When I was a teenager I went through a period where all I wanted to read about were serial killers and demons. Surprising, right? Well, during my trips to various bookstores to relieve them of their wares, one of the books that caught my attention was Father Malachi Martin’s Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans. Besides having a killer title, the author was a priest named Malachi! As a Stephen King-loving horror nut, I figured that this book was made for me.
I vividly remember staying up half the night, reading page after page of details of exorcisms; getting scared like no book other than The Demonologist had scared me before. I haven’t read Hostage in well over twenty years but it’s definitely one that’s stuck with me and I’ve often wondered how it would play in movie format.
Well wonder no more! The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Penchant Entertainment has acquired the rights and plans to turn pieces into something for television and pieces into a feature film.
“Since its publication, Hostage to the Devil has been the canonical book on possession and exorcism and we are thrilled to finally be able to bring it to life,” said Penchant principal Erin Eggers. “With such vibrant, character-rich material at our disposal, our goal is to shatter genre expectations and reset the bar for elevated supernatural fare.”
Penchant Entertainment is also currently working on a script by Oscar-nominated writer of The Arrival Eric Heisserer titled The Scrawl which is said to explore what happens when collected negativity births an actual monster…sounds very Ghostbusters 2 to me.
Keep it locked to Horror News Network for more news on Hostage to the Devil and The Scrawl as it drops.
Stay gory my friends.
