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 That was fiction. This time, it's the real thing with no special
effects but it is nonetheless harrowing.
Friedkin has made an hour-long documentary called "The Devil and
Father Amorth" about perhaps the world's most famous exorcist,
Gabriele Amorth, an Italian priest who died in 2016 at the age
of 91.
"Some people will see this and be skeptical. I'm not a skeptic,"
Friedkin, 83, said in a telephone interview ahead of the release
of the documentary in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.
Friedkin struck up a friendship with Amorth, a disarmingly
jovial man despite his serious work.
"We had hours of conversations about religious matters, the New
Testament and about the case he was working on," said Friedkin,
who was raised in a Jewish family in Chicago.
"I found him to be the most spiritual man I ever met."
On May 1, 2106, about four months before Amorth died, he allowed
Friedkin to watch an exorcism of a 46-year-old Italian woman, on
condition that he did it without a crew, used only a small
camera and did not interfere with the rite.
It takes up the bulk of the documentary, which also includes
interviews with psychologists.
"My terror of what I was witnessing turned into empathy for the
pain she was experiencing," Friedkin said.
The footage shows the woman being held down by Amorth's
assistants. She writhes and shouts in a raspy voice that is not
hers. Amorth, who had a cult-like following in Italy, performs
the rite in Latin and Italian as others, known as "auxiliary
exorcists," give him prayerful support in the room.
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COMPLETE TRANSFORMATION
"I witnessed a complete transformation of personality and a woman
who had strength way beyond her physical capabilities at the age of
46 and she had a complete transformation of the way she spoke and
sounded," he said.
"I can't tell you I wasn't frightened. I was two feet away from them
and it was harrowing, even though I knew what to expect because he
(Amorth) had told me."
The 1973 film was based on William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel of the
same title. A work of fiction, it was inspired by a newspaper
article Blatty had read when he was a student at Georgetown
University in Washington.
In the 1973 movie, Linda Blair plays a 12-year-old girl who is
possessed and some of the contortions of her face and body have
become the stuff of cinematic history.
In one of his books, Amorth said the 1973 film's special effects,
such as the twisting head and green vomit, were "over the top" but
that he was grateful for the attention it drew to the problem.
Friedkin said he has long had an affinity with Christianity.
"I have always believed in the teachings of Jesus as they are set
down in the New Testament. I was raised in the Jewish faith but I
have honestly never felt close to God in the synagogue and I have
had occasions of great spiritual warmth from priests and others in
the Church," he said.
As for what he hoped the documentary could accomplish, he said:
"Just because we don't know or understand something does not mean
that it doesn't exist. I was able to see this and made a record of
it, now people should be able to see it and judge for themselves."
(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
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