Few Hollywood films have caused as much controversy as The Exorcist.
Its theatrical release in 1973 terrified and outraged audiences with a grotesque tale of
demonic possession, and despite barely escaping an adult rating, it made history by becoming the
first horror film to earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
It's still considered one of the scariest movies ever made, but the intrigue surrounding
The Exorcist isn't limited to its shock value.
In fact, some of the most compelling aspects of the movie come from behind the scenes.
Here are some lesser-known facts about the classic that's been "turning heads" for over
40 years.
"Damien!"
Real life basis
Believe it or not, some of the aspects of The Exorcist were inspired by real events.
The film is based on William Peter Blatty's novel of the same name, which drew from accounts
of an actual exorcism.
According to the New York Post, most of the source material for the book was culled from
the journals of Jesuit priests who documented an exhausting battery of rituals they performed
on a young boy named "Roland Doe" in 1949.
These priests claimed to have witnessed the boy speaking in tongues, mysterious skin markings
spelling the words "hell" and "evil," the violent shaking of the boy's mattress, and
the breaking of hospital restraints and a priest's nose, to name a few.
Some of the claims are admittedly embellished in Blatty's novel and the film adaptation
— nobody spewed a bunch of green vomit, for example — but still, that's pretty creepy.
Church support
It may come as a surprise that many officials of the Catholic Church were completely behind
the film's release.
Not only did it drum up plenty of interest in Catholic tradition, it highlighted Catholic
priests as heroes performing a time-honored ritual, even if that ritual got a little repetitive.
"The power of Christ compels you!
The power of Christ compels you!
The power of…"
The story goes that one official even dug up some classified documents for The Exorcist.
While doing research for the film, director William Friedkin met with the president of
the Jesuit Georgetown University, who supposedly handed him a folder containing eyewitness
accounts of the 1949 exorcism.
Cursed production
The production of The Exorcist was riddled with complications and tragedy.
Early in production, the set depicting the home of the MacNeill family mysteriously caught
fire, delaying filming.
Even more mysterious: the set for Regan's room, in which the exorcisms would be filmed,
remained completely undamaged.
Many of the cast and crew experienced tragedies, too.
Linda Blair's grandmother, Max Von Sydow's brother, and two of the film's actors passed away
suddenly during the course of production, and Jason Miller's son was nearly killed in
a freak motorcycle accident.
And then there were the accidents on set.
Ellen Burstyn sustained a spinal injury while filming a violent possession scene, which
reportedly still bothers her today.
As the unexpected problems piled up, the production extended well past its projected deadline.
Friedkin even had the set blessed by a priest.
Maybe he should have gone for an exorcism while he was at it.
Wild release
You'd have to be pretty crazy to send threats to a teenage girl, but that's exactly
what some religious folks did to Linda Blair.
After the film was released in theaters, hate mail poured in accusing Blair of "glorifying
Satan."
Warner Bros. had go so far as to hire bodyguards to protect her after the film was released.
And that's not the only bizarre incident surrounding the theatrical release of the film.
A man fell and broke his jaw during a screening, claiming the film's subliminal effects caused
him to faint.
He sued the studio and they settled out of court.
This was just one of countless reports of paramedics being called to theaters to treat
terrified moviegoers for hysterics.
Anonymous demon
The demon that possesses Regan is called Pazuzu, but that name is never mentioned in the original
film, despite being in both the book and the production script.
Pazuzu is a real-ish demon — he's based on a mythological Babylonian figure, a king
of demon winds, comprised of human and animal parts.
Father Merrin finds an artifact in the desert at the beginning of the film that is supposed
to be a portion of a Pazuzu statue.
While the demon is seen, it wouldn't be named outright until the 1977 sequel The Exorcist
II: The Heretic.
Low-budget effects
The Exorcist may have been unlike anything ever seen at the time, but Friedkin had to
rely on some pretty everyday effects to create the movie.
He reportedly fired a gun before takes to terrify the cast.
Many scenes were shot in freezing temperatures to maximize the effect of actors' breath and
discomfort on film.
That vomit?
Thick split pea soup.
The sound of Regan projectile vomiting was produced by a demonic voice actress, who regurgitated
mushy apple and raw egg.
And the creepy sound of Regan's head turning was nothing more than the sound of a leather
wallet being twisted in front of a microphone.
It's so simple it's evil.
Not a horror movie
According to Friedkin, all these years of terror might have been a case of mistaken
intention.
He told The Hollywood Reporter:
"I thought it was a film about the mystery of faith...but I didn't set out to make a
horror film...but by now, I have accepted that it is."
That's a noble point of view, but the Exorcist sequels and prequels have kept the franchise
pretty squarely in genre film territory.
That's all fine as long we we don't have to watch anymore vomit geysers.
[Laughter]
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