True Haunting: NBC’s 1971 prime time exorcism heads to theaters

True Haunting is a movie in development about a live exorcism that aired on NBC in the early 70’s. Screen Gems will produce the venture.

True Haunting is set to become a motion picture production courtesy of Screen Gems. Now, everyone will be able to witness the first live exorcism being performed on national TV. While this does sound crazy, it actually occurred in 1971.

A little background on the topic, the exorcism took place in Chicago, Illinois. Edwin and Marsha Becker were newly married and proud home owners. Everything seemed alright on the surface but out of the blue they started experiencing heavy paranormal activity.

Flying plates and electrical issues flare up and the couple soon decides that they are being haunted by several entities. Finally, it gets to be too much to deal with so they call in psychic Joe DeLouise, Reverend William Derl-Davis and NBC reporter, Carole Simpson.

What ensued was the first broadcast of the ancient rite. According to Deadline, the Beckers thought that having an exorcism performed would rid them of the turmoil. Instead, the situation took a turn toward the dark side.

True Haunting will be produced by Cindy Cowan, Steve Bersch and Scott Strauss. Screen Gems has tapped Brian Dukes to oversee the film. Cowan is a veteran producer. Richard D’Ovidio who wrote Thir13en Ghosts will be penning the script for the studio.

Already the premise of this picture sounds terrifying. It is like The Conjuring mated with The Exorcist and the result was True Haunting. For lovers of the paranormal, keep this on your radar. With the success of the Paranormal Activity franchise there is definitely an appetite for movies dealing with the supernatural.

True Haunting sounds like a future box office smash. We will keep you posted on this chilling feature.

Did you know that they performed a live exorcism on television in the 70’s? Let us know what you think about the video in the section below. We want to hear from you.