The Devil and Father Amorth
Director: William Friedkin
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 3.0
In 1973, Friedkin released what I still consider The Scariest Movie of All Time* (* ... if you were raised a Catholic) and here, several decades later, he returns to some of the locations where that movie was shot and records a live exorcism, performed by Father Gabriele Amorth, on an Italian woman who may or may not be possessed by evil. Friedkin, like a good documentarian, then does the next best thing: he shows the footage to medical experts and asks them what they think, and if you ask me, their responses are as chilling as the woman's torment - many say they have no idea what was going on (a tumor? hallucinations?) or how to "fix" her. Atheists will dismiss this outright, and I will admit that Bill talking about an attempted meeting with the woman in a remote church in Italy, without actual footage, is slapdash filmmaking ... but it's at least trying to investigate a freaky mystery about the supernatural. Go in with an open mind, but don't think about it too long....
