Released 50 years ago, The Exorcist has long been considered one of the best horror movies of all time thanks to its unnerving story about a young girl being possessed by the devil, and all those terrifying and iconic moments that forever changed the genre. Writer William Peter Blatty, director William Friedkin, and the talented cast and crew went to Hell and back to bring those unforgettable moments to life, and there are stories from the production that are just as unnerving as anything that showed up in the finished product.
As part of our partnership with AMC Theatres, where you can now purchase tickets to the horror classic’s new sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, and in anticipation of some of the horror movies headed to theaters in the coming weeks, we’ve put together a list of eight behind-the-scenes facts about The Exorcist. From actresses who were approached for the movie to how those great movie moments came to be, there’s a lot to unpack here…
Author And Screenwriter William Peter Blatty Was Drawn To William Friedkin’s Candor And Style When Looking For A Director
When speaking with the Austin Chronicle during the 2000 SXSW Festival, The Exorcist’s author and screenwriter William Peter Blatty revealed that he was drawn to the filmmaker’s candor and almost documentary style of filmmaking after checking out some of his work. However, Warner Bros. initially wanted someone like Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Penn, or Mark Rydell. Those filmmakers all passed on the project, and Blatty got his guy after all.
Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, And Anne Bancroft Were All Offered The Lead Role
In 2013, William Friedkin sat down for a lengthy conversation with The Hollywood Reporter where he opened up about the production of the ‘70s horror movie, at one point talking about the actresses who were offered the role before it was given to Ellen Burstyn. Audrey Hepburn was open to the idea but she wanted to shoot the movie in Italy, which was a no-go for Friedkin. Anne Bancroft was interested but asked if they could hold off a year since she was pregnant. According to Friedkin, Jane Fonda was also approached, but she responded with a letter calling the project “a piece of capitalist, ripoff bullshit,” according to the late director.
William Friedkin Knew Linda Blair Was ‘The One’ To Play Regan MacNeil As Soon As He Met Her
When it came time to cast the character of Regan MacNeil, William Friedkin told The Hollywood Reporter in the same profile as above that “thousands of girls” auditioned for the role, but the team was having trouble finding young actresses capable of the performance. That is until one random afternoon when Friedkin, who was sitting in his office at Warner Bros. in New York (the address was 666 Fifth Ave. at the time), was notified that Linda Blair’s mother showed up without an appointment and asked if her daughter could read for the part:
It wasn’t my immediate reaction to say yes, but I said OK — something like fate comes in. The moment she walked in the door, I knew she was the one. She was bright, effervescent. She had never acted before, but she wasn’t afraid or intimidated.
After a conversation about some of the more intense and inappropriate scenes (specifically the one involving a crucifix), Friedkin discovered Blair wasn’t scared or intimidated by anything, making her perfect for the part.
All But One Room Of The Exorcist Set Was Damaged In A Fire Early In Production
Like The Poltergeist and Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist has long been considered a cursed film because of all the strange happenings that took place both during the shoot and after production wrapped. One of the strangest, and most destructive, incidents during production was a freak fire that destroyed much of the set shortly after filming kicked off in 1972.
According to iNews, a bird flew into a circuit box, which ignited a fire that spread through every room of the set save for Regan MacNeil’s bedroom, where the exorcism scenes were staged. Film historian and horror expert Sarah Crowther told the publication that the fire set production back considerably and led to an extensive and draining shooting period.
A Refrigeration Unit Brought The Bedroom Set To Below Freezing To See The Actors’ Breath
The exorcism scenes where the characters’ breath can be seen floating in the air wasn’t pulled off with post-production magic but instead a rather simple technique of chilling the temperature in the room to below freezing. In a 2020 interview with American Cinematographer, The Exorcist’s director of photography, Owen Roizman, explained that a duplicate of Regan’s bedroom was refrigerated to 20 below zero for the desired effect. Roizman added that this could have been pulled off at zero degrees, but William Friedkin really wanted the actors to feel the cold.
William Friedkin Would Fire Blanks On The Set To Get Sudden Reactions From The Actors
In addition to freezing his actors, William Friedkin would also have someone fire blanks off the set to get sudden reactions when scenes called for it. During a 2011 Reddit AMA, the late filmmaker revealed that he had a difficult time telling actors to be afraid of a demon when they were staring into the eyes of a young girl, and so the unexpected sound of a gun was helpful in producing the desired response.
Ellen Burstyn Injured Her Back Filming The Exorcist
Decades after filming wrapped on The Exorcist, Ellen Burstyn was still feeling the effects of the tumultuous shoot. When speaking with HuffPost in 2014, the actress, who also appears in The Exorcist: Believer, stated that she injured her lower back in a scene where her character is pushed backwards. She explained that she was pulled too hard to the ground by the wire hidden in her costume, and that her spine was permanently injured in the fall.
A Lot Of Work Went Into Making The Regan Dummy Look Life-Like
A scene that couldn’t be pulled off with wires or harnesses was the one in which Regan’s head spins around 360 degrees after being possessed. In the same American Cinematographer article mentioned above, Owen Roizman explained that a dummy modeled after Linda Blair was used for the scene, but it wasn’t without its problems. The initial attempt didn’t look lifelike enough, and so they went back to the drawing board to adjust the rigging, clothing, and hair to cover up the problematic areas. The icing on the cake was the addition of frozen breath, which made it look even more realistic.
We can’t wait to see what tricks David Gordon Green and his team have in store for us in The Exorcist: Believer, especially to see how it compares to the original. If you plan on seeing what could be one of the scariest movies of the year, you’ll probably want to go ahead and purchase your tickets so you don’t miss a thing.
The Exorcist: Believer opens in theaters on October 6, 2023.
