The Exorcist Being Adapted As A TV Mini-Series

Freakish screams, spinning heads, and projectile vomiting may be on their way to your living room – and no, I am not talking about your toddler. Writer/director Sean Durkin is adapting The Exorcist into a ten-part miniseries for television, expected to be shopped around to the networks in the next couple of weeks.

Nearly 40 years since the classic horror film based on William Peter Blatty’s novel pick up a nomination for Best Picture, it’s being revisited for the small screen by Durkin, was the writer and director on Martha Marcy May Marlene, about a young woman who escapes from a cult in the Catskills with some big problems including paranoia and delusions. According to Vulture, this version of The Exorcist will delve into the events that lead up to the possession and the impact that it has on the family, who try a variety of more secular options before calling in a priest. The new focus which means we may not get much in the way of projectile vomiting after all. Those of us without children won’t, that is.

The Exorcist is one of those seminal films that most of us can clearly remember seeing for the first time. It was the first horror film to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture, and although special effects have come a long way since 1973, I can’t think of another film on the subject with such impact. It doesn’t sound like this is an exact remake – more of a take on it from a different angle – so perhaps it won’t suffer too much from comparisons.