10 Terrifying Real-Life Tales of Demonic Possession!
Steve Barton
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This week marks the theatrical release of Deliver Us from Evil, the latest horror film from Sinister director Scott Derrickson. Based on true events, the film follows New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), who begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes.
He joins forces with an unconventional priest, schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions that are terrorizing their city.
Before you head to your local theater to be spooked by this summer’s most anticipated horror film, we thought it only fitting that we first prime you up with a look at 10 real-life stories of demonic possession, which prove that the real world is a whole lot more horrifying than anything that we’ve ever been witness to on the big screen.
So proceed with caution because the shit you’re about to read is as nightmare-inducing as it gets!
1 – The only logical place to start with this list is the story of young Anneliese Michel, which was brought to the screen in the form of 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose – written and directed by none other than Scott Derrickson. Though the name was changed, the story depicted in the movie was pretty damn faithful to the actual events, which took place in the 1970s.
After suffering her third seizure in June of 1970, the 18-year-old German girl reportedly began seeing devilish faces, which eventually transformed into voices that informed her she was going to “rot in hell.” Though the doctors believed that Michel was suffering from some form of psychosis, which she was heavily medicated for, the girl believed otherwise and became convinced that her body was host to a demonic entity.
Michel was unable to come into contact with things like holy water or crosses, and her condition took a turn for the worse when she began to drink her own urine, eat bugs and experience severe bodily convulsions. Over the course of 10 months, beginning in 1975, Michel was subjected to nearly 70 individual exorcisms, which ended with her death on July 1st of 1976. She weighed just 68 pounds at the time of her death, which was blamed on malnutrition and dehydration.
If you really want to disrupt your sleep patterns, watch the videos below of Anneliese Michel talking in demonic voices during her various exorcisms.
Born in 1936 to a German family, Roland Doe was an only child who lived with his parents in Maryland, and his particular tale of horror reportedly began when Roland’s aunt introduced him to the mystical Ouija board. After she died, Roland attempted to use the board to make contact with her, and it wasn’t long before something from the other side reached back.
Objects began levitating and were hurled around the house in the wake of Roland’s aunt’s passing, and some 40 witnesses attested to various strange occurrences that were seemingly connected to Roland. Furniture was said to move on its own, and at one point a container of holy water smashed to the ground in Roland’s presence.
During the young boy’s exorcism, which is not unlike the one depicted in The Exorcist, Roland reportedly ripped out a bedspring from his mattress and used it to slash the arm of the priest, the wound requiring 100 stitches. The priest’s diary, which provides the majority of information about the ordeal, reports that Roland’s bed shook violently and he spoke in a deep, demonic voice, a la the fictional Regan MacNeil. At one point, the words ‘evil’ and ‘hell’ even appeared on his body out of nowhere.
After 30 exorcisms, Roland Doe no longer exhibited signs of being demonically possessed, and he went on to have a happy, normal life, becoming a father and husband. In addition to The Exorcist, the 2000 Showtime original movie Possessed was also based on Doe’s waking nightmare.
According to Knapp, the ordeal began when she was visited by the Devil one night and made a pact with him, selling her soul in exchange for things like money and youth. Willard wrote in his journal that it appeared as if the Devil was literally talking through Knapp’s body, which oftentimes became so contorted that it took several people to hold her down. He also wrote that she spoke in a demonic voice without her lips ever moving, which was accompanied by her throat swelling up “like a balloon.”
In 1672, Willard’s journal entries about Knapp ceased, and still to this day nobody is sure what happened to the possessed young girl. In his last entry about the subject, Willard indicated that he wasn’t sure what was happening to her but that he knew the things she was doing were completely involuntary.
4 – A pact with the Devil was similarly blamed for the apparent demonic possession of 16-year-old South African girl Clara Germana Cele back in 1906. In addition to developing an animalistic voice, the girl exhibited supernatural strength, reportedly tossing nuns around the room and brutally beating them up. It was also noted that she spoke many languages which she previously had no knowledge of, including Polish, German and French.
“No animal had ever made such sounds,” noted an attending nun, regarding the girl’s demonically altered voice. “Neither the lions of East Africa nor the angry bulls. At times, it sounded like a veritable herd of wild beasts orchestrated by Satan had formed a hellish choir.”
Though a two-day exorcism eventually forced the demon out of her body and healed her, the process wasn’t an easy one, as she seemed intent on choking the priest with his own stole. According to witnesses, it wasn’t unusual during the exorcism for Clara to levitate several feet in the air, only being brought down to her bed when sprinkled with holy water.
5 – The strange story of Englishman George Lukins began at a Christmas pageant he was performing in, where he alleged that some sort of supernatural force slapped him and knocked him to the ground. For the next several years, Lukins exhibited a bizarre condition that doctors deemed incurable and which he personally believed was a result of possession by seven different demons.
It was in May of 1778 that a priest was brought in to cure the man that doctors weren’t able to, the exorcism taking place when Lukins was 44 years old. As published at the time in a local newspaper, Lukins claimed during the exorcism that he was the Devil and became very violent, coupled with inhuman barking noises that emitted from his being.
After clergyman demanded that the demons inhabiting Lukins’ body return to Hell where they came from, the man underwent a complete 360-degree change, praising God and exclaiming, “Blessed Jesus.” From that point forward, Lukins was cured, though many at the time believed he had faked the whole ordeal. Skeptics blamed epilepsy for the man’s violent convulsions.
