The Exorcist
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''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American
supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...
directed by
William Friedkin William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in t ...
and written for the screen by
William Peter Blatty William Peter Blatty (January 7, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel, ''The Exorcist'', and for his 1974 screenplay for the film adaptation of the same name. Blatty won ...
, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars
Ellen Burstyn Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complicated women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Em ...
,
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
,
Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
,
Kitty Winn Katherine Tupper "Kitty" Winn (born February 21, 1943) is a former American actress. She is best known for her roles as the heroin addict Helen in the romantic drama '' The Panic in Needle Park'' (1971), for which she won the Best Actress award ...
,
Jack MacGowran John Joseph MacGowran (13 October 1918 – 30 January 1973) was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. Stage career MacGowran was born on 13 October 1918 in Dublin, and educated at Synge Street CBS. He establi ...
(in his final film role), Jason Miller and
Linda Blair Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress and activist. She played Regan MacNeil in the horror film ''The Exorcist'' (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for an Academy Award. The fil ...
. It follows the
demonic possession Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and reli ...
of a young girl and her mother's attempt to rescue her through an
exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
conducted by a pair of
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priests. The book was a bestseller, but Blatty, who also produced, and Friedkin, his choice for director, had difficulty casting the film. Unable to hire major stars of the era, they cast relative unknowns Burstyn, Blair and Miller (author of a hit play with no film acting experience), choices vigorously opposed by
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
executives.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
was also difficult. Friedkin insisted on realism, going to northern
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
to film the prologue despite political instability in the region, relying on live special effects and casting real priests and medical personnel in the film. Crew also recalled that he was temperamental, often firing people without warning. A fire destroyed most of the set, some crewmembers died, and Blair and Burstyn suffered accidental long-term back injuries; he also deliberately made cast members uncomfortable, going as far as refrigerating the set where the exorcism scenes took place to temperatures well below zero so their breath would be visible. Production took twice as long as scheduled and cost almost three times the initial budget; some deaths and accidents that occurred have led to a belief that the film was cursed. ''The Exorcist'' was released in 24 theaters in the United States and Canada in late December 1973. Audiences flocked to it despite mixed reviews, waiting in long lines during winter weather, many more than once; the sold out shows were even more profitable for Warners since they had booked it into those theaters under
four wall distribution In the film industry, four wall distribution (also known as four-walling) is a process through which a studio or distributor rents movie theaters for a period of time and receives all of the box office revenue. The four walls of a movie theater giv ...
rental agreements, the first time a major studio had done that. Some viewers suffered adverse physical reactions, fainting or vomiting to scenes in which the protagonist undergoes a realistic
cerebral angiography Cerebral angiography is a form of angiography which provides images of blood vessels in and around the brain, thereby allowing detection of abnormalities such as arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms. It was pioneered in 1927 by the Portugues ...
and later violently masturbates with a crucifix. Heart attacks and a
miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...
were reported among viewers; a psychiatric journal published a paper on "cinematic neurosis" triggered by the film. Many children were allowed to see it, leading to charges that the MPAA ratings board had accommodated Warner Bros by giving the film an R-rating instead of the X-rating they thought it deserved, in order to ensure its commercial success. Several cities attempted to ban it outright or prevent children from attending. The cultural conversation around the film, which also encompassed its treatment of Catholicism (and, in the years since, its apparent anti-feminism), helped it become the first horror film to be nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...
, one of 10 for which it was nominated, and winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. It has had several sequels, and was the highest-grossing R-rated horror film (unadjusted for inflation) until the 2017 release of '' It''. ''The Exorcist'' has had a significant influence on popular culture and has received critical acclaim, with several publications regarding it as one of the greatest horror films ever made. In 2010, the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
selected ''The Exorcist'' to be preserved in its
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
, citing it as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Plot


Theatrical cut

In northern
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, Catholic priest
Lankester Merrin Father Lankester Merrin is a fictional character in the novel ''The Exorcist'' (1971), one of the two main protagonists in the 1973 film adaptation, who also figures prominently in several of its prequel and sequel films. In the novel Merrin, ...
participates in an archaeological dig which unearths a medallion of
Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...
and an artifact representing
Pazuzu In ancient Mesopotamian religion, Pazuzu ( akk, , translit=pà.zu.zu; also called Fazuzu or Pazuza) was a personification of the southwestern wind, and held kingship over the lilu wind demons. As an apotropaic entity, he was considered as bo ...
, an ancient demon. As Merrin prepares to leave Iraq, he encounters a large statue of Pazuzu and observes two dogs fighting in the desert. In Georgetown, actress Chris MacNeil works on a film directed by her friend Burke Dennings. A temporary resident, Chris lives in a well-appointed house with servants and her 12-year-old daughter Regan. Georgetown-based priest Damien Karras visits his mother in New York. He confides to a colleague that he feels unfit in his role as counselor to other priests, citing a crisis of faith. Chris hears noises in the attic, and Regan tells her of an
imaginary friend Imaginary friends (also known as pretend friends, invisible friends or made-up friends) are a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship takes place in the imagination rather than physical reality. ...
named "Captain Howdy". In a local church, a statue of
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
is found desecrated. Chris hosts a party. Karras' friend Father Dyer explains Karras' role as counselor, mentioning that his mother died recently. Regan appears and urinates on the carpet. After Chris puts Regan to bed, her bed shakes violently. Dyer consoles Karras, and Karras expresses guilt at not having been with his mother when she died. Karras dreams of his mother, a Saint Joseph medallion and—briefly—a demonic face. Regan becomes violent. She is subjected to several medical tests which fail to find anything physically wrong with her. During a
house call A house call is medical consultation performed by a doctor or other healthcare professionals visiting the home of a patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is ...
, a demon possesses Regan's body; the possessed Regan exhibits abnormal strength. One night, Chris finds the house empty except for a sleeping Regan. Dennings is found dead at the foot of an outdoor staircase beneath Regan's window. Homicide detective William Kinderman questions Karras, confiding that Dennings' body was found with its head turned backwards. Regan's condition worsens, and her body becomes covered with sores. A doctor mentions exorcism as a remote option, suggesting a possible psychological benefit. Kinderman visits Chris, explaining that the only plausible explanation for Dennings' death is that he was pushed from Regan's window. As Kinderman leaves, the possessed Regan stabs her genitals with a crucifix. To Chris' horror, the possessed Regan turns her head backwards and speaks in Dennings' voice. The possessed Regan is confined to her bedroom. Chris seeks out Karras, who visits Regan. Over two meetings, the possessed Regan claims to be the Devil himself, projectile vomits into Karras' face, speaks in tongues, and reacts violently when tap water is sprinkled on her, which Karras had claimed was
holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...
—a point against genuine possession. The demon says it will remain in Regan until she is dead. Desperate, Chris confides that the possessed Regan killed Dennings. At night, Chris' assistant calls Karras to the house. They witness the words "help me" materialize on Regan's skin. Still ambivalent, Karras nevertheless concludes that an exorcism is warranted. His superior grants permission on the condition that an experienced priest lead the ritual while Karras assists. Merrin, having performed an exorcism before, is summoned. Merrin arrives at the house, warning Karras that the demon uses a psychological attack. As the priests read from the
Roman Ritual The ''Roman Ritual'' ( la, Rituale Romanum) is one of the official liturgical books of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. It contains all of the services which may be performed by a priest or deacon which are not contained within either the '' ...
, the demon curses them. It focuses on Karras, verbally attacking his loss of faith and guilt over the circumstances of his mother's death. The priests rest momentarily and Merrin, shaking, takes nitroglycerin. Karras enters the bedroom where the demon appears as his mother. Showing weakness, Karras exclaims that the demon is not his mother. Merrin excuses Karras and continues the exorcism by himself. Karras assures Chris that Regan will not die and re-enters the room, finding Merrin dead. Karras beats the possessed Regan and demands that the demon take him instead. The demon rips a medallion of Saint Joseph from Karras' neck and begins to possess him, freeing Regan. Karras hurls himself out the window, tumbling down the stairs outside. Chris and Kinderman enter the room. Chris embraces the healed Regan, and Kinderman surveys the violence and confusion. Outside, Dyer administers the
last rites The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...
as Karras dies. The MacNeils prepare to leave, and Father Dyer says goodbye. Despite having no memory of her ordeal, Regan is moved by the sight of Dyer's clerical collar to kiss him on the cheek. As the MacNeils leave, Chris gives Dyer the medallion found in Regan's room.


Director's cut ending

In 2000, "The Version You've Never Seen" or the "Extended Director's Cut", was released. In the ending of this version, when Chris gives Karras' medallion to Dyer, Dyer places it back in her hand and suggests that she keep it. After she and Regan drive away, Dyer pauses at the top of the stone steps before walking away and coming across Kinderman, who narrowly missed Chris and Regan's departure; Kinderman and Dyer begin to develop a friendship.


Cast


Production

Aspects of Blatty's novel were inspired by the 1949 exorcism performed on an anonymous boy known as "Roland Doe" or "Robbie Mannheim" (pseudonyms) by the
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
priest William S. Bowdern. The novel changed several details of the case, such as the sex and age of the allegedly possessed victim.
Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
, strongly believing the book would sell well, published it and sent Blatty on a 26-city book tour. But despite enthusiastic reviews, sales were not as strong as the publisher had hoped; at one point on the book tour the bookstore cancelled Blatty's appearance because, it told him, so few copies had been sold that it was remaindering the unsold ones back to the publisher. Harper was about to give up and had even, according to Blatty, treated him to a farewell lunch, when an opportunity to appear on ''
The Dick Cavett Show ''The Dick Cavett Show'' was the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including: * ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning'' * ABC prime time, Tuesdays, We ...
'' came up after one guest canceled and the other, actor Robert Shaw, was too drunk to go on. Cavett was uninterested in the supernatural, but let Blatty talk about ''The Exorcist'' at length, captivating the audience with discussions of whether the devil existed. Soon afterwards the novel was atop the ''New York Times'' best seller list. Despite Blatty's previous experience working in Hollywood as a writer for
Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...
' films, film studios had generally been uninterested in adapting ''The Exorcist'' before its publication.
Lew Grade Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 ...
made a modest offer for the rights that Blatty said later he would have accepted due to his difficult financial circumstances, but for his requirement that he produce.
Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
, a friend of Blatty's on whom he had based the Chris McNeil character in the novel, to the point of using some things she had said in the past as dialogue, had been interested. But she and her partners refused to back the film due to Blatty's refusal to back down on producing.
Paul Monash Paul Monash (June 14, 1917 – January 14, 2003) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter. Life and career Paul Monash was born in Harlem, New York, in 1917, and grew up in The Bronx. His mother, Rhoda Melrose, acted in si ...
, producer of ''
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' is a 1969 American Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch C ...
'', then expressed interest. He and Blatty reached a deal that gave him six months to get a studio to commit to filming ''The Exorcist''. Monash soon secured a deal to that effect with
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, who paid $641,000 ($ in modern dollars). Blatty recalled that studio head
John Calley John Nicholas Calley (July 8, 1930 – September 13, 2011) was an American film studio executive and producer. He was quite influential during his years at Warner Bros., where he worked from 1968 to 1981, and "produced a film a month, on average ...
had been reading the book at his home, alone, in his bedroom, and found his dog unusually unwilling to join him on the bed. He tried to drag the dog onto the bed but the animal resisted vigorously. When he finally succeeded, he found the book was hot to the touch. Blatty and Monash had agreed to be co-producers. But Monash wanted changes to the story Blatty opposed, such as setting it somewhere else, making Kinderman less colorful and Chris something other than a film actress, getting rid of the prologue and even Father Merrin's character. Hearing rumors that Monash was planning something behind his back, Blatty was able to sneak into his office at Warners and surreptitiously copy some papers from Monash's files that lent credence to those rumors. When he shared those papers with the studio, he became the film's sole producer.


Writing

Blatty's screenplay follows the plot of his novel closely, but narrows the story's focus. Subplots like the desecration of the churches (and the relationship between Karras and Kinderman that develops from the latter's investigation), Karras's efforts to get the Church bureaucracy to approve the exorcism, and the ongoing medical investigations of Regan's condition, are acknowledged in the film but to a much lesser degree than they are in the novel. Similarly, characters such as Chris's household staff, Dennings, and Regan's father, play a much smaller role, and the overall time frame of the plot is condensed. "I compressed the first third of my book into only 33 pages" of script, Blatty wrote later. He eliminated the subplot with Karl's daughter Elvira, despite its reinforcement of Merrin's belief that some good will always eventually come of any evil since at the end of the novel she goes into treatment for her heroin addiction. "I hated to do that", he admitted. "But there simply wasn't time and the subplot had to go." For the same reason he greatly reduced the suggestions that Karras was responsible for both Denning's death and the desecrations in the chapel, hints he felt many readers had missed anyway. Some scenes, particularly those with sexual content, were toned down for the movie since an actress of approximately Regan's age was expected to be playing the part. The scene where Regan masturbates with a crucifix was, in the book, more prolonged and explicit, with Regan seriously injuring herself yet attaining orgasm. The film also excludes the detail from the book that when possessed, Regan experiences constant diarrhea, requiring that she wear a diaper and giving her room a strong odor. One of the film's religious advisers, Father John Nicola, who had opposed including both the crucifix scene and the desecration, nevertheless advised that the language used by Pazuzu when possessing Regan should be even more profane than it was in the book, to an extent he considered more realistic; it was changed accordingly. Blatty also made the screenplay unambiguous about Regan's condition. In his novel every symptom and behavior she exhibits that might indicate possession is counterbalanced with a reference to an actual case where the same phenomena were found to have natural, scientific causes. Beyond Karras' initial professional skepticism, that perspective is absent from the film. When Friedkin came onto the project as director, Blatty expected that, as directors usually do, he would propose some changes to the story. But Friedkin did not, insisting on following the novel closely. According to Blatty, Friedkin even asked him, in one scene, to restore some slight changes to his dialogue to what it had originally been in the book.


Casting

The film's lead roles, particularly Regan, were not easily cast. Although many major stars of the era were considered for the role, with
Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictiona ...
signed to play Father Karras at one point, Blatty and Friedkin ultimately went with less well-known actors, to the consternation of the studio.


Chris and Father Karras

The studio wanted
Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
for the role of
Lankester Merrin Father Lankester Merrin is a fictional character in the novel ''The Exorcist'' (1971), one of the two main protagonists in the 1973 film adaptation, who also figures prominently in several of its prequel and sequel films. In the novel Merrin, ...
. Friedkin did not want to make a "Brando movie" and refused.
Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
was considered for Karras, and
Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
interested, before Blatty hired
Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictiona ...
. . Three
A-list An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in a film industry. The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry ...
actresses of the time were considered for Chris.
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
said she would take the role but only if the movie could be shot in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, where she was living. That posed too many problems, so Friedkin looked next to
Anne Bancroft Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, tw ...
. She was also willing but only if production could start after she gave birth; Friedkin could not wait nine months. Jane Fonda, next on the list, purportedly derided the film and turned it down. Blatty suggested his friend
Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
for the part, but Friedkin was hesitant to cast her, given her lead role in another possession film, '' The Possession of Joel Delaney'', two years before. After meeting
Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer. Her groundbreaking comedy variety show ''The Carol Burnett Show'', which originally aired on CBS was one of the first of its kind to be hosted ...
at a party, Friedkin believed she had the range beyond her comic television persona, and Blatty agreed, but the studio was not so eager to have her in the role.
Ellen Burstyn Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complicated women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Em ...
received the part after she phoned Friedkin and emphatically stated that she was "destined" to play Chris, discussing her own Catholic upbringing and later rejection of it. Studio head
Ted Ashley Ted Ashley (August 3, 1922 – August 24, 2002) was the chairman of the Warner Bros. film studio from 1969 to 1980 and founder of the Ashley-Famous talent agency. Biography Ashley was born to a poor Jewish family in Brooklyn in 1922 as Theodore ...
vigorously opposed casting her, not only telling Friedkin that he would do so over his dead body, but dramatizing that opposition by making Friedkin walk over him as he lay on the floor, then grabbing the director's leg and telling him he would come back from the dead if necessary to keep Friedkin from doing so. However, no other alternatives emerged, and Ashley relented. With Burstyn now set in the part, Friedkin received a surprise return call from Jason Miller whom he had talked to after a performance of his play ''
That Championship Season ''That Championship Season'' is a 1972 play by Jason Miller. It was the recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1973 Tony Award for Best Play. Plot synopsis The setting is 1972 at the Coach's home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. O ...
'' about the
lapsed Catholic A lapsed Catholic is a Catholic who is non-practicing. Such a person may still identify as a Catholic, and remains one according to canon law. Excommunication or an act of defection only separate a person from the sacraments. Nothing can terminate ...
ism in it, as background for the film, and left him. He had read a copy of the novel Friedkin left him, and told the director "
arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...
is me". Miller had had a Catholic education, and had studied to be a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
priest himself for three years at
Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
(also in Washington) until experiencing a
spiritual crisis Spiritual crisis (also called "spiritual emergency") is a form of identity crisis where an individual experiences drastic changes to their meaning system (i.e., their unique purposes, goals, values, attitude and beliefs, identity, and focus) typi ...
, as Karras does at the beginning of the story. Friedkin thanked him for his interest but told him Keach had already been signed. Miller, who had done some stage acting but had never been in a film, asked to be given a
screen test A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a came ...
. Friedkin had the playwright and Burstyn do the scene where Chris tells Karras she thinks Regan might be possessed. Afterwards, he had Burstyn interview Miller about his life with the camera focusing on him from over her shoulder, and finally asked Miller to say
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
as if for the first time. Burstyn felt Miller was too short for the part, unlike her boyfriend at the time, whom Friedkin had auditioned but passed on. The director felt the test was promising but, after viewing the footage the next morning, realized Miller's "dark good looks, haunted eyes, quiet intensity, and low, compassionate voice", qualities which to him evoked
John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
, were exactly what the part needed. The studio bought out Keach's contract.


Regan

Directors considered for the project were skeptical that a young actress could carry the film.
Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
had turned down ''The Exorcist'' specifically because he did not believe a 12-year-old girl who could play the very stressful part could be found. The first actresses considered had been in other successful films and television series.
Pamelyn Ferdin Pamelyn Wanda Ferdin (born February 4, 1959) is an American animal rights activist and a former child actress. Ferdin's acting career was primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, though she appeared in projects sporadically in the 1980s and later ...
, a veteran of science fiction and supernatural drama was ultimately turned down as too familiar.
Denise Nickerson Denise Marie Nickerson (April 1, 1957 – July 10, 2019) was an American child actress. She is best known for her role as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory''. She later played Allison on ''The Electric C ...
, who had appeared in two roles on the horror-soap opera ''
Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport ...
'' and played
Violet Beauregarde This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', his 1972 sequel ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', and the former's film adaptations, ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971) and ' ...
in ''
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl. The film ...
'', said in later interviews her family found the script too dark for her.
Janet Leigh Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
would not let her daughter,
Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, children's author, and activist. She came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom '' Operation Petticoat'' (1977–78). In 1978, she m ...
, audition. Friedkin had interviewed young women as old as 16 who looked young enough to play Regan, but found none. Then Elinore Blair came in unannounced with her daughter
Linda Linda may refer to: As a name * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer * Anita Linda (born Alice Lake i ...
; her agency had not sent her for the part, but she had previously met with Warners' casting department. Both impressed Friedkin. Elinore was not a typical stage mother, and Linda's credits were primarily in modeling and a single soap opera role. " art but not precocious. Cute but not beautiful. A normal, happy 12-year-old girl", Friedkin later recalled. With Linda having the qualities Friedkin was looking for, he wanted to see if she could handle the material. He asked if she knew what ''The Exorcist'' was about; she told him she had read the book. " 's about a little girl who gets possessed by the devil and does a whole bunch of bad things." Friedkin then asked her what sort of bad things she meant. " e pushes a man out of her bedroom window and she hits her mother across the face and she masturbates with a crucifix." Friedkin then asked Linda if she knew what masturbation meant. "It's like jerking off, isn't it?", and she giggled a little bit. "Have you ever done that?" he asked. "Sure; haven't you?" she responded. She was cast after tests with Burstyn; Friedkin wanted to keep that level of spontaneity on set. "After all these difficult scenes she'd tiptoe around and giggle, after every bit", Blatty recalled. "It was all a big funhouse ride for her. She was disturbed only one time, and that was when her pet mouse died." After filming, Friedkin had similar praise: "She is the most totally pulled together, stable, mature young person I've ever met. The whole thing was a game to her." Of the 500 actresses he said he saw audition, "there wasn't one other I would have considered." Friedkin originally intended to use Blair's voice, electronically treated, for the demon's dialogue. He felt this worked fine in some places, but the scenes with the demon confronting the two priests lacked the dramatic power required and so cast
Mercedes McCambridge Carlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge (March 16, 1916 – March 2, 2004) was an American actress of radio, stage, film, and television. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress." She won an Academy Award for Best Support ...
, an experienced voice actress and Oscar winner, as the demon's voice. After filming, Warners did not credit her, until
Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...
. Actress
Eileen Dietz Eileen Dietz is an American actress who is best known for her appearances in many horror films such as the face of the demon in ''The Exorcist'' and for her portrayal of characters on the soap operas ''Guiding Light'' and ''General Hospital''. ...
, 15 years older than Blair, stood in for her in the crucifix scene, the fistfight with Father Karras, and others that were too violent or disturbing for Blair to perform. She also appears as the face of Pazuzu. Friedkin gave her no notes, telling her to play the possessed Regan as "a primal force of malevolence ... I wasn't playing a little girl, I was playing the demon that possessed a little girl". Reportedly Warners had forced Friedkin to hire her; he in turn used her only when absolutely necessary. Blair, who recalls Friedkin telling her the film would not succeed if she was not in as many shots as possible, estimates that Dietz's total screen time amounts to 17 seconds.


Supporting roles

The film's supporting roles were cast more quickly. A
Philippe Halsman Philippe Halsman ( lv, Filips Halsmans, german: Philipp Halsmann; 2 May 1906 – 25 June 1979) was an American portrait photographer. He was born in Riga in the part of the Russian Empire which later became Latvia, and died in New York City. Li ...
photograph of
Gerald Lankester Harding Gerald Lankester Harding (8 December 1901 – 11 February 1979) was a British archaeologist who was the director of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan from 1936 to 1956. His tenure spanned the period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were disco ...
, Blatty's inspiration for Father Merrin, inspired Friedkin to cast
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
instead of
Paul Scofield David Paul Scofield (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was a British actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the US Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Awards, Academy Award, Emmy Award, Emmy, and Tony Award, Tony for his ...
, who Blatty had wanted. "He portrays great spiritual quality on film." At a play, Blatty and Friedkin ran into
Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
, who was cast as Lt. Kinderman. Two actual priests were cast. Father William O'Malley had become acquainted with Blatty through his criticism of the novel. After Blatty introduced him to Friedkin, they cast him as Father Dyer, a character O'Malley had considered
cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...
d in the novel. The Rev. Thomas Bermingham, the Georgetown professor who assigned Blatty to do the research on demonic possession that later informed the novel, took the role of the university president. Cast sheets in ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' and a Warners press release, list British director
J. Lee Thompson John Lee Thompson (1 August 1914 – 30 August 2002) was a British film director, active in London and Hollywood, best known for award-winning films such as ''Woman in a Dressing Gown'', ''Ice Cold in Alex'' and ''The Guns of Navarone (film), Th ...
as a member of the cast early in production. It was suggested that he would be playing Dennings, whom Shirley MacLaine says was based on him, but
Jack MacGowran John Joseph MacGowran (13 October 1918 – 30 January 1973) was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. Stage career MacGowran was born on 13 October 1918 in Dublin, and educated at Synge Street CBS. He establi ...
got the role instead. A later cast listing adds Mary Boylan and The Rev. John Nicola, one of the film's technical advisors, in small roles. Greek actor
Titos Vandis Titos Vandis ( el, Τίτος Βανδής; 7 November 1917 – 23 February 2003) was a Greek actor. Biography Vandis began his career on the Greek stage in the late 1930s. In 1962, he won the Best Actor award for the film ''Poliorkia'' at ...
was cast as Karras's uncle. He wore a hat in one shot to obscure his face, as Friedkin felt that it would remind audiences of his role in the
Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
film '' Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)''.


Direction

Warners had approached
Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 19 ...
,
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
, and
Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
to direct, all of whom turned the project down. Blatty recalled in 2015 that one director wanted to relocate the film to
Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
, which he rejected because he considered the contrast between the worldly nature of the capital and the supernatural aspects of the plot to be essential to the film. Originally
Mark Rydell Mark Rydell (born Mortimer H. Rydell; March 23, 1929) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has directed several Academy Award-nominated films including '' The Fox'' (1967), '' The Reivers'' (1969), ''Cinderella Liberty'' (1973), ...
was hired to direct, but William Peter Blatty insisted on Friedkin as he had been impressed by '' The French Connection''. He also knew Friedkin, having met him before that film was made, and had lunch while working with Edwards on the ''
Darling Lili ''Darling Lili'' is a 1970 American romantic-musical spy film, written by William Peter Blatty and Blake Edwards, the latter also directing the film. It stars Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, and Jeremy Kemp, with music by Henry Mancini and lyrics by ...
'' screenplay, some of which the director had critiqued for him. Blatty also appreciated that at another meeting with Edwards, Friedkin had been (as he later said) extremely frank about the shortcomings of a ''
Peter Gunn ''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...
'' script, at the expense of getting the job. For ''The Exorcist'', Blatty recalled thinking in a 2000 interview, " re is a director who can bring the look of documentary realism to this incredible story, and also, just as important, here is a guy who is never going to lie to me." Even after all of the other higher-profile directors Warners wanted had turned the film down, the studio was still resistant, until ''The French Connection'' was released to commercial success and a Best Picture Academy Award. While doing his press tour for that film, Friedkin was sent a copy of Blatty's novel and began reading it. After the first 20 pages he canceled his dinner plans and read the entire book that night. The issues that had given other directors pause did not bother Friedkin: "I was so overwhelmed by the power of this story, and I didn't stop to think about the problems involved with making it." "The pacing is deliberate, and I wanted it to happen slowly because the story, as it affected the real people who inspired it, took place in just that way", Friedkin said in 2015. "I felt we had to go through all of that. You had to see the symptoms. You had to see the treatment that was given out by internal medicine and by psychiatry, and to see that it all had been tried and failed." Early in production, Blatty fired Friedkin per the latter's challenge to do so after the two clashed over what the director alleged was his poorly handled refusal of Burstyn's request that a limousine pick her up from the airport, a policy Friedkin himself had instituted. Blatty assumed the two would soon reconcile. Two days later, according to Blatty, he was summoned to a meeting with not only Friedkin but his agent and seven studio lawyers who told Blatty he could not under any circumstances fire the director. After that, Blatty recalled to
Peter Biskind Peter Biskind (born 1940) is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of ''Premiere'' magazine from 1986 to 1996. Biography He attended Swarthmore College and wrote several books depicting life in Holl ...
, he informed the studio he could no longer have any responsibility for controlling the film's budget, which he had believed to be his primary role as the film's producer; he and Friedkin did reconcile and got along well for the rest of the picture. Production costs soon exceeded the film's initial $4.2 million ($ in modern dollars) budget. Friedkin went to great lengths manipulating the actors, reminiscent of the old Hollywood directing style, to get the genuine reactions he wanted. Later, Friedkin was unsatisfied with O'Malley's performance as Dyer ministers to the dying Karras at the end of the film, telling him he was doing it "by the numbers". O'Malley protested that it was 2:30 a.m. and he had just administered last rites to his friend for the 15th time. Friedkin then asked if O'Malley trusted him, and when the priest said yes, Friedkin slapped him hard across the face to generate a deeply solemn yet literally shaken reaction for the scene, offending the many Catholic crew members on set. "It was beyond what anyone needs to do to make a movie," Burstyn said in 2019. He also fired blanks without warning to elicit shock from Miller for a take; Dietz recalls him doing this during the scene where Regan assaults the doctors who have come to see her. Friedkin also told Miller that the vomit, porridge colored to resemble pea soup and pumped through a hidden tube, would hit him in the chest during the projectile vomiting scene, and rehearsed it that way. But when filmed, the soup hit his face, resulting in his disgusted reaction. Dietz recounts another of Friedkin's manipulations. Since the demon's presence was, in the book, accompanied by the stench of Regan's near-continuous diarrhea, to ensure an equally distasteful odor on set the director would hide rotten meat or eggs on the set. While it worked initially, " e problem was the crew and the cast all got sick so we had to stop shooting", she said. Crewmembers found Friedkin demanding and sometimes difficult to work with. One of the first shots for the movie when production began in New York was bacon being cooked in a griddle. The shot begins as a close-up and then pulls back. A wall had been built opposite the stove, leaving almost no space for the dolly, so Friedkin had shooting halted while it was removed. After that, he decided he did not like the way the bacon curled as it was being cooked, so the prop master was sent to look for preservative-free bacon, difficult to find at the time, further delaying the scene. Another crewmember recalls returning after three days of sick leave to find Friedkin still shooting the same scene. Dietz recalls that shooting took so long because Friedkin reshot most of the film. Even scenes that had been difficult to stage and film the first time, such as Regan's bed shaking, were redone. "People were literally placing bets on what he would re-shoot next." As Blatty had with him, Friedkin also fired and rehired crew regularly. One crewmember recalls seeing the director shake hands warmly with someone, and then seconds later tell a second person to "get this guy outta here". This mercurial behavior led the crew to call him "Wacky Willy".


Cinematography

Director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
Owen Roizman Owen Roizman (born September 22, 1936) is an American cinematographer. He has received five Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, for the films '' The French Connection'' (1971), ''The Exorcist'' (1973), ''Network'' (1976), ''Tootsi ...
had worked with Friedkin in that capacity on ''The French Connection''. The two collaborated again on ''The Exorcist'', with Roizman in charge of filming every scene in the film save those in the Iraqi prologue, shot by Billy Williams. In a 1974 interview with ''
American Cinematographer ''American Cinematographer'' is a magazine published monthly by the American Society of Cinematographers. It focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, covering domestic and foreign feature productions, television productions, short films, mu ...
'', the magazine of the
American Society of Cinematographers The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cinem ...
, Roizman discussed ''The Exorcist'' at length. " figured that since we'd done so well the last time, maybe we could do it again", Roizman said, recalling how Friedkin had gotten him to work on ''The Exorcist''. They agreed that, like their earlier film, they wanted the next one to look as if shot with
available light In photography and cinematography, available light (also called ambient light or practical light) refers to any ''available'' source of light that is not explicitly supplied by the photographer for the purpose of taking pictures. The term usu ...
. But this time they would eschew ''Connection''s documentary look. The MacNeil house was, unlike house interiors in horror films such as '' Psycho'', designed to look normal and inviting. "What we tried to do, by means of the lighting, was to give it a kind of ominous feeling—as if some lurking, mysterious thing were hanging over it. That's about as far as we went with photographic style." While much of the filming took place in the set for Regan's bedroom, there were some other parts of the house set that presented challenges when filming. Roizman said the ceiling of the basement set left no room for conventional lighting setups. "There was really no place at all to put lights and, in doing any sort of pan around or dolly shot, we would have been fighting ourselves had we tried to use conventional lighting units." But the crew was able to make those shots work by replacing the ceiling's practical light bulbs with
photoflood Photoflood lamps are a type of incandescent light bulb designed for use as a continuous light source for photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by mea ...
s. "Friedkin demanded complete realism", Roizman recalled. "He wanted to see pictures with glass in them, mirrors on the walls and all of the other highly reflective surfaces you would naturally find in a house, we never tried to cover anything up, as we would normally do for expedience in shooting." This realism meant that the kitchen set, with much stainless steel and glass, was "virtually impossible" to light beyond the practical ceiling fixtures and whatever other lights they could manage to sneak in and hide. " 'd walk in, hit the switch and shoot—through not much choice." One shot early in the film seemed simple when seen but, according to Roizman, required intense preparation and rehearsal. In it, Sharon greets the doctors and escorts them upstairs to Regan's room. The camera starts the scene at the top of the staircase, follows the actors from there as they walk towards it, tracks backward in front of them as they walk up to it towards the room around two corners and then turns again to let the actors pass, pan right and follow Karen as she goes to the door. It was necessary first to build a specialized chair for the camera operator on a track along the ceiling, then the
grips The , or GRIPS, is an elite, highly selective research graduate school located in Minato, Tokyo. Funded by the Japanese Government, it has the status of List of national universities in Japan, national university. It is also one of Asia's leading ...
had to move the camera in sync with the actors without causing any bumps. It was then necessary to light the scene while avoiding any crew shadows, which they did with photofloods and
striplight A striplight is a multi-circuit stage lighting instrument. Striplights are one of the most basic types of lighting fixtures available. They usually consist of row of lamps. A single striplight is usually wired internally into either 3 or 4 circu ...
s through overhead
muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured. Muslin of uncommonly delicate handsp ...
. "If I were to do that shot over again, I would probably underexpose a bit more to accentuate the shadows, but, all in all, the shot worked very well" said Roizman


Filming and locations

The film's opening sequences were filmed in and near the city of
Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...
,
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, a country with whom the U.S. did not then have diplomatic relations, and was also experiencing civil unrest that later grew into
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
; Warners feared that Friedkin and his crew might not be able to return. Friedkin negotiated filming arrangements directly with the local officials of the ruling
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
. He was allowed to shoot only on the condition that he hire lots of local workers as crew and teach some classes in filmmaking to interested residents, primarily in how to create and use
fake blood Theatrical blood, stage blood or fake blood is anything used as a substitute for blood in a theatrical or cinematic performance. For example, in the special effects industry, when a director needs to simulate an actor being shot or cut, a wide v ...
. The archaeological dig site shown is ancient
Hatra Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ‎ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul. Hatra was a strongly fortified ...
, south of Mosul. Temperatures during the days filming took place reached , limiting shooting to the early mornings and evenings. After shooting William Kaplan, the film's production supervisor, was held under armed guard in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
as a check from Warners bounced. The
stairs Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...
were padded with half-inch-thick () rubber to film the death of the character Father Damien Karras. Because the house from which he falls was set back slightly from the steps, the crew built an eastward extension with a false front to film the scene. The stuntman tumbled down the stairs twice.
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
students charged people around $5 each to watch the stunt from the rooftops. Although the film is set in Washington, D.C., many interior scenes were shot in various parts of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The MacNeil residence interiors were filmed at CECO Studios in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Exteriors of the MacNeil house were filmed using a family home on 36th and Prospect in Washington, on the former site of E. D. E. N. Southworth's residence. A
mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
was added to account for the scene in which Chris investigates the scratching noises in the attic. The scene where Father Karras listens to the tapes of Regan's dialogue was filmed in the basement of Keating Hall at
Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
in the
Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. where O'Malley, who plays Dyer, was an assistant professor of theology. The interior of Karras' room at Georgetown was a meticulous reconstruction of theology professor Father Thomas M. King's "corridor Jesuit" room in New North Hall. King's room was photographed by production staff after a visit by Blatty, a Georgetown graduate, and Friedkin. Back in New York, every element of King's room, including posters and books, was recreated, including a poster of
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philos ...
, a
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
on whom Merrin was loosely based. Georgetown was paid a thousand dollars ($ in modern dollars) per day of filming. Locations on campus included both exteriors such as Burstyn's first scene, shot on the steps of the Flemish Romanesque
Healy Hall Healy Hall is a National Historic Landmark and the flagship building of the main campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Constructed between 1877 and 1879, the hall was designed by Paul J. Pelz and John L. Smithmeyer, both of whom also ...
, and interiors such as the defilement of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Dahlgren Chapel, and the Archbishop's office, actually the office of the university's president. One scene was filmed in The Tombs, a student hangout across from the steps. Roizman recalls the scenes in the chapel as the hardest interior to light outside of the house sets. In order to give it the same available-light look as the house interiors for an
establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...
that included the
stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows, it was necessary to rig it with 225-amp "Brute" arc lights on parallel mounts. "It was backbreaking work ... but the results were quite pleasing."


Exorcism scenes

The scenes where Merrin and Karras perform the exorcism were a great challenge to film. Following the novel, Friedkin wanted the bedroom set to be cold, cold enough that the actors' breath could be seen. A refrigeration system, which Friedkin describes as an
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
system powerful enough for a restaurant, was installed at a cost of $50,000 ($ in modern dollars) that could lower the temperature within to , cold enough that a thin layer of snow fell within it one humid morning, so the characters' breath would be visible. Since the set lighting warmed the air, it could only remain cold enough for three minutes of filming at a time. It broke down frequently, and Friedkin was only able to complete five shots each day; the complete scene thus took a month to film, in continuity, the order they were written in the script. Originally it was hoped that the room would not have to be chilled to that point, but at just below freezing, while the actors' breath ''was'' visible, the filming equipment warmed the set enough to quickly negate that. Going down to worked, but according to Roizman Friedkin decided on the maximum in order to improve the actors' performance. "An actor on his knees for 15 minutes at 20 below zero is really going to feel cold. It worked out very well." Having gotten the actors' breath to appear, the next challenge was filming it. This required
backlighting A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light by themselves—unlike, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma (PDP) or OLED displays—they need illumination ( ambient light or a s ...
the actors, which while it is easy enough to do in still photography is much harder while filming a movie. " th the actors moving all the time, it got to be a bit difficult. It was always a matter of finding a place to hide the backlight and finding a way to keep it off of the actors", Roizman said. Blair wore green contact lenses meant to give her eyes a bestial appearance for scenes where Regan is possessed. To accentuate them, the crew used a soft light with its barn doors nearly closed to throw a narrow strip of light across her eyes. "It's probably a 75 mm lens, because we used that a lot", Friedkin recalls. It was easier to film some of the other supernatural manifestations, such as the bed rocking and the curtains blowing, in Regan's room since the walls and ceiling of the set were wild, or capable of being moved to accommodate a camera, until the scene where the ceiling cracks and it was necessary to use a hard one afterwards. The scene where Regan levitates as the priests chant "The power of Christ compels you!", for which a hole was cut in the ceiling for the rig to go through, was the most challenging. the Blair wore a
bodysuit A bodysuit is a one-piece form-fitting or skin-tight garment that covers the torso and the crotch, and sometimes the legs, hands, and feet, and cannot be used as a swimsuit. The style of a basic bodysuit is similar to a one-piece swimsuit a ...
under her nightgown to which hooks for monofilament wires had been attached. Roizman said that while he had filmed similar scenes many times in television commercials, painting the wires to match the background so they would not show on camera was difficult on ''The Exorcist'' because of the changes in background. "We had to practically paint them frame by frame", he told the magazine. While most directors would have been satisfied to use editing to smooth out the scene, Friedkin wanted it in longer takes. So effective was that painting that, when Friedkin returned to the film to prepare it for optical media release in the late 2000s, he found it unnecessary to apply any digital editing to that scene. Friedkin decided that he did not want any scenes in the movie to have "any kind of spooky lights that you typically saw in horror films." So all the lights in the bedroom come from a visible source. This was challenging because at one point one of the lamps lighting it falls on the floor; changing the way it had to be lit to preserve the impression of available light. At other times they flicker and dim, supposedly due to Pazuzu's influence. Lastly, at the end of the sequence, Friedkin wanted the lighting's mood to change, to "have an ethereal quality—a very soft, glowing, cool sort of thing" without any apparent change in its sources. "We tried, at that point, to work with absolutely no shadows in the room, using just bounce light—and I think we achieved the correct overall effect." Since it was so necessary to hide the lights with such a small room and so many people in it both on and off camera, Roizman and his crew mostly used "inkies", small
incandescent Incandescence is the emission of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light) from a hot body as a result of its high temperature. The term derives from the Latin verb ''incandescere,'' to glow white. A common use of incandescence is ...
bulb lights usually used to accentuate objects within the frame, "hidden wherever we could find a place for one. We were constantly controlling them with
dimmer A dimmer is a device connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of the lighting, light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the luminous intensity, intensity of the light output. Alt ...
s, so that if someone got too close to one, we'd take it down." He recalls his gaffer at one point controlling four of them; as a joke he put sheet music in front of the man one day. Due to the low light used, it was necessary to use wide
aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...
settings in most of the interiors, not just Regan's room. "I shot 90 percent of the picture wide open, as usual." The room's color scheme also worked to create the impression of black and white. The walls were a gray taupe, Regan's bedding a neutral beige, and the priests wore black. White, according to Roizman, would have been too dominant. "In toning everything down like this, the only real color in the room became the skin tones—an effect which I personally like very much", he said. "This sequence has an almost black and white feeling; yet, there is subtle color there."


Father Merrin's arrival scene

Father Merrin's arrival scene was filmed on
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
's first day on set. The scene where he steps out of a cab and stands in front of the MacNeil residence, silhouetted in a misty streetlamp's glow and staring up at a beam of light from a bedroom window, is one of the most famous scenes in the movie, used for
film posters A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...
and home media release covers. It was inspired by
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...
's 1954 painting ''
Empire of Light ''Empire of Light'' is a 2022 romantic drama film written and directed by Sam Mendes. The film stars Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Monica Dolan, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke, Toby Jones, and Colin Firth. ''Empire o ...
'' (''L'Empire des lumières''). Friedkin wanted to evoke visually the language Blatty used in the novel for this scene, likening Merrin to "a melancholy traveler frozen in time", standing next to a streetlight in the fog when he gets out of the cab. He gave the crew a full day to light the scene, using mainly arc lights and tripod-mounted "troopers", and boosting the brightness of the existing streetlamps. "After a great deal of trial and error, we filmed on the second night." Roizman said of all the nighttime exterior shots in the film, Merrin's arrival was "the trickiest". In order to get the beam of light the way Friedkin wanted it, the crew had to take the window frame out of the facade they had attached to the house for filming, put it behind the window and then put the spotlight in between the window and frame. " was difficult to get that bright of a glow from a shaded window and we also had to hold a fog effect all the way down the street", Roizman said. "Of course—wouldn't you know—just as we were ready to shoot, the wind came up, which made it more difficult to keep the fog settled in." By working quickly, he and the camera crew were able to get the shot, with Friedkin finding the first take satisfactory. At the time Roizman recounted this, the film had not yet been released and, based on
dailies In filmmaking, dailies are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and pri ...
he had seen during production (which he allowed were not shown under the best possible conditions), he might have overlit the scene out of fear of missing detail. "However, with proper printing, I'm sure it will come out dark enough."


Head spinning

The scenes where the possessed Regan's head rotates 180 degrees so that she appears to be looking directly backwards drew significant notice from audiences and critics when the film was released. "All I can tell you is that the way you think I did it is not the way we did it," Friedkin told ''Castle of Frankenstein'' at the time. Today it is known that that scene, like others in the film, relied on effects performed live in front of the camera rather than added in post-production. A life-size animated dummy of the character was built, one so realistic that Blair felt uncomfortable in its presence. Special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere built the dummy, primarily of
latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
based on casts of Blair's body, with help from makeup artist Dick Smith. They tested its realism by putting it in the front seat of a New York City taxicab and, when enough people were looking, turning the head. They had given the dummy's face the capability to move and appear to speak, even adding a condom so its throat would bulge when speaking, but it still did not quite look real in the bedroom set. Then Roizman noted that unlike the other characters in the scene, it did not exhale, so its breath was not visible in the chilled air, and a tube was added for simulated breathing, which produced the requisite clouds of vapor.


Crucifix scene

The scene where the possessed Regan masturbates with a crucifix was filmed with Dietz playing the character since Blair was too young. To make it seem bloody, she struck it against a sponge soaked in stage blood that had been taped to her stomach. Dietz and Friedkin had a lengthy discussion before filming it about exactly how she was to move her arm. " s method wasn't correct, well, anatomically speaking", she recalls. "We had this long discussion about the right way to jerk off and I showed him why a woman has to churn her wrist ore than a man does" As they were arguing about this, a photographer visiting the set was taking pictures of the two of them. When Friedkin saw this, he went over to the photographer, removed their film from the camera, and tore it up, then cleared the set so the two could consider the sensitive discussion privately. Dietz was appreciative of this display of control on his part. "He knew how to create an environment where horror actors would be at their best." "This particular scene is the most thought about and talked about scene for the obvious reason that it programs two things that are generally not programmed up-front in the human mind ... sex and religion", Friedkin said at the time. It lasts only 50 seconds, yet to many viewers seems much longer, he noted. He had filmed much more, but ultimately decided, on his own without previewing it or consulting anyone, that it was about "how much I could take". While other directors might have used more (he joked that
Russ Meyer Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that fea ...
might have made it the entire movie), "to me, it was worth about 50 seconds."


Angiography scene

The
angiography Angiography or arteriography is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inside, or lumen, of blood vessels and organs of the body, with particular interest in the arteries, veins, and the heart chambers. Modern angiography is performe ...
scene, in which a needle is inserted into Regan's neck and spurts blood, as Blair undergoes the steps of the actual procedure, caused audiences the most discomfort, according to Blatty, who himself admitted he never watched it when viewing the film. "I've learned over the years that t'sthe most terrifying scene", Friedkin said in 2015. "Medical science impinging upon the innocence of this little girl. Which is more disturbing than the demon." It has been criticized as "unappetizing", the film's "most needless scene", and "revolting". British comedian
Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education ...
, who has a medical degree, agreed the scene was "genuinely disturbing" in his review for the ''
New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...
''; he called it "the really irresponsible feature of this film". "The camera pointedly does not ''express'' the horror of Regan's experience with modern medicine, it only ''records'' it, allowing the audience to take away from it what it will", writes critic
John Kenneth Muir John Kenneth Muir (born December 3, 1969) is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres. Biography Born ...
of this scene in ''Horror Films of the 1970s''. "In some ways, the hospital interlude is the most terrifying scene in the film because it looks, sounds and feels totally real ... For a time, it is medicine that possesses Regan, not the Devil, it seems." In a 2021 article in the journal ''
History of the Human Sciences ''History of the Human Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research on the history of the human sciences. Its editors-in-chief are Felicity Callard (University of Durham), Rhodri Hayward (Queen Mary University of London), Ang ...
'', Amy C. Chambers of
Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...
similarly observes that " e medical space is made spectacular and horrific in ''The Exorcist'' not through the presentation of Regan's behaviour or the demon, but through the clinical nature of her treatment and how this is communicated through shots and sound." She quotes Finnish media professor Frans Ilkka Mäyrä on how the scientific suggests the spiritual here: "The violent movements and noises of arteriographic machinery reach diabolical dimensions. The names of medication gain occult resonances: ''
Ritalin Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta among others, is the most widely prescribed central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, to a lesser extent ...
'', ''
Librium Chlordiazepoxide, trade name Librium among others, is a sedative and hypnotic medication of the benzodiazepine class; it is used to treat anxiety, insomnia and symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol and other drugs. Chlordiazepoxide has a medium to ...
''." Medical professionals have described the scene as a realistic depiction of the procedure. It is also of historical interest in the field, as around the time of the film's release, radiologists had begun to stop using the
carotid artery Carotid artery may refer to: * Common carotid artery, often "carotids" or "carotid", an artery on each side of the neck which divides into the external carotid artery and internal carotid artery * External carotid artery, an artery on each side of t ...
for the puncture (as they do in the film) in favor of a more distant artery. It has also been described as the most realistic depiction of a medical procedure in a popular film. In his 2012 commentary on the DVD release of the 2000 cut, Friedkin claimed that the scene was used as a training film for radiologists for years after the film's release. Roizman recalled the challenges of filming the scene in his ''American Cinematographer'' interview. It was shot with limited time available on a Saturday afternoon, in one of the actual rooms used for the procedure. "The space was cramped and there was really no room for rigging lighting equipment, so I decided to shoot the whole thing with available light, which, in this case, meant
fluorescent light A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet lig ...
." Unlike most of the other interiors in the film, that was more than enough light to be adequate and he was able to use a narrower aperture. Roizman's crew changed the light bulbs in the hallways so they would be the same color as those in the examining room. He was so pleased with the resulting footage that, for a later scene shot at a medical complex on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, where they had more space and control, they again used the existing fluorescent lighting with just some
color correction Color correction is a process used in stage lighting, photography, television, cinematography, and other disciplines, which uses color gels, or filters, to alter the overall color of the light. Typically the light color is measured on a scale kno ...
filters in the camera and exterior light from the shades to compensate. " ere was virtually no correction necessary in the lab, and the results were the best that I've ever had with fluorescents."


"Spider-walk" scene

Stuntwoman A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
Ann Miles performed the spider-walk scene in November 1972, after having practiced it for two weeks. Vercoutere had designed a special harness, but she did not need it; as a former college gymnast at
Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...
she was already a skilled enough contortionist to do the scene on the first take. Friedkin cut it over Blatty's objection just prior to the premiere, since he thought it appeared too early in the film for such a drastic effect on Regan to be visible. Whether the scene had been shot at all was debated by fans for years afterwards—Friedkin denied having done so—until British critic
Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
found the footage in Warners' archives while researching his book on the film in the mid-1990s. When he showed it to Friedkin, the director said he had probably forgotten filming the scene. It was restored to the 2000 director's cut, albeit with a "muddy, grainy" look that one critic said made the scene seem superfluous, using a different take showing Regan with blood flowing from her mouth. Miles was not credited. Websites devoted to the film during the early 21st century gave credit to another contortionist, Sylvia Hager, who had been credited after the 2000 re-release. This confusion may have arisen from Vercourtere's website, where he credited her and described the harness he had designed that she supposedly wore to make the scene possible. He blamed the inability to erase it from the film for its exclusion. Miles has recalled that in reality Hager, her lighting double, was unable to perform the scene even with the harness, which Vercourtere had hoped to bring to market afterwards. Since she was able to do the spider walk without it, she believes he left her out of his account for commercial reasons. The misidentification, Miles said in 2018, cost her jobs afterwards since some producers believed she was falsely taking credit for Hager's work. Since then, after the intercession of SAG, she has been properly credited.


Special effects

''The Exorcist'' has several special effects, engineered by makeup artist Smith. In one scene from the film, Max von Sydow is actually wearing more makeup than Linda Blair, as Friedkin wanted some very detailed facial close-ups. At the time of shooting, von Sydow was 44, made up to look 30 years older. Many viewers did not realize he was made up at all, which
Alan McKenzie Alan McKenzie is a British comics writer and editor known for his work at '' 2000 AD''. Biography McKenzie worked for Marvel UK during the early 1980s, editing '' Starburst'', ''Cinema'' and '' Doctor Who Monthly'' magazines. After leaving the ...
calls "a tribute" to Smith; critic
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
, whose review of the film in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' was generally unfavorable, called it "one of the most convincing aging jobs I've ever seen" According to Friedkin, it took four hours to apply the makeup every morning. "Dick Smith just happens to be the best in the world", he says. He said that if there was a regular Academy Award for makeup, Smith would have received it. For the look of the possessed Regan, Friedkin and Smith drew their inspiration from the crucifix scene. If she had injured herself masturbating with it, they reasoned, it was likely that under Pazuzu's control she might also have deliberately scourged her face. " o wedecided to have the makeup grow out of self-inflicted wounds to the face that become gangrenous so that there was an organic reason for the change in her facial features, which might certainly be demonic possession, or self-immolation", Friedkin later explained. A
latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
stomach was built for the scene where the words "HELP ME" appear to be written on the possessed Regan's body. The letters were scratched in, and then heated to make them disappear. This part of the process was filmed and then run backward in the edit so the letters seemed to be appearing in the finished film. The scene in which the demonic entity leaves Father Karras was originally achieved by filming Miller in possession makeup, then stopping the camera and shooting him again with makeup removed. This creates a noticeable jump in Karras' position as he is unpossessed. The 25th anniversary video smooths over the jumpy transition with a subtle computer
morphing Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Since ...
effect, an update was not featured in prints used for Warner's 75th anniversary at film festivals.


Post-production


Editing

Bud Smith Robert Allan "Bud" Smith (born October 23, 1979) is an American retired baseball pitcher. Smith was active at the major league level in 2001 and 2002, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. Minor leagues In 2000, Smith led the minor league Cardin ...
, who had gotten to know Friedkin while he was working on ''
Putney Swope ''Putney Swope'' is a 1969 American satirical comedy film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starring Arnold Johnson as the title character, a black advertising executive. The film satirizes the advertising world, the portrayal of ...
'' and other films with Robert Downey Sr. during the production of ''The French Connection'', recalls Friedkin calling and asking him to work on ''The Exorcist'' after shooting was done. Friedkin had already hired three other editors (Jordan Leonduopoulos, credited as "supervising editor", Norman Gay and Evan Lottman), but told Smith he would be the lead editor. Seeing how much film there was to edit, he asked Friedkin if he could take one large rack of footage and try cutting it. It was the Iraq sequence at the beginning of the film, and after Friedkin disliked his first attempt, Smith worked through a weekend to recut the footage to a rhythm based on the sound of a
blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
hammering an
anvil An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually forged or cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked"). Anvils are as massive as practical, because the higher th ...
near where Father Merrin is having his tea, a change that the director liked more. While working on the film, Smith also created a trailer for the film known as the "flash face" trailer. After starting with Merrin's arrival scene and a voiceover broadly explaining what is happening, it cuts to a montage of faces from various scenes in the film, still, all appearing in all-white against a black background, which quickly swells to almost all white and then fades back to nearly black, making a
strobe A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...
-like effect, as tense string music plays, ending after almost a minute and a half with the title. Friedkin said in 2018 that Warners declined to use it as they feared it would scare audiences too much. He considers it the best trailer made for the film. In his tweet discussing this, Friedkin referred to Smith as "the film's editor", although the other three were credited. During principal photography, the editor then hired had never worked on a movie before and was forbidden from making any cuts to the raw footage. After shooting wrapped, he hired Lottman and closely supervised his work as he began editing. "It was all about power," Lottman said. "He wanted to be in control of the film." All four shared the Academy Award nomination the film received for its editing. Friedkin's final cut was 140 minutes long; despite his insistence that it was perfect, Warners insisted he trim the film to much closer to two hours to allow for more showings each day. Blatty was willing to fight for the whole film as it was, but over his objections Friedkin cut roughly 10–12 minutes. Some of the excluded scenes were among Blatty's favorites, including the original ending, with Dyer and Kinderman connecting and agreeing to go to the movies together at some point, and a scene where Karras and Merrin take a break from the exorcism and discuss the demon's motivation for possessing Regan on the MacNeil stairs. These scenes had been in Blatty's novel, and he believed that in the movie they made it clearer at the end that good had triumphed and what was at stake. Friedkin also cut the "spider-walk" scene early in the film, where the possessed Regan walks downstairs on her hands feet, her face looking upwards, and harasses her mother's guests.


Sound effects

Special sound effects for the film were created by
Ron Nagle Ron Nagle (born February 21, 1939) is an American sculptor, musician and songwriter. He is known for small-scale, refined sculptures of great detail and compelling color. Nagle lives and works in San Francisco, California. Life Born in San Fr ...
, Doc Siegel,
Gonzalo Gavira Gonzalo Gavira (October 30, 1925 – January 9, 2005) was a Mexican film sound technician. He is known for being part of the team that won an Academy Award for Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Mixing for the 1973 film ''The Exorcist ...
, and Bob Fine. Nagle spent two weeks recording animal sounds, including bees, dogs, hamsters, and pigs; these were incorporated into the multilayered mix of the demon's voice. Gavira achieved the sound effect of Regan's head rotating by twisting a leather wallet. Friedkin was personally involved in the sound mixing, which took four months. It was the last aspect of the film completed prior to release, finished only right before deadline. Jim Nelson, who Friedkin had hired to supervise the mixing, recalls the director being particularly demanding during this time, treating his then-girlfriend, who was among those assisting in the process, "like a dog". Nelson himself recalls going from "having a seven-year contract as his associate producer to the guy he hated most in the world—in two minutes" after Friedkin overheard him telling Calley on the phone that the sound editors were "basically finished". Friedkin also used the time to solicit opinions on sections of the film from anyone uninvolved, particularly one janitor in the building, and if he liked it, he decided that portion of the film was done.


Alleged subliminal imagery

''The Exorcist'' was also at the center of controversy due to its alleged use of subliminal imagery introduced as special effects during the production of the film.
Wilson Bryan Key Wilson Bryan Key Ph.D. (January 31, 1925 – October 8, 2008) was the author of several books about subliminal messages and subliminal advertising. Career Key obtained his doctorate in communications from the University of Denver and taught jou ...
wrote a whole chapter on the film in his book ''Media Sexploitation'', alleging repeated use of subliminal and semi-subliminal imagery and sound effects. Key observed the use of the
Pazuzu In ancient Mesopotamian religion, Pazuzu ( akk, , translit=pà.zu.zu; also called Fazuzu or Pazuza) was a personification of the southwestern wind, and held kingship over the lilu wind demons. As an apotropaic entity, he was considered as bo ...
face (which Key assumed was Jason Miller in death mask makeup). He claimed that the safety padding on the bedposts was shaped to cast phallic shadows on the wall and that a skull face is superimposed into one of Father Merrin's breath clouds. Key also wrote much about the sound design, identifying the use of pig squeals, for instance, and giving his opinion of the subliminal intent. A detailed 1991 article in ''
Video Watchdog ''Video Watchdog'' was a bimonthly, digest size film magazine published from 1990 to 2017 by publisher/editor Tim Lucas and his wife, art director and co-publisher Donna Lucas. Although devoted chiefly to the horror, science fiction, and fantas ...
'' examined the phenomenon, providing still frames with several uses of subliminal "flashing" throughout the film. Friedkin told the authors, "I saw subliminal cuts in a number of films before I ever put them in ''The Exorcist'', and I thought it was a very effective storytelling device ... The subliminal editing in ''The Exorcist'' was done for ''dramatic'' effect — to create, achieve, and sustain a kind of dreamlike state." In an interview for a 1999 book about the film, Blatty addressed the controversy by explaining that, "There are no subliminal images. If you can see it, it's not subliminal."


Titles

The editing of the
title sequence A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often a opening theme song with visu ...
was the first major project for the
film title design Film title design is a term describing the craft and design of motion picture title sequences. Since the beginning of the film form, it has been an essential part of any motion picture. Originally a motionless piece of artwork called ''title art ...
er Dan Perri. Friedkin had sought him out after seeing his work on ''
Electra Glide in Blue ''Electra Glide in Blue'' is a 1973 American action film, starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy "Green" Bush as his partner. The film was produced and directed by James William Guercio, and is named after the Harley ...
'', before ''The Exorcist'' was even completed. "It took a long time to design the simplicity of what we wound up using due to experimenting as the film changed shape". Perri recalled. "As riedkinwas tightening and evolving the story it would affect how the opening took place." When Friedkin played for Perri the music he wanted to use over the opening titles, preceded by a brief pan from the MacNeil household, as the light goes out in Regan's room, to the street, then a brief shot of the head of the Virgin Mary statue in the chapel, that pushed the title designer further in the direction of having the titles be very simple. "On screen, the fewer the elements, the more important each becomes. So we're dealing with two elements: a screen that's black and type, the name of the film." The only other elements besides the title that had to be at the beginning of the film were the studio's name, and Blatty's and Friedkin's. The latter two were not on the best of terms at the time, according to Perri (Blatty had sued Friedkin and the studio almost two months before the film's release to make sure his name was included in the opening credits), which affected how he styled their names in the credits: " egally their names had to be the same size but where Bill Blatty has three names, of course they had to be the same size." Perri first showed Friedkin a version in which both of them had their names in two-line stacks, but later changed it so Friedkin's name was on one line, to distinguish him slightly. For the words themselves Perri chose to keep the Weiss Initials
typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...
that had been used on the cover of Blatty's novel. The consensus among the filmmakers was that the words had to be red. But choosing an exact shade took some more time. "When it's exposed against black it tends to, what's called, bloom. It swells, it glows, it's very hard to control. I had to do a lot of exposure tests just to get the right red that wouldn't bloom." Perri's input into the film's opening continued after those credits, as the music abruptly shifts to an ululating male voice and the scene to the archeological dig site in northern Iraq. Friedkin told him he wanted the film to begin with a sunrise, even though he had not filmed one while there on location. The closest shot he had was one filmed at midday, of the sun in an orange sky, with rising heat visible. "I suggested that we create an implied sunrise and that's what's in the film now", Perri says, "a very, very long fade in, like a 30-second fade in of the sun in the sky but in black and white. It very slowly dissolves into color" That image gave the film the sense of beginning it had lacked. The title design was carried over into prerelease marketing for ''The Exorcist''. Perri designed a poster with the scene where Merrin seems to be confronting the Pazuzu statute entirely in silhouette, an orange sky behind them and the film's title in orange below. It was used as an international
teaser poster A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...
. "That went out in six languages and they gave me the translation in each language and I set the type in the same style and I fortunately was able to supervise the printing—silk screened rather than lithography—and printed thousands of each and they were distributed around the world", Perri recalls. As a result of the success of ''The Exorcist'', Perri went on to design opening titles for a number of major films including ''
Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...
'' (1976), ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' (1977), and ''
Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book ''The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...
'' (2002). In a 2019 article where Perri discussed how he worked with Friedkin to create the credits, the ''
Art of the Title Art of the Title (AOTT) is an online publication dedicated to title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and video game industries. The publication is both an educational and historical resource and a contemporary publicati ...
'' website observed that the disjuncture between Georgetown and Iraq, "two locations with an unclear connection", the title sequence enhances the film by keeping the audience off balance until Merrin arrives at the MacNeils in the last act. "The film asks its audience to hold ideas, timelines, and locations on the other side of the world in mind", the site says. "The importance of these varied narratives of the main characters in the film allows The Exorcist to extend the battle between good and evil beyond a family home in Georgetown, Washington and reveal the demons that lurk all around us."


Music

Friedkin rejected
Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...
's working score. The composer had written six minutes of music for the initial trailer but audiences were reportedly too scared by its combination of sights and sounds. According to Schifrin, Warner executives told Friedkin to instruct him to tone it down with softer music, but he never did; Schifrin disclosed in 2005 that he believes this was in retaliation for an earlier "incident" between the two that he declined to describe as he was already going against legal advice by saying that much. Schifrin denies claims he used his original ''Exorcist'' music several years later for ''
The Amityville Horror ''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...
''. According to ''The Fear of God: The Making of the Exorcist'', on the 25th Anniversary DVD release of the film, Friedkin took the tapes that Schifrin had recorded and threw them away in the studio parking lot. In his ''Castle of Frankenstein'' interview shortly after the film's release, Friedkin discussed the evolution of the film's music. He said he had hired a composer, whom he did not name, to write a score, "and he did a score all right, and I thought it was terrible, just overstated and dreadful." He decided instead to use the music he had given the composer as inspiration. "In other words, rather than get bad imitation
Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
, I might as well have the real thing."
Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely re ...
, famous for his scores for
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
and
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
, including the staccato string bursts that accompanied the killings in '' Psycho'', was offered the opportunity to score the finished film. He was flown from London to New York, where he viewed a
rough cut In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still used to describe projects that are recorded and e ...
, and declined. He felt the minimal opening credits deprived a composer of the opportunity to establish a musical mood with an
overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...
, and only Welles' ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' had been strong enough as a film to overcome that. In a 1975 interview with '' High Fidelity'' magazine, Herrmann said that Friedkin objected to his intention to use an organ in the score, saying "I don't want any Catholic music in my picture" and insisted on sharing credit with him for the music. In the soundtrack liner notes for his 1977 film, '' Sorcerer'', Friedkin said that if he had heard the music of
Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...
earlier, then he would have had them score ''The Exorcist''. Instead, he used modern classical compositions, including portions of the 1972 Cello Concerto No. 1, of ''
Polymorphia ''Polymorphia'' (Many forms) is a composition for 48 string instruments (24 violins and 8 each of violas, cellos and basses) composed by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1961. The piece was commissioned by the North German Radio Hambur ...
'', and other pieces by Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
, Five Pieces for Orchestra by Austrian composer
Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...
as well as some original music by
Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...
. The music was heard only during scene transitions. The 2000 "Version You've Never Seen" features new music by Steve Boeddeker, as well as brief source music by
Les Baxter Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica ...
. What is now considered the movie's theme, the piano-based melody which opens the first part of ''
Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...
'', the 1973 debut album by English
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
musician
Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documen ...
, became very popular after the film's release, although Oldfield was not impressed with the way it was used. Friedkin recalled in 2015 that he had wanted something like
Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
' "
Lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...
" with "a kind of childhood feel". He had gone to see Calley, who did not understand what the director wanted, but directed him to the nearby music library, where he found Oldfield's record, which Warners was not planning to release. "But I listened to that refrain, and it hooked me, and we won the rights to it" he said. "I think it sold 10 or 20 million records. And it was an accident." There is a total of 17 minutes of music in a film slightly over two hours long. Friedkin was satisfied. "What I ''wanted''", he said, "what I think we have in the film, is understated music. The music is just a presence like a cold hand on the back of your neck, rather than assertive." In her ambivalent review of the film, critic
Judith Crist Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic. She appeared regularly on the ''Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...
praised the film's "sparing and adventurous" use of music. In 1998 a restored and remastered soundtrack was released by Warner (without ''Tubular Bells'') that included three pieces from Schifrin's rejected score. The pieces are "Music from the unused Trailer", an 11-minute "Suite from the Unused Score", and "Rock Ballad (Unused Theme)". That same year, the Japanese version of the original soundtrack LP did not include the Schifrin pieces but did include the main theme, and the movement titled ''Night of the Electric Insects'' from
George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...
's string quartet '' Black Angels''. Waxwork Records released the score in 2017 on two different variations of 180-gram vinyl, "Pazuzu" with clear and black smoke and "Exorcism" that featured blue and black smoke. The record was remastered from the original tapes; it included liner notes from Friedkin with art by Justin Erickson from Phantom City Creative. The Greek song playing on the radio when Father Karras leaves his mother's house is "''Paramythaki mou''" (My Tale), sung by
Giannis Kalatzis Giannis Kalatzis ( el, Γιάννης Καλατζής, 29 April 1943 – 13 July 2017) was a Greeks, Greek singer who was especially popular in Greece in the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s. Giannis Kalatzis was born in Thessaloniki ...
. Lyricist
Lefteris Papadopoulos Lefteris (Eleftherios) Papadopoulos ( el, Λευτέρης Παπαδόπουλος) is a Greek lyricist, writer and journalist. Lefteris Papadopoulos was born in Athens, Greece on 14 November 1935. He is the son of Greek refugees, with a fath ...
said that a few years later, when he was in financial difficulties, he asked for some compensation. Part of
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...
's 1966 composition '' Fantasia for Strings'' is played over the closing credits.


Production difficulties and purported curse on film

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began in August 1972; it was scheduled to last 105 days. Due to production problems and accidents on set, it took over 200 days to wrap. As a result, the film went $2.5 million ($ in modern dollars) over budget, ultimately costing the studio $12 million ($ in modern dollars) to make. Early on, the set in New York for the interiors of the MacNeil house was destroyed by a fire started when a bird flew into a
circuit breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the risk ...
, with the exception of Regan's room, which remained unharmed. Production was delayed for six weeks while it was rebuilt. Later, another set was severely damaged when the sprinkler system activated. A two-week delay resulted when the statue of Pazuzu was shipped to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
instead of Iraq. Injuries to cast and crew also affected production, and had permanent consequences. Burstyn's back injury during the scene where the possessed Regan throws Chris backwards before the head-spinning, the
take A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
used in the film, left her unable to film for two weeks and using crutches for the remainder of the production; the
coccyx The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and othe ...
fracture she suffered has caused her continuing problems since it was inadequately treated at the time; in 2018 she described it as "a permanent companion". Blair also suffered a back injury, in her case a lower spinal fracture, during a take that was also used in the film, after being too loosely strapped to the bed when it was being rocked around. She developed
scoliosis Scoliosis is a condition in which a person's spine has a sideways curve. The curve is usually "S"- or "C"-shaped over three dimensions. In some, the degree of curve is stable, while in others, it increases over time. Mild scoliosis does not t ...
as a result: " twas far more serious than I ever imagined and really affected my health negatively for a long time." She further developed a lifelong aversion to cold due to having to spend so much time in the refrigerated bedroom set wearing only a nightgown and long underwear. A carpenter cut his thumb off and a lighting technician similarly lost a toe in another accident. There were also more deaths among people connected with the film and their family members. Among the cast, MacGowran died a week after completing his scenes as Dennings with the character's death; Maliaros also passed away, like her character, before the film was finished. Deaths among or close to the crew included the night watchman and the operator of the refrigeration system for Regan's room, along with the assistant cameraman's newborn child. Blair's grandfather died during the first week of production, and von Sydow had to return to Sweden after his first day on set shooting the entrance scene after he learned that his brother had died, adding another delay to the production. Miller's son
Jason Patric Jason Patric (born June 17, 1966) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is known for his roles in films such as ''The Lost Boys'', ''Rush (1991 film), Rush'', ''Sleepers (film), Sleepers'', ''Geronimo: An American Legend'', ''Your ...
nearly died when, while he and his father were out at the beach, a motorcycle that unexpectedly appeared struck him, leaving him in
critical condition Medical state is a term used to describe a hospital patient's health status, or condition. The term is most commonly used in information given to the news media, and is rarely used as a clinical description by physicians. Two aspects of the pati ...
and requiring weeks in
intensive care Intensive care medicine, also called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes pro ...
to heal from the injuries. Several years after the film's release,
Paul Bateson Paul Bateson (born August 24, 1940) is an American convicted murderer and former radiographer. He appeared as a radiologic technologist in a scene from the 1973 horror film ''The Exorcist'', which was inspired when the film's director, William F ...
, the radiological technician in the angiography scene, was convicted of murder in the death of journalist Addison Verrill; in 2015
Hatra Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ‎ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul. Hatra was a strongly fortified ...
, the
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
where the prologue had been shot, was demolished by
ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
militants. Friedkin believed that there might have been some supernatural interference with the film. "I'm not a convert to the occult", he told the horror-film magazine, ''
Castle of Frankenstein ''Castle of Frankenstein'' was an American horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, published between 1962 and 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company, distributed by Kable News. Larry Ivie—who also was cover ...
'', "but after all I've seen on this film, I definitely believe in demonic possession ... We were plagued by strange and sinister things from the beginning." He said some striking visuals in the film had not been intended and could not be explained. Vercourtere, the special effects supervisor, also felt uncomfortable working on the film. "There was definitely a feeling something adcould happen," he recalled. "I felt I was playing around with something I shouldn't be playing around with." Concern among the production was significant enough that Friedkin asked Father Thomas Bermingham, the film's technical advisor (who also played Georgetown's president in the film), to perform an exorcism on the set. Bermingham instead blessed the cast and crew, believing that an actual exorcism would only make the cast more anxious. British film historian Sarah Crowther believes stories of the curse were partly disseminated by Warner's marketing department, which she believes was purposely courting controversy by releasing the film just after
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
. "
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
spread speculation of the curse prior to release. It was an extremely hot topic in global media when it hit cinemas", she told inews.com in 2018, likening the curse to the elaborate marketing gimmicks employed by producer
William Castle William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attenti ...
to stimulate viewer interest in his horror films during the 1960s. Crowther believes most of the aspects of the curse are really just the result of Friedkin's driving, relentless production over a prolonged period, which fatigued many members of the cast and crew. In 2000, Blatty joked that "There is no ''Exorcist'' curse. ''I'' am ''The Exorcist'' curse!" when asked if the death of Blair's pet mouse was possibly due to the alleged curse.


Release


Theatrical run

Warners scheduled ''The Exorcist'' for release the day after
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
in 1973. Originally it had been scheduled for an earlier release, but that was postponed due to postproduction delays. Friedkin was, even years later, angry about this choice of release date, believing that it hurt the film at the box office. He had wanted a release ''before'' the holiday, or on it, as is more common at the time of year; it has been speculated that Warners wanted to avoid any controversy that might have come from releasing a film about demonic possession before a major religious holiday. Friedkin supposedly had seen what Paramount had done to make ''
The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
'', which had had similar issues, a runaway success a year and a half before and had wanted Warners to emulate it with a more preferable release date, such as March, as that film had had. The post-holiday release served to help ''The Exorcist'' sell tickets, as most moviegoers had all or most of the week off to go see it. It is the second all-time highest-grossing Christmas week release after 1997's ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
''. It has also outgrossed ''The Godfather''. Ultimately it played on screens for 105 weeks, or just over two years.


Re-releases

In 1979, the film was re-released theatrically and was converted to
70mm 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
, with its original 1.75:1 aspect ratio expanded to 2.20:1 to use all the available screen width that 70mm offers. The sound was remixed to six-channel
Dolby Stereo Dolby Stereo is a sound format made by Dolby Laboratories. It is a unified brand for two completely different basic systems: the Dolby SVA (stereo variable-area) 1976 system used with optical sound tracks on 35mm film, and Dolby Stereo 70mm nois ...
, later used on most home releases. A new edition labeled "The Version You've Never Seen" (later re-labeled "Extended Director's Cut") was released in theaters in September 2000, with additions and changes.


Television versions

The network TV version originally broadcast on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
in 1980 was edited by Friedkin, who filmed a shot of the Virgin Mary statue crying blood to replace the desecrated statue image. Friedkin himself delivered the demon's new, censored dialogue because he was unwilling to work with McCambridge again. The lines "Your mother sucks cocks in hell, Karras, you faithless slime!" and "Shove it up your ass, you faggot!" were redubbed as "Your mother still rots in hell" and "Shut your face, you faggot". Several of Chris' lines were redubbed by Burstyn, replacing "Jesus Christ" with "Judas Priest" and omitting the expletive "fuck". Moments in which Regan masturbates with a crucifix and forces her mother's head into her crotch are removed, along with most of the character's profanity. There is also a brief alternative shot shortly after Merrin arrives at the MacNeil house of Regan's face morphing into the demon's white visage (theatrical versions show only the beginning of the transformation). In some network versions Regan is not masturbating but having another fit. In both the TV-PG and TV-14 rated network edits, the image of the obscenely defiled statue of the
Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
is intact, appearing on-screen for several more seconds in the TV-14 version. In the original TV airings, the desecrated statue was replaced by an alternative version showing the face smashed in, but no other defilement. Edits may vary between networks; non-premium cable networks usually show only edited/censored versions of the film.


Home media


Special edition 25th anniversary VHS and DVD release

A limited 50,000-copy special edition box set was released in 1998 for the film's 25th anniversary. There are two versions: one for VHS released in November, and a DVD released a month later. Both have identical material. A 30th anniversary edition was released on DVD by Warner Home Video in August 2003. The 25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD includes the original ending (not used in the theatrical release) as a special feature: as Father Dyer walks away from the MacNeil residence, he is approached by Lt. Kinderman. They talk briefly about Regan and the events that took place and then Kinderman invites Dyer to the movies to see ''
Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...
''. Kinderman quotes ''
Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
'', telling Dyer, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". Blatty was pleased that the scene was restored. The night before the scene was shot, he and Friedkin had worked very hard on blocking it, to make sure it would be clear to the audience that the film ended on an upbeat moment. "My theory over the years has been that at that point in the movie, most of the audience is a little out of it" he said two years later. "They're really not seeing what's happening there, and, of course, the film lost its original ending and instead ended with Father Dyer looking down the steps ...
hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
gives an audience an emotional cue about how they're ''supposed'' to feel." Overall, he said, the 25th anniversary cut is "the version that I first saw on the
moviola A Moviola () is a device that allows a film editor to view a film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. History Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept for the Moviola ...
in the editing room all those years ago, and it's the way it ought to be seen." The Special Edition DVD contains ''The Fear of God'', a 75-minute documentary on the making of the film, with screen tests and additional deleted scenes.


=DVD features

= * The original film with restored film and digitally remastered audio, with a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio. * An introduction by Friedkin. * The 1998 BBC documentary ''The Fear of God: The Making of "The Exorcist"''. * Two audio commentaries. * Interviews with Friedkin and Blatty. * Theatrical trailers and TV spots.


=Box set features

= * A commemorative 52-page tribute book, covering highlights of the film's preparation, production, and release; features previously unreleased historical data and archival photographs. * Limited edition soundtrack CD of the film's score, including the original (unused) soundtrack ("Tubular Bells" and "Night of the Electric Insects" omitted). * Eight lobby card reprints. * Exclusive senitype film frame (magnification included).


Extended edition DVD releases

The extended edition labeled "The Version You've Never Seen" (released theatrically in 2000) was released on DVD in 2001. It was re-released on DVD (and
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
) with slight alterations under the new label "Extended Director's Cut" in 2010.


Blu-ray

In a 2008 ''DVD Review'' interview, Friedkin said he was scheduled to begin work on ''The Exorcist'' Blu-ray in 2008. This edition featured a new restoration, including both the 1973 theatrical version and the 2000 "Version You've Never Seen" (re-labeled as "Extended Director's Cut"). It was released two years later. A 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released in 2013, containing both cuts of the film and many of the previously released bonus features in addition to two featurettes about Blatty.


''The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology''

''The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology'', a
box set A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...
, was released on DVD in 2006, and on Blu-ray in 2014. This collection includes the original theatrical release version of ''The Exorcist'', the extended version (labelled ''The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen'' on the DVD release and ''The Exorcist: Extended Director's Cut'' on the Blu-ray release), the sequels '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' and ''
The Exorcist III ''The Exorcist III'' is a 1990 American psychological horror film written and directed by William Peter Blatty. It is the third installment in the ''Exorcist'' series, an adaptation of Blatty's ''Exorcist'' novel ''Legion'' (1983), and the fin ...
'', and the prequels '' Exorcist: The Beginning'' and '' Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist''.


Streaming

, ''The Exorcist'' is available for streaming to subscribers of
FuboTV FuboTV Inc. (stylized as fuboTV) is an American streaming television service serving customers in the United States, Canada, and Spain that focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports. Depending on country, channels offered by Fubo ...
,
HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
and
Vudu Vudu is an American digital video store and streaming service owned by Fandango Media, a joint-venture between NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. The company offers transactional video on demand rentals and digital purchases of films, ...
. It can be bought or rented from
Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...
,
Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...
,
Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...
and
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.


Reception


Box office

Since it was a horror film that had gone well over budget and did not have any major stars in the lead roles, Warner did not have high expectations for ''The Exorcist''. It did not preview the film for critics and booked its initial release for only 30 screens in 24 theaters, mostly in 21 large cities and their metropolitan areas. The film grossed $1.9 million ($ in modern dollars) in its first week, setting house records in each theater, with an average of $70,000, equivalent to $300,000 at modern ticket prices. Within its first month it had grossed $7.4 million nationwide, ($ in modern dollars) by which time Warners' executives expected it to easily surpass ''
My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...
''s $34 million take to become the studio's most financially successful film. The huge crowds attracted to the film forced the studio to expand it into
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
very quickly, to 366 screens. At the time that releasing strategy had rarely been used for anything but
exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
s. Many of the theaters in large cities were not located near downtowns, where Warners had booked ''
Magnum Force ''Magnum Force'' is a 1973 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film ''Dirty Harry''. Ted Post, who had previously worked with Eastwood on '' Ra ...
'', the ''
Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...
'' sequel, before planning the release of ''The Exorcist''. In February it accounted for 15 percent of all Warners' grosses in key markets. None of the theaters were in
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
neighborhoods such as
South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...
since the studio did not expect that audience to take much interest in the film, which had no Black characters. But after the theater in predominantly white Westwood that had shown the film was overwhelmed with moviegoers from South Central, it was quickly booked into theaters in that neighborhood. Black American enthusiasm for ''The Exorcist'' has been credited with ending mainstream studio support for
blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
movies, since Hollywood realized that Black audiences would flock to films that did not have content specifically geared to them. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' took notice that the audience lined up to see the film was between one-quarter and one-third Black at one theater on the
Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
of Manhattan, a mostly white neighborhood of the city, showing the film in late January. "A lot of blacks relate to voodoo and witchcraft and that kind of devil stuff," one Black patron said, when asked why so many Black people were sufficiently attracted to the film to go to such lengths to see it. "Many still believe in black magic, especially those from Haiti and the Deep South." ''The Exorcist'' earned $66.3 million ($ in modern dollars) in distributors' rentals during its theatrical release in 1974 in the United States and Canada, becoming the second most popular film of that year (trailing ''
The Sting ''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw).''Variety'' film review; December 12, 1973, page ...
'' which earned $68.5 million) and Warners' highest-grossing film of all time. The high returns were made possible by the use of four-wall distribution, where the contract provides that the studio rents the theater from the owner and thus keeps all the ticket revenue, in the initial run. It was the first time a major studio had used that practice. Warners also used some practices that had made ''
The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
'' successful for
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
the year before, such as making theaters commit to showing the film for at least 24 weeks. Overseas, the film earned rentals of $46 million for a worldwide total of $112.3 million ($ in modern dollars). It became the highest-grossing film in Japan with rentals of over $8.2 million in its first 11 weeks. After several reissues, the film has grossed $232.6 million in the United States and Canada, which when adjusted for inflation, makes it the ninth highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada and the top-grossing R-rated film of all time. , it has grossed $441 million worldwide, or $1.8 billion adjusted for inflation by 2014. In ''
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood'' is a book by Peter Biskind, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' is about the 1960s and 1970s Hollywood, a period of Amer ...
'', journalist and film historian
Peter Biskind Peter Biskind (born 1940) is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of ''Premiere'' magazine from 1986 to 1996. Biography He attended Swarthmore College and wrote several books depicting life in Holl ...
wrote about Warner's reaction to the success of the film. Executives were happy, but also nervous, since the huge earnings meant that the more free-wheeling and experimental parts of what the studio had done would become limited in favor of a focus on finding profitable film ideas and projects.


Critical response

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...
, in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', wrote, "This is the scariest film I've seen in years—the ''only'' scary film I've seen in years ... If you want to be shaken—and I found out, while the picture was going, that that's what I wanted—then ''The Exorcist'' will scare the hell out of you". Arthur D. Murphy of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' noted that it was "an expert telling of a supernatural horror story  ... The climactic sequences assault the senses and the intellect with pure cinematic terror". In the horror-film magazine ''
Castle of Frankenstein ''Castle of Frankenstein'' was an American horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, published between 1962 and 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company, distributed by Kable News. Larry Ivie—who also was cover ...
'',
Joe Dante Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix 1950s-style B movies wit ...
, later director of ''
Piranha A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, ...
'' and ''
The Howling ''The Howling'' is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It was the inspiration for the movie ''The Howling'' (1981), although the plot of the movie was only vaguely similar to that of the book. Brandner published two sequels to the novel, '' T ...
'', called it "an amazing film, and one destined to become at the very least a horror classic. twill 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".
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film a complete four-star review, praising the actors (particularly Burstyn) and the convincing special effects, but at the end of the review wrote: "I am not sure exactly what reasons people will have for seeing this movie; surely enjoyment won't be one, because what we get here aren't the delicious chills of a
Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
thriller, but raw and painful experience. Are people so numb they need movies of this intensity in order to feel anything at all?" Ebert, while praising the film, believed the special effects to be unusually graphic. He wrote: "That it received an R rating and not the X is stupefying". In the middle of the range of critical response was
Judith Crist Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic. She appeared regularly on the ''Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...
. Her review in ''
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
'' called the film "half-successful". She praised Friedkin's direction, its "to-the-point performances" and the special effects and makeup. But she felt that Blatty, in adapting his novel, had taken out the things that made the reader connect with the characters, and was perhaps limited by the fact that the film could not leave things to the imagination the way the book had. Kael called the film "shallowness that asks to be taken seriously" saying its main problem was being too faithful to the novel as Blatty had intended it.
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
, writing in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', dismissed ''The Exorcist'' as "a chunk of elegant occultist claptrap ... a practically impossible film to sit through ... tablish nga new low for grotesque special effects."
Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...
of ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' complained that "Friedkin's biggest weakness is his inability to provide enough visual information about his characters ... Whole passages of the movie's exposition were one long buzz of small talk and name droppings ... ''The Exorcist'' succeeds on one level as an effectively excruciating entertainment, but on another, deeper level it is a thoroughly evil film". Writing in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'',
Jon Landau Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen in all three capacities. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recei ...
felt the film was "nothing more than a religious porn film, the gaudiest piece of shlock this side of
Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
(minus that gentleman's wit and ability to tell a story)." ''
Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...
''s Michael Dempsey called ''The Exorcist'' "the trash bombshell of 1973, the aesthetic equivalent of being run over by a truck ... a gloating, ugly exploitation picture." The ''
San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...
''s reviewer called it "quite simply the dumbest, most insultingly anti-intellectual movie I have ever come across". English film critic
Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
named it his "favorite film of all time".


Audience reaction

At the only
sneak preview A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle. To show the film to best advantage, special screenings may take place in plush, low seat-cou ...
held before release, audience members screamed and ran out of the theater during the showing. When it was over, Calley and the other Warners executives, instead of leaving without comment as studio executives usually do after those events, remained in their seats, stunned. "What in the fuck did we just see?" Calley asked. They believed the film was brilliant, but did not know how to market it, and decided on the limited early release after Christmas, with a trade screening on December 21. Burstyn recalled watching television the morning the film opened of viewers in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
lining up at 4 a.m. in frigid temperatures. "I thought, how can a movie have that kind of impact before it even opens? I just couldn't believe it." Despite its mixed reviews and the controversies over its content and viewer reaction, ''The Exorcist'' was a runaway hit. In New York City, where its initial run was limited to a few theaters, patrons endured cold as severe as sometimes with rain and sleet, waiting for hours in long lines during what is normally a slow time of year for the movies to buy tickets, many not for the first time. The crowds gathered outside theaters sometimes rioted, and police were called in to quell disturbances in not only New York but
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' asked some of those in line what drew them there. Those who had read the novel accounted for about a third; they wanted to see if the film could realistically depict some of the scenes in the book. Others said: "We're here because we're nuts and because we wanted to be part of the madness". A repeat viewer told the newspaper that it was the best horror film he had seen in decades, "much better than '' Psycho''. You feel contaminated when you leave the theater. There's something that is impossible to erase". Many made a point of saying that they had either never waited in line that long for a movie before, or not in a long time. "It makes the movie better,"
William Hurt William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. ...
, then a drama student at
Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
, said of the experience. "The more you pay for something, the more it's worth." Reports of strong audience reactions were widespread. Many viewers fainted; a woman in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, when the film opened there, reportedly fainted before the film even began. A woman in New York was said to have
miscarried Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...
during a showing. One man at another showing lasted only 20 minutes before he had to be carried out on a stretcher. Nausea was the most commonly reported reaction. "We have a plumber practically living here now", said the manager of
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
's University Theater on
Bloor Street Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkw ...
, at the time selling its 1,440 seats out four times a day. "The smell in the bathrooms is awful. People are rushing in and they're missing the toilet seat by inches." Viewers seemed to be particularly disturbed by the crucifix scenes; the theater reported depleting its supply of
smelling salts Smelling salts, also known as ammonia inhalants, spirit of hartshorn or sal volatile, are chemical compounds used as stimulants to restore consciousness after fainting. Usage The usual active compound is ammonium carbonate—a colorless-to-w ...
. Many patrons left before the end or waited for viewing companions in the lobby; the smell of
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
smoke was also common although the police stationed at the theater reported no arrests. A reviewer for ''
Cinefantastique ''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine. History The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
'' said that there was so much vomit in the bathroom at the showing he attended that it was impossible to reach the sinks. Some theaters have been said to have provided "''Exorcist'' barf bags"; while there are no contemporary reports of any even providing regular sickness bags, '' Mad'' magazine depicted one on the cover of its October 1974 issue, which contained a parody of the film. Other theaters arranged for ambulances to be on call; in Toronto the University said it had once required four in one night. Some patrons had to be helped after showings to leave the places they had hidden. Despite its lack of any supernatural content, many audience members found the angiography, where blood spurts from the tube inserted into Regan's neck, to be the film's most unsettling scene (Blatty said he only watched it once, while the film was being edited, and avoided it on every other viewing). Friedkin speculates that it is easier to empathize with Regan in that scene, as compared to what she suffers while possessed later in the film. Some Catholic viewers experienced spiritual crises as a result of seeing the film. Many priests reported being called to minister to parishioners, some of whom had lapsed in their faith, who had been distraught by the film. A man in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
walked out of a showing into the nearby Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception half-naked and so disturbed that it took two priests, several attendants and the police to get him into it. A teenage girl in New Jersey stayed up all night with her parents saying the Rosary with her parents after seeing the film but still needed to reassured by a priest before she could sleep; even some priests themselves had similar issues. Many parishes reported callers who believed that they or a loved one was possessed and inquiring about how to arrange an exorcism. The Rev. Richard Woods, a professor at Loyola of Chicago, said most of the calls he got were from lapsed Catholics for whom the film resurfaced their
religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to te ...
prior to
Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and 1 ...
. "It stirs up memories of all those descriptions of hell that you got from nuns," he said. In 1975, ''
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease ''The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal on psychopathology. It was established in 1874 as the ''Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease''. "Chicago" was dropped from the title beginning in 1876. Articl ...
'' published a paper by a psychiatrist documenting four cases of what he called "cinematic
neurosis Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...
" triggered by viewing the film. In all he believed the neurosis was already present and merely triggered by viewing scenes in the film, particularly those depicting Regan's possession. He recommended that treating physicians view the movie with their patient to help him or her identify the sources of their trauma. Other causes were suggested outside the psychiatric context. One writer at ''Castle of Frankenstein'' took note of Friedkin's pride in the movie's sound, which theaters played at maximum volume, and wondered if some of the low frequencies had induced or amplified feelings of dread or uneasiness in patrons. Another writer there blamed the reactions on the mainstream audience's general unfamiliarity with horror cinema and its conventions. "We have all no doubt heard of people who stood in line for four hours to see this movie, then threw up in mid-film and walked out," he wrote. "I can't say for sure, but my guess is that these people hadn't gone to see a monster movie since 1935." "''The Exorcist'' ... was one of the rare horror movies that became part of the national conversation", wrote Zinoman almost 40 years later: "It was a movie you needed to have an opinion about". Three separate production histories were published. Journalists complained that coverage of the film and its controversies was distracting the public from the ongoing
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
. Much of the coverage focused on the audience which, in the words of film historian William Paul, "had become a spectacle equal to the film". Paul cited an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
cartoon in which a couple trying to purchase tickets to the film was told that while the film itself is sold out, "we're selling tickets to the lobby to watch the audience." He did not think any other film's audience has received as much coverage as ''The Exorcist''s.


Religious response

"One of the best things that could happen is if the Pope denounces it", Friedkin told an interviewer the month after ''The Exorcist'' was released. Some of the film's content, such as the crucifix scene, involved acts and utterances that were specifically sacrilegious from a Catholic perspective. Officially the Church, whose influence over the content of films had declined following the demise of the
Hays Office The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
and the associated Production Code a few years earlier, had bemoaned Warners' decision to release it immediately following Christmas. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting, through its publication the ''Catholic Film Newsletter'' rated the film A-IV, suitable for adults only with reservations, and gave it a generally negative review that faulted the film for suggesting exorcisms were common and possibly encouraging belief in the occult and
Satanism Satanism is a group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 1966, although a few hi ...
. Individual priests familiar with the underlying theology also faulted the film. A priest who, like Karras, was a Jesuit and psychiatrist at Georgetown said that while he believed in the Devil "there is no shred of evidence from the Bible that he can possess an individual." Woods, the Loyola of Chicago professor, who had written a book about the Devil, told ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that Karras and Merrin were incompetent exorcists. "They departed from the ritual in the most stupid and reckless manner," he said. "They tried to fight the Demon hand to hand instead of relying on the power of God." Eugene Kennedy, another Loyola priest and psychologist, described the film's view of the battle of good and evil as "immature ... Being a Christian and a mature person means coming to terms with our own capacity for evil, not projecting it on an outside force that possesses us." Critics of the movie's depiction of Catholicism were not limited to the Church. "Surely it is the religious people who should be most offended by this movie", wrote Kael, incredulous that Georgetown and several priests facilitated the production: Kael had nonetheless also described ''The Exorcist'' as "the biggest recruiting poster the Catholic Church has had since the sunnier days of ''
Going My Way ''Going My Way'' is a 1944 American musical comedy drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Written by Frank Butler and Frank Cavett based on a story by McCarey, the film is about a new young priest ta ...
'' and ''
The Bells of St. Mary's ''The Bells of St. Mary's'' (1945) is an American musical comedy-drama film, produced and directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Written by Dudley Nichols and based on a story by McCarey, the film is about a priest ...
''" since the film "says that tis the true faith, feared by the Devil, and that its rituals can exorcise demons." A later historian has found that the Church was not as critical of the film as media coverage at the time suggested. Privately it considered the film to be faith-affirming. In 2008, Colleen McDannell, editor of ''Catholics In The Movies'', wrote that "''The Exorcist'' is a horror movie that believes in its villain and, even worse, recruits its villain as a witness to Catholic truth." In February 1974, the Jesuit magazine ''
America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
'' ran several commentaries and responses by priests to the film, some of which reiterated criticisms already made. The editors allowed Blatty to publish a response later that month. He praised some of the commentators' points, " t I am truly dismayed at the misconceptions held, not only by critics, but also defenders of the novel and film. And when I see that they are Jesuits, whom I thanked on the acknowledgement page of my novel for 'teaching me to think,' I can only conclude that the fault must be mine, and that what I thought obvious, was not." The changes to the film's ending from the novel, Blatty agreed, might have made it harder to perceive that "the mystery of goodness" was the theme of the work, since it appeared to many viewers, including some of those who had written in the magazine, that the film ended with the demon triumphant through the deaths of the priests even if it had been successfully exorcised from Regan. The ending of the novel made this theme clearer, but even in the film he saw Karras's suicide as a sacrificial act of love that reaffirmed his faith in death. Blatty also corrected the misapprehension, common at the time, that the spirit possessing Regan was Satan, noting that it was explicitly named as
Pazuzu In ancient Mesopotamian religion, Pazuzu ( akk, , translit=pà.zu.zu; also called Fazuzu or Pazuza) was a personification of the southwestern wind, and held kingship over the lilu wind demons. As an apotropaic entity, he was considered as bo ...
in the novel, and implied strongly in the film to be him. "True, Regan tells Fr. Karras, 'And I'm the devil.'" he conceded. "But what constrains us to believe her? Believe that and you perforce must believe everything the demon has to say, including the accusation that Fr. Merrin is a homosexual." Lastly he responded to Woods' criticism of the absence of temptation as a theme in the film by saying that he chose not to explore that because not only did he see that focus as "naive, mistaken and an excuse for evasion of confrontation with personal guilt" but that he instead saw the Devil's greatest weapon against humanity to be "the inducement of despair."
American Protestant Protestantism is the largest grouping of Christians in the United States, with its combined denominations collectively comprising about 43% of the country's population (or 141 million people) in 2019. Other estimates suggest that 48.5% of the U ...
groups also took note of the ''Exorcist'' phenomenon and its religious implications. At first their response was negative. Evangelist
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
told the ''
National Enquirer The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabl ...
'' that he was afraid to watch it, saying that "the Devil is in every frame of that film", a remark later characterized as Graham believing the print itself to be possessed. He called it "spiritual pornography, pandering to man's innate superstition." The Rev. Lester Kinsolving, an Episcopal priest who wrote a widely syndicated newspaper column on religion, chastised the Catholic Church for granting its approval, saying incorrectly that it had given the film an A-III rating only because its heroes were priests. ''
The Christian Century ''The Christian Century'' is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and reviews ...
'', the leading voice of
mainline Protestant The mainline Protestant churches (also called mainstream Protestant and sometimes oldline Protestant) are a group of Protestant denominations in the United States that contrast in history and practice with evangelical, fundamentalist, and charis ...
ism, likewise denounced the film as "hardcore pornography hat to Protestants offersa completely impossible solution" to evil. Protestant groups around the country picketed the film and offered support to those who might be disturbed by it, distributing leaflets with church contact information to filmgoers waiting in line.


Rating controversy

The
Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
's (MPAA) ratings board had been established several years before to replace the
Motion Picture Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
after it expired in 1968. It had already been criticized for its indirect
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
—as many as a third of the films submitted to it had had to be recut after being rated X, meaning no minors could be admitted. Since many theaters would not show such films, and newspapers would not run ads for them, the X rating greatly limited a non-pornographic film's commercial prospects. While Friedkin wanted more blood and gore in ''The Exorcist'' than had been in any Hollywood film previously, he also needed the film to have an R rating (children admitted only with an adult) to reach a large audience. He believes that part of the reason for Warners' decision to open the film in limited release was the studio's certainty that the film would be rated X, severely attenuating its commercial prospects. Before release, Aaron Stern, the head of the MPAA ratings board, decided to watch the film himself before the rest of the board did. He then called Friedkin and said that since ''The Exorcist'' was "an important film", he would allow it to receive an R rating without any cuts. Some critics, both anticipating and reacting to reports of the film's effect on children who might be or had been taken to see it, questioned the R rating. While he had praised the film, Roy Meacham, a critic for
Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMo ...
television stations based in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, wrote in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in February 1974 that he had strongly cautioned that children should not be allowed to see it even with an adult, a warning his station repeated for several days. Nevertheless, some had, and he had heard of one girl being taken from the theater in an ambulance. In Washington, the film drew strong interest as well since it was a rare film set in the area that did not involve government activity. The children Meacham saw leaving showings, he recalled, "were drained and drawn afterward; their eyes had a look I had never seen before". He suggested that the ratings board had somehow yielded to pressure from Warner not to give the film an X rating, and was skeptical of MPAA head
Jack Valenti Jack Joseph Valenti (September 5, 1921 – April 26, 2007) was an American political advisor and lobbyist who served as a Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association ...
's claims that since the film had no sex or nudity, it could receive an R. After a week in Washington's theaters, Meacham recalled, authorities cited the crucifix scene to invoke a local ordinance that forbid minors from seeing any scenes with sexual content even where the actors were fully clothed; police warned theaters that staff would be arrested if ''any'' minors were admitted to see ''The Exorcist''. "The review board assurrendered all right to the claim that it provides moral and ethical leadership to the movie industry", Meacham wrote. He feared that, as a result, communities across the country would feel it necessary to pass their own, perhaps more restrictive, laws regarding the content of movies that could be shown in their jurisdictions: "For if the movie industry cannot provide safeguards for minors, authorities will have to." In ''The New Yorker'', Kael echoed his insinuations that the board had yielded to studio pressure in rating the film R: "If ''The Exorcist'' had cost under a million or been made abroad, it would almost certainly be an X film. But when a movie is as expensive as this one, the oarddoesn't dare give it an X". Two communities,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and
Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The city popu ...
, attempted to prevent the film from being shown outright in their jurisdictions. A court in the former city blocked the ban, saying the film did not meet the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
's standard of obscenity. Nonetheless, in Boston the authorities told theaters they could not admit any minors despite the R rating. In Mississippi, the theater chain showing the movie was convicted at trial, but the state's Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1976, finding that the state's obscenity statute was too vague to be enforceable in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1972 ''
Miller v. California ''Miller v. California'', 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court modifying its definition of obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, polit ...
'' decision which laid down a new standard for obscenity. There was also concern that theaters were not strictly enforcing the R rating, or even enforcing it at all, allowing unaccompanied minors to view the film. ''Times'' critic
Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...
reported that a 16-year-old girl in California said that not only was she sold a ticket to see the film unaccompanied, others who seemed even younger were able to do so as well. On the other hand, another ''Times'' writer, Judy Lee Klemesrud, said she saw no unaccompanied minors, and indeed very few minors, when she went to see the film in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Nevertheless, "I think that if a movie ever deserved an X rating simply because it would keep the kids out of the theater, it is ''The Exorcist''". In 1974, Stern's tenure as chairman of the MPAA ratings board ended. His replacement,
Richard Heffner Richard Douglas Heffner (August 5, 1925 – December 17, 2013) was the creator and host of '' The Open Mind,'' a public affairs television show first broadcast in 1956. He was a University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers Uni ...
, asked during the interview process about films with controversial ratings, including ''The Exorcist'', said: "How could anything be worse than this? And it got an R?" After he took over as head, he would spearhead efforts to be more aggressive with the X rating, especially over violence in films.


Viewing restrictions in United Kingdom

''The Exorcist'' was released in London in March 1974. The film drew protests around Britain from the
Nationwide Festival of Light The Nationwide Festival of Light was a short-lived grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the rise of the permissive society and social changes in English society by the late 1960s. The movement was opposed to what ...
(NFL), a Christian public action group concerned with the influence of media on society, and especially on the young. Members of local clergy and concerned citizens handed out leaflets to those queuing to see the film, offering spiritual support afterwards to those who asked for it. A letter-writing campaign to local councils by the NFL led many to screen ''The Exorcist'' before permitting it to be shown in their districts. It was thus banned in some areas, such as Dinefwr Borough and
Ceredigion Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cere ...
in Wales. ''The Exorcist'' was available on home video from 1981 in the UK. After the passage of the
Video Recordings Act 1984 The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
, the film was submitted to the
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
for a home video certificate.
James Ferman James Alan Ferman (11 April 1930 – 24 December 2002) was an American television and theatre director. He was the Secretary (later termed Director) of the British Board of Film Classification from 1975 to 1999.Michael Brook"Ferman, James (1 ...
, the board's director, vetoed the decision to grant it over a majority vote. He believed that, even with a proposed 18 certificate, the film's notoriety would entice underage viewers to seek it out. As a result, all video copies of ''The Exorcist'' were withdrawn in the UK in 1988 and could not be purchased for 11 years. Following a successful 1998 theatrical re-release, the film was submitted for home video release again in 1999. It was passed uncut with an 18 certificate, signifying a relaxation of the censorship rules for home video in the UK, in part due to Ferman's departure.
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
showed ''The Exorcist'' on broadcast television in the UK for the first time in 2001.


Since release

''The Exorcist'' set box office records that stood for many years. For almost half a century, until the 2017 adaptation of
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's '' It'', it was the top-grossing R-rated horror film. In 1999, ''
The Sixth Sense ''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient (Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. Released by ...
'' finally bested ''The Exorcist'' as the highest-grossing
supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...
; it remains in third place after ''It'' claimed that title as well. On both charts ''The Exorcist'', along with ''
The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (director), Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Mic ...
'', are the only 20th-century releases in the top 10. Since its release, ''The Exorcist''s critical reputation has grown considerably. According to the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 84% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The site's critics consensus states: "''The Exorcist'' rides its supernatural theme to magical effect, with remarkable special effects and an eerie atmosphere, resulting in one of the scariest films of all time". At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns and normalizes scores of critic reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". ''Chicago Tribune'' film critic
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
placed it in the top five films released that year.
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
film critic
Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
believes the film to be the best film ever made. Director
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
placed ''The Exorcist'' on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time. Other filmmakers, including
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
,
Robert Eggers Robert Houston Eggers (born July 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker, director, and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films ''The Witch (2015 film), The Witch'' (2015) and ''The Lighthouse (2019 f ...
,
Alex Proyas Alexander Proyas (; Greek: Αλέξανδρος Πρόγιας; born 23 September 1963) is an Australian filmmaker of Greek descent. Proyas is best known for directing the films ''The Crow'' (1994), '' Dark City'' (1998), ''I, Robot'' (2004), ' ...
and
David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
also have cited ''The Exorcist'' as one of their favorite films. The musician
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
listed it in his five favorite films of all time. In 2008, the film was selected by ''
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' as one of ''The 500 Greatest Movies Ever Made''. It was also placed on a similar list of a thousand films by ''The New York Times''.
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
listed ''The Exorcist'' as one of his top eight scariest horror classics and listed the film as an influence in his 1980 supernatural horror film ''
The Fog ''The Fog'' is a 1980 American supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It ...
''. When the film was re-released theatrically in 2000 as "The Version You've Never Seen", some critics reconsidered whether it was still capable of affecting contemporary audiences, since it had been so widely imitated and emulated by other films since then. The ''
Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...
''s Malcolm Johnson described it as a "somewhat creaky antique
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
... in some ways, feels a little old hat in 2000." Some scenes, such as
Ritalin Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta among others, is the most widely prescribed central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, to a lesser extent ...
being proposed as a treatment for Regan, provoked laughter from modern audiences that had not been intended in 1973. But the film's performances were still effective, and the longer version made the medical professionals seem like "witch doctors". But the ''Tribune'' found it "even better than it was in 1973 ... it actually seems a deeper movie now." Friedkin, who had seemed an odd choice to direct at the time, now seemed to have been the best. " emade the story real—and more terrifying", critic Michael Wilmington wrote. " eknows how to make the improbable real, how to convey a convincing atmosphere of modern chaos and dread."


Critical and scholarly analysis and commentary

''The Exorcist''s surprising commercial success has evoked critical ponderings over what sort of deeper social resonance the film tapped into. Many of those critics have mentioned the anxiety of the American population over developments at the time, just after the cultural, political and social upheavals of the late 1960s. "''The Exorcist'' communicates an image of a United States in an unstable state of change that can no longer avoid its real and historical systemic evils", writes Amy Chambers.
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, whose horror novels would sell well in the wake of the film and generate film adaptations of their own (one of which, the 2017 version of '' It'', would eventually dethrone ''The Exorcist'' as the all-time highest-grossing R-rated horror film), calls ''The Exorcist'' "a social horror film if there ever was one" in his 1983 treatise on the genre, ''
Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...
''. He sees the possessed Regan symbolizing for middle-aged viewers the outspoken, often profane youth protesting the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and other social injustices, and speculates that the absence of that phenomenon from
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
during that era may explain why the film did not perform as well there as it did in other countries (whereas the later '' Dawn of the Dead'' was extremely successful, coming as it did after an era characterized by youth-led terrorist activity such as
Baader-Meinhof Gang The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section " Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. Th ...
.
Danny Peary Dannis Peary (born August 8, 1949) is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written and edited many books on cinema and sports-related topics. Peary is most famous for his book ''Cult Movies'' (1980), which spawned two sequels, '' Cul ...
likewise notes the symbolic and real fragmentation throughout the film, from the dig-site workers breaking up rocks in the first scene to Chris's fraught relationship with her ex-husband and Karras's drift from his faith: "With the world in such disorder, the Devil can make a dramatic entrance." More specifically, at the time of the film's release, the
Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
scandal was growing more serious, implicating President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
and the subject of regular daily news coverage. "Maybe, between that and Vietnam, people were newly awake to a certain kind of pervading societal rot, something that the spectacle of ''The Exorcist'' might've mirrored", wrote Tom Breihan for ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' in 2019. In a ''Christian Century'' article a year after the film's release, during which time Nixon had resigned, theologian
Carl Raschke Carl A. Raschke (born 1944) is an American philosopher and theologian. Raschke is a Past Chair and Professor of Religious Studies Department at the University of Denver, specializing in continental philosophy, the philosophy of religion and t ...
connected the two, calling them "psychodramas of the American soul" resulting from "the cynical mood of our age risingby default from the wreck of traditional religious as well as social values." One other early 1970s challenge to a weakened social order has gotten considerable attention in discussions of ''The Exorcist'':
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
. The U.S. women's liberation movement had enjoyed some early gains in legislatures and courts, and commentators have seen the film, in which a single working mother and her apparently uncontrollable daughter are ultimately rescued by
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
authority, as a reaction against feminism specifically.
Peter Biskind Peter Biskind (born 1940) is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of ''Premiere'' magazine from 1986 to 1996. Biography He attended Swarthmore College and wrote several books depicting life in Holl ...
, in '' Easy Riders and Raging Bulls'', his history of the 1970s
New Hollywood The New Hollywood, also known as American New Wave or Hollywood Renaissance, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types o ...
, describes the film as "a male nightmare of female puberty. Emergent female sexuality is equated with demonic possession." For the male authority figures in ''The Exorcist'', whether priests or physicians, Regan must be restored to her innocence through abusive and violent means if necessary, the aspect of the film that he notes led
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
to decline the directing job. For Breihan, this was because the film itself was reactionary: "''The Exorcist'' seems like a transgressive work of art, but it's built on reverence of tradition. It has trust in institutions" he writes. " talmost sneers at the politics of the ’60s and at the way Hollywood embraced them." In the film's most overtly political scenes, those showing the shooting of the film Chris is making, she dismisses its take on student protest as "the Walt Disney version of the
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...
story". In the only scene she is shown shooting, her character, a faculty member at the fictional college, grabs a megaphone and counsels a group of protesters against taking over the building and shutting down classes, telling them, "if you want change, you have to work within the system." Like Biskind, many feminist critics have taken particular note of the film's focus on the female body as the site of horror in the film. "When her body changes, Regan becomes ''someone else''; someone sexual, whose desire is a dark visitor, hollowing her out and corrupting her from within" writes Jude Ellison Doyle in '' Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and the Fear of Female Power''. "To become a woman is to become the worst thing on Earth, the enemy of all that is pure or holy." Australian film studies professor
Barbara Creed Barbara Creed (born 30 September 1943) is a professor of cinema studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of six books on gender, feminist film theory, and the horror genre. Creed is a ...
, in her seminal 1993 work '' The Monstrous-Feminine'', which inaugurated
psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might be ...
feminist film theory Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. With the advancements in film throughout the years ...
, counters the prevailing feminist take on ''The Exorcist'' by insisting that Pazuzu is female and thus the possession of Regan is itself a feminist act, exposing "the inability of the male order to control the woman whose perversity is expressed through her rebellious body", as she navigates an incestuous desire for her mother. Ilkka Mäyrä argues that this reading "to my mind, almost completely ignores the most important aspects of the particular conflicts that empower the demonic in this work", since it seems to be based largely on a female actress voicing the demon, ignores the novel entirely as well as indications of its maleness in the film, such as the clearly phallic Pazuzu figure shown both in Iraq and Regan's bedroom, along with images of ailing masculinity such as Merrin's frailty. "The demonic in ''The Exorcist'' can not be reduced to the conflict between sexes, even if the female body and sexuality (both male and female) play special roles in it."
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
professor S. Trimble writes that the film tapped into "white American fears of nightmare futures" that could be brought about by the women's liberation,
gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii. ...
and Black Power movements, which all challenged the established social order of the 1970s. As a film about "a revolting girl revolting against the little-girl box in which she was stuck" and army of men trying to put her back, ''The Exorcist'' fits into a tradition of horror movies that used gender-bending to create a monster, Trimble notes. As a graduate student,
Texas State Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...
religious studies professor Joseph Laycock wrote that the popular embrace of ''The Exorcist'' also pointed to reactionary popular trends in American religion. "''The Exorcist'' is a depiction not of ecclesiastical Catholicism but of ''folk piety''", which he also describes as extra-ecclesiastical religion, pursued by the lay masses, "incorporat ngbeliefs about divine or supernatural intervention in the realm of everyday experience", as tolerant of
Ouija boards The ouija ( , ), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and grap ...
and practices from other spiritual traditions as it was devout in its Catholic faith. In the early 1970s, established organized religion in America, primarily but not exclusively the Roman Catholic Church, had increasingly turned towards the rational as the country became more secular: "The authentic folk piety depicted in ''The Exorcist'' likely appealed to audiences
t the time T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
because it was a welcome alternative to rationalized religion and a cultural myth of universal secularization."


Litigation

Lawsuits among the creators of ''The Exorcist'' began even before the film was released, and have continued into the 21st century. In early November 1973, ''THR'' reported that Blatty had sued the studio and Friedkin, over both the credits and Friedkin banning him from the set. Friedkin said that he had only barred him from post-production. A week later
Noel Marshall Noel Bangert (April 18, 1931 – June 30, 2010), mainly known as Noel Marshall, was an American agent, co-producer, and briefly a director, and actor for one film. He moved to Hollywood, California, in his 20s and began investing in the productio ...
, the film's executive producer, said Blatty had withdrawn his complaint against the studio but still planned to sue Friedkin; he eventually settled for the "William Peter Blatty's ''The Exorcist''" line in the opening credits. The next round of disputes involved Friedkin and Dietz. In February 1974 she claimed that he had forced her to sign a
nondisclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...
concerning her work in the film. While Friedkin had, in earlier publicity for the film, denied any use of a double for Blair, by the end of the month Dietz was saying that she had neither claimed to have been Blair's only double for the possession scenes nor talked about it to the media. The
Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
ruled her contract was not binding, but then Dietz declined to arbitrate the matter. Around the same time, Warners paid Friedkin $4 million, his 10 percent share of the film's profits by that point. A year later, Friedkin sued the studio, claiming it had withheld another $8.5 million he was due under those terms. By 1978 it was reported that Friedkin had settled that suit, but by then Blatty was involved in litigation against Warners, claiming that the $15 million he had received from the studio as his share of the profit was still $1.5 million short. In 2001, following the release of the extended version, which restored 11 minutes of footage and did well critically and commercially, Blatty and Friedkin sued Warners in federal court, alleging that they had been cheated out of profits they had been led to believe they would receive in return for helping promote the film. Specifically, they had been induced to do so by a promise of a share of the sale of the cable TV rights, which the studio gave to
Turner Network Television TNT (originally an abbreviation for Turner Network Television) is an American basic cable television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is dist ...
and
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
for free. Warners called the suit "ludicrous" Later that year, they filed an additional suit in state court, alleging that Warners had further defrauded them by selling broadcast rights to
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
at a discount, by claiming itself as the sole author of the new version of the film when registering it with the
U.S. Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
and by failing to honor an oral agreement with Friedkin to share the profits. Nine years later, Blatty brought suit against Warners again, asking for the opportunity to inspect the studio's records and accounts, to see whether the studio had properly paid him what it owed. He argued that his deal with the studio made him a co-owner of the film property and thus he had unique rights to access those records. " arner Bros.has asserted that Blatty must 'stand in line' with profit participants in arners'other works who seek to audit arners" his complaint read, "but who do not share Blatty's status as a co-owner."


Copyright infringement claims

Within a year of ''The Exorcist''s release, two films were quickly made that appeared to appropriate elements of its plot or production design. Warner took legal action against the producers of both, accusing them of
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
. The lawsuits resulted in one film being pulled from distribution and the other one having to change its advertisements. '' Abby'', released almost a year after ''The Exorcist'', put a
blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
spin on the material. In it a
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
demon released during an archeological dig in Africa crosses the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and possesses the archaeologist's daughter at home in
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. Director
William Girdler William Girdler (October 22, 1947 – January 21, 1978) was an American filmmaker. In a span of six years, from 1972 to 1978, he directed nine feature films in such genres as horror and action. Girdler also wrote and produced three of his fea ...
acknowledged the movie was intended to cash in on the success of ''The Exorcist''. Warner's lawsuit early in 1975 resulted in most prints of the film being confiscated; the film has rarely been screened since and is not available on any home media. Later, in 1975, Warners brought suit against
Film Ventures International Film Ventures International (FVI) was an independent film production and distribution company originally located in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1970s. FVI garnered a notorious reputation within the industry for producing films that were highly de ...
(FVI) over '' Beyond the Door'', which had also been released near the end of 1974, alleging that its main character, also a possessed woman whose head spins around completely, projectile vomits and speaks with a deep voice when possessed, infringed the studio's copyright on Regan. Federal judge David W. Williams of the
Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, m ...
held Held may refer to: Places * Held Glacier People Arts and media * Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist *Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter. *Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...
first that since Blatty had based the character on what he was told was a true story, Regan was not original to either film and thus Warner could not hold a copyright on Regan. Even if she ''had'' been a creation, she could not be copyrighted since she was subordinate to the story. The writers of the FVI film had also further distanced themselves from an infringement claim by having their possessed female, Jessica, be a pregnant adult woman.''Film Ventures'', at 525–27 Williams held for Warners on a minor issue. Some of ''Beyond the Door''s advertising graphics, such as an image of light coming from behind a door into a darkened room, and the letter "T" drawn as a Christian cross, were similar enough to those used to promote ''The Exorcist'' that the public could reasonably have been confused into thinking the two films were the same, or made by the same people, and
enjoined An injunction is a legal remedy, legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party (law), party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The United States courts of appeals, court of appeals ... has exclusive ju ...
FVI from further use of those graphics.


Legacy

"''The Exorcist'' has done for the horror film what ''
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
'' did for science fiction", wrote the ''
Cinefantastique ''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine. History The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
'' reviewer who had described the vomit-covered bathroom, "legitimizing it in the eyes of thousands who previously considered horror movies nothing more than a giggle". In the years following, studios allotted large budgets to films like ''
The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer ...
'', '' The Sentinel'', '' Burnt Offerings'', '' Audrey Rose'' and ''
The Amityville Horror ''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...
'', all of which had similar themes or plot elements and cast established stars, who until then had often avoided the genre until their later years. Friedkin's use of work like ''Polymorphia'' in the film's score also led to the use of similar modern avant-garde composers like
Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
in later horror films like '' The Shining'', and composers of original music for those films adopted some of their techniques, like dissonant intervals such as (particularly)
tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...
s,
sound mass In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
ing and tone clusters, to create unease and tension. The film's success led Warner to initiate a sequel, one of the first times a studio had done that with a major film that had not been planned to have one, launching a
franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
. While many of the classic horror films of the 1930s, like ''
Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...
'' and ''
King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' had spawned series of films over the decades, the practice had declined in the 60s, and although there had been some exceptions, like ''
Bride of Frankenstein ''Bride of Frankenstein'' is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film ''Frankenstein''. As with the first film, ''Bride of Frankenstein'' was directed by James Whale starring Boris Karlo ...
'', most sequels had been considered secondary properties for the studios. The other big-budget horror films made in the wake of ''The Exorcist'' also led to sequels and franchises of their own. Amy Chambers observes that Friedkin also set a precedent by not only extensively consulting with technical experts in the subject matter, in ''The Exorcist''s case physicians and priests, but foregrounding that reliance on expertise by including those experts' names and credentials in the film's credits and press kit, a practice now commonplace. ''The Exorcist'' has become a cultural reference point in the years since its release. Its imagery, particularly Regan in her bedroom, has been used by political cartoonists like
Mike Luckovich Michael Edward Luckovich ( ; born January 28, 1960) is a liberal editorial cartoonist who has worked for ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' since 1989. He is the 2005 winner of the Reuben, the National Cartoonists Society's top award for car ...
and Mike Peters. In 1998, ''New York Times'' columnist
Maureen Dowd Maureen Brigid Dowd (; born January 14, 1952) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times'' and an author. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Dowd worked for ''The Washington Star'' and ''Time'', writing news, sports and feature articles. ...
invoked the film when criticizing the nation's apparent indulgence of President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's sexual indiscretions: " ople are saying things so bizarre they could have come out of Linda Blair in ''The Exorcist.'' ... You expect the feminists' heads to start rotating on their necks any moment now." In 1992 the hard rock band
Pantera Pantera () is an American heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas formed in 1981, and currently comprised of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-kn ...
named its sixth studio album '' Vulgar Display of Power'', from the possessed Regan's demurral when Karras asks why, if the possessing spirit is indeed the Devil, she would continue asking him to remove the straps on her arms rather than making them disappear. The title was reused for a book about the band's adventures on tour culminating in the onstage shooting death of guitarist
Dimebag Darrell Darrell Lance Abbott (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004), best known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, was an American musician. He was the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, both of which he co-founded alongside his ...
. Popular comedy used the film as an inspiration; ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' parodied the film during its first season, with
Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...
in the Karras role and
Laraine Newman Laraine Newman (born March 2, 1952) is an American actress, writer and comedian. She was part of the original cast of NBC's ''Saturday Night Live''. She took an interest at improv in high school. After graduating, she studied mime with Marcel M ...
as Regan. ''
Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American Supernatural fiction, supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and ...
'', the 1984 comedy blockbuster, included joking references to many successful horror movies from the previous two decades, including ''The Exorcist''. In one scene,
Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
's character has become possessed by an evil spirit, as
Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his deadpan delivery. He rose to fame on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' (1973–1974) before becoming a national presence on ''Saturday Nigh ...
's Dr. Peter Venkman attempts to communicate with her she begins to speak with a deep, husky voice and levitates above her bed. In 1990, Blair starred as a housewife needing exorcism in the parody '' Repossessed''. Court opinions in cases not concerning the film have referenced it. In 1999, Massachusetts federal judge
Reginald C. Lindsay Reginald C. Lindsay (March 19, 1945 – March 12, 2009) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Education and career Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Lindsay received a Bachelor of ...
, considering a product-disparagement suit brought by
Gillette Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gil ...
against competitor
Norelco Norelco is the American brand name for electric shavers and other personal care products made by the Consumer Lifestyle division of Philips. For personal care products marketed outside the United States, Philips used the Philishave trademark unti ...
, noted that in one of the latter's commercials for its Reflex Action shaver " the razor corrodes and twists its 'neck and head,' apparently in an effort to evoke recollection of a scene from the motion picture ''The Exorcist''. At the same time, the voice-over states: 'A blade can leave you feeling irritated. What would possess it to do that?'" A Colorado lawyer challenging his 2005 suspension from the bar admitted his own recorded voice on obscene phone messages he left his wife while under the influence of cocaine sounded like the possessed Regan. Litigants have made similar observations about people experiencing mental illness. Religious wariness toward the film abated as years passed and it became more widely accepted as a classic. "''The Exorcist'' exposed people around the world to the question of evil in a new and terrifying way", wrote Jesuit Jim McDermott in a 2019 issue of ''America''. "It is a film that takes on big questions and aspires to do much more than shock." In the heavily
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
, ''The Exorcist'' was seen as acceptable viewing amid denunciations of many other horror films that supposedly promoted the occult, because, as a writer in ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' recalls, it and movies like ''
The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer ...
'' "didn't encourage people to dabble in the dark arts, they ''warned'' people. More to the point, they acknowledged the existence of God, the influence of Satan, and the truth of the Bible." In 2015 the District of Columbia posted a commemorative plaque on what had become known as the Exorcist steps in Georgetown, since they had become a popular tourist attraction. At a ceremony the day before
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
that year, Blatty and Friedkin were among those present as the plaque, with Mayor
Muriel Bowser Muriel Elizabeth Bowser (born August 2, 1972) is an American politician serving since 2015 as the eighth mayor of the District of Columbia. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously represented the 4th ward as a member of the Council ...
's signature, was unveiled. Friedkin said that having his name on the plaque was a greater honor than another Academy Award would have been, since "the Academy may come and go. Its importance has been diminished over the years anyway. But that plaque on those steps is going to be there for a very long time." Vietnamese-born
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
artist
Danh Võ Danh Võ (born , August 5, 1975) is a contemporary artist of Vietnamese descent. He lives and works in Berlin and Mexico City.David Ng (November 1, 2012)Danh Vo wins 2012 Hugo Boss Prize from Guggenheim Foundation''Los Angeles Times''. Early life ...
saw ''The Exorcist'' with his family after his Catholic mother became interested in horror films following the family's journey from Vietnam to Europe after the war. He was seven at the time. In 2016 he developed an exhibit inspired by the film that, other than the title, a string of 266 obscene phrases shouted by the possessed Regan to Karras, does not visually reference the film. The
White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...
gallery in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, which showed it, describes it as 600 carved
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
fossils and a 17th-century ivory figurine suspended from the gallery's ceiling.


Accolades

''The Exorcist'' was nominated for 10
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
in 1974, winning two. It was the first horror film to be nominated for
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
. The film was also nominated for seven
Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
, winning four, including Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Robert Knudson Robert Knudson (September 29, 1925 – January 21, 2006) was an American sound engineer. He won three Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for seven more in the same category. He worked on more than 100 films between 1963 and 199 ...
and Chris Newman won ''The Exorcist''s first Oscar, for Best Sound, thanking Friedkin, the studio and their crews. Blatty won for Best Adapted Screenplay; the award was presented by
Angie Dickinson Angeline Dickinson (née Brown; born September 30, 1931) is an American actress. She began her career on television, appearing in many anthology series during the 1950s, before gaining her breakthrough role in ''Gun the Man Down'' (1956) wit ...
and Miller, who applauded vigorously as Blatty came out to accept it. In his short speech, Blatty posthumously thanked William Bloom, "who taught me the rudiments and the craft of screenwriting" and Friedkin. He also paid tribute to both his parents, "who came to this country on a cattle boat and whose love and whose courage have brought me to this moment and to this place." The morning after the ceremony, Blatty complained bitterly about the minimal awards the film had received. In commentary published on the front page of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' (THR), he said it was a "disgrace" that ''The Exorcist'' had not won more awards, that it should have won all it was nominated for. It was, he asserted, "head and shoulders, the finest film made this year and in many other years". "Since I won an award, perhaps it would be considered ungracious," he admitted to ''THR''. "But I'd rather be ungracious than be a hypocrite." He accused veteran director
George Cukor George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of ...
of having led a campaign against giving the film ''any'' awards, accounting for its meager haul.


American Film Institute Lists

* AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – No. 3 * AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: ** Regan MacNeil – No. 9 Villain


Sequels and prequels

The film has gone on to spawn multiple sequels and an overarching media franchise including a
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
. A year after ''The Exorcist''s release, ''
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
'' reported that a sequel was planned. But Blatty, still in court with the studio over money owed in addition to the $20 million he had reportedly already received, would not be involved. Friedkin, similarly dissatisfied with his share of the profits, agreed only to produce. Ultimately he, too, had nothing to do with the sequel, nor did any of the original cast who had played major characters beyond Blair and von Sydow.
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
, who had turned down the original as "negative and destructive", directed, considering the sequel to be "healthy" in comparison, and
Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...
played the lead; the film also suffered production problems, particular cast and crew health issues, and was beset by regular script rewrites and personnel changes. On release in 1977, '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' had what was at the time Warners' largest opening-day gross and ultimately made some money, but revenues dropped 60 percent in the film's second week and ultimately grosses were minimal compared to the original. Based on having seen 40 minutes of the film following a chance encounter with one of the technicians working on it at a color lab, Friedkin recalled on a 2019
podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
hosted by Dante and
Josh Olson Joshua R. Olson is an American screenwriter and podcaster, known for writing the 2005 film ''A History of Violence''. Career Olson wrote and directed the low budget horror film ''Infested'' in 2002. He wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film ' ...
that ''Exorcist II'' was "the worst piece of shit I've ever seen ... a fucking disgrace" given all the talent involved. In the wake of ''Exorcist II''s failure, Blatty and Friedkin began talking about a sequel of their own. They began planning a story and script, but after Friedkin dropped out of the project over creative differences with Blatty, Blatty continued and, finding little interest in making a third ''Exorcist'' film, decided, instead, to tell the story as a new novel: ''
Legion Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army * Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...
'', published in 1983. He saw the story, in which Kinderman investigates a string of murders that seem to have been committed by a possessed, resurrected Father Karras, as not so much a sequel to ''The Exorcist'' but an exploration of the same themes within the same fictional universe by some of the original's minor characters. But the media saw it differently, and it sold well. Blatty adapted a more streamlined script from the novel, and eventually chose
Morgan Creek Productions Morgan Creek Entertainment is an American film production company that has released box-office hits including '' Young Guns'', '' Dead Ringers'', '' Major League'', ''True Romance'', '' Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'', '' The Crush'', '' Robin Hood: ...
over Carolco since that studio had wanted him to write an entirely new script in which an adult Regan gives birth to possessed twins while Morgan Creek was satisfied with his story. But Morgan Creek insisted on calling it ''The Exorcist III'' even though the story lacked any exorcism scenes (one was added after
principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
, with
Nicol Williamson Thomas Nicol Williamson (14 September 1936 – 16 December 2011) was a Scottish actor, once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" and view ...
cast in the role). Blatty directed, with
George C. Scott George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor, director, and producer who had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his port ...
taking over for the deceased
Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
as Kinderman,
Ed Flanders Edward Paul Flanders (December 29, 1934 – February 22, 1995) was an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. Donald Westphall in the medical drama series '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988). Flanders was nominated for eight Primetime Em ...
replacing O'Malley as Dyer and Miller returning as Karras or his double.
Brad Dourif Bradford Claude Dourif (; born March 18, 1950) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Oscar, and won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his film debut role as Billy Bibbit in '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975). He is also kn ...
played the film's serial killer, and Scott Wilson the chief psychiatrist at the hospital where the film is mostly set. The film took in $39 million on its release in 1990; Blatty wrote a satirical novel about the experience called ''Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing''. In 2014 a VHS copy of Blatty's cut of the film was found, restored to the best it could be, and released on a two-disc collector's edition
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
two years later. At that time, Morgan Creek and James G. Robinson, producer of ''Exorcist III'', had commissioned the development of a
prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...
story, one telling the story of a younger Father Merrin's first confrontation with the demon. As with the preceding three films in the franchise, making the film presented many problems once it was
greenlighted To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...
seven years later. Novelist
Caleb Carr Caleb Carr (born August 2, 1955) is an American military historian and author. Carr is the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz. He authored ''The Alienist'', ''The Angel of Darkness'', ''The Lessons of Terror'', ''K ...
was hired to rewrite
William Wisher Jr. William Howard Peter Wisher Jr. is an American screenwriter, known for his work with long-time friend James Cameron on '' The Terminator'' and '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day''. Career Wisher has had roles behind and in front of the camera. ...
's original script, with
John Frankenheimer John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1 ...
set to direct and
Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Tony Awards. In 2020, he was placed 7th on ''The I ...
to star as Merrin, but when cameras began rolling in late 2002
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...
was in the director's chair making his first horror film in two decades, now a
Stellan Skarsgård Stellan Skarsgård (, ; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Lars von Trier appearing in ''Breaking the Waves'' (1996), ''Dancer in the Dark'' (2000), ''Dogville'' (2007), ''Melancholia'' (2011 ...
vehicle, as Frankenheimer had died and Neeson was no longer interested. Four more writers had been involved and the budget doubled to $38 million by the time shooting ended in early 2003. Robinson was unimpressed with the film, believing it lacked the horror elements that had characterized the earlier films in the franchise. He and Schrader feuded for the rest of the year over how to edit it, until Robinson finally decided to hire
Renny Harlin Renny Harlin (born 15 March 1959) is a Finnish film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter who has made his career in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood and Cinema of China, China. His best-known films include ''A Nightmare on Elm ...
to reshoot most of the film with a new cast save Skarsgård. Shortly after beginning principal photography in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, Harlin was struck by a car, breaking his leg severely enough to require surgery and stopping production for two weeks; he would finish the remaining six weeks on crutches. The cost of making both films combined to over $100 million. Harlin's version, heavy on action and horror, was released in August 2004 as '' Exorcist: The Beginning'', and failed with critics and at the box office. Blatty called watching it "the most humiliating professional experience of my life", blaming not Harlin but Morgan Creek. He had watched it with Schrader, who said its poor quality made it likely that the studio would try to save face by releasing his version, and returned to do the editing. It got a limited release in May 2005 as '' Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist'', a version Blatty found much more enjoyable. The 2016
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
TV series ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...
'' followed two priests investigating possible cases of demonic possession and performing exorcisms when necessary. Five episodes into the first of its two seasons, the mother of a young woman convinced her daughter was possessed and determined to have an exorcism performed was revealed to be an adult Regan living under an assumed name, making the series a direct sequel to the original film that did not acknowledge either of the filmed sequels. It was the network's lowest-rated show during its second season, leading to its cancellation. In 2020, Morgan Creek announced a
reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...
of the film. Fans were hostile to the idea and petitioned to have it canceled. At the end of the year,
Blumhouse Productions Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum. It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as ''Paranormal Activity'', ''Insidio ...
and Morgan Creek said that the reboot would instead be a "direct sequel" to the 1973 film directed by
David Gordon Green David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He directed the dramas ''George Washington'' (2000), ''All the Real Girls'' (2003), and '' Snow Angels'' (2007), as well as the thriller '' Undertow'' (2004), all of which he wrote or co-wrote. In 2 ...
. In July 2021, it was announced that Green would be directing a trilogy of sequels.
Jason Blum Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...
will produce, alongside James and David Robinson. Burstyn will reprise her role from the original film, with
Leslie Odom Jr. Leslie Lloyd Odom Jr. (; born August 6, 1981) is an American actor and singer. He made his acting debut on Broadway in 1998 and first gained recognition for his portrayal of Aaron Burr in the musical ''Hamilton'', which earned him a Tony Award f ...
co-starring. The projects will be joint ventures between Blumhouse and Morgan Creek, to be distributed by
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...
, which joined with
Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...
to purchase distribution rights for $400 million. The second and third films of the trilogy are being optioned as Peacock exclusive films; , theatrical release for the first film is scheduled for October 13, 2023.


Related works

Blatty's script for the film has been published in two versions. ''William Peter Blatty on The Exorcist: From Novel to Film'', in 1974, included the first draft of the screenplay. In 1998 the script was anthologized in ''The Exorcist/Legion - Two Classic Screenplays'', and again as a standalone text in 2000.


See also

*
1973 in film Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
* 1973 in the United States *
List of American films of 1973 A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of film and television accidents In the history of film and television, accidents have occurred during shooting, such as cast or crew fatalities or serious accidents that plagued production. From 1980 to 1990, there were 37 deaths relating to accidents during stunts; 24 of these ...
*
List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada The following is a list of the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada, a market known in the film industry as the "North American box office", and where "gross" is defined in US dollars. Not adjusted for inflation This is a list ...
* List of horror films of 1973 *
List of films considered the best This is a list of films considered the best in national and international surveys of critics and the public. Some surveys focus on all films, while others focus on a particular genre or country. Voting systems differ, and some surveys suffer ...


Notes


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * *


External links

* * * * *
''The Exorcist'' at filmsite.org

''The Exorcist''
at the
TCM Movie Database Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...
(''archived'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Exorcist
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...
Films about teenagers 1970s psychological thriller films 1970s supernatural horror films 1973 films 1973 drama films 1973 horror films 1970s horror drama films 1970s American films American films based on actual events American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American supernatural horror films Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners Censored films Demons in film 1970s English-language films 1970s Arabic-language films Films about actors Films about Catholic priests Films about Christianity Films about film directors and producers Films about exorcism Films about telekinesis Films based on American horror novels Films directed by William Friedkin Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe-winning performance Films scored by Jack Nitzsche Films set in Iraq Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Iraq Films shot in New York City Films shot in Washington, D.C. Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award American horror drama films Films about mother–daughter relationships Film controversies in the United States Film controversies in the United Kingdom Obscenity controversies in film Rating controversies in film Religious horror films Supernatural drama films United States National Film Registry films Warner Bros. films