Şeytan is a near shot-for-shot remake of The Exorcist – but with the original’s Catholicism replaced with Islam, necessitating some minor but fascinating changes to the plot and iconography. Helmed by director Metin Erksan, one of the most celebrated Turkish filmmakers, who won the Golden Bear at Berlin for his earlier film Dry Summer (1964). In this remake Kersan sticks fairly close to William Friedkin’s template, even making use of Mike Oldfield’s 'Tubular Bells' on the soundtrack.

PART OF THE TURKISH REMAKE FESTIVAL WEEKEND

The Star & Shadow Cinema, in association with the Horror and Cult Media Research Group of Northumbria University, Department of Arts, is proud to present a two-day celebration of the creativity, audacity, and sheer weirdness of the Hollywood remake phenomenon! Focusing on the ‘remakesploitation’ cinema of Turkey – a hotbed of low-budget filmmaking in the 1960s and 70s – we’re serving up new restorations of three fascinating remakes of Star Wars, The Exorcist, and Some Like It Hot, alongside a documentary by Turkish-German filmmaker Cem Kaya that sheds light on this relatively unknown corner of global film culture.

For many years, these films only circulated on low-resolution bootlegs, but they’ve now been lovingly digitally restored and made available for this special screening. We’ll be joined by film scholars Iain Robert Smith (who worked closely on the restoration and digitisation process) and Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed for discussions and Q&As – and don’t miss special extras throughout the weekend, including some fun Star and Shadow ‘homemade’ remake shorts.

Saturday 18:30 Remake, Remix, Ripoff 
Saturday 20:30 Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam aka Turkish Star Wars
Sunday 18:30 Fistik Gibi aka Turkish Some Like It Hot
Sunay 20:30 Şeytan aka Turkish Exorcist

All films are pay-as-you-feel; please make sure to book your ticket for each film. For those able to do so, we encourage donations to the DEC appeal supporting the rebuilding of Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquakes there earlier this year. 

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal