I called up this film from my local library after watching "The Pope's Exorcist" with Russell Crowe in the role of Father Gabriel Amorth, exorcist to the Vatican for thirty years from 1986 to 2016. This one is decidedly better than "Amorth, the Exorcist", also from the same year. I'm trying to balance my experience of the film with all the negative reviews on this site and it's difficult to decide. I didn't question whether the voice of Cristina was real or not. Director William Friedkin himself answered the question of whether the voice was altered or not in a taped interview - "I wouldn't f... around with that! That's ridiculous!"
Be that as it may, I'll take the documentary at face value. That Friedkin was allowed to record the exorcism with friends and family of the distressed woman present was something I didn't expect. No additional crew or lighting equipment was allowed by Father Gabriel Amorth. The woman in question was in her Forties, her head bobbed up and down and her body heaved uncontrollably while being held in place by three men. Among facial grimaces and yelling out, the devil revealed himself by stating "I am Satan. Stop this!" When this, her ninth exorcism by Amorth was over, it appeared that she might have been cured, but later she became even more hysterical when the priest prayed with her father and mother.
Friedkin followed up his filming of the experience by interviewing a handful of neurosurgeons and psychiatrists, all of whom shied away from the idea of demonic possession without actually denying it, allowing for that inscrutable unknown that's often a part of the human experience. If one goes into this with an open mind, I think it can be instructive, even for the nay-sayers. Friedkin finished the film by offering a positive spin on his experience with Father Amorth by stating, "If there are demons, there must be angels".
Be that as it may, I'll take the documentary at face value. That Friedkin was allowed to record the exorcism with friends and family of the distressed woman present was something I didn't expect. No additional crew or lighting equipment was allowed by Father Gabriel Amorth. The woman in question was in her Forties, her head bobbed up and down and her body heaved uncontrollably while being held in place by three men. Among facial grimaces and yelling out, the devil revealed himself by stating "I am Satan. Stop this!" When this, her ninth exorcism by Amorth was over, it appeared that she might have been cured, but later she became even more hysterical when the priest prayed with her father and mother.
Friedkin followed up his filming of the experience by interviewing a handful of neurosurgeons and psychiatrists, all of whom shied away from the idea of demonic possession without actually denying it, allowing for that inscrutable unknown that's often a part of the human experience. If one goes into this with an open mind, I think it can be instructive, even for the nay-sayers. Friedkin finished the film by offering a positive spin on his experience with Father Amorth by stating, "If there are demons, there must be angels".