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The Exorcist
TheExorcist
Film information
Directed by William Friedkin
Produced by William Peter Blatty
Noel Marshall
Written by William Peter Blatty
Starring Ellen Burstyn
Max von Sydow
Jason Miller
Lee J. Cobb
Kitty Winn
Jack MacGowran
Linda Blair
Music by Jack Nitzsche
Cinematography Owen Roizman
Editing by Norman Gay
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) December 26, 1973
Running time 122 min
Country United States
Language English
Budget $12 million
Gross Revenue $441,071,011
Followed by Exorcist II: The Heretic
Official website
IMDb profile
An amazing film, and one destined to become at the very least a horror classic. Director Friedkin's film will be profoundly disturbing to all audiences, especially the more sensitive and those who tend to 'live' the movies they see ... Suffice it to say, there has never been anything like this on the screen before.

–Joe Dante

The Exorcist is a 1973 horror film adapted from William Peter Blatty's book of the same name. The film went on to cement itself as a notable horror classic film and is regarded as the greatest horror movie among generations. The Exorcist was also nominated for 10 academy awards, out of which it secured 2 awards including best adapted screenplay and best sound mixing.

Cast[]

Plot[]

The following plot is written by Filmsite.org

After a few blood-red credits on a black background, the film opens with a prologue. The locale is an archaeological dig site deep in the arid desert of Northern Iraq - near the ancient town of Nineveh. An Arabic prayer is chanted on the soundtrack behind an image of an oblong, burnt-reddish sun. Workers dig inexorably with pick-axes through mounds of dirt to uncover ancient artifacts. A young boy in a red head-dress runs through the weaving, maze-like trenches to summon one of the supervisors. The camera shoots through his legs as he speaks in Arabic: "(Subtitle): They found something...small pieces...At the base of the mound."

Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow), an elderly, scholarly Jesuit Catholic priest and archaeologist, is told that ancient objects have been unearthed during his search for evil: "Lamps, arrowheads, coins..." Merrin inspects a small silver, Christian medallion (depicting Mary and the baby Jesus) and observes that it is unusual to find it buried in a pre-Christian location: "This is strange...Not of the same period." Merrin then digs in a crevice near the Christian objects and discovers a small, greenish, gargoyle-like stone amulet or statuette [in the figure of the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu, known for its serpent-like phallus]. [The Iraqi sequence sets a tone of foreboding and establishes the presence of 'Good' and 'Evil' - it also foreshadows the battle between the two forces later in the film.]

In the Iraqi marketplace on the streets of Mosul, with a throbbing, drumming sound, the strain is evident as Merrin's hand shakes when he takes his heart medicine. Iron workers clang their hammers on anvils near a red-hot burning furnace. One of the steelworkers turns toward Merrin, revealing his blind right eye [an allusion to future horrors in the film]. Back in the curator's office, as Merrin eyes the ancient Pazuzu amulet, he is told: "Evil against evil." Ominously, the swinging pendulum of the clock behind him stops working. The curator knows Merrin will be leaving to go home to the States: "I wish you didn't have to go." Weary and exhausted, Merrin replies: "There is something I must do." He passes by prostrate Muslim worshippers and into a dark passageway. When he emerges in the narrow, sunlit street, he is nearly run down by a fast-moving, horse-drawn carriage carrying an old woman in a black droshky, worn over her face like a shroud.

After driving his jeep to an ancient temple ruins guarded by armed, white and black-garbed watchmen, he walks up to a full-sized stone statue of the demon Pazuzu. Nearby, two dogs begin fighting and snarling at each other in the dust. [This struggle foreshadows the eventual conflict between good (the priest) and evil (the possessed girl), and also hints at the theme of "evil against evil" - Karras' deliberate 'evil' act of demon possession to save Regan.] He again has a premonition that the amulet is a concrete manifestation that something evil has been unearthed - the soundtrack simulates an eerie, shrieking chord, symbolizing the loosing of ancient, pagan evil in the world. The camera zooms in on the face of the open-mouthed, fearsome creature. As he confronts the demonic statue that has been called up for protection by the amulet's discovery, the wind blows dust over the scene as he feels all around him the presence of the devil.

In a clever transitional dissolve linking two distant locales and their coincidental association, the scene from the desert (a sizzling view of the orb of the dawning sun) dissolves into the sounds and views of early morning traffic crossing the Potomac in Georgetown outside Washington, D.C. The camera zooms into one of the Georgetown houses where a hand turns on a different kind of bright light - a white electric lamp. Inside her bedroom, divorced mother and actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, reportedly modeling her role on actress Shirley MacLaine) is working on lines in her latest script. She hears unsettling sounds from the attic similar to the dirt-digging sounds of the prologue. [This form of infestation is the first classic stage of possession.] She investigates - following the sounds to her 12-year old daughter Regan's (Linda Blair) bedroom where the young girl is sleeping. The covers are pulled back and the window is inexplicably wide open with fluttering curtains - she senses a certain coldness or presence in the room. Downstairs in the kitchen, Chris instructs housekeeper Karl (Rudolf Schundler) to purchase traps for "rats in the attic."

The next minimalist scene introduces other film characters and a 'film within a film.' On the Georgetown University campus, Chris emerges from a movie-set trailer on the set of Warner Bros. Inc.' Crash Course (now filming at locations in California and Washington, D.C.). (Later, Chris expresses how she despises the film when she describes the movie as "kinda like the, uh, Walt Disney version of the Ho Chi Minh story...") [William Peter Blatty makes a brief cameo appearance as an upset producer, telling the director: "Is the scene really essential? Would you just consider it, whether or not..."] The scene that is being filmed at the Catholic school dramatizes early 1970s student protest that threatens to tear down the historic stone walls of the university. Chris, a representative of the academic-adult population, questions the British director Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran, who died one week after completing his scenes in the film) about the unrealistic plot of adolescent counter-cultural turmoil. One of the curious onlookers among a crowd of students, a Jesuit priest (in black) from the university, named Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller in his debut screen role), smiles amusedly after overhearing their conversation.

A few moments later into the shoot, when Chris grabs a bullhorn and tells the rebellious students in the crowd: "If you want to effect any change, you have to do it within the system," a long crane shot finds Father Karras walking away from the crowd and the filming - he turns back to watch for a moment, and then continues his departure in serious thought. [To accentuate one of the film's themes, the actor's lines are deliberately juxtaposed with the priest's departure, since he is experiencing an inner struggle of religious faith within his own system - the church.]

After the day's shoot is finished, Chris walks the leaf-covered street from the campus to her home, accompanied by the tinkling, mesmerizing sounds of "Tubular Bells' (by Mike Oldfield). It is Halloween, and children run by in their masks and costumes. [Historically, scary Halloween masks, pumpkin faces, and costumes were designed to ward off evil spirits - another manifestation of the film's theme.] For a brief moment, a roaring black motorbike that passes behind her slightly drowns out the sounds of the bells. Two nuns trailing billowing black and white habits walk down a road in front of a brick wall. Now in her neighborhood, she turns and hears, from a distance, the priest Karras counseling a fellow priest (until his spiritual words are overshadowed by the loud, mechanical roar of an overhead jet engine):

There's not a day in my life that I don't feel like a fraud. Other priests, doctors, lawyers - I talk to them all. I don't know anyone who hasn't felt that.

As priest Karras rises up from an underground stairwell, emerging into the noisy track area of the New York City subway where the tracks spew jets of steam, the camera pans past a soft-drink vending machine, emblazoned with: "TRAVEL REFRESHED." On the dirty, trash-littered platform of the subway station, he turns to hear a tattered, derelict drunk begging with an outstretched hand:

Father, could you help an old altar boy. I'm Cat'lick.

Wrapped up in his own problems and unable to be charitable in this subway encounter, Father Karras turns away from the wretched man whose bearded, sweaty face is momentarily illuminated in flashes by the window lights of a passing subway.

He visits his dying, sick mother, Mother Karras (Vasiliki Maliaros) who lives in humble, pauper's conditions by herself (after he left her and moved to the priesthood in Georgetown) in a derelict area of New York City. The street, lined with run-down housing, is populated with unruly kids, drunks, graffiti, and litter. After first stopping in his own room and reflecting on his past [two photographs of his early boxing career, trophies, a childhood photograph, and a picture of a former girlfriend], he enters his Mama's room. As he carefully binds his mother's injured leg and then lights a cigarette for a smoke [atypical for a priest], he suggests moving her elsewhere, but she is a stoic, stubborn, Greek immigrant woman from the Old World, and she doesn't want to move:

Damien: Mama, I could take you somewhere where you'd be safe. You wouldn't be alone. There would be people around. You know, you wouldn't be sitting here listening to a radio. Mother: (She first speaks in her native tongue) ...You understand me? This is my house and I'm not going no place. Dimmy, you're worried for something? Damien: No, Mama. Mother: You're not happy. Tell me, what is the matter? Damien: Mama, I'm all right, I'm fine, really I am.

In the basement den, Regan - a bright, cheerful, ordinary pre-teen amuses herself with arts-and-crafts materials and paint. She creates an orange, bird-like puppet figure [similar in shape - coincidentally - to the Pazuzu statue]. Her mother discovers a dusty OUIJA board that Regan earlier found in a closet - the theme of communication begins to play out in the film. Lonely and without friends of her own age, and without a partner to play ping-pong in the den, Regan has amused herself by playing with the board:

Chris: Wait a minute, you need two. Regan: No ya don't. I do it all the time. Chris: Oh yeah. Well, let's both play.

One of her imaginary friends, 'Captain Howdy' [a play on her father's name, Howard, and an innocuous, innocent name that would obversely connote fear] spins the planchette from under Chris' hands - the first evidence of supernatural telekinesis in the film:

Chris: You really don't want me to play, huh? Regan: No, I do. Captain Howdy said no. Chris: Captain who? Regan: Captain Howdy. Chris: Who's Captain Howdy? Regan: You know, I make the questions and he does the answers.

As a smiling, loving Regan is tucked into bed by her mother and they share an intimate conversation, she is reading a recent PHOTOPLAY Magazine with a red-banner cover story: "Big Trouble In the MacNeil Marriage! The Night Howard Walked Out On His Wife." The colorful cover photo depicts Chris with her daughter. After taking the magazine away, Chris teases her daughter about her impending maturity - she is on the verge of becoming an adult:

Chris: Look, Regan, why are you reading that stuff? Regan: Because I like it. Chris: It's not even a good picture of you. You look so mature.

Regan's birthday is coming on Sunday - she will be a ripe, pubescent 13 - and they plan for the special sightseeing outing. As an undercutting aside, Regan maturely suggests having her mother's director friend Burke Dennings accompany them - with misleading ideas developing in her head, she promotes a match-making liaison between her mother and Burke:

Regan: You can bring Mr. Dennings if you like...Well, you like him...You're gonna marry him, aren't you? Chris: Oh God, are you kidding me? Marry Burke Dennings! Don't be silly. Of course not. Where'd you ever get an idea like that? [Captain Howdy may be the source of her information. Howdy and 'Howard,' her father's name, are remarkably similar.] Regan: But ya like him. Chris: Of course I like him. I like pizzas too, but I'm not gonna marry one. Regan: You don't like him like Daddy? Chris: Regan. I love your Daddy. I'll always love your Daddy, honey. OK? Burke just comes around here a lot, 'cause (she sighs), well, he's lonely. Don't got nutin' to do. Regan: (slyly) Well, I heard differently. Chris: Oh you did. What did you hear? Huh? Regan: I don't know. I just thought. Chris: Well, you didn't think so good. Regan: How do you know? Chris: 'Cause Burke and I are just friends. OK? Really. OK.

A quick cut to the next scene - a noisy bar environment where a jukebox plays an Allman Brothers Band rock tune favorite - 'Ramblin' Man.' Father Karras carries two frothy beer glasses to a table where he is joined by his superior priest Reverend Thomas Bermingham, SJ (himself), president of the university. Clearly juxtaposed with the atmosphere of the dark drinking establishment peopled with 'rebellious' students (who were recently extras on the film set), the young priest finds himself in a troubling situation, heavily weighted down by counseling his fellow priests who feel they are losing their vocation. In despair, inner conflict and guilt, he is worried about his own burdens: his lonely mother and his own loss of faith:

Karras: It's my mother, Tom. She's alone. I never should have left her. At least in New York, I'd be near, I'd be closer. Tom: Could see about a transfer, Damien. Karras: I need re-assignment, Tom. I want out of this job. It's wrong. It's no good. Tom: (reassuring) You're the best we've got. Karras: Yeah, not really. It's more than psychiatry, and you know that Tom. Some of their problems come down to faith, their vocation and meaning of their lives, and I can't cut it anymore. I need out. I'm unfit. (He drinks from his beer) I think I've lost my faith, Tom.

A low-angle, street-level camera shot of the exterior of the MacNeil's two-story brick house follows the bar scene. Autumn leaves from the bare trees swirl in the wind. Exasperated by an insensitive lack of regard and her own despair over the breakup of the family, Chris berates and swears about her husband for failing to call Regan on her birthday from his hotel in Rome. She hasn't been able to reach him by long-distance for twenty minutes (halfway across the world) and she becomes acutely distressed:

Oh circuits, my ass. He doesn't give a s--t...Operator, don't tell me there's no answer... Would you try it again please and let it ring...Operator, I've given you the number four times...I've been on this f--king line for twenty minutes!

[Difficulties in communication with Regan's father are contrasted with her easy contact with Captain Howdy/Howard.] The camera withdraws from the living room back toward Regan's room, where she stands in her doorway listening to her tormented mother - after hearing more than enough of her cursing mother speaking to her uncaring father, she mutely retreats to her bed where she unties her shoe.

Early the next morning, Chris finds that Regan has joined her in bed, explaining that she is not able to sleep: "My bed was shaking. I can't get to sleep." Regan's mother goes to investigate more mysterious sounds that she hears up in the attic. Finding her way around in the dark with a lit candle, Chris discovers the traps are untriggered and empty - yet the digging noises can still be heard. After being shocked out of her wits by Karl's sudden appearance and her flaming candlelight, he confirms what she has found: "No rats."

[The next scene was often cited as being one of the most objectionable at the time of the film's release.] On the Georgetown University campus, one of the Jesuit priests discovers that the white marble statue of the Virgin Mary has been desecrated with red paint and other materials, and has taken on the appearance of a harlot. The statue has long red-tipped breasts, red color on both hands, and an elongated, erect penis-shaped clay protuberance also daubed in red. [Blasphemous Black Sabbath rites would often include perversities at the altar or sites of statues.]

Inside the corridor of Bellevue psychiatric hospital in New York City, psychiatrist-priest Father Karras has been summoned by his uncle (Titos Vandis) because of his sick mother's hospitalization - she "was all the time screaming, even talking to the radio." [Unable to talk to her relatives, Karras' sick mother communicates with the unseen world of voices on the radio.] Distressed that she was brought to a mental hospital without his permission, he notices deranged, comatose, vacant-eyed women in the hallway and in the psychiatric ward - they exhibit the physical and behavioral symptoms of serious psychological problems. His uncle generates more guilt by berating him. He notes how Damien's choice of the lowly occupation of the priesthood was detrimental to her welfare. His decision to choose God and become a priest rather than enter lucrative private practice as a psychiatrist left her destitute: "If you wasn't a priest, you'd be a famous psychiatrist now...Your mother - she'd be living in a penthouse instead of a ..."

As Father Karras enters the locked ward and walks through to see his mother, the other patients react with agitation and grab at the spiritual figure's clothing. With tears in her eyes, the haggard Mrs. Karras blames her son for her 'imprisonment': "Dimmy, why would you do this to me, Dimmy?" Her thin, frail arms are restrained by straps on the bed. With anger and rage, she struggles to withdraw from him and turn her head away from his comforting hands. After their visit, Karras beseeches his uncle to move her to a different hospital: "Couldn't you put her someplace else?" But that is an impractical solution: "Like what? A private hospital? Who got the money for that, Dimmy?" (A faint screeching sound, similar to the one in the prologue, builds on the soundtrack.) Guilt-ridden, Karras viciously boxes and punches a bag in a gym - he violently and explosively rages against all the demons and turmoils in his own life - angry that he can't afford to treat his mother, and that God has brought illness to his family.

A few nights later, Chris MacNeil throws a big dinner party at her Prospect Street house. Prominent people are among the guests - Burke Dennings, an astronaut guest, and a suspected Nazi collaborator. Regan is giggling and happy while mingling among the party-goers. Chris asks one of her friends, Father Joe Dyer (Reverend William O'Malley, a real-life priest), Father Karras' superior, about St. Michael's next door and the black-haired, "intense-looking" young priest she often sees there. She learns that he's Damien Karras, "our psychiatric counselor. He had a pretty rough knock last night, poor guy. His mother passed away. She was living by herself and I guess she was dead a couple of days before they found her."

Regan is already in bed asleep (and kissed by her mother) before the party is over. But shortly later, Regan comes downstairs and appears during a piano-gathering and songfest. She enters the room in her nightgown, and trance-like turns to the astronaut who will soon be launched into space: "You're gonna die up there." The camera frames her feet as she urinates on the carpet-covered floor in front of the guests. Embarrassed and confused, Chris takes her daughter into her arms and apologizes to the astronaut and the rest of the guests:

Regan, oh my God, honey. Honey? Whatsa matter? I'm sorry, she's been sick. She didn't know what she was saying.

Chris helps Regan to retreat upstairs and gives her a hot bath while comforting her. Regan is as puzzled by her own behavior as is Chris. Chris reassures her that she is probably upset because of all the changes she has experienced in the last few months - her father's departure and erratic contact, the new job for Chris, the new town. Regan is promised that everything will be all right:

Chris: What made you say that, Regan? Do you know, sweetheart? Regan: (after the bath) Mother? What's wrong with me? Chris: It's just like the doctor said. It's nerves, and that's all. OK? You just take your pills and you'll be fine, really. OK?

Returning down the stairs long after the party has ended, Chris finds the housekeeper Willie (Gina Petrushka) scrubbing the stains from the rug. She turns back when she hears Regan screaming in her room and calling for her help. As Chris rushes to her daughter's closed bedroom door [the camera tracks rapidly along with her toward the door] - an electric, candle-shaped light bulb flickers in the hallway. The camera first shows Chris' face registering a horrified, shocking reaction after entering - Regan's bed is racked with violent convulsions. Flopping around on the top of the bed, the young girl frantically calls out: "Make it stop! Make it stop!" Chris throws herself on top of Regan on the wildly bucking bed which bounces up and down on the floor- there is a cacophony of deafening noise equaling all the other loud, grating noises previously heard in the film.

Father Dyer strides down the corridor of the Jesuit residence hall at Georgetown University, peering into one of the bedrooms where students are smoking, gambling at cards, and drinking. After knocking on D. Karras' door and entering, he brings the priest a bottle of Chivas Regal Scotch Whiskey, joking that he stole it from the college president: "(He) shouldn't drink. It tends to set a bad example. I figured I saved him from a big temptation." Karras is tormented by guilt and anguished remorse for being absent when his mother died, and he begins skeptically doubting his decision to pursue a career as a priest. Dyer encourages Karras to lie back, take off his shoes, and go to sleep.

As Father Karras begins to dream after the lights are turned out, a montage of dream-like images passes and flashes through his consciousness, mixing momentary sights of his mother and her ascent and descent [into death] with all the surrealistic images taken from previous film components accompanying Father Merrin in Iraq: the Christian medal - now free-falls through the air above a richly-textured Iraqi tapestry, a ferocious, growling desert dog runs toward the camera, Karras' mother stares straight ahead, the pendulum of the curator's clock swings, Karras' mother emerges from an underground subway in New York City, Karras waves from a traffic island toward his mother, the mother calls out - but doesn't see or heed her son, a ghoulish, ghostly-white demonic face appears, Karras' frantically pursues his mother across traffic on a busy street, and she descends back into the subway entrance. The medal drops on the hard, stone Georgetown steps.

Regan's scream provides a transition from the dream sequence to the next scene. Chris seeks medical help and treatment for her daughter, but Regan resists violently: "I don't want it!" She is held down and injected with a sedative by a team of doctors. The girl spits and curses at one of the doctors: "You f--kin' bastard." Concurrent with the ministrations of modern medicine, Father Karras, in the University chapel, prays in memory of his deceased mother: "Remember also, Oh Lord, thy servant Mary Karras who has gone before us on the side of faith and sleeps the sleep of peace." Dr. Klein (Barton Heyman) delivers a diagnosis to Chris - he explains Regan's strange afflictions and seizures are due to a physical problem - a brain disorder:

It's a symptom of a type of disturbance in the chemical-electrical activity of the brain. In the case of your daughter, in the temporal lobe - it's up here - in the lateral part of the brain. It's rare, but it does cause bizarre hallucinations and usually just before a convulsion...the shaking of the bed. It's doubtless due to muscular spasms.

Chris doubts that her daughter's uncontrollable spasms and body movements caused the bed to buck so violently. The doctor insists her shaking is due to a lesion in her brain:

Chris: Oh no. No, no. That was not a spasm. Look. I got on the bed. The whole bed was thumping and rising off the floor and shaking - the whole thing, with me on it! Dr. Klein: Mrs. MacNeil, the problem with your daughter is not her bed, it's her brain. Chris: So, uhm, what causes this...? Dr. Klein: A lesion. A lesion in the temporal lobe. It's a kind of seizure disorder. Chris: Now look Doc, I really don't understand how her whole personality could change. Dr. Klein: The temporal lobe is very common...It could last for days or even weeks. It isn't rare to find destructive, even criminal behavior. Chris: Hey, do me a favor, will ya? Tell me somethin' good. Dr. Klein: Don't be alarmed. If it's a lesion, in a way she's fortunate. All we have to do is remove the scar.

Regan is wheeled on a flat table into a testing area for more examinations designed to unravel the mysteries of her malady. In a long, purposely drawn-out, excruciatingly-torturous sequence with markedly sexual overtones (and a foreshadowing of the eventual exorcism), Regan is prepared by medical assistants for an arteriogram. She is placed on a leather backing, readied for a blood pressure reading, and her shoulders are bared when her hospital gown is tucked under. Electrodes are stuck to her upper arms. One of the male medical technicians, garbed like a priest (in a blue hospital smock) paints her the right side of her pale neck with a "cold and wet" square of cotton dipped in dark brown iodine, an antiseptic. He tests a syringe by squirting [or ejaculating the phallic-shaped object] fluid from its sharp point (seen in large detail), and then 'sticks' her in the cleansed neck area with it to create a small incision. She holds back from squirming and whimpering as he slightly pierces her flesh. With another sharp instrument taken from a trayful of Inquisitional-type torture devices, he warns Regan not to move when she feels "some pressure." He inserts the second device into the incision mark, pushes it in (she gasps as she feels the needle enter), and then releases the cap on the instrument - blood spurts, orgasmically, from the opening in Regan's neck.

The 'deflowering' examination is not complete for the helpless young girl - blood flows through tubes as her chin is taped to the table to keep her stationary. More pieces of medical machinery are wheeled to each side of her head. The lights are dimmed, and she is told to "look up." The positioning of a scanner produces a cross-shaped shadow across Regan's forehead. A button is pushed, causing a tremendous knocking/pounding sound - Regan cringes as pain envelopes her face. The screen turns white for an instant. A full series of X-rays illustrating various death's head angles of Regan's skull are being examined by Dr. Tanney (Robert Symonds) on a white, photo-examination table - loud, whirring gears deliver each set of photographic negative plates for viewing. Tanney pronounces his diagnosis to Dr. Klein as they both examine a full-screen side view of her skull: "There's just nothing there. No vascular displacement at all." To their surprise, they find nothing physically wrong with her.

Chris calls the two doctors at the lab to urgently summon them to her Prospect Street home. The ringing of the doorbell at the MacNeil home overlaps their departure from the hospital - and signals the upcoming terror. Chris' secretary/assistant Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) rushes down the stairs to answer the door and let the doctors in. From behind, Regan's hysterical, despairing screams are heard and "things have gotten worse...they've gotten violent." A hand-held camera tracks in front of the group as they hurriedly rush upstairs, down the corridor, and up to Regan's sealed bedroom door. Sharon announces: "Chris! Doctors!" and they are admitted. Within the bedroom, the camera faces back toward the opened door, registering again the fear on everyone's faces.

Regan's upper torso is violently being whipped and thrown back and forth on the bed, battering her body as it slams into the mattress. She screams: "Oh please, Mother, make it stop! It's hurting." Then she is tossed upwards and bounces up and down. Her uncontrollable seizures are accompanied by low gutteral growls, almost animalistic. Her throat below her chin bubbles out. When one of the doctors reaches for Regan on the bed, she slaps him back-handed across the face, knocking him into the door and onto the floor. Her physically-repulsive voice warns: "Keep away! The sow is mine!" She pulls up the front of her nightgown, masturbates by rubbing herself, and in a deep, strange voice, beckons: "F--k me! F--k me!" [The demon's gutteral voice is that of Mercedes McCambridge.] She flails and thrashes around on the bed, afflicted and possessed by some fantastic force.

While she is held tight and restrained, a doctor removes another syringe and injects her with a sedative to calm her down. Sharon drags Chris from the scene to remove her from the horrifying cries of her daughter. When the bedroom door is slammed, there is an eerie quiet in the corridor. Sharon and Chris sit huddled together. The doctors Tanney and Klein emerge from Regan's now-quiet bedroom: "She's heavily sedated. She'll probably sleep through tomorrow." Chris demands answers from them: "What was going on in there? How could she fly off the bed like that?" They are still convinced of a physical ailment and propose further tests:

Doctor: Pathological states can induce abnormal strength. Accelerated motor performance. Now, for example, say a 90 pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck. Runs out and lifts the wheels a half a foot up off the ground - you've heard the story - same thing here. Same principle, I mean. Chris: So what's wrong with her? Doctor: We still think the temporal lobe. Chris: (hysterically) Oh what are you talking about, for Christ's sakes. Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's f--king out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or ... Doctor: There haven't been more than a hundred authentic cases of so-called split personality, Mrs. MacNeil. Now I know the temptation is to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first. Chris: So, what's next? Doctor: A pneumoencephalogram, I would think. Pin down that lesion. It will involve another spinal. Chris: Oh, Christ! Doctor: What we missed in the EEG and the arteriograms could conceivably turn up there. At least, it would eliminate certain other possibilities.

Regan is submitted to other high-tech, painful tests and diagnostic procedures, including a pneumoencephalogram - an X-ray of the brain made by replacing spinal fluid with a gas (often oxygen) to improve contrast. Her sweating face strains as she is subjected to a high-pitched scanning machine that circles overhead. Klein and Tanney find the newest X-rays are "negative - in other words, normal." There is nothing wrong with Regan's brain. Klein asks Chris suspiciously if drugs may be a factor: "Do you keep any drugs in your house?" Chris reveals that she won't be moving to L.A. right away. She is "building a new house - the old one's been sold. I was gonna take (sniffling)...Regan to Europe for a while after she finished school." Klein suggests: "It's time we started looking for a psychiatrist."

As Chris drives home that evening with her headlights beaming through the dark, she passes red-lighted emergency vehicles (with sirens blaring) at the base of the Prospect Street stairs. The lights in her kitchen flicker and then go off as she answers the loud-ringing phone (with no caller). Upstairs, she finds Regan asleep in her freezing cold bedroom - her breath is visible in the air. The windows are wide open and the wind-blown curtains are billowing outward. She covers Regan with blankets and then proceeds downstairs in a furious mood. Chris lambasts Sharon for leaving Regan alone with her windows wide open. Sharon explains, as the doorbell rings incessantly - another signal of approaching doom, that when she went to get Regan's thorazine medication, Burke remained to stay with Regan. She apologizes:

Sharon: I should have known better. I'm sorry. Chris: Yeah, I guess you should have. Sharon: How were the tests? Chris: We have to start looking for a shrink.

Chuck (Ron Faber) who works with Chris and Burke as assistant director, is let in from the front porch, bringing bad news. Burke was found dead at the bottom of a long flight of stairs (just outside Regan's bedroom window):

Chuck: I suppose you heard. Chris: Heard what? Chuck: You haven't heard. Burke's dead. He must have been drunk. He fell down from the top of the steps right outside. By the time he hit M Street, he broke his neck.

Chris turns away in horror, shocked by the revelation. She pounds on the wall with her fists. The screen turns dark - a short remembrance for another victim.

A voice commands: "When I touch your forehead, open your eyes." The screen returns - Regan's face is being lightly touched by a psychiatrist (Arthur Storch), one of the new practitioners who begins groping for a more accurate assessment of Regan's problems. She has been put in an hypnotic trance (seated in a living room chair in her house) for questioning by the sweet-voiced psychiatrist:

Psychiatrist: How old are you? Regan: Twelve. Psychiatrist: Is there someone inside you? Regan: Sometimes. Psychiatrist: Who is it? Regan: I don't know. Psychiatrist: Is it Captain Howdy? Regan: I don't know. Psychiatrist: If I ask him to tell me, will you let him answer? Regan: No! Psychiatrist: Why not? Regan: I'm afraid. Psychiatrist: If he talks to me, I think he'll leave you. Do you want him to leave you? Regan: Yes. Psychiatrist: (he stands and addresses Regan's tormentor): I'm speaking to the person inside of Regan now. If you are there, you too are hypnotized and must answer all my questions. Come forward and answer me now.

A black and white framed photograph of Regan inexplicably falls forward off the mantle. Regan face contorts and a low, wolf-like growl emanates from her mouth. The hypnotist continues, thinking he is speaking to the "someone" inside her: "Are you the person inside of Regan? Who are you?" To abortively end the session, Regan slams her hand into the psychiatrist's crotch and crushes his genitals. Then her fury rises as she falls on top of the hapless examiner. She must be dragged off and held.

Middle-aged detective Lt. William Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb) [his name translates as "child man" in German] of homicide, assigned to the case following Burke Dennings' death and the defilement of the Virgin Mary statue, questions Father Karras about witchcraft, already aware that he had written an authoritative paper on the subject "from the psychiatric end." Kinderman suspects ritualistic overtones - Dennings was possibly killed by having his head twisted around in a ritualistic black-magic murder. The detective suggests that the priest identify any of those he counsels who might be capable of committing the murder:

Kinderman: Well, this desecration in the church. Do you think this has anything to do with witchcraft? Karras: Maybe. Some rituals use the Black Mass. Maybe. Kinderman: And now, Dennings, you read how he died? Karras: In a fall. Kinderman: Let me tell ya how, and please Father, confidential. Burke Dennings, good Father, was found at the bottom of those steps leading to M Street with his head turned completely around - facing backwards. Karras: It didn't happen in the fall? Kinderman: It's possible. Possible, however - Karras: ...unlikely. Kinderman: Exactly. So on the one hand, we've got a witchcraft kind of murder, and on the other hand a Black Mass type desecration in the church. Karras: You think the killer and the desecrator are the same? Kinderman: Maybe somebody crazy. Somebody with a spite against the church. Some unconscious rebellion. Karras: A sick priest - is that it? Kinderman: Look, Father, this is hard for you. Please, I understand, but for priests on the campus here, you're the psychiatrist. You know who was sick at the time, who wasn't. I mean, this kind of sickness. You'd know that. Karras: I don't know anyone who fits that description. Kinderman: Ah! Doctor's ethics! If you knew, you wouldn't tell, huh? Karras: No, I probably wouldn't. Kinderman: Not to bother you with trivia, but a psychiatrist, in sunny California no less, was put in jail for not telling the police what he knew about a patient. Karras: Is that a threat? Kinderman: No, I mention it only in passing. Karras: Incidentally, I mention it only in passing. I could always tell the judge it was a matter of confession.

At the Barringer Clinic and Foundation, psychiatrists conclude that Regan's symptoms are evidence of a rare disorder hardly seen anymore except in primitive cultures. Regan, with cuts marks on her face and dehydrated lips, struggles in a clinic bed, strapped down like Mrs. Karras was earlier at Bellevue. Her ailments are similar to a form of possession: "Quite frankly, we really don't know much about it at all except that it starts with a conflict or a guilt and it leads to the patients' delusions that his body has been invaded by some alien intelligence - a spirit if you will." Chris despairs, refusing "to lock her up in some god-damned asylum." She is fed-up with their "bulls--t" and medical-babble.

Because Chris has no specific religious beliefs, she is told that religious counsel - an exorcism - might rid Regan of her possession:

Doctor: There is one outside chance for a cure. I think of it as shock treatment - as I said, it's a very outside chance...Have you ever heard of exorcism? Well, it's a stylized ritual in which the rabbi or the priest try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It's been pretty much discarded these days except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of an embarrassment, but uh, it has worked. In fact, although not for the reasons they think, of course. It's purely a force of suggestion. The victim's belief in possession is what helped cause it, so in that same way, a belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear. Chris: (uneasily) You're telling me that I should take my daughter to a witch doctor? Is that it?

Regan is brought home from the clinic, while Lt. Kinderman surveys the Dennings death scene at the foot of the stairs. As Chris tucks Regan in her bed, she discovers a crucifix under her pillow - possibly put there by the religiously superstitious servants or babysitter. Dramatically timed, Kinderman also finds a small clay, pig-faced talisman [resembling the Pazuzu amulet found in Iraq] near the steps. At the top of the stairs, Kinderman looks up at the MacNeil's bedroom window. Kinderman meets with Chris for coffee, finding ominous signs in his investigation and immediately alarming Regan's nervous mother. It dawns on her that it was Regan who had killed Dennings:

Kinderman: It's strange. The deceased comes to visit - stays only 20 minutes. And leaves all alone a very sick girl. And speaking plainly, Mrs. MacNeil, it isn't likely he would fall from a window. Besides, a fall wouldn't do to his neck what we found, except maybe one chance in a thousand. Nope, my hunch, my opinion - he was killed by a very powerful man - point one. And the fracturing of his skull - point two. Plus the various other things we mentioned would make it very probable, probable, not certain, that the deceased was killed and then pushed from your daughter's window. But nobody was in the room, except your daughter. So how can this be? It could be one way. If someone came calling between the time Miss Spencer left and the time you returned... Chris: Judas Priest. Just a second.

Chris knows that bedridden Regan was the only one in the house with Burke just before his death. Kinderman realizes sculpted animals in the MacNeil house match the one he found at the base of the stone stairway: "Your daughter? She's the artist?" After Kinderman leaves, Chris ineffectually bolts the front door behind him.

One of the film's most horrifying scenes occurs next - the notorious crucifix-masturbation scene, symbolically simulating the loss of virginity for the young teenager. From upstairs in Regan's bedroom, Chris hears grotesque sounds, crashes, and screams. She runs up the stairs towards the door - it opens and she sees 45 rpm records, books, and stuffed animals being hurled at the tightly-closed window. The camera registers Chris' horror on her face as she sees her daughter's sacrilegious self-abuse. In an obscene gesture simulating masturbation, a horribly-disfigured Regan repeatedly thrusts her bloodied hand clutching the crucifix into her vagina under her blood-splattered nightgown, as she bellows obscenities in the Devil's voice: "Let Jesus f--k you, let Jesus f--k you! Let him f--k you!" [The demon's voice was enhanced with various animal noises and other grotesque sounds.]

Chris grabs her daughter's super-strong arm and tussles with her for control of the offending object. Regan holds her mother's head down into her crotch and repeats: "Lick me!" - covering her mother's face in blood. Then, Regan punches her mother with a violent blow, sending her backwards across the bedroom floor. With her telekinetic power, Regan moves a chair against the door to bar the way of Sharon and others, and she sends a tall wooden bureau across the floor toward her mother. As a bloody-faced Regan sits on her bed, she spins her head backwards 180 degrees, threatening in a deep malevolent voice as she imitates Dennings' British accent (and his manner of death) to taunt Chris about his murder: "Do you know what she did? Your c--ting daughter?"

On a cold autumn day, Chris stands alone on a footbridge, waiting to meet Father Damien Karras who has been recommended by Father Dyer. She abandons her original skepticism about resorting to exorcism (and the diagnosis of demonic possession) by taking her problem to Karras, believing that a religious ritual may be her last hope to save her daughter and drive out the devil. She quizzes him about his background: "How did a shrink ever get to be a priest?" After avoiding the subject for a while, she suddenly asks: "How do you go about getting an exorcism?" He stops short during their walk and asks her to repeat her question: "I beg your pardon?" Karras doesn't believe in exorcisms in the twentieth century and is inclined to doubt demonic possession:

Well, the first thing - I'd have to get into a time machine and get back to the 16th century...Well, it just doesn't happen any more, Mrs. MacNeil...since we learned about mental illness, paranoia, schizophrenia...Since the day I joined the Jesuits, I've never met one priest who has performed an exorcism. Not one.

Chris begs, through choking sobbing, that somebody "very close" to her is "probably possessed and needs an exorcism. Father Karras, it's my little girl." He tries to dissuade her, arguing that the Catholic Church insists on proof that the devil is really in a person: "Then that's all the more reason to forget about exorcism...To begin with, it could make things worse. Secondly, the church before it approves an exorcism conducts an investigation to see if it's warranted. That takes time...I need church approval and that's rarely given." On the other hand, he reluctantly agrees to see her daughter "as a psychiatrist," believing that Regan's horrible descent into hell is a psychiatric illness. But Chris is completely fed up with psychiatrists:

Oh, not a psychiatrist. She needs a priest. She's already seen every f--king psychiatrist in the world and they sent me to you. Now you're gonna send me back to them? Jesus Christ! Won't somebody help me?...Can't you help her, just help her?

Karras is brought to Regan's bedroom to see and talk to Mrs. MacNeil's daughter. Awful sounds emanate from her bedroom as they climb the stairs. In the corridor, Karl explains the child-monster's anger: "It wants no straps." When Karras enters, the girl is strapped to a padded four-poster bed. Her face is cut, her hair matted, her eyes wild-looking, and she has a plastic tube taped to one nostril. The grotesque girl speaks with a disgusting, low-pitched growl coming straight from hell:

Karras: Hello, Regan. I'm a friend of your mothers. I'd like to help you. Regan: Why not loosen the straps then? Karras: I'm afraid you might hurt yourself, Regan. Regan: I'm not Regan. Karras: I see. Well then, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras. Regan: I'm the devil. Now kindly undo these straps! Karras: If you're the devil, why not make the straps disappear? Regan: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras. Karras: Where's Regan? Regan: In here - with us. Karras: Show me a Regan and I'll loosen one of the straps. Regan: (in the voice of the subway bum he has heard before) Can you help an old altar boy, Father? (He turns) Your mother's in here with us, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it. Karras: If that's true, then you must know my mother's maiden name. What is it? What is it?

In the grossest scene of the film, as he approaches closer for an answer, Regan lurches forward on the bed and spews bilious, pea-green soup vomit from her mouth in a single projectile stream directly into his face. The thick green slime sticks to his face and clothing. Bits of vomit and bile acid also dribble down onto Regan's nightgown.

Chris washes and irons the priest's clothing, as he surveys some of Regan's artwork in the basement. He is again reluctant to get further involved and resort to exorcism: "Look, I'm only against the possibility of doing your daughter more harm than good...I can't do it. I need evidence that the church would accept as signs of possession...like her speaking in a language she's never known or studied...Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon. She says she's the devil himself. Now if you've seen as many psychotics as I have, you realize that's the same thing as saying you're Napoleon Bonaparte. You asked me what I think is best for your daughter. Six months, under observation, in the best hospital you can find." His advice is that she needs counseling rather than cleansing. Chris challenges the skeptical Karras to persuade him to believe that the child-monster upstairs is genuinely inhabited by a demon:

I'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter. Now I want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter except in her mind. YOU TELL ME YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT AN EXORCISM WOULDN'T DO ANY GOOD! YOU TELL ME THAT!

Karras decides to study Regan's condition, unimpressed by her physical manifestations, but amazed at her telepathic knowledge that his mother died. Regan mocks him as he sets up equipment to tape record the many strange voices that seem to be coming from inside her:

Regan: What an excellent day for an exorcism. Karras: You'd like that? Regan: Intensely. Karras: But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan? Regan: It would bring us together. Karras: You and Regan. Regan: You and us. [Here, the demon prophetically foreshadows the climax of the film, when the tormented priest Karras literally takes the demon into himself to free the girl from its power.]

Both a Jesuit priest and a psychiatrist by training, Karras goes about various tests to determine whether Regan's case of demon possession is authentic. He finds her powers of telekinesis (opening a nightstand drawer without touching it) unusual, but random. Remarkably, the demon uses Regan as a mouthpiece to speak Latin and French. Sprinkling 'holy water' over Regan in a cross-like pattern causes the Regan-demon to squirm and squeal with extreme fear at the Christian artifact: "It burns!" Diabolical sounds emanate from her mouth - growling dogs, squealing pigs, rasping groans, and foul language. Later, Karras tells Chris that it wasn't 'holy water' but ordinary 'tap water' - "Holy water's blessed, and that doesn't help support a case of a possession." Chris confesses, in a whisper, Regan's complicity in Dennings' murder: "She pushed him out her window."

Karras takes his tape recording to a sound expert - who after playing it declares that it is English in reverse: "It's a language all right. It's English...in reverse." Regan's deep voice calls out the priest's name "Merrin" over and over again. Karras is again summoned to the MacNeil house and brought upstairs by Sharon. She secretly confides: "I don't want Chris to see this." With a flashlight, they creep into the room - a freezing cold place where the sleeping Regan has reduced the temperature at will. Sharon peels back the blankets and opens Regan's nightshirt - the skin on Regan's abdomen has raised welts that form scarring words: "help me." All that is left of the real Regan strives to communicate and pleads for relief.

Persuaded and half-convinced that an exorcism must be performed to scourge the offending demon, Karras requests permission from his superior to proceed with Regan's case: "...I have made a prudent judgment that it meets the conditions set down in the ritual." It is recommended that an older priest, someone with prior experience of an exorcism, be chosen as the exorcist - "maybe someone who has spent time in foreign missions." Archaeologist-priest Father Lankester Merrin (who has returned from the site dig three or four months earlier and is writing a book in Woodstock) is chosen to be the skilled exorcist, and Karras is appointed as his assistant.

To provide a foreshadowing of the danger involved in casting out demons, it is remembered that ten to twelve years earlier while touring in Africa, Merrin conducted an exorcism that lasted months: "...heard it damn near killed him." [Ironically, Merrin's inadvertent unleashing of the demon in Iraq caused the crisis in the first place, and also caused the demon to enter Regan - to exact revenge.] Appropriately, Merrin is summoned to perform the exorcism and battle the evil demon.

On a dark foggy night, in one of the most memorable images of the film - its trademark, Father Merrin arrives by cab at the MacNeil home. He stands motionless under the streetlight in the swirling smoke and looks up at Regan's window - a shaft of bright light emanates down in a broad swatch. [Iconic images are paradoxically reversed - the 'good' priest is black and haunting, and the 'evil' demonic force casts a bright, illuminating light.] A full-closeup of Regan's face - with cat-like eyes, senses an old enemy. Merrin's dark silhouette appears at the doorway. As Merrin enters the house and greets Karras, the dark spirit residing in the girl cries a long, drawn-out curse: "Merrin!" Karras first wishes to explain the manifestations and background of the case, but Merrin wants to begin immediately.

With special gifts and experience, the austere Merrin prepares the younger priest with cautious advice. They must avoid conversations with the demon and not listen to the demon's voice because "the demon is a liar and would like to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful...Remember that. Do not listen." Father Karras begins explaining Regan's three different personalities - Father Merrin rudely explains that there is only one manifestation inside Regan - Pazuzu:

Karras: I think it might be helpful if I gave you some background on the different personalities Regan has manifested. So far, I'd say there seem to be three. She's convinced... Merrin: (brusquely) There is only one.

In the dramatic finale, the two men enter Regan's ice-cold bedroom, prepared to do spiritual battle. Garbed in priestly outfits, they also bring weapons of the spirit for exorcism - holy water, holy texts, and a crucifix. The devil's voice emanates from the demonic, staring, fixed-eyes visage of Regan. It curses at Father Merrin, as he recites holy scripture, with the foulest epithet in the film:

Stick your c--k up her ass, you mother-f--king worthless c--ks--ker.

Merrin splashes her body with holy water and yells back: "Be silent!" Regan screams and squirms away, twisting in pain as if burned by the sanctified water. They begin to conduct a RITE OF EXORCISM from red prayer books and recite the Lord's Prayer. The possessed child-monster spews yellowish slime onto Merrin's face. As they desperately pray and the temperature drops in the room, Regan reacts with head-rolling, more writhing, shrieking and vicious growling, sprinkled with more obscene vulgarities to taunt Karras:

Your mother sucks c--ks in hell, Karras.

The demon inside Regan struggles with her arm restraints and bucks the bed legs off the floor. The entire bed levitates into mid-air, pulled upwards by Regan's super-human strength. Regan's flopping head is momentarily replaced with the ghoulish, vampirish, white-faced image seen earlier in Karras' nightmare.

The monstrous battle continues as the bed sinks back in place. Regan's horrible, purple tongue darts in and out of her mouth. As Merrin places his purple cloth stole on her to bless her, a greenish vomit oozes out of her mouth to defile it. The demon fights with the holy men by violently opening and closing cabinet doors. Reaching his own limits, Merrin curses the demon:

Merrin: I cast you out! Unclean spirit in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Regan: Shove it up your a--, you f--kin'...

The walls and ceiling crack, the intravenous medical bottle apparatus crashes to the floor in pieces, and the bathroom door slams and splits as Merrin continues to cast out the demon for possession of her body and soul. He traces crosses on her temple: "Be gone from this creature of God. Be gone, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. With this sign of the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit." She sits upright and her head turns a full circle - 360 degrees. Regan's face, in a full face closeup, becomes eerily animated. The demonic beast accuses Karras of murder: "You killed your mother. You left her alone to die." The room violently shakes and the straps on Regan's wrists slowly rip open. Her milky-white eyes roll demonically backwards - a reminder of the blind eye of the steel worker in the prologue.

Her body levitates off the bed toward the ceiling, and her fully-extended body hovers in mid-air - her outstretched arms take the form of a cross. Merrin interprets: "It's the power of Christ. The power of Christ compels you." They chant the phrase repeatedly, and sprinkle more holy water - producing reddish-raw sores on her skin. She slowly sinks back down onto the bed. Karras binds her wrists - she retaliates by striking him from behind. The forces of the demon are unleashed - a back-lit demonic Pazuzu statue appears behind her.

Exhausted by the disgusting ordeal, the two priests rest before starting again. They stagger out of the bedroom, and the frail Father Merrin takes his much-needed heart medicine. Karras returns to the bedroom where Regan has transformed herself into a vision of his mother seated upright on the bed and wearing a white nightgown. As he wipes Regan's forehead, she speaks in his mother's voice to taunt him: "Dimmy, why did you do this to me? Please Dimmy, I'm afraid." He is tormented by the likeness to his mother's voice and screams: "You're not my mother!" Merrin, who has returned to the bedroom, cautions him to leave the bedroom: "Don't listen...Get out!"

Downstairs, Chris asks Karras about their progress: "Is it over?" and "Is she going to die?" He answers in a determined tone before returning upstairs: "No." The doorbell sounds (it signals the arrival of Lt. Kinderman) - another portent of bad news. When Karras joins Father Merrin in the bedroom, it is too late - the old priest is slumped over the bed, dead of a heart attack. Regan is sitting up against one of the padded bedposts - smiling and giggling. The enraged priest assaults her and throws her to the floor, shouting: "You son-of-a-bitch!" He punches her repeatedly in the face with his fist and tries to kill her.

In a supremely self-sacrificial act during the cathartic finale - an indication that he has regained his own faith through his contact with Father Merrin and by the undeniable realization that the Devil really exists, the formerly-rebellious priest Karras taunts the demon inside Regan. He provokes and welcomes the demon to leave her body and come into his own so that he can destroy the Evil:

Take me. Come into me. God-damn you. Take me. Take me.

She grabs and rips the amulet medal from his neck - symbolically removing his protection from evil (foreshadowed previously in Damien's surreal dream). At the moment of his own demonic possession, he suddenly pulls back, his body trembles and his eyes roll up, and his face momentarily takes on the appearance of Regan's demon - he growls and tumbles backwards. On the floor, Regan has regained her former self, and her stifled cries are made in her own voice, but she is terrorized by the demon within Karras. Now that he is filled with the beast-monster, he stands and staggers toward her with his arms outstretched to strangle her - but with all his own fortitude and strength, he screams: "No!" as he battles the demon's attempt to kill her. He hurls himself toward the bedroom window - his body is thrown through the glass and he falls to his death on the steep concrete steps below. [Due to the film's popularity, the steep stairway at the end of M Street in Georgetown has since become a minor tourist attraction.] Karras [with a symbolic first name - Damien/Demon] gives his own life to save Regan's spirit and life, with the promise of being reborn.

From the bedroom window, Lt. Kinderman views Karras' bloodied body ["FIGHT PIGS," a slogan typical of early 70's rebellion, appropriately adorns one of the adjoining walls of the steps, in red] at the foot of the Prospect Street steps. Regan cries hysterically, but she is cured. With police cars and bystanders crowding around, Father Dyer breaks through and grabs Karras' hand, beseeching him: "Do you want to make a confession? Are you sorry for having offended God and for all the sins of your past life?" Signaling his assent, Karras unclenches and grips Dyer's hand. Dyer absolves him of his sins during the administration of last rites. The price or cost of Regan's recovery to sanity and wholeness is that both priests die during the exorcism.

A few weeks later, the stairway steps are cleaned up, and Karl packs luggage in the car for the MacNeil's return to their home in Los Angeles. The house is being packed for the move. As Sharon bids Chris a final goodbye, she hands her the amulet medal (the silver medallion that Father Merrin found in Iraq) that she found in Regan's bedroom. In the driveway, Chris meets Father Dyer, telling him that Regan mercifully remembers nothing of the ordeal. She has repressed the experience entirely:

Chris: She doesn't remember any of it. Father Dyer: That's good.

A normal, cheerful, healthy-looking pre-teen restored to her former self, but still with bruises on her face - joins them. After she sees Father Dyer's clerical collar, she kisses the Father's cheek as if to say - thank you. Chris stops the car after they have driven a block away and engages in a brief exchange with the Father. She gives him the amulet medal as a remembrance and parting gift: "I thought you'd like to keep this." His cupped hand accepts and encloses the medal as they drive away.

Dyer solemnly pauses at the top of the stairs, just below the boarded up window of Regan's bedroom. The film ends on a chilling note with Dyer turning away from the steps, the sounds of "Tubular Bells," and an orchestral chord of emphasis - with the jolting view of the red-on-black title: "THE EXORCIST."

Awards and Nominations[]

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Academy Awards[]

The Exorcist was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1973, winning two. It is the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture. At the 46th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, the film won two statuettes (highlighted in bold).

The film was nominated for:

  • Academy Award for Best Picture – William Peter Blatty and Noel Marshall
  • Academy Award for Best Actress – Ellen Burstyn
  • Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – Jason Miller
  • Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Linda Blair
  • Academy Award for Best Director – William Friedkin
  • Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay – William Peter Blatty
  • Academy Award for Best Cinematography – Owen Roizman
  • Academy Award for Best Film Editing – Norman Gay
  • Academy Award for Best Production Design – Bill Malley and Jerry Wunderlich
  • Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing – Robert Knudson, Chris Newman

Golden Globe Awards[]

The Exorcist was nominated for seven total Golden Globes in 1973. At the 31st Golden Globes ceremony that year, the film won four awards.

  • Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Director – William Friedkin
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture – Linda Blair
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – William Peter Blatty
The film was nominated for
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Actress –
  • Motion Picture Drama – Ellen Burstyn
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture – Max von Sydow
  • Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress – Linda Blair

Library of Congress[]

  • 2010 National Film Registry

Inspiration[]

The book by William Peter Blatty was inspired by an actual event, the supposed exorcism of a demon from a 14 year old boy living in Mount Rainier, Maryland, USA. Blatty had read a news report concerning the boy, whose family had called in a priest after conventional medicine had failed to relieve him of various symptoms, including violent episodes and outbursts of foul language. The priest spent two months with the boy, during which he claimed to have witnessed him speaking Latin (a language the boy had no knowledge of) and moving across the room on his bed whilst sleeping. However, investigative journalist Mark Opsasnick researched the story after the film was released and could not find any record of a boy having lived in the house stated in the original news article in The Washington Post on August 20th 1949. There had been a case in Cottage City, Maryland of an exorcism being performed on a boy who allegedly would spit involuntarily, growl when angered, and whose bed shook from time to time. Opsasnick concluded that this was the case which Blatty had read about and that the Mount Rainier piece was a fabrication. Interestingly, while Opsasnick had sought to prove the possession was real, the evidence he uncovered forced him to conclude that the boy was only mentally ill, and the possession story was the result of the boy's religious mother and grandmother, a credulous priest, and sensationalistic reporting in the media. Another priest present at the exorcism has stated that he never witnessed any of the behaviour the character in the book/film exhibited and that some of the behaviour he did see could have been explained in other ways, e.g. while the boy in fact did speak some Latin on a couple of occasions, he seemed to be repeating phrases the exorcising priest was reciting from the religious manual. Opsasnick's investigation is regarded as the final word on the case; he went more in-depth into the story than any other journalist before.

Trivia[]

  • The real case that inspired William Peter Blatty's novel and screenplay was the 1949 exorcism of a 14-year-old boy, named in press accounts as "Roland Doe" or "Robbie Mannheim." The incident occurred in Washington, D.C., while Blatty was a student at the city's Georgetown University. In his novel, he would change the boy to a girl, but he kept many of the reported details, including the D.C. setting, the levitating furniture, the strange words appearing on the child's body, and the guttural voice heard when the boy opened his mouth.
  • Blatty made his career as a comic novelist and screenwriter of Hollywood comedies, including "A Shot in the Dark" and "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home." But he'd long been haunted by the Roland Doe story and finally began writing the novel in 1969.
  • Published in 1971, the book earned strong reviews but was not an immediate hit. Blatty lucked into an invitation to appear on the Dick Cavett talk show after another guest's last-minute cancellation, and he got to spend 45 minutes pitching his novel to a national TV audience. After that, the book climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.
  • Warner Bros. bought the film rights and offered it to several top directors, who all turned it down, including Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Penn, and Mike Nichols, who said he doubted he could find a 12-year-old girl who could carry the movie.
  • The studio's next choice was Mark Rydell, director of the then-recent Warner release "The Cowboys." Blatty, however, wanted the little-known Friedkin and threatened to announce during the author's upcoming appearance on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" that the studio wasn't letting him have the director he wanted. The studio may have relented anyway, but on the scheduled day of Blatty's "Tonight" visit, "The French Connection" opened and instantly turned Friedkin into a director in demand.
  • The model for Chris MacNeil, Regan's film-actress mother, was Blatty's friend and "John Goldfarb" star, Shirley MacLaine. The actress expressed interest in starring in the movie, but Friedkin demurred, since she had just starred in the similar "The Possession of Joel Delaney." Audrey Hepburn was offered the role, but she didn't want to leave her home in Rome to film in America. Anne Bancroft wanted to play Chris, but she was pregnant and unavailable. Jane Fonda declined, in what was reportedly a profanely-worded telegram (Blatty however reported that Fonda visited him personally to tell him the rumor was not true and that she had turned down the role because she "didn't believe in magic"). Finally, Ellen Burstyn, then best known for her supporting role in "The Last Picture Show," insisted to Friedkin that she was right for the part. (Among other things, she was a lapsed Catholic and the mother of a teenager.) With persistence, she won the role.
  • The model for Burke Dennings, the director of the movie Chris shoots in Georgetown, was J. Lee Thompson, who had directed "John Goldfarb" (as well as other hits, like "Cape Fear"). Director William Friedkin offered him the role, which he initially accepted but later changed his mind. He would instead be played by Jack MacGowran.
  • The model for Father Karras was Blatty himself, a Catholic undergoing a crisis of faith. The filmmakers signed Stacy Keach, but then they met Jason Miller, the playwright whose "That Championship Season" was about to win the Pulitzer Prize. Miller, who'd dropped out of a Catholic seminary before becoming an actor and playwright, insisted he should play the doubtful, tormented priest. He persuaded Friedkin to let him screen test with Burstyn. Friedkin was sold, and Warner Bros. was forced to buy Keach out of his contract. Keach later starred alongside Miller in The Ninth Configuration (1980), William Peter Blatty's film of his own novel. They would also work together again when Keach starred in Miller's film adaptation of his Broadway play, That Championship Season (1982). Although Miller wrote and directed that, he did not star alongside Keach in that.
  • The model for Father Lankester Merrin was Father Gerald Lankester Harding, an acquaintance of Blatty's who was both priest and archaeologist; he'd been involved in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Father Merrin was also partly based on the real-life Jesuit paleontologist, geologist, and philosopher Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose philosophical ideas are synopsized in Blatty's novel. Father Teilhard was among the discoverers of the Peking Man fossils and his philosophical ideas, which were controversial within the Catholic Church and were even considered by some to be heretical, have been quoted approvingly by later Popes, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Friedkin thought they bore a resemblance to Max von Sydow, who read the script and accepted the role immediately.
  • To find Regan, the filmmakers auditioned hundreds of young girls before they met Linda Blair. Blair’s agency had originally overlooked her, but her mother brought her in herself to audition. Friedkin hired her once he was convinced that she was not only talented enough to handle the acting challenge, but well-adjusted enough to handle what would surely be a traumatic filmmaking experience for a young girl.
  • Father William O'Malley who plays Father Dyer and Father Thomas Bermingham, whom some have interpreted as playing himself, were real priests and not actors. They also served as the film's technical advisors alongside Father John Nicola.
  • One small but key role was the drunken beggar who accosts Father Karras in the subway -- and whose voice is later heard coming from Regan's mouth, as a demonic taunt. Friedkin's casting director found Vincent Russell, an actual New York barfly whose only known address was the White Rose Tavern. Friedkin says Russell was drunk and wearing his own clothes when they shot the scene, and was still drunk months later when they brought him back to the sound studio to re-record his one line. He didn't remember anything and when he saw himself on the screen, appearing again and again in a loop, he thought he was in an alternate universe. And that was the extent of Vincent Russell's film career.
  • Before playing Father Karras, Jason Miller had studied for the priesthood with the Jesuits. He had spent three years in a Jesuit school before dropping out.
  • While the exteriors for the film were shot in Georgetown, most of the shoot took place in Manhattan. The interior of the MacNeil house was a set built in a warehouse. The bedroom was its own set, built on top of eight pneumatic wheels to create the earthquake effect, with a hidden forklift attached to the bed to create the jumping bed effect, piano wires suspended from the ceiling for Regan's levitation, and refrigeration units that cooled the room to a frigid 30 degrees below zero for scenes showing the actors' breath (On one occasion the air was saturated with moisture resulting in a thin layer of snow falling on the set before the crew arrived for filming).
  • Makeup artist Dick Smith and his protégé, Rick Baker, spent three hours a day turning Blair into the demonically-possessed Regan. But they spent four hours a day turning 43-year-old Von Sydow into the 70-something priest.
  • To play Father Dyer, Father Karras's colleague, Friedkin cast an actual Jesuit priest, Father William O'Malley. But for an emotional scene at the end of the movie, Friedkin couldn't get the right performance he wanted from the amateur actor. After about 20 takes, Friedkin took Father O'Malley aside and slapped him across the face, causing him to be visibly shaking in the final scene.
  • Friedkin had a similar problem with von Sydow during the scene where Father Merrin commands the demon to leave "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," at which point Regan's bedroom ceiling cracks open. Friedkin spent three days trying to get the line reading he wanted, going through several fake ceilings in the process. Finally, von Sydow admitted that he had trouble with the words because he himself didn't believe in God. Friedkin asked how he'd been able to play Jesus so convincingly in "The Greatest Story Ever Told." Von Sydow replied that he'd played Jesus as a man, not a god. Friedkin suggested that he play Father Merrin as a man, and though he instantly thought that was a weak bit of direction, it worked on von Sydow, who went off by himself for an hour, returned, and delivered the line with the intensity Friedkin wanted. Friedkin later claimed it may have been because he wasn't used to that kind of acting, having played more quiet and subtle characters in the past.
  • Friedkin insisted on shooting the prologue in Iraq, where Father Merrin finds the statue of the demon Pazuzu, on location in that country. Friedkin spent more than a month there, facing such obstacles as 130-degree weather, illnesses among the crew, a thwarted government coup, a curious tribe of actual devil-worshippers, and difficulties with the key prop, the statue, which was mistakenly shipped to Hong Kong before finding its way to Iraq.
  • Production was delayed for six weeks after a mysterious fire suddenly burned down the original sets, except for Regan's bedroom which was on a different floor. Although some believed the cause was a pigeon flying into a circuit box, many of the cast and crew were very distressed.
  • Jason Miller's youngest son, Jordan, was struck by a motorcycle on the beach and was in critical condition for ten days during the filming. Jason Miller had to perform the emotional scenes with his mother in the hospital, while Father Thomas Bermingham, who appears in the film, kept vigil by his son's side in the hospital himself throughout those ten days.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, she tallied a total of 9 deaths that were associated with the production of the film. Including, but not limited to, actors Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros (whose characters both die in the film), Max von Sydow's brother, Linda Blair's grandfather, the man who refrigerated the set, the night watchman, and the assistant cameraman's baby.
  • Ellen Burstyn received a permanent spinal injury during filming. In the crucifix scene, when she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, a harness jerked her hard away from the bed. When she landed on the floor, she fractured her coccyx and screamed in pain. This was the footage used in the film.
  • Linda Blair's spine was also fractured in the "mother make it stop! it's burning! It's burning" scene where Regan's upper body is ricocheting up and down off the bed. The contraption that was supposed to lift her up and down broke loose, and her spine was permanently injured. This was also the footage used in the film.
  • For the voice of the demon-possessed Regan, Friedkin hired veteran Oscar-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge. She had long since quit the drinking and smoking that had given her such a distinctively raspy voice, but she started up again for the sake of her performance. She would also drink raw eggs and have herself tied to a chair, so that she could feel the restraints Regan felt when she was bound to the bed. Friedkin claims that McCambridge insisted on doing the performance without credit so as not to take away from Blair's accomplishment, but when the film opened, McCambridge complained that she'd been denied credit and threatened to sue. Warner Bros. hastily spliced her name into the credit reel.
  • Music producer Jack Nitzsche made the eerie sounds over the opening credits by rubbing the rim of a wine goblet.
  • The rest of the music was harder to find. Friedkin sought out legendary movie composer Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho"), but they couldn't agree on what the score should sound like. He hired Lalo Schifrin ("Mission: Impossible") but didn't like the overly orchestral results and fired him. Friedkin finally found the minimalist sound he wanted when he stumbled across Mike Oldfield's recording "Tubular Bells." Once the piece became known as the "Exorcist" theme, "Tubular Bells" became the first million-selling record for Richard Branson's then-new Virgin Records label.
  • The movie was booked at first in just 26 theaters across the country. Friedkin visited every single one of them before the film's release to insure that its lighting and sound quality were up to his standards.
  • The film earned $66 million in 1974 in North America, making it one of the most lucrative films of all time (if adjusted for inflation). After various re-releases, it has earned $233 million to date in North America and $441 million worldwide.
  • The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including nods for Friedkin, Burstyn, Miller, and Blair, but it won just two: Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture.
  • Rick Baker, whose first movie gig was as makeup artist Dick Smith's assistant on "The Exorcist," went on to a distinguished career in monster makeup and special effects, highlighted by his work on "An American Werewolf in London," Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Eddie Murphy's "Nutty Professor" movies, and the three "Men in Black" films.
  • In the scene where Regan projectile vomits at Father Karras, the vomit was intended to hit Jason Miller in the chest, but the plastic tubing misfired, hitting him in the face. His reaction of shock and disgust while wiping away the vomit is genuine, and Miller admitted in interviews that he was very angered by this mistake.
  • Jason Miller had a major verbal confrontation with William Friedkin after the director fired a gun near his ear to get an authentic reaction from him. He told Friedkin that he was an actor, and that he didn't need a gun to act surprised or startled.
  • On the first day of rehearsing the exorcism sequence, Linda Blair's delivery of her foul-mouthed dialogue so disturbed the gentlemanly Max von Sydow that he actually forgot his lines.
  • According to director William Friedkin, the subliminal shots of the demon are actually rejected makeup tests for Regan's possessed appearance.
  • Due to death threats against Linda Blair from religious zealots who believed the film "glorified Satan", Warner Bros. had bodyguards protecting her for six months after the film's release.
  • The original teaser trailer, which consisted of nothing but images of the white-faced demon quickly flashing in and out of darkness, was banned in many theaters, as it was deemed "too frightening".
  • The studio wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Father Karras or Father Merrin. Director William Friedkin immediately vetoed this by stating that with Brando in the film it would become a Brando movie instead of the important film he wanted to make. Coincidentally, Brando is also mentioned in the novel.
  • The shot where Father Merrin steps out of a cab and stands in front of the MacNeil residence bathed in an eerie glow was inspired by the 1953-1954 series of paintings "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumières") by René Magritte.
  • When originally released in the UK a number of town councils imposed a complete ban on the showing of the film. This led to the bizarre spectacle of "Exorcist Bus Trips" where enterprising travel companies organised buses to take groups to the nearest town where the film was showing.
  • Jack Nicholson was up for the part of Father Karras, before Jason Miller landed the role. William Friedkin thought he was too unholy to ever play a priest.
  • The contortionist Ann Miles was hired to perform the famous "spiderwalk" scene, which was filmed in November 1972. Ms. Miles was able to perform the scene by use of a harness and flying wires hung above the staircase used on the set; she would advise William Friedkin when she was just barely touching the stairs with her hands and feet; and then she maintained that light touch as she was moved down the staircase by the harness and wires. William Friedkin deleted the scene before the film's release. He felt it was "too much" of an effect because it appeared so early in the film. He later admitted that another reason for omitting the scene was that there was no way to hide the wires from view at the time. Almost 30 years later, Friedkin changed his mind and added the scene back for the extended 2000 version, with the wires digitally removed.
  • William Friedkin had to take an all-British crew to film in Iraq because the US had no diplomatic relations with Iraq at that time. They were allowed to film near ancient buildings and actual archaeological digs on conditions that included teaching Iraqi filmmakers advanced film techniques as well as how to make fake blood.
  • In the scene where the words "help me" arise out of Regan's torso, the effect was achieved by constructing a foam latex replica of actress Linda Blair's belly, writing the words out with a paint brush and cleaning fluid, then filming the words as they formed from the chemical reaction. Special effects artist Dick Smith then heated the forming blisters with a blow dryer, causing them to deflate. When the film was run backwards, it appeared as though the words were rising out of Regan's skin.
  • The vomit Regan hurls at Father Karras is thick pea soup. Specifically, it's Andersen's brand pea soup. The crew tried Campbell's but didn't like the "effect."
  • According to director William Friedkin, the studio executives would come up on a weekly basis to have a look at the shooting progress. They shook their heads in disbelief, believing that the movie was utter ridiculousness
  • Ellen Burstyn objected to the original exchange between her character and Father Dyer at the end, where she claims she now believes in the devil but not God.
  • Ellen Burstyn wore a bracelet in the film with a horseshoe on it, because she had the idea that she wanted her character Chris MacNeil to be "poorly armed" to fight the devil. On the last day of filming, she gave the bracelet to Linda Blair. Several years later, they crossed paths on an airline flight to Los Angeles, and Linda was wearing the bracelet that she had given her.
  • To test the effectiveness of the dummy used for the head turning effect, the crew placed it in a New York City taxi cab. When it pulled up to another car, and people would look over, they would spin the head around before quickly driving off.
  • According to author William Peter Blatty, Warner Bros. wanted to change the title of the film after taking a survey which found none of the participants knew what an exorcist was.
  • According to director William Friedkin, the original poster that the studio created for the film was a drawing of Regan's hand holding the bloody crucifix that she masturbates with. The original tag line was "God help this girl". Friedkin rejected the poster, stating that the word "God" should not be used in a movie tag line.
  • In the arteriogram scene, the bearded man who assists the doctor is Paul Bateson. He was an x-ray technician at NYU Medical Center where that scene was shot and managed to get that small part. In 1979, he was convicted of the murder of a film critic and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, he bragged about and was a suspect in the murders of six men whom he said he picked up in gay bars, had sex with them and then murdered and dismembered their bodies and put them into plastic bags "for fun" in 1977 and 78. They were known as the "bag murders". Although investigators believed his story, he was never officially charged and those murders have technically never been solved. Bateson was released from prison in 2004. The whole story revolving the "bag murders" were later fictionalized in Cruising (1980), which is also directed by William Friedkin.
  • To entertain and distract Linda Blair during the long makeup process she had to sit through, the crew set up a television near her makeup chair where she would often watch The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), I Love Lucy (1951), and The Flying Nun (1967). Makeup artist Dick Smith would later recall in an interview "Oh how I learned to hate The Flying Nun".
  • Although director William Friedkin denied Jamie Lee Curtis being considered for the role of Regan MacNeil with a tweet in 2015 saying "This is completely untrue", Curtis claims she recalls her mother, Janet Leigh, getting a call from a producer asking if Jamie, who was 13 at the time, could audition. Her mother simply said "No, I don't think so."
  • Linda Blair hated vegetables so much at the time that the use of the pea soup actually did make her vomit.
  • For the vomiting sequences, Eileen Dietz doubled (uncredited) for Linda Blair. Makeup veteran Dick Smith rigged Dietz's facial contours with sheets of heat-formed plexiglass that were secured at the corners of her mouth and behind her head. A camouflaged nozzle anchored in Dietz's oral cavity provided the apparatus through which the "vomit" could be forcefully discharged, fed by supply tubes discreetly embedded in the plexiglass on both sides of her face. Such was the complexity of the set-up that Dietz could barely swallow or close her mouth.
  • An audience member who saw the movie in 1974 during its original theatrical release fainted and broke her jaw on the seat in front of her. She then sued Warner Bros. and the filmmakers, claiming that the use of subliminal imagery in the film had caused her to pass out. The studio settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
  • Gonzalo Gavira was called on to create many of the special sound effects after William Friedkin recalled his work from El Topo (1970). One of the more memorable sounds, the 360-degree turning of Regan's head, was actually made by taking his old, cracked leather wallet and twisting it back and forth against the microphone.
  • The actual residence in Georgetown that is used for the exterior shots has a rather large yard between it and the infamous steps. The window that leads to Regan's room is at least 40 feet from the top of the steps. This distance would make it impossible for anyone "thrown" from the window to actually land on the steps. In the movie, set decorators added a false wing to the house, so that Regan's supposed window would in fact be close to the infamous steps. The residence was owned by Ms. Florence Mahoney and is at the corner of 36th and Prospect. During shooting of the exterior scenes the crew had to build special sets to allow sunlight in to keep her garden plants from dying.
  • Mercedes McCambridge and Linda Blair never met in real life.
  • Despite the studio's fears that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) would give the film an X rating, it got an R, with no cuts whatsoever. The MPAA's decision, according to William Friedkin, was that it was "a brilliant, intelligent film" that deserved to be seen by a wider audience. Regardless, many American cities such as Washington, D.C. and Boston chose to disregard the decision and gave it an X.
  • Eileen Dietz was used for the shot where Regan belts Dr. Klein across the face. William Friedkin felt they needed someone with more heft physically to perform the stunt, and the double was shot from the back.
  • At one point the search for a young actress capable of playing Regan was so tiring that William Friedkin claims he even considered auditioning adult dwarf actors.
  • Director George Cukor loudly blasted the film and threatened to resign from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences if it won the award for Best Picture.
  • Denise Nickerson, who played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), was considered for Regan, but the material troubled her parents too much, and they pulled her out of consideration.
  • The nurse who comes into Dr. Taney's office after the arteriogram is Elinore Blair, Linda Blair's mother.
  • Director William Friedkin's attention to detail was so extensive than an early scene that simply involved breakfast being cooked took over a day to complete because he wanted to use bacon that wouldn't smoke and sizzle, which in 1972 meant the production had to find very-hard-to-locate bacon that didn't have preservatives.
  • In order to bring some levity to the shoot, William Peter Blatty suggested shooting a scene (not for the movie, but to amuse everyone at the screening of the rushes) in which Father Merrin would enter the house, take off his hat, and reveal himself to be Groucho Marx, a friend of Blatty's. The parody would even go as far as featuring an appearance from the duck from You Bet Your Life (1950). Groucho was keen to do it, but William Friedkin got sick that day and the idea was abandoned.
  • During the scene where Father Karras visits Chris MacNeil as she's ironing, the infamous Ivory Snow box featuring porn star Marilyn Chambers can be seen in the background.
  • Director William Friedkin blamed part of the budget problems on the continuous breakdown of the $50,000 air conditioning unit required to cool Regan's room to sub-zero temperatures for some scenes in which the actors' breath needed to appear chilled. Friedkin noted that when camera lights heated the room, shooting would be discontinued until the air returned to below freezing.
  • Brazilian composer Eumir Deodato (famous for his 2001-Also Sprach Zarathustra heard in the movie Being There (1979)) lived in New York City by the time this movie opened, and was informed by friends that a piece of music he composed could be heard on the movie's soundtrack. He initially dismissed the warning, as he believed they were mistakenly identifying Tubular Bells (also part of the movie's soundtrack) as a composition of his own. Eventually, to clear this matter, his lawyer attended the movie with a concealed tape recorder. He recorded the whole movie, and played it back to Eumir over the phone, who finally recognized a composition of his own: "Carly and Carole", heard briefly at the party scene. Eumir's lawyer arranged a meeting with the legal team at Warner Bros. and asked for the movie to be pulled from circulation. A compromise was eventually arranged after an undisclosed sum was paid.
  • Christian evangelist Billy Graham claimed an actual demon was living in the celluloid reels of the film itself.
  • William Peter Blatty became friends with actress Tippi Hedren in the early 1970s, and she named one of her lions Billy after him. He gave her a copy of his unpublished novel "The Exorcist" and she was so absorbed reading it, that she woke up her then-husband, an agent Noel Marshall, in the middle of the night and told him that he should represent Blatty in publishing the novel and the film adaptation. She took the photo of the author for the first edition novel's back jacket. The 1971 novel became a bestseller and Marshall would be credited as 'Executive Producer' for the film adaptation, also titled "The Exorcist", where he was supposed to receive 15% of the profits. When the film became a blockbuster, Blatty refused to give the profits, since he never signed the written contract, but only initiated it. Marshall sued and the lawsuit dragged on for several years eventually reaching an out-of-court settlement. These were trying years for Hedren and Marshall since they needed the money to feed the big cats for their film Roar (1981), the financial stress would result in their divorce. Many years later, Blatty ran into Hedren at a party and said Hi. She walked away from him, without acknowledging him.
  • Although never mentioned by name, the character of Billy Cutshaw, the astronaut Regan says "You're gonna die up there" to, is the same astronaut (played by a different actor) that appears in author/producer William Peter Blatty's other film, The Ninth Configuration (1980).
  • After filming, director William Friedkin brought production for editing to 666 Fifth Avenue.
  • It was on the set of this film that author William Peter Blatty met his wife-to-be, professional tennis champ Linda Tuero (later Linda Blatty). She'd been hired as an extra.
  • The scenes showing Father Karras in his room at Georgetown were filmed in Fordham University's freshman residence, Hughes Hall, fourth floor. Hughes was once the site of Fordham Preparatory school. Since there was no elevator at the time, the windows had to be removed in order to accommodate the camera on a crane. Each year, Father William O'Malley talked about his experience with the movie after students watch it on the same floor where it was filmed.
  • The Greek song playing on the radio when Father Karras leaves his mother's house is called "Paramythaki mou" (My Tale) and is sung by Giannis Kalatzis. Lyric writer Lefteris Papadopoulos admitted that a few years later when he was in financial difficulties he asked some compensation for the intellectual rights of the song.
  • Linda Blair's first audition consisted of reading a paragraph of the "worst language you could ever imagine." When her mother asked her afterwards how it went, she simply said "Fine".
  • According to Mercedes McCambridge, when she first discovered she did not get a credit for her role as the voice of the demon, she was so upset she got into a wrong car (which apparently still had the keys in the ignition) and thinking it was hers, drove three blocks before she realized she had stolen someone else's car.
  • There was a report that appeared in the Toronto Medical Post in 1974 claiming four women who saw The Exorcist in theatres were so traumatized they were confined to psychiatric care.
  • After working seven days a week for four months on the film, makeup artist Dick Smith quit one day after an argument with director William Friedkin. Friedkin started screaming at Smith over an issue with Max von Sydow's hairline that Smith had already warned him would happen. Smith later returned with a doctor's note to finish the film but needing at least one day off per week.
  • Ellen Burstyn's son, who was 9 or 10 years old at the time, wanted to see the film when it came out, but Ellen declined, saying "No, you cannot see this film, you're too young." On his 14th birthday, he wanted a screening of The Exorcist as a birthday present. This time Ellen agreed to it and arranged a screening for her son and his friends that he had invited. A couple of years later he said to Ellen "Mom, I didn't wanna tell you this but you were right, I was too young."
  • According to Ellen Burstyn's memoir, "Lessons in Becoming Myself", after Jason Miller did his screen test with her, he made a pass at her.
  • The shot of the psychiatrist's screaming face, according to director William Friedkin, was inspired by the shot of Martin Balsam falling down the stairs in Psycho (1960).
  • Director William Friedkin made a point to show Father Karras "rising up" in many of his scenes in the film. This accounts for how often he is seen walking up a hill or climbing stairs.
  • Author William Peter Blatty at one point considered having the entity that possesses the child in his novel The Exorcist be a woman claiming to have lived in some remote history, possibly Judaea in the time of Christ; and who attacks the exorcist psychologically by claiming an acquaintance with Christ, then proceeding to describe him in disillusioning terms.
  • Ozzy Osbourne reportedly once sat through eight showings of The Exorcist. He's since stated it's his favourite horror movie, having influenced him and his work since first seeing it with his Black Sabbath band members.
  • Makeup artist Dick Smith once asked Linda Blair during the filming how she felt having to swear for the film. She replied "Oh it's not me. It's Regan."
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, she had a little bit of old-age makeup underneath her regular makeup for her final scene in the film to show her character having been through Hell but trying to hide it.
  • It is generally believed the demon called itself "Captain Howdy" to Regan as a play on her father's name, Howard. After discussing Captain Howdy, Regan is seen reading a Photoplay magazine with the headline: "Big Trouble In the MacNeil Marriage! The Night Howard Walked Out On His Wife." (The cover has a photo of Chris and Regan.)
  • Linda Blair had to wear several different contact lenses which were very painful. The least painful were those that whited her eyes.
  • Many of the demonic sound effects used were actually recordings of animals in a slaughterhouse. For example, the sound effect of the demon leaving Regan and entering Karras is actually the sound of pigs being herded for slaughter. (This also alludes to a story in the New Testament where Jesus cast out several demons, collectively called Legion, from a man and transfers them into the bodies of pigs. The pigs are then drowned, similar to Father Karras dying after accepting the demon.)
  • The sound effects team spent over 150 hours trying to modify Linda Blair's voice electronically before William Friedkin decided to use a different voice.
  • The wires used for the levitation scene were painted black and white in order to better conceal them. Lighting was also a factor. For years after the release the film, director William Friedkin claimed the effect was achieved using magnetic fields.
  • The character of Mary Jo Perrin, seen sitting next to Father Dyer during the party scene, plays a larger role in the novel, lending a book on witchcraft to Chris.
  • Barton Heyman, who played Dr. Klein, became good friends with, and later dated, Ann Miles, who performed the "spiderwalk" scene.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller required so many takes to get the scene in the basement right, she had difficulty not crying from frustration. Director William Friedkin kept telling her to not cry during this scene.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair accidentally hit her for real once while filming the crucifix scene.
  • Ann Miles, who performed the "spiderwalk" scene, had to hold her breath when bitting the blood capsule as it would flood her nose and mouth.
  • The first production designer, who was fired for not following instructions, had taken many pictures of himself with Linda Blair, hoping they would be used in the film as pictures of Regan's absent father.
  • Ellen Burstyn had difficulty filming the scene where the bed bounces as it was shot several times and she was still in pain from her spinal injury. According to her memoir, William Friedkin was repeatedly dissatisfied and filmed it numerous times. She would lie on her side between takes.
  • According to actress Eileen Dietz, Jason Miller immediately apologized to her after tackling her so aggressively to the floor while filming the climax scene. She was alright though and was glad he really went for it. She was later asked by a stuntman if she would be interested in pursuing stunt-work, to which she declined.
  • In the novel, the cast and crew of the film Chris is working on all celebrate Regan's birthday. Although this doesn't appear in the film, in a case of life imitating art, the cast and crew of The Exorcist also celebrated Linda Blair's birthday.
  • Ellen Burstyn lost approximately 50 pounds between the time she was cast and when filming began through diet and exercise.
  • Max von Sydow claimed that he had difficulty finding work after the film as his makeup was so realistic, most people thought he really was that old.
  • One of Lee J. Cobb's last roles before his death. His character, Lt. Kinderman, was brought back for the final film sequel, The Exorcist III (1990), written and directed by author William Peter Blatty himself. For that film, George C. Scott took over the role. Director William Friedkin appears to have approved the idea, as in 1997 he directed 12 Angry Men (1997), in which Scott played Juror #3, Cobb's role from 12 Angry Men (1957).
  • According to William Friedkin he didn't give Brooke Shields the part of Regan MacNeil because "she was too young for the part". She would later go on to play Chris MacNeil in the original stage production of The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in 2012.
  • The black valise that Father Karras carries with him throughout the film, according to the novel, symbolizes his pain that he's carrying.
  • Ellen Burstyn was skeptical Jason Miller was right for the role of Father Karras not only because he wasn't a film actor, but also because she said he was too short.
  • The Exorcist was first called "the scariest movie of all time" by Entertainment Weekly, after having conducted a poll in 1999.
  • The first words the audience hears are "Allahu Akbar" - "God is great". Some critics have suggested the use of the Muslim call to prayer symbolizes the film being not just a Catholic story but an inclusive one for all faiths.
  • The language lab scene was filmed in a room in the basement of Keating Hall on Fordham University's Bronx campus. The same room was used as a Pentagon office in A Beautiful Mind (2001).
  • The first scene to be shot was of a distressed Karras pacing the corridors of Bellevue psychiatric hospital, agitatedly discussing with his uncle his mother's incarceration.
  • Max von Sydow would ask the director of photography Owen Roizman where director William Friedkin's guns were hidden when he would arrive on set.
  • After much debate over the head turning 360 degrees around, director William Friedkin compromised with author William Peter Blatty by adding a shot of Father Karras, suggesting it's a hallucination being projected by the demon.
  • The heads of the statues seen in the opening Iraq prologue were from the archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hatra, which was sacked by the Sassanians in 37 B.C. During the attack, which killed approximately 100,000, they cut off all the people's heads as well as the heads of the statues.
  • While preparing for his role as Father Karras, Jason Miller was able to obtain the diary of the exorcist involved in the original 1949 case from the chancellery office.
  • Director William Friedkin once brought rotten meat and eggs on the set to create the foul smell of the demon. Some members of the crew got sick and ran to the bathroom to throw up. An upset Ellen Burstyn reportedly asked him where he wanted her to throw up if she got sick.
  • Director William Friedkin designed the scenes throughout the film to alternate between brightly lit and dark scenes, as well as loud and quiet scenes, to symbolize good versus evil.
  • In West Germany, the death of 19 year-old Rainer Hertrampf, who shot himself with an automatic rifle after seeing The Exorcist, lead to calls there for the film to be banned.
  • The sound of a ticking grandfather clock, similar to that of a ticking time bomb, can be heard in the background just moments before the infamous crucifix scene.
  • Gossip columnist Rona Barrett claimed Linda Blair was put in a mental institution after the release of The Exorcist. At the time, Linda was already back in school and a champion horsewoman.
  • Makeup artist Dick Smith would take the dummy used for the head turning effect at home with him at night after he left it at the studio one night only to discover graffiti on it the next morning.
  • A crewman who was working overhead once threw a rubber chicken from above as a joke when director William Friedkin shot a gun on the set.
  • The sticky substance Regan spits in Father Merrin's face was made of coffee and pancake batter.
  • During the original theatrical release, it was reported in Chicago two viewers were sent into a mental institution after having watched the film.
  • Author William Peter Blatty at one point considered having Father Karras be black, having come to the priesthood to escape the slums and his boyhood identity.
  • The shot of Sharon and the doctors running up to Regan's bedroom was a complicated shot that required a camera operator to be hoisted up by a pulley, as there was no steadicam at the time. The steadicam would be invented just a couple years later in 1975.
  • According to director William Friedkin, the demonic sound effects included recordings of a real exorcism that was performed on a young boy in Rome.
  • Jack MacGowran's last contribution to the film was the recording of the line "Do you know what she did? Your c***ing daughter?" He died a couple weeks later from influenza.
  • Director William Friedkin claims following the making of The Exorcist, he briefly considered converting from Judaism to Catholicism.
  • According to director William Friedkin, Linda Blair was the only cast member who never got sick or missed any time while filming.
  • As production kept repeatedly going over schedule, according to Ellen Burstyn, she started having nightmares the film had turned into a television series.
  • The crucifix scene was filmed on January 22, 1973, Linda Blair's 14th birthday. The cast and crew all celebrated at the end of the day.
  • In the novel, Regan's hair is red. Ironically, Linda Blair actually is a redhead but her hair was dyed brown for the film.
  • Director William Friedkin had an extra removed from the scene where Chris and Karras first meet in the park because the colours they were wearing were distractingly bright.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, director William Friedkin only yelled at her once during filming. Burstyn claims this is because he wouldn't be able to photograph her if her eyes and nose turned red and blotchy from crying.
  • The strange orange bird that Regan makes out of clay, according to director William Friedkin, is meant to echo the image of the demon Pazuzu.
  • Some have interpreted Father Thomas Bermingham as playing himself. His name would be added by author William Peter Blatty in 2011 to the 40th Anniversary Edition of the novel.
  • Following a private screening prior to the theatrical release, some executives called the film "obscene" and suggested shelving it and not releasing it at all.
  • While filming the crucifix scene, Linda Blair simply had to put the crucifix in a sponge between her legs that was filled with fake blood. The shots of the crotch area were filmed with actress Eileen Dietz.
  • In Berkeley, it was reported a man was injured when he threw himself at the screen during a showing of the film in an attempt to "get the demon".
  • Regan's enormous tongue was made of foam latex. It was molded from Linda Blair's real tongue and attached with peanut butter. This same tongue would later be used again in Scary Movie 2 (2001).
  • The effect of the holy water burning Regan's skin was achieved by pulling off pieces of latex with a hidden fishing wire.
  • The archeological dig seen at the beginning of the film was a real archeological dig director William Friedkin was given permission to film at in Northern Iraq.
  • Director William Friedkin claims he regretted not adding a caption saying "Manhattan" when Karras visits his mother, saying audiences were given too much credit back then.
  • The line "Evil against evil", represents the ancient belief that the power of the demon Pazuzu could be used to fight against other demons.
  • Father Thomas Bermingham, who appears in the film, had helped author William Peter Blatty write the novel after teaching him in high school, making him both an advisor for the film and the novel.
  • According to Linda Blair, director William Friedkin would warn her before he'd fire a gun on the set so that she wouldn't be startled like the others.
  • During a showing of the film in Boston, it was reported that several young men supposedly paraded naked in front of the screen, claiming to be possessed by the devil.
  • During filming, director William Friedkin claimed he wanted the demon to sound like a chorus of voices in a Hieronymus Bosch painting.
  • Although many critics wrote about Linda Blair's makeup when the film was first released, they never mentioned Max von Sydow's makeup, thinking he actually was that old.
  • When asked if she had any religious beliefs, Ellen Burstyn had ad-libbed "Oh, well, maybe God". The line was later looped during editing to a more definitive "No".
  • Director William Friedkin once received Holy Communion when attending Mass in preparation for the film. Being Jewish, he did not realize he had unwittingly committed sacrilege. Author William Peter Blatty was so shocked he contacted the priest, who responded "Don't worry. It can't hurt him".
  • Many of the guests seen during the party scene were real members from Georgetown's society and not actors. Director William Friedkin was able to get them for one day to film a few establishing shots, as he didn't want to use regular screen extras.
  • In 1974, after murdering 9 year-old Sandra Simpson, 17 year-old Nicholas Bell blamed The Exorcist, telling the court: "It was not really me that did it. There was something inside me. It is ever since I saw that film The Exorcist. I felt something take possession of me. It has been in me ever since." The York Crown Court did not buy Bell's argument and he was found guilty.
  • Director William Friedkin once had four different guns be shot simultaneously to startle his actors during the exorcism scenes.
  • False teeth were originally used on Linda Blair but were abandoned as they affected her speech. Her own teeth were instead painted with tooth enamel.
  • A carpenter working on the set accidentally severed two fingers with a buzz saw and had to be rushed to the hospital.
  • The stuntman who threw himself down the flight of stairs had a bag full of fake blood hidden under his sweater. A small cut was made so that every time he turned over, blood would come out.
  • The picture of the woman on the bookcase in Father Karras's room in his mother's apartment, according to director William Friedkin, is his girlfriend, whom he gave up when he joined the priesthood.
  • A much-publicized inquest was launched in England into the death of 16 year-old John Power, who had seen The Exorcist the day before he died. It revealed he had suffered an unrelated epileptic attack.
  • The blacksmith's shop seen during the opening Iraq prologue is across from the actual tomb of King Nebuchadnezzar, which was built upon the tomb of the prophet David.
  • The friendly tussle over the candy between Regan and Chris, according to director William Friedkin, is meant to mirror the later physical confrontation that occurs during the crucifix scene.
  • The effect during the exorcism where the curtains blow about while the windows remain closed was done by building small air vents into the windowsills.
  • The son of Mercedes McCambridge, John Lawrence Fifield (who later adopted the surname of his stepfather and became known as John Markle), murdered his entire family before killing himself in 1987. He had been fired from his job at Stephens and Company on the 13th of November for an embezzlement scheme involving accounts belonging to his mother. A $5 million lawsuit was filed against both him and McCambridge (although she was later cleared of any criminal activity). On the 16th of November, he murdered his wife Christine as well as his two daughters, Amy and Suzanne, while wearing a Halloween mask in their home in Little Rock, Arkansas. He then placed two guns to his head and shot himself in both temples simultaneously. In his suicide note he admitted responsibilities for his crimes but he also left a long and bitter letter for his mother.
  • Although the subtitle says "This is strange" when Father Merrin is examining the Saint Joseph medal during the Iraq prologue, he's actually asking "What's this doing here?"
  • Author/producer William Peter Blatty appears in the film, similarly to real life, as a movie producer. He can be seen debating a scene with Burke Dennings on the set of Chris's film.
  • Dana Plato claimed that she had been offered the role of Regan but her mother Kay had turned it down. William Peter Blatty later said that he had "no such recollection" of this actually happening, and that Plato herself may have been the source for this rumor.
  • Approximately 200 eggs were broken for the breakfast scene.
  • For years, director William Friedkin denied the "spiderwalk" scene was filmed until it would be rediscovered years later and reinstated for the extended director's cut.
  • Warm beer was used for the scene where Regan urinates on the carpet. It was achieved with an airplane remote control system. A thin tank was put behind her back, which was activated by a switch.
  • Although the scenes inside the church were filmed at Dalgreen Chapel, the specific shot of the desecration in the church was filmed in a studio.
  • A gaffer named Jimmy Harris lost his toe when a heavy object fell on his foot while filming the Iraq prologue sequence.
  • Father Thomas Bermingham who appears in the film, reportedly commented on the statue of the demon Pazuzu, saying they had "greatly exaggerated" the size of the demon's phallus.
  • Director William Friedkin was inspired by many of artists Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer's paintings for many shots in the film.
  • According to actress Eileen Dietz's memoir "Exorcising My Demons", after sharing a memorable limousine ride to the set with Lee J. Cobb, he nicknamed her "Whooshee" on account of fans outside asking "Who's she?"
  • Director William Friedkin reportedly shot almost 4 hours of footage while in Iraq, of which about 10 minutes appears on screen.
  • Director William Friedkin almost chose a different makeup concept for Linda Blair and even tried filming the hypnosis scene before deciding to use facial wounds instead.
  • Due to the intense heat in Iraq, the daily shooting schedule there was divided into two segments. The first part began at 6 AM and ended at 11 AM. Filming would then resume again at 4 PM and continue until 7 PM.
  • According to author William Peter Blatty, the character of Father Karras was originally to be named Father Thomas, then John Henry Carver.
  • Although she was raised a Christian, Linda Blair claims the devil was never discussed growing up and therefore she considered it to be simply just another fictitious character.
  • Rudolf Schündler, who played Karl, once blew his lines and almost fell down the stairs when director William Friedkin fired a gun to startle him.
  • The closeup shot of the psychiatrist's screaming face was achieved by rigging actor Arthur Storch to a camera and letting him fall back to the floor.
  • A basketball game between the faculty members of the Georgetown University and some of the cast and crew was held at one point during its production.
  • Ann Miles, who performed the "spiderwalk", lost her balance at one point when the wire broke and fell halfway down the stairs.
  • Warner Brothers unsuccessfully tried to persuade director William Friedkin to film the opening prologue not on location in Iraq, but rather in the nearby Mojave desert.
  • While preparing for his role as Father Karras, Jason Miller spent three weeks living with the Jesuits in Georgetown.
  • When the Jesuit priests showed Jason Miller where they stored the clothing of dead priests, while he was staying with them to prepare for his role as Father Karras, it was from this collection he chose the wardrobe he wears in the film.
  • A "warm-up" room was specially designed on the set for the actors to run to when they couldn't take the freezing cold any longer.
  • According to director William Friedkin, the children in Halloween costumes and nuns in white habits during Chris's walk home, which do not appear in the novel, can be interpreted as symbolizing good and evil.
  • Ellen Burstyn wrote a history for her character Chris, which included being a Broadway dancer before becoming an actress, just like Shirley MacLaine coincidentally, who was the inspiration for the character.
  • To prevent the camera used in Regan's bedroom from freezing, it was covered with a fitted quilted blanket wired for warmth like an electric blanket.
  • The establishing zoom-in shot of Georgetown took many takes to get right. Strong winds kept shaking the helicopter. The shot was finally achieved using a zoom-lens technique shot from the top of a high-rise building across the river.
  • According to director of photography Owen Roizman, because William Friedkin wanted the shade in the window shining light on Father Merrin to remain closed, the sash of the window had to be moved back and put on a separate platform next to a light on another platform.
  • The dummy used for the special head turning effect was nicknamed "Linda" by the cast and crew.
  • Max von Sydow gave director William Friedkin an ultimatum while filming the opening prologue after one week's shooting in Iraq became several, saying he would only remain for another four days.
  • Liquid wax was initially applied to Linda Blair's hair, which took at least three washes to rinse out. Shampoo was later used to achieve the same effect.
  • When director William Friedkin first met Max von Sydow for the role of Father Merrin, he was surprised by how young he actually was since he had already played much older characters in Ingmar Bergman's films.
  • It was so cold on the set of Regan's bedroom that when they once forgot to put in Linda Blair's contact lenses before she'd arrived, she had to be taken back out because the contact lenses cleaning solution would freeze.
  • The cracking ceiling effect was created by moulding plaster cast round mesh wire, which would be pressed down upon and stretched, cracking the surface. The cracking door effect was also achieved the same way.
  • Although Lee J. Cobb was disappointed many of his scenes were originally cut for the original theatrical release, he did recall the production fondly for allowing him to go sightseeing in Washington, D.C.
  • The Saint Joseph medal, which does not appear in the novel, was added by director William Friedkin as a talisman - something that would move between location and character, unifying them in a transcendent manner.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn's memoir, she made herself dizzy prior to her closeups for the crucifix scene, by taking several deep breaths, and then holding it as she linked her index fingers and pulled.
  • Father William O'Malley was cast as Father Dyer in the film after meeting author William Peter Blatty after he sent him a lengthy review criticizing his novel.
  • Ann Miles, who performed the "spiderwalk" scene, didn't want to wear the safety belt with wires as it actually hindered her performance, but she was forced to wear it regardless for insurance purposes.
  • The tribesmen who worked as excavators during the opening Iraq prologue threw a going away party for director William Friedkin and his crew when filming finished.
  • According to director William Friedkin, the dogs seen fighting during the opening Iraq prologue were starved for three days and given meat once released. They refused the meat though as they only ate bread.
  • Karras's mother's apartment was a real apartment located in Manhattan. Everything in it, minus a few props, was just as the crew found it.
  • One of the reasons why the film was filmed in New York, rather than the Warner lot in Los Angeles, was because of the child labour laws there, which allowed Linda Blair to be on set for longer periods of time.
  • Linda Blair had a pet mouse that died during the filming.
  • After several reels of film for the opening prologue were lost when sent from Iraq for processing, director William Friedkin had to hold on to the others until his return, meaning he had no way to check on what he had filmed.
  • Father William O'Malley, who served both as technical consultant as well as played Father Dyer in the film, would help coach Jason Miller on how to say mass.
  • According to Ellen Burstyn, a publicist's jacket almost caught on fire from a candle during filming. Fortunately, Ellen noticed just in time and ran across the room to push her away.
  • Filming the scene of Father Merrin's arrival required so much fog from the machines due to the wind blowing it away, that nearby firefighters arrived, thinking Georgetown was on fire.
  • Ken Nordine was considered for the demon’s voice until director William Friedkin decided he didn’t want to use a man’s voice. Nordine later sued Warner Bros. after he sent them a bill for the work he did after they refused to pay after deciding to go with a different voice.
  • Director William Friedkin once delayed production because he didn't like the colour of Ellen Burstyn's pyjamas and demanded they get new ones.
  • Kitty Winn was cast as Sharon after director William Friedkin saw her playing Ophelia to Stacy Keach's Hamlet in Central Park.
  • In addition to having based the characters of Chris and Regan on Shirley MacLaine and her daughter Sachi Parker, author William Peter Blatty also based the servants, Karl and Willie, on MacLaine's own servants.
  • Director William Friedkin and author William Peter Blatty had met years prior to working together on The Exorcist when Friedkin was interviewed to direct a script Blatty had co-written. Friedkin wound up criticizing the script and did not get the job.
  • Because the press weren't given pictures of Linda Blair's demonic makeup prior to its release, a photographer at a preview screening shot a photo from off the screen. Although fuzzy, it was used in a national magazine and a lawsuit followed where the magazine was barred from reprinting it.
  • Director William Friedkin fired the first production designer, causing filming to be delayed. He wanted the wallpaper in Regan's room to be changed and all the door frames to be widened to allow for more camera accessibility.
  • After production on the film was completed, director William Friedkin gave Ellen Burstyn a painting that she had admired that had hung on the wall as a gift.
  • Author William Peter Blatty found a memo by the original producer wanting changes like combining Merrin and Karras into one, moving the location, and giving Chris a different profession. Blatty copied the memo from the producer's office and had him removed.
  • Chris's coat had to be digitally added for continuity to the shot just before Father Merrin asks what her daughter's middle name is for the extended director's cut.
  • Ellen Burstyn states at one point in the film that she "doesn't even smoke grass". According to director William Friedkin, the first time he met Ellen Burstyn at her home in Hollywood, she offered him some grass.
  • A poster can be seen with the word "TASUKETE" written in red on it during the language lab scene, which means "Help me" in Japanese. This can also be seen as foreshadowing of these same words appearing on Regan's skin in the following scene.
  • The film was mentioned in the last letter sent to the press by the infamous Zodiac killer, the unidentified serial killer who terrorized Northern California during the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen".
  • In the scene where Regan projectile vomits at Father Karras, the first shot of the stream of vomit coming out of Regan's mouth is the only optical effect director William Friedkin used for the original theatrical version. Friedkin didn't like the garden-hose type effect and wanted the blob hitting Jason Miller in the face so it was matted in.
  • According to Eileen Dietz, the first time she grabbed the groin of actor Arthur Storch, who plays the psychiatrist, she mistook his protective cup for an erection.
  • A priest gave a medal to Jason Miller to protect him during the filming. Days later, the priest was dead. (Contrary to popular belief, it is not the same medal used in the film. The medal Jason Miller was given was of the Virgin Mary, not Saint Joseph)
  • Ellen Burstyn's dialogue during the scene where she badmouths Regan's father while on the phone was improvised and not in the original script.
  • Director William Friedkin hated author William Peter Blatty's first draft script for the film, saying "It wasn't the novel." Some of the differences included the Irag prologue being removed, lots of grainy black and white flashbacks, and lots of epigraphs and titling. This first draft of the screenplay was later published in his book "William Peter Blatty on The Exorcist: From Novel to Film".
  • The effect of the objects flying around Regan's room during the crucifix scene was achieved by having crew members throwing the objects from across the room through a chute with a strong air stream.
  • During the crucifix scene, Karl can be seen lying unconscious next to Regan's bed just like in the novel. His hands and feet can be seen sticking out from behind the bed in the bottom left corner of the shot where the dresser starts moving.
  • According to Eileen Dietz, during the filming of the crucifix scene, she and director William Friedkin argued over what angle her hand should've been in to masturbate.
  • Father Dyer's line during the medal exchange, "Why don't you keep it?", had gone missing and had to be redubbed by Father William O'Malley 27 years later when the scene was restored for the extended director's cut.
  • According to William Friedkin, he wanted vultures to fly around the statue of Pazuzu in the opening Iraq prologue, so a slaughtered lamb was placed nearby. After a few days, no vultures appeared but rumours began that a strange man from America was offering sacrifices to the demon Pazuzu.
  • Director William Friedkin told Max von Sydow for the scene before his death, to not only be praying for Regan, but to also be performing the last rites for himself.
  • Director William Friedkin and author William Peter Blatty believed the character of Lt. Kinderman inspired the main character of the television series Columbo (1971).
  • The woman in the coach that almost runs over Father Merrin in the streets of Mosul was 109 years old. They had to shoot the scene about six times. According to William Friedkin "She was pretty shook up when we got to the take we used there."
  • The film's production office coordinator came down with a mysterious illness and had to be hospitalized. After about a month of tests, she was diagnosed with lupus vulgaris.
  • During a screening of the film in Rome, a giant 400 year-old cross on top of a nearby church was struck by lightning, causing it to fall into the plaza below. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
  • Although Chris's line in the original script was "Father Karras, it's my daughter", Ellen Burstyn ad-libbed it to "Father Karras, it's my little girl" which author William Peter Blatty preferred.
  • The last demonic face effect during the exorcism was done using a beam-splitter to match a glass reflection of actress Eileen Dietz over a shot of the dummy used for the head turning effect.
  • Jill Clayburgh auditioned for the role of Sharon. According to Ellen Burstyn, she believed she wasn't cast as she "looked more like a movie star than her".
  • The "Exorcist steps", 75 (or 74 - one is very small) stone steps at the end of M Street in Georgetown, were padded with 1/2"-thick rubber to film the death of Father Karras. The stuntman tumbled down the stairs twice. Georgetown University students charged people around $5 each to watch the stunt from the rooftops.
  • It can be interpreted that Regan's bedroom window is open at the beginning of the film because the demon Pazuzu is, in fact, the demon of the southwest wind. It can also be interpreted as foreshadowing of Burke Denning's and Father Karras's deaths later on in the film.
  • Author and producer William Peter Blatty was upset that some viewers, according to him, thought the demon forced Karras out the window, simply killing him, rather than Karras willingly sacrificing himself to save Regan.
  • Ellen Burstyn's character is informed of the death of Jack MacGowran's character by the assistant director of the film they're working on. In real life, it was also the assistant director who informed Ellen Burstyn of Jack MacGowran's death.
  • When Father Karras falls down the stairs, the words "fight pigs" (a slang term for police) are spray-painted near the stairs. In the bible, Jesus exorcises a man, upon which the demons are cast into a herd of pigs. “Pigs” are also referenced on protestors' signs during the movie set scene.

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