A Catholic priest in the central Philippine city of Dumaguete has claimed that he encountered what seemed to be scenes from horror movies in his ministry as an exorcist.
Father Ronnie Ablong was a new priest at St. Vincent Ferrer quasi-parish in the village of Camanjac in the city in 2020 when a woman was brought to him for exorcism.
The priest, the diocese’s “associate exorcist,” assessed the woman’s condition and found her “ill.”
Father Ablong, with his small team, investigated the background of the woman before performing the rite of exorcism.
In a series of interviews, the woman admitted she performed a “spell” on someone.
The admission did not surprise Father Ablong who said that possession is usually the result of exposure or the practice of “demonic acts” such as occultism and living a “habitual life of mortal sin.”
The priest said the is also from a family with a history of practicing witchcraft.
“No wonder she was possessed,” said the priest. “Her family has been attracting the devil for generations,” Father Ablong added in an interview with LiCAS.news.
He said performing exorcism is not easy, adding that after weeks of sessions, he only managed to cast out 39 demons from the woman.
The priest said some of the demons he cast out were unnamed, but a couple had familiar names.
“I Googled some of the names and discovered that they were used in horror films,” he said.
In one session, Father Ablong asked the woman if she watched these movies. The woman said she did.
The exorcist said he found that five of the 39 demons are either the primary or secondary characters of some movies.
The first demon was “Valak” from the movie “The Nun,” the fifth chapter of the “Conjuring” horror film franchise that started in 2014.
The second demon was “Esme or Cillen” from the movie adaptation of the “Twilight” book series written by Stephanie Meyer.
The third devil is “Sylvia Ganush” from the critically acclaimed and award-winning movie “Drag Me to Hell” made in 2009.
Box office hit “Lights Out” in 2016 was also based on the fourth demon named “Dina Walter.”
The last and fifth demon could be the most known in the list, “Annabelle,” used in five of the seven movies in the “Conjuring” franchise released from 2013 to 2019.
Father Ablong made the list public on a social media post to warn people against possible possession from repetitive exposure to “real demon-based” horror movies.
“I am making this post to warn everyone of the certain danger of patronizing horror films or films that deal with magic and witchcraft,” warned the priest.
“No one is possessed overnight. Possession is the result of opening a lot of doors to the devil,” he said.
Father Ablong started his ministry three years ago after Bishop Lito Cortes of Dumaguete stressed the need for the ministry.
The priest spent most of his time in Siquijor before being assigned the province of Negros Oriental.
He said no other priest in the diocese has accepted the challenge to be an exorcist but said at least seven lay people have joined him in his “fight against the devil.”
