Among the films screened at this year's Venice International Film Festival (which is going on right now) was a documentary that may be of interest to horror fans, as it was directed by THE EXORCIST's William Friedkin and centers on a priest who actually performed exorcisms. While making the documentary, the director was even able to film one of these real life exorcisms.
The documentary is called THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH, and its subject is the late Father Gabriele Amorth, who performed exorcisms for the Vatican's Rome Diocese. That was a job which kept him busier than you might expect – as Friedkin described it to Variety, Amorth was "doing exorcisms all day every day right up until he went into the hospital and then died".
Amorth was a fan of THE EXORCIST, despite its over-the-top effects, and Friedkin believes he was asked to accompany the priest on one of the exorcisms because Amorth wanted the public to become more aware of his work so the Vatican will train more exorcists.
Friedkin wasn't allowed to bring any crew or equipment to the exorcism with him other than his camera. He was two feet away while it was going on, and 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.
Real exorcisms apparently don't remove demonic presences as quickly as the ones in films do, as the exorcism Friedkin filmed was the ninth one to be performed on this woman. "She was having one a month."
THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH has been acquired by LD Entertainment, who will be working with ICM Partners to get the documentary distributed worldwide. This sounds like a very interesting companion piece to Friedkin's EXORCIST, so we'll be keeping an eye out for any release news.