239 - The Haunting in Wicker Park and the True Story Behind the Upcoming Film - Big Seance

 

Have you heard about the upcoming film, The Haunting in Wicker Park, starring Erin Moriarty (The Boys) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things)? It was inspired by the experiences of the Becker family who invited NBC News cameras to film an exorcism in their Chicago home in 1971. Hear what we've learned about this new film, and take another listen to Patrick's 2014 interview with Edwin F. Becker, who sadly passed away about a year ago. Visit BigSeance.com/239 for more info. 

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In this episode:

Intro :00

Today we reach back into the Big Seance archives to re-visit the two-part interview with Edwin F. Becker in 2014, about the frightening, real-life experiences that he and his family suffered through in the early 1970s in their home in Chicago. Those experiences led to NBC's Carole Simpson filming the first televised exorcism in their home in 1971. Edwin's book, True Haunting, originated as just a journal to document it all. The accounts of the activity are just amazing, and as Patrick said in his review for the book over 10 years ago, it reads like amazing fiction… except it's not. In 2012, the Paranormal Witness series featured the Becker family in an episode titled, The Tenants, and Patrick highly recommends that you check that out, if you can. The 2-part interview for the Big Seance that we're revisiting today, was one of the first interviews Patrick had that he felt was really big, he was super proud of it, and Edwin later reached out to him to tell him that to that date it was perhaps the best interview he'd ever been a part of. :50

Sadly, Edwin died about a year ago in November of 2022. But to Patrick's surprise, today he discovered that there was a major motion picture in post-production, called The Haunting in Wicker Park, directed by Gary Fleder, and starring Jamie Campbell Bower, who played Henry Creel and Vecna in the fourth season of the Netflix series, Stranger Things. iMDb says it was supposed to be released in 2023, but 2024 is just around the corner and there are no trailers yet. There are, however, some behind-the-scenes production photos. Edwin was aware and knew about the upcoming film, because he excitedly announced it in one of his last social media posts. If you know any details about the release of the film, please let us know at [e-mail]. 2:22

Audio of the historic 1971 NBC footage of the exorcism of the Becker home with journalist Carole Simpson. Thanks to Edwin, the footage exists on YouTube. The aged audio is kind of atrocious, but it's worth a listen. 5:05

 

The following interview was originally released in two parts in November of 2014: 

Edwin F. Becker's bio. 11:06

Background on Edwin's book, True Haunting. 12:41

Edwin takes us back to 1970 and a story that begins with the purchase of an old two-story building, a home made up of two apartments, each on its own floor.