Writer/director Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s Hellraiser: Judgment is heading our way soon, and fan response to the upcoming installment has been mixed… understandable given the franchise’s history. But today we have news about an original project from Tunnicliffe that is set to start filming next year called House of the Exorcist.
Tunnicliffe is teaming up with Halloween haunt mogul/producer Jason Egan (The Neighbor) to bring audiences what they say will be the first in a series of planned horror films that will be nothing short of “white knuckle/blood red entertainment.”
“We’re both totally over the ridiculous PC/PG so-called ‘horror films’; it’s time to make films that set the new benchmark in disturbing imagery and content, films that push the limits in the way that The Exorcist, Texas Chain Saw, Deliverance, and Taxi Driver did in the 70’s and that European and Asian horror films did a few years ago,” Tunnicliffe told us.
As for its plot, House of the Exorcist centers around Father Anton Thomas, the exorcism he performed that resulted in the loss of his right eye, the life of the thirteen-year-old boy he was attempting to save, and his subsequent incarceration for manslaughter. Upon his release, he enters into an Eastern European monastery, where he takes a vow of silence and indulges in intense biblical study and ritual flagellation.
Across the globe many years later in Oklahoma, a farmer and his family become the victims of strange and terrifying events in their small, rural farmhouse. After the usual medical avenues have been exhausted and the situation escalates to brutal and horrific excesses, imagery and information are presented to Father Thomas, and he is convinced to return once more to battle ultimate evil.
We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for more, and in the meantime, here’s a look at the film’s early title treatment.
