themselves up to that situation."

'The Exorcist' series creator wants to make sure he distinguishes the new television show from the 1973 film, which it is based on. "We can't retell the same story," Jeremey Slater stated, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "We can't remake the same show that you've seen before."

The team hopes the extra details provided by the Chicago priest will help boost the series to the realm of reality.

"It [exorcisms] goes on, and it's very much a part of the modern Catholic church. It's for a long time been considered a dirty secret of the Catholic church, and they've attempted to bury it and distance themselves from it - something that we explore in the show itself - but it's a community outreach basically," said Wyatt, adding that it was "fascinating" to talk with the priest.

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