Behind the Scenes of The Exorcist
The young girl, Regan, is possessed in the 1973 film, The Exorcist.
November 4, 2016
The Exorcist (1973) was one of the most iconic and terrifying films of it’s time. Not only did it scare the viewers, but strange, demonic things happened during filming. Many have said the movie is “possessed” or “Satanic”. The film is about a little girl named Regan MacNeil who gets possessed by a demon.
The film is actually based on a real-life event, where a boy had an actual exorcism, but they had to stop because the boy got free from his restraints, pulled a bed spring out of his mattress, and slashed one of the priest’s arm. The film is also based on the book “The Exorcist” written by William Peter Blatty. Nine people that were associated with the film died on set or shortly after the film was released.
When they started filming, one of the main actors sons, who was just a toddler at the time, was hit by a motorbike. That was just one of the incidents that made people believe the set was cursed.
The set caught on fire destroying what was supposed to be the Macneil’s home, but Regan’s room was unharmed by the fire. This set the production back six weeks.
Actress Ellen Burstyn, who plays Regan’s mother, got a permanent spinal injury during filming when she gets thrown across the room into a wall.
The director of the film, William Friedkin, would actually abuse his cast. He would fire off guns behind the actors to give them a “startled” effect, he slapped an actor across the face before rolling the camera. He even put Linda Blair (actress of Regan) and Ellen Burstyn in harnesses and had crew members yank them violently.
Sometimes he would play unsettling music on loudspeakers on the set. He required that his entire set to be refrigerated so you could see the actor’s breaths. Friedkin did these things to try and give an actual “scared” reaction portrayed on the faces of his actors, but he brought it way too far.
Many of the actors and production workers tried to quit multiple times, and Friedkin fired many people. He wanted the film to show what Satan was truly like, and he also wanted it to be done perfectly. But, Friedkin’s weird behavior doesn’t give a true explanation to all of the strange things that happened with the film.
The Exorcist is one of the most terrifying films, not only because of the content, but what happened behind the scenes and to the cast and crew.
