Exorcism

Today, in CLFM, we had a guest speaker. His name was Scott Derrickson. I was truly intrigued by his story. He has written and directed many movies in Hollywood, but today, he talked about writing and filming The Exorcism of Emily Rose. He's a devout Christian. It's really encouraging to see someone like him succeeding in the position he is in. A while ago, he struggled to see if he truly believes in the devil, and evil. He wanted to learn more. And he decided to make the movie. He knew he was getting himself into very dangerous territory. But he was truly touched by the story of the exorcism of Anneliese Michel (picture above). He said he had wept over the death of her by reading what she had gone through. The exorcism of Anneliese Michel was taped, and given to the priest who had been involved with the exorcism. The tapes were was then given to Felicitas D. Goodman, who wrote a book about it. And She had given the tapes to Scott, in order to make the movie as realistic as possible. There was a time span of two weeks that Scott read through about 2 dozen books about exorcisms, and had listened to/watched many tapes of exorcisms. He started waking up at 3 every night (Supposedly Jesus Christ was crucified at 3 pm, and 3 am is the hour in which the devil and demons mock us, and do strange things). So all the weird stuff that happened in the movie at 3 am was actually based off his own experience. When he woke up he even started hearing banging in his kitchen. On about the fourth night he woke up and was hearing the cabinets bang he thought to himself... ok... so what if a demon is really waking me up at 3? what if there really is a demon that is banging cabinets in the kitchen... so what? i've got a two year old that can do the same thing... Once he thought this, all the weird things started to go away. Demons do not have a sense of humor, and when we start mocking them, they flee. During these two weeks, he had called up my CLFM professor (Michael Bruner) to talk seriously about exorcism and evil, and whether or not he should continue making the movie. Scott had been a student in Michael Bruner's fathers class, and was greatly inspired by him. After the talk, he felt more fortified, and confident in what he was doing. He had also named the main character (Erin Bruner) after Michael and his father. Scott believes that if we truly believe in God, and our hearts are with him, no demon will posses us. But every once in a while, God will break a rule (like in Anneliese Michel's case). Annaliese Michel believed that her life purpose for God was to be a martyr, and that many people worldwide will know about her story. Scott Derrickson released the film, and realized that he had helped Annaliese's vision come true. I was greatly inspired by this story. It's so interesting. And now I want to watch the movie. I have to be careful though. As interesting as all this exorcism stuff is, I need to make sure I'm not too interested/curious in it. It's a very dangerous subject.