Scott Derrickson Shares a Crazy Creepy Behind the Scenes Story From DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Director Scott Derrickson recently took to Twitter and shared a crazy-ass creepy behind the scenes story from his horror film Deliver Us From Evil. This particular story is about a scene involving actor Sean Harris and what happened to Harris after he finished shooting it.

I love behind-the-scenes movie stories and this is a great one! This is a story that you’re going to enjoy because it really is pretty insane. I’ll let Derrickson take it from here. Before you read through the story, watch the scene that Derrickson is talking about below in the two videos.

Here’s the story:

Here’s an amazing story about the incomparable Sean Harris and this particular shot from my possession/exorcism movie Deliver Us from Evil.

Sean was incredibly committed to playing the role of the possessed, and when we did this shot, he literally went into some kind of trance state… For the remainder of shooting that night, he did some truly remarkable acting.

I especially love the bone-chilling exchange in Spanish with the great @edgarramirez25 - the improvised sound Sean makes with his mouth is just so freaky.

After wrapping that night, Sean had to have dozens of prothetic make up effects removed from his body. I was still on set about to leave when one of the make-up artists ran in, pale and shaking, and said “you have to come to the make-up trailer, something’s wrong with Sean.”

I ran to the trailer, where all of the artists were standing at a distance from Sean, terrified. His head was lolling around and he was, for lack of any better phrase, speaking in tongues. It literally sounded like some mysterious language.

I tried to get him to engage with me, but only managed to get him to stop speaking altogether. I stayed while they finished removing his prosthetics, then had two reliable crew members drive him home and make sure he got into bed, and stay with him until he fell asleep.

When he arrived on set the next day, I asked him about the previous night. He said that the last thing he remembered was that during the forehead stigmata shot, he experienced “a kind of expansion and then a pop” in his consciousness.

He had no memory of the hours of shooting we did after that, or anything in the make up trailer, or even going home and going to sleep.

Sean is no-nonsense and very direct. As I told him all that occurred, he didn’t seem at all bothered it, and to this day it remains one of the most upsetting yet also awe-inspiring things I’ve seen as a filmmaker.

Really hope I get to work with Sean again. He is one of a kind.

I told you that was crazy! Harris went ahead and got possessed for real to play this role!