by Thinus Ferreira
Scream in terror you all and call grandma, because after almost 30 years the devil is returning to Days and searching Salem for the soul of Marlena.
Just a week after characters in the kykNET comedy Lui Maar Op, Belinda joked and referenced the iconic storyline of Days of Our Lives from decades ago, the devil is set to return to the soap.
Back in 1994 when John Black (Drake Hogestyn) still had black, shoulder length hair and Deidre Hall as Marlena wore yellow contacts and floated through the air, viewers were transfixed when the evil Stefano hypnotised Marlena and were kept spellbound as she turned evil for almost an entire year because of secret demonic possession.
Now it's going to happen ... again.
Days of Our Lives, a co-production between Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television, has since switched from SABC1 that originally showed Marlena possessed, to SABC3, and now to e.tv that is showing season 52 of Days at 16:45 on weekdays.
South Africa is 4 years behind America and currently in the 2016/2017 season, while viewers in the United States are seeing season 56.
"The original story began in 1994 when the wicked Stefano DiMera began hypnotizing Marlena (Deidre Hall) as his "Queen of the Night". The hypnosis meant to make her fall in love with him left her open to demonic possession and ultimately led to Marlena becoming possessed by the devil," the soap says in a press release.
"Later that year on Christmas eve in one of the most memorable moments in American pop culture history, Marlena levitated. The story continued through 1995 and concluded that summer when John Black, her now-husband who was thought to be a priest at the time, had to perform an emergency exorcism."
"When Days of Our Lives revisits the storyline, fans can look forward to twists and turns you'd never suspect as well as familiar faces returning to save the day - or not - this time around, the devil knows no bounds and no one in Salem is safe!"
