Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This interview was originally published in 2018.
We are circulating it again in light of Friedkins recent passing.
I told him Id been to Rome and met with a Vatican exorcist.
He was immediately riveted and said, Listen.
Write this forVanity Fair.
I said, I didnt even record it.
Ill have to go back.
Its been critiqued aspure tabloid,but a filmmaker as skilled as Friedkin wouldnt idly deliver pulp.
He was the Vatican exorcist for 31 years.
The church doesnt advertise this.
Its not an entertainment.
Its not for the public.
Its a very private matter for Catholics.
But he said, Let me think about it.
Word came back, you’re free to film it.
But Im telling you, Im not in favor of this.
But he said no crew and no lights.
I filmed this close.
I was two feet away from her.
The mother was going to sit in that chair, but she got up and gave me her chair.
I made a couple of little cuts in it.
Theyre frame cuts, because I was shooting obviously on automatic focus.
I didnt want to have to focus the lens, and I lost focus a couple of times.
I just made a couple of quick, almost imperceptible frame cuts.
Im not interested in either their support or denial.
I would say they wont.
They dont go public about this stuff.
And they did not.
I did not seek their permission.
If I had I wouldnt have gotten it.
But Amorth did whatever he wanted to do.
He was against that, witchcraft or something.
But no, they never tried to censor him, and they supported him.
John Paul II was an exorcist.
I met other priests that did exorcisms.
I filmed one, but didnt use it.
He was not as profoundly spiritual as Father Amorth was.
And I think he may have had some feeling that I wouldnt misuse this.
At that time it was difficult for him to have people understand what he was doing.
He was a severe critic of the Vatican.
He also wrote about things that he thought werent very good, likeHarry Potterand stuff like that.
But he did likeThe Exorcista lot.Because of what I said.
And so he allowed me to film this.
I didnt know what I would ever do with it or anything.
Oh, so there was no intent to distribute this when you made it?No!
I thought, Im doing this because I can with my own camera on my own nickel.
I didnt know what I would ever do with it, if anything.
I didnt know what it would be.
The psychiatrists in theDSM-IVandVnow recognize demonic possession.
Well give you some medication and some therapy.
They give them therapy and medication, and an exorcist.
They said they would not give this woman an MRI.
While everything originates in the brain, this wasnt a problem in her brain.
This wasnt something they could operate and remove.
This wasnt a lesion in the temporal lobe, or epilepsy.
You asked one of the doctors in your documentary what his relationship with God was.
So whats yours?Im interested in Jesus.
Im not a Catholic, but Im interested in Jesus, yes.
Im not a Catholic.
I dont know anything, but neither does anyone else.
Is there a heaven and a hell?
I dont know if theres a hell.
So going into the exorcism with Father Amorth, were you skeptical or open-minded?Both.
And I did have the impulse to let people see it and make of it what they will.
Im not saying that I believe there is a Devil.
I certainly believe there is evil, and that bad things happen to good people.
She is a good person, and productive, and there it is.
I was somewhat skeptical, but not of [Amorth].
Theres certain people you just believe in their veracity.
You may be right.
She was totally together.
I would say very attractive in the way of an Italian movie actress, you know.
And that inhuman wail, that was truly the sound of her voice?Totally.
There was no manipulation in postproduction at all?I wouldnt fuck around with that!
My brain was just not accepting it as I watched.Well, youre a skeptic.
Im not, though.
So you think it wasnt human?Its not her.
I wont say its not human.
Not picture or sound, just right out of the camera.
I also shot a lot of it with an iPhone and a GoPro.
They filmed me with more professional equipment when I went to do the interviews with the doctors.
What was it like in the room?Terrifying.
But everyone else seemed so calm.This was their ninth time.
Did you feel like you were in danger or like it could get out of control?Possibly.
And she could have come out of the chair but I dont know what she would have done.
I didnt know what was going to happen.
I wanted to see how she was.
My translator told me she was not in good shape on the phone.
She changed the place of the meeting.
So I just left my camera sitting where we parked outside the church.
And he would hold her back, but he was yelling, Give us back the film!
I want the film back!
And I would say, Im not going to give it back to you.
He would demand it, and she, in that voice, was saying, No!
I want this shown!
[adds monstrous voice]I want this shown!She sounded like that.
I dont know what that was.
Do you think there is a feedback loop, though?
There was nothing of any consequence written about it, certainly not on a mass level.
There were certain textbooks that referred to it.
Nothing of a popular nature was written about it, and this became what people think about.
And I said, What are the classical symptoms?
And they each said, Well, the head spinning, and levitation.
And I remember saying, Doctor, we invented that.
Mr. Blatty wrote that and I had to find a way to film it.
But I never heard of it.
I never heard of that happening.
At least as many people are skeptical as are believers, and thats not my problem.
I just filmed and put out what I saw.
I dont know what this is.
Maybe someday there will be a different terminology for it in the medical world, in the psychiatric world.
I have not read anything about it, and so I dont know.
When you watchThe Exorcist,you dont have to believe it.
I dont know if the Devil is real.
I believe, as Father Amorth said, the Devil is metaphor.
The Devil is not a person.
The Devil is not a shape.
One of the guys in the documentary is an author whos written six books about the Devil.
I dont believe theyre flying around somewhere.
Its not given to us to know.
I dont know anyone that has really seen the Devil.
Father Amorth claims he has had dialogues with the Devil, but the Devil is metaphor.
And I remember I got the window of my car open.
I got out of my car.
The last sense I lost was the sense of hearing.
My eyes were closed and I couldnt open them.
I heard one of the paramedics who was pumping my chest say, Im not getting anything.
And I thought I remember by thought process.
It was Im dying.
And I have done nothing important with my life.
And then it was gone.
And I swear to God I heard a voice.
It was a womans voice, very soft womans voice, and it was saying, Its all right.
And I was moving as though on an escalator to a very distant light.
And I remember the voice and the movement, and thats similar to other accounts.
In the documentary, you talk about high occurrence of exorcisms or people seeking exorcism in Italy.
For many devout Catholics, possession isnt up for debate.
Its a fact of life.
And we see the phenomenon of people subscribing to their own facts all the time.
I agree with you.
This has nothing to do with politics of any kind left, right, center, none.
Now how does that drive me to a kind of moral right to show this film?
I dont know that there is one.
Thats not something that as a filmmaker you have to consider.
A filmmaker is drawn to a story.
I wouldnt fake something like that.
I wouldnt make that up.
I should share this.
It just really isnt.
Its not going to make the plight of this woman any easier either way, or harder.
She has that to contend with.
She still seeks exorcism and has not been successful.
But he was in a class by himself, Amorth.
I just dont believe them.
I dont believe their accounts as Ive read them.
I just shot what I saw.
You thought youd come out of this with answers?Well, that this is all bullshit.
Or, Heres what this is.
And how did you consider the possibility of exploitation?
You obviously had permission from everyone involved.
Mom gave up her seat for you during the exorcism.
Skeptics could say, This is a mentally ill woman and this isnt right.Thats their problem!
Dont ask me to either acknowledge or apologize for them.
A 12-year-old child saying and doing blasphemous things, that had never been touched.
Youre not stopped by moral considerations.
She knew I was filming.
I dont want this to hurt her.
All her family and friends know this is going on.
She is in a very small religious town 100 miles or so south of Rome.
So people are well aware in her community and her family is totally aware of whats happening with her.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
