The Exorcist (1973)

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The Exorcist movie storyline. A disturbing, shocking, exploitative, and frightening film adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s best-selling, blockbuster book about satanic demon possession. A sweet pre-teenaged girl Regan (Linda Blair) becomes possessed by an evil spirit – and is soon transformed and disfigured into a head-rotating, levitating, green vomit-spewing, obscenity-shouting creature.

Her divorced mother Mrs. MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is at wit’s end, until she calls on a dedicated, faith-questioning Jesuit priest Father Karras (Jason Miller) to exorcise the malevolent devil from her daughter’s body. An elderly priest Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), whose archaeology project released the Satanic being, also risks his life to administer rites of exorcism with incantations and holy water.

The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name, and starring Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, and Jason Miller. The book, inspired by the 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe, deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother’s attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests. The adaption is relatively faithful to the book, which itself has been commercially successful (hitting the New York Times bestseller list).

The film has had a significant influence on popular culture. Later figures in horror such as Stephen King have praised the work as an influence. Several publications have regarded it one of the best horror films in history. For example, it was named the scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 1999, by Movies.com in 2010, by viewers of AMC in 2006, and by the editors of Time Out in 2014. In addition, a scene from the film was ranked #3 on Bravo’s The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. In 2010, the Library of Congress selected the film to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. A new television series is currently in development for Fox.

About the Filming

The film’s opening sequences were filmed in and near the city of Mosul, Iraq. The archaeological dig site seen at the film’s beginning is the actual site of ancient Hatra, south of Mosul. The “Exorcist stairs” are concrete stairs located in Georgetown at the corner of Prospect St NW and 36th St NW, leading down to M Street NW. The stairs were padded with 1/2″-thick rubber to film the death of the character Father Karras. Because the house from which Karras falls is set back slightly from the stairs, the film crew constructed an extension with a false front to the house in order to film the scene. The stuntman tumbled down the stairs twice. Georgetown University 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. The MacNeil residence interiors were filmed at CECO Studios in Manhattan. The bedroom set had to be refrigerated to capture the authentic icy breath of the actors in the exorcism scenes. The temperature was brought so low that a thin layer of snow fell onto the set one morning. Blair, who was only in a thin nightgown, says to this day she cannot stand being cold.[34] Exteriors of the MacNeill house were filmed at 36th and Prospect in Washington, using a family home and a false wall to convey the home’s thrust toward the steps.

The scenes involving Regan’s medical tests were filmed at New York University Medical Center and were performed by actual medical staff that normally carry out the procedures. In the film Regan first undergoes an electroencephalography (EEG), then an early type of cerebral angiography and finally a pneumoencephalography.

The scene in which Father Karras listens to the tapes of Regan’s dialogue were filmed in the basement of Keating Hall at Fordham University in the Bronx. William O’Malley, who plays Father Joseph Dyer in the film, was a real-life Jesuit and assistant professor of theology at Fordham at the time. The interior of Karras’ room at Georgetown was a meticulous reconstruction of Theology professor Father Thomas M. King, S.J.’s “corridor Jesuit” room in New North Hall. Fr. King’s room was photographed by production staff after a visit by Blatty, a Georgetown graduate, and Friedkin.

Upon returning to New York, every element of King’s room, including posters and books, was recreated for the set, including a poster of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a theologian on whom the character of Fr. Merrin was loosely based. Georgetown was paid $1,000 per day of filming, which included both exteriors, such as Burstyn’s first scene, shot on the steps of the Flemish Romanesque Healy Hall, and interiors, such as the defilement of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Dahlgren Chapel, or the Archbishop’s office, which is actually the office of the president of the university. One scene was filmed in The Tombs, a student hangout across from the steps that was founded by a Blatty classmate.

Directed by: William Friedkin
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Kitty Winn, Peter Masterson, Rudolf Schündler, Gina Petrushka, Robert Symonds, Arthur Storch, Gina Petrushka, Rudolf Schündler
Screenplay by: William Peter Blatty
Production Design by: Bill Malley
Cinematography by: Owen Roizman
Film Editing by: Norman Gay, Evan A. Lottman
Costume Design by: Joseph Fretwell
Set Decoration by: Jerry Wunderlich
Art Direction by: John Robert Lloyd
MPAA RAting: R for strong language and disturbing images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 26, 1973