Back then, when we were younger and got easily frightened, we lost sleep and woke up in cold sweat from nightmares spawned by horror movies. Remember? There was The Exorcist, the iconic 1973 horror film directed by William Friedkin (based upon the best-selling novel by William Peter Blatty), and didn’t we recoil when Linda Blair, the girl possessed by the devil, spewed that revolting greenish liquid while cursing and cursing, with her head turning and turning 180-degrees?
Since then, The Exorcist has inspired several films, all of which didn’t match the impact of the original.
Friedkin had never seen an actual exorcism when he directed the movie and wondered for years how close he had come to reality. According to a news report, in May last year, Friedkin finally saw one, as he followed a Dean of Exorcists fight to expel Satan from an Italian woman.
Last Feb. 16, the Thrill channel premiered the TV remake of The Exorcist also based on the novel of Blatty who recently passed away. In the suspense-filled series, Mexican actor Alfonso Herrera plays Father Tomas Ortega, the young priest during the exorcism performed by Father Merrin, played in the original film by Max Von Sydow with chilling intensity. (Thrill is available on SKYCable Channel 107, Cablelink Channel 201, Destiny Cable Channel 11 and Cignal Channel 51.)
Herrera recently did an e-mail interview with Funfare.
What attracted you to the role of Father Tomas Ortega?
“Basically, to be a part of such an amazing story with such an amazing cast, also to portray a Latino character and specifically a Mexican character that what immerse in the American society, in not a cliché way, so that is very, very interesting for me, and also to be a part of this role that connects this holy grave of horror which is The Exorcist.”
How do you feel when you get the chance to be a part of such popular and iconic series?
“I feel very honored to be part of such an amazing story, with such an amazing director as Rupert Wyatt, who is in charge during the pilot, and also to be working with Ben Daniels who is known not only in the US but also in the whole world, and I think that the writers did an amazing thing, the writers, they did the best, to show and to share, to the whole fans.”
There are have been films about exorcism since the 1973 film. In your opinion, what sets the TV series apart from all the other films and the original film?
“I’ll be very honest with you…when I first knew that this show was going to be done, I thought and I was not the only person who said this, it was a very bad idea because it was very, very, very difficult to do something that is categorically horror. Once I read the first episode, I really understood the creators, I said I definitely wanted to be a part of it. And I think they really wanted to say something that is in a grounded way, very grounded characters, very smart, to the connections to the original films. I don’t know if you saw it, but the first episode showed solid connections to the original film, that is very interesting.”
How scary is the TV series compared to the movie? How faithful is the TV series to the original movie?
“We definitely are respecting the original movie. We definitely respect the story. We definitely tried to generate the hypothesis of what could have happened like many, many years later, after the events from Washington DC, to the little parish in Chicago. Long after we shot the episode and I watched it, I can tell you that I was scared. The TV series is really scary. I think the horror fans in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and wherever the show is airing are gonna be very pleased with the final result of the show.”
As Father Tomas Ortega, with Ben Daniels, doing an actual exorcism, have you experienced something scary or something unusual?
“The atmosphere on set was a little bit scary. There’s a possibility of change happening on set because of previous stories we’ve heard from the film. I can say that we had a blast during the shoot even if the atmosphere was often very tense. Ben Daniels is a very, very generous actor, and even outside of the set, we had a blast throughout the four months of shooting in Chicago.”
How did you prepare for the role?
“I tried to gather information from different sources. It was very difficult for me to gather information from the Catholic priests here in Mexico. They didn’t want to share information they know. So we try to get information from different sources, from the Internet, from books, different documentaries. So, yes, we tried to gather as much information as we could.”
Do you believe in exorcism?
“I think that light exists and darkness exists; I think that there is a distance between light and dark. And for us to appreciate light, darkness has to exist. So there’s this barrier between dark and light.”
By the way, if you saw the original film, what do you remember about it?
“When I first watched the film, I was 10 years old. I watched it with my little brother who was eight years old. We lived in a city 400 kilometers away from the capital. What I can say is that we had a very peculiar experience because we were scared to death after watching that film. And specifically, two weeks after that, we still had nightmares after that film. So yes, it was a very good experience.”
What is your favorite horror movie?
“Jaws, definitely, and The Exorcist. I’ve watched The Conjuring. It was very scary.”
What kind of movies did you grow up on?
“You know, I wasn’t originally a fan of horror films until I started watching several of them. I grew up watching all kinds of films in Mexico. Films in Mexico are great and the storytelling is very good, and I’m proud of them. I’ve also watched horror films from Asia and they are very good.”
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)