'The Exorcist' TV Reboot to Look Beyond the Simple Possession Drama
The Exorcist is regarded as one of the most terrifying films of all time, but since then studios have capitalised on its success and, as creator and executive producer of the upcoming Fox adaptation Jeremy Slater said, "there's been 40 years of inferior copies to dilute the source material."
Overtime, CGI, the familiar visuals, the "images used too often they lost power to shock. It's a blessing and curse because it forces you to write better, to find new ways to creep people out."
The producers said that there's more at play than the fate of one 8 year-old girl.
"We really are making a 43 minute film every week," executive producer Jeremy Slater said. "We are judicious about when we use our scares. If you make a great hour of television with a gripping story and characters...the audience knows the scare is coming, [they will] be patient. The pressure is to tell the best story, not the most gratuitous."
They guarantee that there will be breadcrumbs as early as the pilot, teasing bigger things to come. "People won't turn in week after week just for shock," said Slater. "It has to be characters you haven't seen before or we can fall in love with — you need twists and turns. At the end of the day it's always about a family in trouble and a priest brought in to help them."
The series debuts on September 23.
Source: TV.com
