The Exorcist

The movie The Exorcist, debuted in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and written by William Peter Blatty. The movie starred a cast that would forever be haunted by the film.

The film depicts an actress working in Washington, D.C. when her daughter discovers a ouija board and becomes possessed by a demon. The story is loosely based on a true story of a young boy who had undergone an exorcism in the late 1940’s.The writer, having based it on a true story, had been asked to change the character to a female to help protect the identity of the young boy.

If you haven’t seen this movie (considering it’s a cult classic it would be considered a crime) I highly recommend it. To this day I still get chills, despite the clearly outdated, yet still powerful visual effects.

Many unexplained things happened on set of this film, including when the set caught fire. Supposedly the only room to not catch fire was that of the possessed girl, Regan’s room. A priest was later brought in to bless the set.

People back then weren’t so used to such graphic detail in films. Not like today where virtually nothing is off the table for people’s entertainment. When this film first debuted the theatres would have to distribute barf bags because people were vomiting. And not just this but they were also passing out, having seizures and some would just straight up leave. One woman even sued because she passed out and broke her jaw in the theatre.

And of course even today you will have the people who take offense to movies such as this because of religion. People made death threats to Linda Blair who played Regan, the girl who was possessed. She ended up having to hire bodyguards after the movie release.

Something truly strange is that nine people connected to this film passed away after or during production. Two of which were actors on set whose characters had also passed away. Actress Ellen Burstyn who played Regan’s mom suffered a spinal injury during a particularly gruesome scene when a stunt goes wrong. Her very real screams of pain can still be heard in the final cut. Ellen would be so over the fact the directors choices and lack of consideration for those on set, she would deem him a maniac.

Something the director chose to do which I still believe is the reason older films sometimes look better than newer ones, is the use of practical effects. Practicals are things like dummies, animatronics, and like in this film pea soup as vomit shot out of a tube taped to Blair’s chin. A rubber dummy of Linda Blair was used for the 360 head spin and was complimented with lighting.

As a lighting designer myself I have such respect and admiration for the effects in this film, unfortunately a professional hazard is that I look at these things constantly. Oh by the way, that scene with the pea soup that gets shot out? It was never intended to hit actor Jason Miller in the face. He plays Father Karras and the look of disgust on his face in the film is all real.

The scenes that truly stand the test of time are as follows”

Scene with the pea soup vomit

Scene with the 360 head spin

Scene with the crucifix masturbation which also includes the first head spin

And of course the scene with the spider crawl on the stairs