{"id":24746,"date":"2022-10-28T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1729453"},"modified":"2022-10-28T12:46:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:46:24","slug":"is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Prey for the Devil based on a true story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 28 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Demonic possession has been the subject of some of the finest horror films of all time \u2013 most notably The Exorcist. Now it\u2019s being explored again in the brand new film Prey for the Devil.<\/p>\n

The film follows events after the Catholic Church reopens schools that train priests to perform exorcisms, primarily focusing on a nun with a unique ability to carry out the ritual \u2013 which eventually leads her to an epic battle for the soul of a young girl.<\/p>\n

Some viewers might be wondering if this premise has any basis in reality, so read on for everything you need to know.<\/p>

Is Prey for the Devil based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p>No, at least not specifically. Although the film is loosely inspired by real events, it is not based on any particular case and is certainly not intended to be taken at face value.<\/p>\n<p>That said, in recent years, the world <em>has<\/em> seen a substantial increase in the number of people requesting exorcisms, and as unlikely as it might seem the Vatican does indeed offer a training course in identifying demonic possession \u2013 which has recently seen a surge in applicants.<\/p>\n<p>Screenwriter Robert Zappia has said his research into this real trend factored into the writing process, explaining in the film\u2019s press notes: \u201cI\u2019m a person of faith and grew up Catholic, so those statistics intrigued me.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\""page"\" title=\""Page\">\n<div class=\""layoutArea"\">\n<div class=\""column"\">\n<p>Meanwhile, star Christian Navarro, who plays Father Dante in the film, also found himself looking into real-life cases while preparing to appear in the film \u2013 claiming he watched several \u201cdocumentaries and films about exorcism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The specifics of the story, however, are entirely fictional and none of the characters are directly based on anyone from real life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Prey for the Devil is released in UK cinemas on Friday 28th October 2022. <\/strong><strong>Looking for something else to watch? Check out our\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0or visit our dedicated\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/movies\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">Film<\/a>\u00a0hub for the latest news.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is released on sale now \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/radiotimes.com\/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener noopener noreferrer\" noreferrer=\"\" data-auth=\""NotApplicable"\" data-linkindex=\""0"\">subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<a title=\""https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/"\" href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener noopener noreferrer\" noreferrer=\"\" data-auth=\""NotApplicable"\" data-safelink=\""true"\" data-linkindex=\""1"\">Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Cremona Published: Friday, 28 October 2022 at 12:00 am Demonic possession has been the subject of some of the finest horror films of all time \u2013 most notably The Exorcist. Now it\u2019s being explored again in the brand new film Prey for the Devil. The film follows events after the Catholic Church reopens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24747,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",2000,1331,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/is-prey-for-the-devil-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",2000,1331,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Friday, 28 October 2022 at 12:00 am Demonic possession has been the subject of some of the finest horror films of all time \u2013 most notably The Exorcist. Now it\u2019s being explored again in the brand new film Prey for the Devil. The film follows events after the Catholic Church reopens…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}