MOVIE NEWS – While horror fans are excited by the news that a new exorcism film is on the way, set in the world introduced by the 1973 classic but not continuing that story, American newspapers are reporting that demand for the services of demon-expelling priests has risen dramatically in the United States.

According to a recent report from the New York Post, whereas in 2020 there were only around a dozen trained exorcists active in the United States, that number has now multiplied. Experts, including one of the best-known figures in the field, Father Chad Ripperger, say that around 150 Catholic priests in the US currently have official authorization and training to carry out the ritual. This sudden increase is not a sign of religious fanaticism, but rather a natural response to a sharply growing social demand.

The Church handles these cases with extreme caution. Exorcists stress that the overwhelming majority of people who turn to them – roughly 90-95% – actually need psychiatric help rather than an official religious ritual. For this reason, the modern exorcism protocol requires close cooperation with doctors and mental health specialists. The actual rite is only performed if every medical explanation has been ruled out, meaning the person in question has been found mentally sound, and if supernatural phenomena appear of the sort audiences know well from exorcism films: the possessed person speaks in unknown languages, unnatural force manifests around them, or they show an extreme aversion to sacred objects.

The exorcism film now well into development is being made by modern horror master Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep), with Scarlett Johansson in the lead role. Flanagan promises a radically new approach to examining the nature of possession – and, as the above suggests, there is clearly an appetite for it.

(The Exorcist – Hungarian release: March 11, 2027.)

Source: UIP Dunafilm