Hollywood heads are spinning over the poor box-office performance of “The Exorcist: Believer.”
The recent big-screen release is a remake of the original horror flick “The Exorcist,” which back in 1973 scared the wits out of its massive viewing audience.
Universal shelled out a whopping $400 million for the intellectual property rights and was actually planning on a franchise trilogy.
However, the remake, with a budget of $30 million, only managed to take in $26.5 million in its initial debut. It then fell almost 60% in its second weekend, with a paltry $11 million haul.
Critics and audiences were in agreement that the movie was simply a dud. Studios generally view a CinemaScore grade below “B” as a fail. This movie received a grade of “C.”
The film’s over reliance on jump scares and computer-generated effects are only part of why it bombed. Blame the rest on the movie’s inauthentic approach to a very real supernatural occurrence.
The truth is the rite of exorcism is steeped in biblical and religious history, and the original film gave the plot and characters their proper due. It was a huge financial and critical success.
It also legitimately lays claim to being one of the scariest films ever made.
One of the constructive consequences at the time of being terrified by the notion of demonic possession, albeit via film, was that many individuals were affected deeply enough to turn away from the evil that had seeped into their own personal lives.
Here’s a summary of the true story upon which the original film was based.
The real-life demonic possession of a young 14-year-old boy occurred in Maryland.
The youth began to exhibit eerie and peculiar behavior, including speaking aloud in foreign tongues, the levitation of his body, and a display of inordinate superhuman strength.
His family consulted a number of doctors and psychiatric professionals, but they were unable to help. Eventually, his parents turned to the Catholic Church for assistance.
A request was made of two priests, Fr. William S. Bowdern and Fr. Edward Hughes, to perform the rite of exorcism on the boy. The ritual took place over the course of more than two weeks, and there were occasions of extreme violence.
Curse words directed at the priests flowed from the boy’s mouth. His body levitated at times and his speaking became that of an unnatural entity. Eventually, the priests were able to successfully drive out the evil spirit, which allowed the boy to return to a normal life.
The exorcism story was widely reported in the media, and it caught the attention of a Catholic Christian student at Georgetown University named William Peter Blatty. He began to research the subject and eventually wrote a novel based on the supernatural occurrence and deliverance from evil.
Blatty’s novel, which was also titled “The Exorcist,” was published in 1971.
Back when he was still climbing the ladder of success, a young Blatty dressed up as a Saudi Arabian prince and appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s game show “You Bet Your Life.” He won $10,000.
This gave him enough money to quit his job and write full-time. He eventually penned a film adaptation of his novel that bore the same name and in 1973 took home an Oscar.
Blatty was uniquely prepared by his faith to take on the subject. His parents were Lebanese immigrants. His dad Peter was a cloth cutter and mom Mary a devout Catholic Christian. Mary was also the niece of a bishop.
In his youth, he attended a Jesuit school, Brooklyn Preparatory, was the recipient of a scholarship, and graduated as class valedictorian. He once filed a canon law petition against his alma mater, Georgetown, for its promotion of anti-Christian ideas.
There is a reason why Catholic priests are routinely featured in films of this kind. The Catholic Church has a long history of analyzing and seeking to understand the theology of demonic possession.
The sequences, prayers, and sacramentals utilized over the centuries by the Catholic Church, along with the extensive preparation of the individual who is conducting the exorcist rite, have proven to be efficacious in the deliverance ministry.
The remake’s story is purportedly inspired by the real-world experiences of Fr. Gary Thomas, who is said to have participated in more than eighty exorcisms. But even though the film resembles the original in a few ways, it is markedly different in the ways that matter most.
The bottom line is that “The Exorcist: Believer” contorts the rite of exorcism to conform to the political, cultural, and theological sensibilities of today’s radical left.
In my humble opinion, the original film is the one to watch.
And in my lifespan of experience, the original teachings on demonic possession and deliverance from evil are the ones to be believed.
James Hirsen 