From Page to Screen: The Exorcist on FOX (Spoilers)

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,

  The Exorcist will go down in my history as one of my all-time favorite books. I have read it several times, including a reading and review just recently. It is a faith-challenging, creepy, and often surprising novel. As good as the movie by William Friedkin was, William Peter Blatty's original source material is superior.

  When the FOX network decided to announce an Exorcist television series, I was excited. As far as I knew, the series would play on the themes of the original book, but be its own entity. Week after week I sat glued to the series, very impressed with its storytelling and loving the actors chosen for this story. Geena Davis plays a mother of two teenage girls, named Angela Rance. Her husband, Henry, was the victim of an accident that left him with brain trauma. Her oldest daughter was the driver in a car accident that killed her daughter's best friend. Now the teen is distant and has removed herself from social contact. Angela's youngest daughter is trying to help her sister cope. But when Angela begins to hear voices within her walls, she believes that her eldest child may be possessed by a demon. 

  Enter Father Tomas, played by Alfonso Hererra. Tomas is a new and hip priest that has arrived to take the local, failing perish and breathe new life into it. He has been a success with the parish, but his affair with a married woman has made his life complicated. Meanwhile, in a retreat for failed priests, Father Marcus Keane, played by Ben Daniels, deals with his own demons, mainly the demonic presence that murdered the young child that it  possessed during an exorcism performed by him. Father Tomas has been having dreams of Father Marcus' exorcism. This leads him to Marcus after Angela comes to him for help.

  But what begins to transpire ultimately leads Tomas and Marcus to believe that demonic forces are gathering to usher in an even deadlier presence into our world. Human sacrifices, possessions on the rise, and faith, itself being challenged all confirm this. But when Father Tomas reveals that it is Angela's youngest daughter that is under possession, the forces trying to invade young Casey Rance strike. Under possession by a presence that appears to Casey as a kindly old man, Casey is told that she will be released if she gives "her" over to them. The young woman  believes this to be her sister, Kat. 

  Father Tomas and Father Marcus lock Casey away in a room in Angela's home to begin the exorcism by episode four. The demonic presence has fully taken over Casey. She begins to levitate and present mirages to those involved in her exorcism. Father Tomas cannot handle the exorcism and leaves Father Marcus on his own. But when Kat breaks into the room, Casey convinces her that she is being tortured. The police are called, Marcus is arrested, and Casey is sent off in an ambulance. But a bible found in a closet, leads Henry to question Angel about if she has been lying to her family all these years. In the ambulance, Casey kills the entire paramedic crew and crashes the vehicle, disappearing into the night. Then it begins: the news reports of Casey's disappearance, televised nation-wide.


  Seems exciting, no? Oh that is not even the best part. In episode five it is revealed that Angela Rance was possessed as at the age of twelve years old in 1974. In fact she has been running for years from her mother and the forces that wanted to possess her. In a confession to Father Tomas Angela Rance reveals that she is actually Regan MacNeil. 

  Yes,  the television series is a direct continuation of the original novel! And Sharon Gless was introduced as her mother, Chris MacNeil.

  After this reveal I had to sit quietly and replayed the ending of episode five a few times. As a life-long fan of the Exorcist, I am finally getting the continuation that I have longed for. With amazing acting, gory and often frightening visuals, and fantastic writing, the Exorcist television series has changed the way books are interpreted onto film. A flawless production that has the atmospheric pacing of the film, and the shocking thrills of the book. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is either an Exorcist fan or horror fan. You will not be disappointed.

  You can catch all episodes on the Fox Now app or on your local cable provider's On Demand. To buy the episodes, go to Amazon or Vudu. 

  Happy Halloween! Have fun reading this week. Let me know in the comments below what you are reading.

 

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All written content and top logo (c) Copyright 2016 by Thomas Bahr II
All Exorcist film and television images are (c) Copyright by their respective studios