Director of 'The Exorcist's Documentary 'The Devil and Father Amorth’ Trailer Released

It's difficult to overstate the impact William Friedkin's The Exorcist had on not just the world of cinema, but of culture in general. The legacy of the film continues to inspire sequels, a TV series, and countless imitators featuring the horrifying subject matter. The director has returned to the horrors of exorcism, this time shining a light on a real-world encounter with the documentary The Devil and Father Amorth. Check out the film's trailer above.

In the film, "Friedkin leads a tour that moves from the infamous Exorcist steps in Georgetown to Italy, where he meets with the 91-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, official exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, and accompanies Amorth on one of his harrowing house calls. A sprightly, at times gonzo-style, investigation into the long history of demonic lore, and a one-of-a-kind insight into the persistence of medieval belief in the supposedly modern world."

Since the debut of the original film in 1973, The Exorcist and the concept of exorcisms has been incredibly controversial. The novel upon which the film was based, written by William Peter Blatty, is loosely based on a real-life encounter an individual claimed to have had with the supernatural. In the decades since exorcisms became a more well-known ritual, arguments have raged over whether these incidents were merely physiological conditions or if they served as proof of demonic entities.

Friedkin's film has inspired four sequels and two seasons of a successful TV series, but the fate of that series is now in jeopardy with the possible purchase of Fox by Disney potentially causing complications with the inherently violent thematic material.

"You know, I don't think anyone knows at this point," showrunner Jeremy Slater pointed out of the show's future to Entertainment Weekly. "I think this Fox-Disney deal… it doesn't mean great things for 20th Century Fox as a studio and Fox as a network, but you also never know. Now, we're not necessarily on brand for Disney, but they're also going to need a lot of content to fill their streaming platforms and networks, so I don't know. I think there's a lot of options."

These comments reflect a much more positive outlook, with Slater going on to explain the key to the show's success is its fans.

"We definitely have passionate fans at the network and at the studio — we just don't have the audience — and so I don't know whether the option is to roll the dice and just keep producing the show because it's something they believe in, or maybe taking our very loyal fan base that would probably follow us anywhere we go," Slater confessed. "I think that would be hopefully an attractive prospect if you're a streaming service or something like that that wants to be competitive in the horror genre. I feel that we've made the best horror show on TV for two years running and the fans that have discovered us will follow us. I remain optimistic."

The Devil and Father Amorth is slated for a limited theatrical release on April 20th with a VOD release planned shortly after.

Do you think exorcisms are all in people's heads or is there some truth in what they're experiencing? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T YouTube, The Orchard Movies]