History Main / HollywoodExorcism

** He performs a successful exorcism on a girl early in the film, trapping the demon in a big mirror and then dropping the mirror of a building before the demon can break out.

* An episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' involved a teenage girl that had apparently been possessed and TheAllegedExpert of a priest that had tried to exorcise her being one of the suspects (the team even sees the recording of said exorcism attempt and spends a good minute or so believing that they are seeing some kind of SnuffFilm until things are made clear). [[spoiler:It turns out that the girl is a psychotic killer that was planning to (and eventually does) kill her family (which drives the priest to kill her in a VigilanteExecution), but the episode milks for all its worth the theory of [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane whether the girl was really possessed by a murderous demon, went crazy, or was ''that'' monstrous and the whole "possessed" thing was just some attempt to get away with her murder via an]] InsanityDefense.]]

Nowadays, the [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic church]] is loath to declare "possession" and perform exorcisms. Real life cases have proved that many cases of DemonicPossession are actually a result of severe psychological disorders (usually Epilepsy or Schizophrenia). Indeed, there are several symptoms which must be met for the church to consider that an exorcism is needed, such as being aware of events that the possessed individual should not have anyway of knowing, and being burned by religious imagery. This trope still gets play in ReligiousHorror and other such genres, but is more likely to be subverted in more serious works.

Back in the day, exorcisms used to be all the rage. Any case of psychological trauma was ruled to be DemonicPossession. You know what that means: head spinning, projectile vomit, and speaking in tongues. Pretty soon you have no choice but to haul in [[BadassPreacher an exorcist]] to cast the demon out of the person in question and send it back to Hell.

Nowadays, the [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic church]] is loath to declare "possession" and perform exorcisms. Real life cases have proved that many cases of DemonicPossession are actually a result of severe psychological disorders (usually Epilepsy or Schizophrenia). This trope still gets play in ReligiousHorror and other such genres, but is more likely to be subverted in more serious works.

Finally, note that non-Catholic demons and exorcisms may look completely different, ranging from much gentler to much more violent. To this day in many cultures, mostly those where animist religions predominate, demonic possession is still considered a legitimate medical complaint.

* A nun tries this on Jaye in ''{{Wonderfalls}}''.

* An episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' involved a teenage girl that had apparently been possessed and TheAllegedExpert of a priest that had tried to exorcise her being one of the suspects (the team even sees the recording of said exorcism attempt and spends a good minute or so believing that they are seeing some kind of SnuffFilm until things are made clear). [[spoiler:It turns out that the girl is a psychotic killer that was planning to (and eventually does) kill her family (which drives the priest to kill her in a VigilanteExecution), but the episode milks for all its worth the theory of [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane whether the girl was really possessed by a murderous demon, went crazy, or was ''that'' monstrous and the whole "possessed" thing was just some attempt to use the InsanityDefense on her murder plan]].]]

* Gandalf the White casts Saruman out of King Theoden of Rohan in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'' in a manner very reminiscent of an exorcism.

* A technofantasy version in the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Sleeper" (supposedly forcing an alien secondary personality to manifest, but played just like HollywoodExorcism)
* Demon-heavy show ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' keeps things simple. To exorcise a demon, recite the proper incantation. Getting the demon to sit still long enough to do it is one thing though, and remembering the words is another...

* ''Literature/AHeadFullOfGhosts'' does a lot of LampshadeHanging on this trope. A teen girl behaves strangely and her dad decides she needs an exorcism. The twist: He sells the rights to a TV crew.

Another point: Fictional portrayals of exorcism will sometimes involve "bell, book and candle." In real life, the Catholic casting-out ritual of bell, book, and candle is a form of ''excommunication'', something quite different.

** The Ordo Malleus section of the Inquisition is charged with investigating suspected Chaos activity and putting a stop to it before it gets out of hand. Best case scenario is that no more than a dozen people end up getting killed, while the worst case scenario may well involve having entire planets ''destroyed'' to prevent further spread of Chaos contamination.

* In Creator/AndreiBelyanin's ''[[Literature/TheThiefOfBaghdad The Shaimer of Shaitan]]'', the titular demon possesses a guard named Aslan-Bey in order to use him to kill the protagonist [[ImpossibleThief Lev]]. Lev and [[GuileHero Nasreddin]] manage to disarm and tie up the possessed guard, and Nasreddin attempts to exorcise him using a Muslim prayer he read about once, while Lev threatens Shaitan with a big stick, whacking the guard a few times with it. Finally, in order to humiliate the enemy of humankind, Nasreddin covers Aslan-Bey's nose and mouth, leaving the demon only one exit point. It works.

* Tenuously related: ''VideoGame/NetHack'' requires you to perform a "bell, book and candle" ritual on top of a vibrating section of floor at approximately dungeon level 50 in order to reach the final level of Gehennom. Good luck figuring this out by yourself.

* ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'' is a CampaignComic covering ''{{Disney/Frozen}}''. When Elsa's powers are revealed, an NPC shouts that she must be possessed by Satan. Then another NPC wants to get some holy water and [[NoodleImplements a two by four]].

Another point: Fictional portrayals of exorcism will sometimes involve "bell, book and candle." In real life, the Catholic casting-out ritual of Film/BellBookAndCandle is a form of ''excommunication'', something quite different.

* A medium attempts to exorcise Sally in the North American remake of ''Series/{{Being Human|Remake}}''. It very nearly works, but Sally manages to stop the ritual by [[DemonicPossession briefly possessing the medium]].