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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Housing Group Sues to Block Horror Movie

CLAYTON, Mo. (CN) - A community housing group claims a new horror movie depicting an exorcism that reportedly occurred in St. Louis in the 1940s casts its apartment complex in a false light. Community Housing Concepts wants to block release of the movie, "The Haunted Boy: The Secret Diary of The Exorcist."

Community Housing claims the defendants - Spooked Productions, Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth - had no permission to film on its property, the Castle Park Apartments. And it says the defendants falsely claim that the apartment complex was once a "haunted asylum."

Community Housing, a nonprofit, helps poor people find safe, affordable housing. It claims that if the movie is released in October, as planned, it will cast the apartment complex in a false light that will harm the family atmosphere marketed by the group.

"The movie is purportedly a documentary about an exorcism that is rumored to have occurred at a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1940s," the complaint states.

According to local lore, the exorcism occurred at the old Alexian Brothers Hospital in 1949. The hospital shut down in the late 1970s and the spot where the exorcism allegedly took place was on the fourth floor, above what is now a parking lot.

Rumor has it that the asphalt below the spot of the exorcism is perpetually cracked, and attempts to repair the crack are futile, as the crack reappears just days after the repair.

Community Housing is represented in St. Louis County Court by Paul Puricelli with Stone Leyton & Gershman.

The blockbuster 1973 movie "The Exorcist" was partly based on the St. Louis exorcism. It was the most profitable horror film ever made, grossing more than $400 million worldwide.

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