The Exorcist
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Good article Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox film The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair, and follows the demonic possession of a young girl and the attempt to rescue her through an exorcism by two Catholic priests.
Blatty, who also produced, and Friedkin, his choice as director, had difficulty casting the film. Their choice of relative unknowns Burstyn, Blair, and Miller, instead of major stars, drew opposition from executives at Warner Bros. Principal photography was also difficult. Many cast and crew were injured, some died, and unusual accidents delayed shooting. Production took twice as long as scheduled and cost almost three times the initial budget; the many mishaps have led to a belief that the film was cursed.
The Exorcist was theatrically released in the United States on December 26, 1973, by Warner Bros. Reviews were mixed, but audiences waited in long lines during cold weather; the sold-out shows were even more profitable for Warner Bros., who had booked it into those theaters under four-wall distribution rental agreements, a first for any major studio. Some viewers suffered adverse physical reactions, fainting or vomiting to shocking scenes such as a realistic cerebral angiography. Many children were allowed to see it, leading to charges that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had accommodated the studio by giving the film an R rating instead of an X rating to ensure the troubled production its commercial success. Several cities attempted to ban it outright or prevent children from attending. At the end of its original theatrical run, the film grossed $193 million, and has a lifetime gross of $441 million with subsequent re-releases.
The cultural conversation around the film helped it become the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as nine others. Blatty won Best Adapted Screenplay, while the sound engineers took Best Sound. It has had several sequels and was the highest-grossing R-rated horror film (unadjusted for inflation) until 2017's It. The Exorcist significantly influenced pop culture,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2005 pop culture mention">Template:Cite web</ref> and it has been included on lists of the greatest films ever made.<ref name="Empire best list">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Times best list">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2010, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref name="Library of Congress">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:TOC limit
Plot
In northern Iraq, priest Lankester Merrin takes part in an archaeological dig in the ancient ruins of Hatra. During the dig, he finds a stone talisman of a winged being that evokes a concerned look on his face. He then visits an ancient statue of the same being, silently confronting it.
In Georgetown, Washington, D.C., actress Chris MacNeil is starring in a film directed by her friend Burke Dennings. Chris, along with her 12-year-old daughter Regan MacNeil, rents a luxurious house with hired help. Meanwhile, Father Damien Karras, a psychiatrist who counsels Georgetown University priests, visits his ailing mother in New York City. He later confides to a colleague that he is having a crisis of faith.
Chris hosts a party with Karras's friend, Father Joseph Dyer, who explains Karras's role as counselor and notes his mother's recent death. Regan, seemingly unwell, appears and urinates before Chris comforts her. Regan's bed shakes violently after Chris returns her to it. Later, Dyer consoles Karras, guilty at not having been with his mother when she died.
Regan's personality becomes violent, and medical tests find no physical cause. During a house call, Regan exhibits abnormal strength and adult behavior, and speaks in an otherworldly voice. One night, Chris finds the house empty except for a sleeping Regan; Dennings had been left with her but is found dead at the bottom of a set of public stairs that begin beneath Regan's window. Detective William Kinderman questions Karras, confiding that Dennings's head was turned backward. Kinderman tells Chris that the only plausible explanation for Dennings's death is that he was pushed from Regan's window. As Kinderman leaves, a scarred and bloody Regan has another violent fit, furiously masturbating with a crucifix, turning her head backward and speaking in the voice of Dennings. She is confined to her bedroom and strapped to the bed. Now convinced that her daughter is possessed, Chris seeks out Karras, who visits Regan. The possessed Regan claims to be the Devil, and vomits into Karras's face while speaking in tongues. The demon says it will remain in Regan until she is dead. At night, Chris's assistant Sharon Spencer calls Karras to the house, where the words 'help me' appear on Regan's stomach; he concludes that an exorcism is warranted. His superior grants permission on the condition that an experienced priest lead the ritual. Merrin, having performed an exorcism before, is summoned.
Merrin arrives at the house. As the two priests read from the Roman Ritual, the demon curses them. The priests rest and Merrin, shaking, takes nitroglycerin. Karras enters the bedroom where the demon appears as his mother, perturbing Karras despite his denials. Merrin excuses Karras and continues the exorcism by himself. Chris approaches Karras and asks if Regan will die. He assures her that she will not and re-enters the room, finding Merrin dead from a heart attack while Regan watches and laughs. Enraged, Karras beats the possessed Regan and demands that the demon take him instead. The demon rips the medallion of Saint Joseph from Karras's neck and does so, freeing Regan in the process. Unwilling to let the demon harm Regan, Karras sacrifices himself by jumping out the window, tumbling down the stone stairs outside to his death. Chris and Kinderman enter the room. Chris embraces the freed Regan, and Kinderman surveys the scene. Outside, Dyer administers the dying Karras his last rites.
The MacNeils prepare to leave, and Father Dyer says goodbye. Despite having no memory of her ordeal, Regan, moved by the sight of Dyer's clerical collar, kisses him on the cheek. As the MacNeils leave, Chris gives Dyer the medallion found in Regan's room. Dyer briefly examines the steps where Karras died before walking away.
Cast
The demon Pazuzu is portrayed by Mercedes McCambridge (voice), Ron Faber (vocal effects<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>), and Eileen Dietz (face). The demonic "spider walk" was performed by stunt double Ann Miles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Uncredited members of the cast include writer-producer William Peter Blatty as Fromme, Paul Bateson as a Radiologist's assistant, Elinore Blair (Linda Blair's mother) as a nurse, Dick Callinan as Captain Billy Cutshaw, Barton Lane as an angiographer, and Vincent Russell<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as the subway vagrant.
Production
Development
Template:See also Aspects of Blatty's novel were inspired by the 1949 exorcism performed by Jesuit priest William S. Bowdern. It sold poorly until Blatty captivated The Dick Cavett ShowTemplate:'s audience with a discussion of whether the devil existed.<ref name="America article">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Soon afterwards the novel topped the New York Times best seller list.<ref name="Daily Telegraph article">Template:Cite news</ref>
Despite Blatty's previous screenwriting experience on Blake Edwards' films, studios had been uninterested in adapting The Exorcist before publication.<ref name="Daily Telegraph article" /> Lew Grade 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.Template:Sfn Shirley MacLaine, a friend of Blatty's,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn had been interested, but wanted someone other than Blatty to produce.<ref name="America article" /> A later agreement to co-produce with Paul Monash, producer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,<ref name="CF Curse story">Template:Cite magazine</ref> collapsed over script differences and Blatty's discovery that Monash was trying to wrest control of the film.Template:Sfn
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 subsequent relationship that develops between Karras and Kinderman, Karras's efforts to convince the Church bureaucracy to approve the exorcism, and the ongoing medical investigations of Regan's condition are less prominent in the film, as are supporting characters including Chris's household staff, Dennings, and Regan's father. The overall time frame is condensed.<ref name="Looper story">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ScreenRant story">Template:Cite web</ref>
Some scenes, particularly those with sexual content, were toned down for the film adaptation since an actress of approximately Regan's age was expected to be cast. The scene where Regan masturbates with a crucifix was, in the book, more prolonged and explicit, with Regan seriously injuring herself yet attaining orgasm.<ref name="Looper story" /><ref name="ScreenRant story" /> The film also excludes the possessed Regan's constant diarrhea, giving her room a strong, foul odor.<ref name="Tor story">Template:Cite web</ref>
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. Aside from Karras' initial professional skepticism, that perspective is absent from the film.<ref name="Looper story" /><ref name="ScreenRant story" />
Casting
The lead roles, particularly Regan, were not easily cast. Although many major stars of the era were considered for them, Blatty and Friedkin ultimately went with lesser-known actors, to the studio's consternation.<ref name="adams" />
Chris and Father Karras
Jack Nicholson was considered for Karras, and Paul Newman was interested, before Blatty hired Stacy Keach.<ref name=yt/> Three A-list actresses of the time—Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda—were considered for Chris, but rejected the part.<ref name="adams" /><ref name="THR podcast 7:30">Template:Cite podcast</ref> Friedkin also rejected Blatty's friend Shirley MacLaine since she had starred in The Possession of Joel Delaney, a similar film.<ref name="adams" /> After meeting Carol Burnett, Friedkin believed she had the range beyond her comic television persona. Blatty agreed, but the studio turned her down.<ref name="Friedkin THR memoir excerpt" /> Ellen Burstyn received the part after she told Friedkin she was "destined" to play Chris, discussing the Catholic upbringing she had later rejected. Studio head Ted Ashley vigorously opposed casting her, but relented after no other alternatives emerged.<ref name="adams" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Friedkin had first spoken to stage actor and playwright Jason Miller after a performance of his play That Championship Season, and given him a copy of the novel. Miller had received a Catholic education and studied to be a Jesuit priest for three years at Catholic University of America until experiencing a spiritual crisis similar to Karras's. Upon reading the novel, he told Friedkin "[Karras] is me". Friedkin responded that Keach had already been signed, but granted his request for a screen test. During the test, Miller and Burstyn performed the scene where Chris informs Karras that she suspects Regan might be possessed. He then filmed Burstyn interviewing Miller about his life and asked him to recite Mass as if for the first time. After viewing the footage the next morning, Friedkin realized that Miller's "dark good looks, haunted eyes, quiet intensity, and low, compassionate voice" were exactly what the part needed. The studio then bought out Keach's contract.<ref name="adams">Template:Cite web</ref>
Regan
Directors considered for The Exorcist doubted a young actress could carry the film;<ref name="Susman">Template:Cite news</ref> Mike Nichols had turned it down for that reason, but would later regret it.<ref name="adams" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first actresses considered had been in other successful films and television series. Pamelyn Ferdin was turned down as too familiar.<ref name="nastasi">Template:Cite web</ref> Denise Nickerson, who had played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, said in later interviews her family found the script too dark.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Janet Leigh would not let her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, audition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Friedkin was considering older actresses<ref name="adams" /> until Elinore BlairTemplate:Efn came in unannounced with her daughter Linda,<ref name=fear>Template:Cite AV media</ref> whose credits were primarily in modeling and a single soap opera role. Friedkin later recalled her as "[S]mart but not precocious ... cute but not beautiful. A normal, happy 12-year-old girl".<ref name="adams" /> He asked if she knew what The Exorcist was about; she told him she had read the book.Template:Efn "[I]t's about a little girl who gets possessed by the devil and does a whole bunch of bad things." Friedkin then asked her what she meant. "[S]he 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.<ref name="adams" />
Blair was cast after tests with Burstyn.<ref name="adams" /> "After all these difficult scenes she'd tiptoe around and giggle, after every bit", Blatty recalled. Friedkin said "there wasn't one other [actress] I would have considered".<ref name="CF Friedkin interview">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He had planned to use Blair's electronically treated voice for Pazuzu's dialogue, but decided that a more androgynous voice was better, and cast experienced voice actress Mercedes McCambridge.<ref name="fear" /> McCambridge ate raw eggs, drank whiskey and chainsmoked cigarettes to make Pazuzu's voice sound as intimidating as possible. After filming, the studio did not credit her, until Screen Actors Guild arbitration.<ref name="usa">Template:Cite news</ref> McCambridge's name was included in the credits on all but the first 30 prints, but the dispute prevented the release of a soundtrack album with excerpts of dialogue.Template:Sfn Warner Bros. reportedly forced Friedkin to use Eileen Dietz, then Blair's senior of 15 years, as Blair's stunt double.<ref name="2021 Telegraph Blair article" /> She stood in for Blair in the crucifix scene, the fistfight with Father Karras, and others too violent or disturbing for Blair to perform. She recalled that Friedkin gave her no notes and said, "I wasn't playing a little girl, I was playing the demon that possessed a little girl." Dietz appears on camera as the face of Pazuzu.<ref name="New Statesman Dietz article">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Blair, who recalls Friedkin telling her the film would not succeed if she was not in as many shots as possible, estimates that Dietz is in 17 seconds of the film. Dietz, angry that her contribution to the film had been minimized, claimed in the media to have performed all the possession scenes. The studio ultimately measured her screen presence at 28.25 seconds, but denied that her contribution was dramatically significant.Template:Sfn
Supporting roles
Warner Bros. wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Lankester Merrin,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but Friedkin refused.<ref name="yt" /> A Philippe Halsman photograph of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of Blatty's inspirations for Father Merrin, inspired Friedkin to cast Max von Sydow instead of Paul Scofield, whom Blatty had wanted.<ref name="Friedkin THR memoir excerpt" />
The film's supporting roles were cast more quickly. At a play, Blatty and Friedkin ran into Lee J. Cobb, who was cast as Lt. Kinderman.<ref name="adams" /> Two priests were cast. Father William O'Malley, who had become acquainted with Blatty through his criticism of the novel, was cast as Father Dyer, whom he had considered clichéd in the novel.<ref name="adams" /> The Rev. Thomas Bermingham, a Georgetown professor who had assigned Blatty research on demonic possession as a student, took the role of the university president.Template:Sfn
Jack MacGowran got the role of Dennings, which, earlier in the production, seemed to be going to J. Lee Thompson.Template:Sfn A later cast listing adds Mary Boylan and The Rev. John Nicola, one of the film's technical advisors, in small roles.<ref name="AFI" /> Greek actor Titos Vandis, cast as Karras's uncle, covered his face with a hat to avoid associations with his role in the recent Woody Allen film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Friedkin cast Vasiliki Maliaros as Karras's mother after reportedly encountering her in a Greek restaurant.Template:Sfn
Direction
In addition to Nichols, many directors were considered, including Arthur Penn, Stanley Kubrick,Template:Sfn John BoormanTemplate:Efn and Peter Bogdanovich.Template:Sfn The studio finally hired Mark Rydell,Template:Efn but Blatty insisted on Friedkin, with whom he was acquainted, as he had been impressed by his film The French Connection.<ref name="Bloody Disgusting">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview">Template:Cite interview</ref> Blatty saw Friedkin, an acquaintance, as "a director who can bring the look of documentary realism to this incredible story, and ... is never going to lie to me." The studio demurred, until Connection was released to commercial success and a Best Picture Academy Award.<ref name="Friedkin THR memoir excerpt">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview" />
During his press tour for Connection, Friedkin began reading a copy of the novel Blatty sent him. After the first 20 pages he canceled his dinner plans and finished the book, finding the story so gripping that he did not consider any problems adapting it to film.<ref name="Friedkin THR memoir excerpt" /> Friedkin felt that the film should unfold slowly, with audiences seeing everything that happened to Regan and the unsuccessful attempts at treating her condition.<ref name="Friedkin Vice interview">Template:Cite interview</ref> An early clash during production led to Warner Bros. telling Blatty he could not take any action against Friedkin. Afterwards, Blatty informed the studio he could no longer have any responsibility for controlling the budget; while he and Friedkin reconciled, production costs soon exceeded the initial $4.2 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) budget.Template:Sfn
Friedkin manipulated the actors to get genuine reactions. Unsatisfied with O'Malley's performance as Dyer ministers to the dying Karras at the end of the film, he slapped him hard across the face to generate a deeply solemn yet literally shaken reaction for the scene, offending many Catholic crew members.Template:Sfn He also fired blanks<ref name="yt">Template:Cite web</ref> without warning to elicit shock from Miller for a take;<ref name="America article" /> Dietz recalls him also doing this during the scene where Regan assaults the doctors at the house.<ref name="New Statesman Dietz article" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Crewmembers found Friedkin difficult to work with. On the first day of shooting, he had a wall removed to create space for the dolly to back up from a shot of bacon frying, then sent the prop master to look for preservative-free bacon, difficult to find at the time, since he did not like the way it curled. Another crewmember recalled returning after three days of sick leave to find Friedkin still shooting the same scene.Template:Sfn Dietz recalls the main delay being reshoots, even of scenes that had been difficult to stage and film the first time, such as Regan's bed shaking. "People were literally placing bets on what he would reshoot next."<ref name="New Statesman Dietz article" /> He also fired and rehired crew regularly. One crewmember recalls seeing Friedkin shake hands warmly with someone, and then seconds later tell a second person to "get this guy outta here", earning him the nickname "Wacky Willy".Template:Sfn
Cinematography
Owen Roizman, director of photography on The French Connection, worked in this position again on The Exorcist. He was in charge of filming every scene except for the Iraqi prologue, shot by Billy Williams. Roizman and Friedkin wanted The Exorcist, like their previous film, to appear to have been shot in available light. The MacNeil house was, unlike house interiors in horror films such as Psycho, designed to look normal and inviting, but lit to suggest an ominous presence. Otherwise, Roizman said, Friedkin "demanded complete realism" and "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 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. "[W]e'd walk in, hit the switch and shoot—through not much choice."<ref name="Roizman interview">Template:Cite interview</ref>
Filming and locations
Principal photography began August 14, 1972.Template:Sfn Although the film is set in Washington, D.C., many interior scenes were shot in New York City. The MacNeil residence interiors were filmed at CECO Studios in Manhattan,Template:Sfn with Karras's confrontation with his uncle, shot at Goldwater Memorial Hospital, now the site of Cornell Tech, on Roosevelt Island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens; the scenes with Karras's mother in the hospital were filmed at Bellevue.Template:Sfn The scene where Father Karras listens to the tapes of Regan was filmed in the basement of Fordham University's Keating Hall,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> where O'Malley was an assistant professor of theology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The film's opening sequences were filmed in and near Mosul, Iraq, at a time when the U.S. and Iraq did not have diplomatic relations; Warner Bros. feared that Friedkin and his crew might not be able to return. He negotiated filming arrangements directly with local officials of the ruling Ba'ath Party, who required that he hire local workers as crew<ref name="AFI" /> and teach filmmaking to interested residents.<ref name="Perri article">Template:Cite web</ref> The archaeological dig site shown is Hatra, south-west of Mosul.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Temperatures during the days reached Template:Convert, limiting shooting to dawn and dusk.<ref name="CNN 40th anniversary story">Template:Cite news</ref>
The exterior of the MacNeil house was a family home on 36th and Prospect streets in Washington.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A mansard roof was added to account for the attic scene.Template:Sfn The neighboring stairs were padded with a half-inch (Template:Convert) of rubber for Karras's death. The house was set back slightly from the steps, so the crew built an eastward extension with a false front to allow the stunt double playing Karras to fall directly down.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Many Georgetown locations, on and off-campus, were used. Burstyn's first scene, where she lectures the protesters, was shot on the steps of Healy Hall; she is also seen walking down the steps of Lauinger Library. Other scenes used the interiors of Dahlgren Chapel and the university president's office, used as the archbishop's office.<ref name="Georgetown Library collection">Template:Cite web</ref> One scene was filmed in The Tombs, a popular local pub.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Curbed page">Template:Cite web</ref>
Exorcism scenes
The exorcism scenes were challenging to film. Friedkin wanted the bedroom set to be cold enough to see the actors' breath, as described in the novel. A $50,000 ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn)<ref name="AFI" /> refrigeration system was installed to cool the set to Template:Cvt.<ref name="America article" /><ref name="Roizman interview" /><ref name="fleshfarm">Template:Cite web</ref> Since the set lighting warmed the air, it remained cold enough to film for only three minutes at a time.<ref name="1996 Washington Post article">Template:Cite news</ref> Due to frequent breakdowns,<ref name="AFI" /> only five shots could be finished each day; the complete scene, filmed in script order, took a month to complete.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview">Template:Cite interview</ref>
It was easier to film some of the other supernatural manifestations, such as the bed rocking and the curtains blowing since the walls and ceiling of the set were capable of being moved to accommodate a camera. After the scene where the ceiling cracks it was replaced with one attached to the walls, requiring a hole be cut in it for the rig to go through when Regan levitates, the most challenging shot in the sequence.<ref name="Roizman interview" /> The Template:Convert Blair wore a bodysuit under her nightgown with attached hooks for monofilament wires.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview" />
Roizman had filmed similar scenes before, painting the wires to match the background so they would not show. This was difficult on The Exorcist because of the changes in background. "We had to practically paint them frame by frame", he said. While most directors would have been satisfied to smooth out the scene in post-production, Friedkin wanted it done in longer takes.<ref name="Roizman interview" />
Friedkin 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 light in the bedroom comes from a visible source.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview" /> The room's color scheme also suggested black and white film, with gray taupe walls, Regan's bedding a neutral beige, and the priests in black. According to Roizman, white would have been too dominant. "In toning everything down like this, the only real color in the room became the skin tones", he said.<ref name="Roizman interview" />
Father Merrin's arrival scene
Father Merrin's arrival scene was filmed on Max von Sydow'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 and home media release covers. It was inspired by René Magritte's 1954 painting Empire of Light.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview" />
He gave the crew a full day to light the scene, using mainly arc lights and tripod-mounted Troupers, and boosting the brightness of the existing streetlamps.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview" /> Roizman said this was the most difficult of all the film's nighttime exterior shots.<ref name="Roizman interview" /> 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.Template:Sfn As they were shooting, Roizman said, the wind picked up, making it hard to hold the fog effect. By working quickly, he and the camera crew were able to get the shot,<ref name="Roizman interview" /> with Friedkin finding the first take satisfactory.Template:Sfn
Head spinning
The scenes where the possessed Regan's head rotates so she appears to be looking directly backward drew notice from audiences and critics. "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.<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" /> Like the film's other special effects, it was performed live. A life-size animated dummy of Regan was built.
Critic Mark Kermode says the scene's impact results from the audience not expecting it so soon after the crucifix scene. He believes its recurrence during the exorcism was added on set since it is in neither the novel nor the screenplay. Blatty had argued against it, telling Friedkin "supernatural doesn't mean impossible". Friedkin inserted a shot of Karras, suggesting the scene might just be a hallucination. When audiences reacted strongly, Blatty said Friedkin "prov[ed] me an idiot once again".Template:Sfn
Special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere built the latex dummy with help from makeup artist Dick Smith. They tested its realism by putting it in the front seat of a taxicab and, when enough people were looking, turning the head.<ref name="Vercoutere obit">Template:Cite news</ref> It was so realistic that Blair felt uncomfortable in its presence.<ref name="2021 Telegraph Blair article" /> They had given the dummy's face the capability to move and appear to speak, adding a condom so its throat would bulge. A tube was added for simulated breathing, which produced the requisite clouds of vapor.<ref name="Roizman interview" />
Crucifix scene
While filming the scene where the possessed Regan masturbates with a crucifix, Dietz and Friedkin had "this long discussion about the right way to jerk off and I showed him why a woman has to churn her wrist [more than a man does]."<ref name="New Statesman Dietz article" /> At the time Friedkin said that the scene's power over audiences came from its unusual combination of sex and religion. To many viewers it lasted much longer than its 50 seconds. He had filmed much more, but ultimately decided that it was about "how much [he] could take".<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" />
The scene's power, Kermode writes, comes from Friedkin's head-on approach, centering it on a brightly lit screen, punctuating the thrusts with a stabbing sound. Blatty pleaded with Friedkin to stop "destroying the film"; Friedkin responded that the scene would be one of the film's biggest draws. When it turned out that it was, Blatty found it "terribly depressing".Template:Sfn
Angiography scene
The angiography scene, in which a needle spurts blood from Regan's neck,<ref name="Film School rejects">Template:Cite news</ref> caused audiences the most discomfort, according to Blatty, who himself never watched it.<ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview" /> Friedkin, too, has found its depiction of "[m]edical science impinging upon the innocence of this little girl" disturbs audiences the most, more than any of the film's possession scenes.<ref name="Friedkin Vice interview" /> It has been criticized as "unappetizing",<ref name="Crist review" /> the film's "most needless scene",<ref name="Danny Peary">Template:Cite book</ref> and "revolting".<ref name="Film Quarterly">Template:Cite journal</ref> British comedian Graeme Garden, who has a medical degree,<ref name="WINKLER-2005">Template:Cite news</ref> agreed the scene was "genuinely disturbing"; in his review for the New Scientist, he called it "irresponsible".<ref name="New Scientist review">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Critic John Kenneth Muir wrote in Horror Films of the 1970s that the scene draws its power by merely recording what occurs and not adding anything. "It looks, sounds and feels totally real ... For a time, it is medicine that possesses Regan, not the Devil".<ref name="Horror Films of the 1970s">Template:Cite book</ref> In a 2021 article in History of the Human Sciences, Amy C. Chambers of Manchester Metropolitan University makes a similar observation.<ref name="Religious response article">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Efn Finnish media professor Frans Ilkka Mäyrä notes how the scientific suggests the spiritual here as "the violent movements and noises of arteriographic machinery reach diabolical dimensions"Template:Sfn Kermode likens it to torture, "horribly sexual in its execution".Template:Sfn
Medical professionals have described the scene, which was not in the novel but was added to the film to reflect changes in technology,Template:Sfn as a realistic depiction of the procedure. It is also of historical interest, as radiologists were increasingly using a more distant artery instead of the carotid for the puncture.<ref name="Springer handbook">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Springer handbook 2">Template:Cite book</ref> It has also been described as the most realistic depiction of a medical procedure in a popular film.<ref name="Esquire Bateson story">Template:Cite news</ref> In his 2012 commentary on the DVD release of the 2000 cut, Friedkin claimed that the scene was used in radiological training film for years afterward.<ref name="Film School rejects" />
"Spider-walk" scene
Stuntwoman Ann Miles performed the spider-walk scene after two weeks' practice.<ref name="2018 ADG story">Template:Cite news</ref> Special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere had designed a special harness, but Miles did not need it due to her college gymnastic experience.<ref name="ADG story">Template:Cite news</ref> Over Blatty's objection, Friedkin cut the scene just prior to the premiere, believing it came too early in the film. Whether the scene had been shot at all was debated by fans for years afterwards. Friedkin denied having done so until Kermode found the footage in the Warner Bros. archives in the mid-1990s while researching his book on the film. It was restored in the 2000 director's cut,<ref name="ADG story" /> albeit with a "muddy, grainy" look that one critic said made the scene seem superfluous,<ref name="2000 Courant review">Template:Cite news</ref> using an added shot showing Regan with blood flowing from her mouth.Template:Sfn
Miles was not credited. Websites devoted to the film in the early 21st century gave credit to Sylvia Hager 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. He said the scene was cut because the harness could not be erased in post-production. According to Miles, Hager, her lighting double,<ref name="2018 ADG story" /> could not do the scene even with the harness, which Vercourtere had hoped to market afterwards. Since Miles was able to do the spider walk without it, she believes he left her out of his account for commercial reasons.<ref name="ADG story" />Template:Efn 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, with the intercession of SAG, she has been properly credited.<ref name="2018 ADG story" />
Special effects
Smith, the makeup artist, created some key special effects, particularly to make von Sydow look 30 years older in facial close-ups.<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" /> Many viewers did not realize he was made up at all; critic Pauline Kael, in her generally unfavorable The New Yorker review, called it "one of the most convincing aging jobs I've ever seen".<ref name="New Yorker review">Template:Cite magazine</ref> It took four hours to apply the makeup every morning. Friedkin speculated that if there was a regular Academy Award for makeup, Smith would have received it.<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" />
For the look of the possessed Regan, Friedkin and Smith drew 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. "[So we] decided 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.<ref name="Friedkin Vice interview" /> Blair wore green contact lenses meant to give her eyes a bestial appearance.<ref name="Friedkin DGA interview" /> A latex stomach was built for the scene where the words "HELP ME" appear on the possessed Regan's body. The letters were scratched in, and then heated to make them disappear. This was reversed in post-production so the letters seemed to appear.<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" />
Production difficulties and purported curse
Due to production problems and accidents on set, The Exorcist, originally scheduled for 85 days of principal photography,<ref name="NYT shooting article">Template:Cite news</ref> took over 200 days to wrap. The film went $2.5 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) over budget,<ref name="CF Curse story" /> ultimately costing the studio $12 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-year).<ref name="Numbers" /> Early on, shooting was delayed six weeks after a bird flew into a circuit breaker on the house sets, starting a fire that destroyed all of them<ref name="iNews curse story">Template:Cite news</ref> except for Regan's room. Later, another set was severely damaged by the sprinkler system. The Template:Convert statue of Pazuzu was shipped to Hong Kong instead of Iraq, causing a two-week delay.<ref name="CF Curse story" />
Injuries to cast and crew also affected production. Burstyn and Blair have lasting consequences from back injuries. Burstyn's occurred during the scene where the possessed Regan throws Chris backward; the take used in the film left her unable to film for two weeks and on crutches for the rest of the shoot,<ref name="Guardian Burstyn story">Template:Cite news</ref> with a fractured coccyx.Template:Efn It has caused her chronic problems due to inadequate early treatment.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Blair fractured her lower spine after being too loosely strapped to the rocking bed, a take also used in the finished film.<ref name="Blair /Film story">Template:Cite news</ref> She developed scoliosis,<ref name="2023 Independent story">Template:Cite news</ref> with long-term health effects,<ref name="2021 Telegraph Blair article" /> as well as a lifelong aversion to cold from all her time in the refrigerated bedroom set wearing only a nightgown and long underwear. A carpenter cut his thumb off and a lighting technician lost a toe in different accidents.<ref name="CF Curse story" /><ref name="America article" />
Other people connected with the film, or their family members, died—MacGowran a week after completing his scenes as Dennings.<ref name="CF Curse story" /> Maliaros (Mrs.Template:SpacesKarras) also died, like her character, before the film was finished.<ref name="iNews curse story" /> Deaths among the crew or those close to them included the night watchman, the operator of the refrigeration system for Regan's room, and an assistant cameraman's newborn.<ref name="CF Curse story" /><ref name="America article" /> Blair's grandfather died during the first week of production, and von Sydow had to return to Sweden after his first day shooting when his brother died, further delaying shooting. One of Miller's sons nearly died when a motorcycle struck him.<ref name="CF Curse story" /><ref name="America article" /> Several years after the film's release, Paul Bateson, the technician in the angiography scene, was convicted of murdering journalist Addison Verrill.<ref name="Esquire Bateson story" />
Friedkin believed there might have been some supernatural interference. "I'm not a convert to the occult", he told the horror-film magazine, Castle of Frankenstein, "but after all I've seen on this film, I definitely believe in demonic possessionTemplate:Spaces... We were plagued by strange and sinister things from the beginning."<ref name="CF Curse story" /> Vercourtere said he "felt I was playing around with something I shouldn't be playing around with." To mollify the crew, Friedkin asked Father Bermingham, the film's technical advisor, 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.<ref name="America article" />
British film historian Sarah Crowther believes stories of the curse were disseminated by the studio, likening it to horror producer William Castle's elaborate marketing gimmicks.<ref name="iNews curse story" /> She believes most of the aspects of the curse are really just the result of Friedkin's driving, relentless production.<ref name="iNews curse story" /> Blatty agreed, telling Kermode that Friedkin had started the "curse" story with an interview during production in which he blamed "devils" for the film's many delays. Blatty said that "if you shoot something for a year, people are going to get hurt, people are going to die."Template:Sfn Blair told Kermode that stories of the supposed curse circulated because viewers "chose to see a scary film, and maybe they wanted to believe all those rumors because it helped the whole process", she said.Template:Sfn 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 related to it.<ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview" />
Post-production
Editing
During principal photography, the editor then hired had no prior movie experience and was not allowed to cut the raw footage.<ref name="C&B article">Template:Cite web</ref> Friedkin hired three editors—Jordan Leondopoulos, credited as "supervising editor"; Norman Gay, and Evan Lottman. A fourth, Bud Smith, recalls Friedkin asking him to work on The Exorcist after shooting wrapped, telling Smith he would be the lead. Smith asked Friedkin to let him edit one large rack of footage from the Iraq sequence and worked through a weekend to recut it to a rhythm based on the sound of a blacksmith hammering an anvil near Merrin.<ref name="Smith podcast">Template:Cite podcast</ref> He also created the "flash face" trailer for the film, with a montage of faces making a strobe-like effect, under tense string music, ending after almost 90 seconds with the title. In 2018, Friedkin said that Warner Bros. feared it would scare audiences too much. He considers it the film's best trailer.<ref name="2018 Friedkin trailer tweet">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn Smith and the other three shared the film's Academy Award nomination for editing.<ref name="C&B article"/>
Friedkin felt the 140-minute-long cut was perfect, but the studio insisted he trim it to two hours to allow for more daily screenings. 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 (restored in some later screenings) were Blatty's favorites, including the original ending, with Dyer and Kinderman connecting and agreeing to go to the movies in the future,Template:Efn and a scene where Karras and Merrin take a break from the exorcism and discuss the demon's motivation for possessing Regan.Template:Efn These scenes had been in the novel, and he believed that in the movie they made it clearer at the end that good had triumphed.<ref name="Den of Geek">Template:Cite web</ref>
Sound effects
Ron Nagle, Doc Siegel, Gonzalo Gavira, and Bob Fine created the sound effects,Template:Sfn mixing bees, dogs, hamsters, and pigs into the demon's voice.<ref name="Marriott">Template:Cite book</ref> The sound of Regan's head rotating was made by twisting a leather wallet.<ref name="Marriott" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Friedkin was personally involved in the four-month sound process, the last aspect of the film completed, finished just before release. Jim Nelson, whom Friedkin had hired to supervise the mixing, recalls the director being particularly demanding, treating his then-girlfriend, who was among those assisting in the process, "like a dog".Template:Sfn
Alleged subliminal imagery
Wilson Bryan Key devoted a chapter to the film in his book Media Sexploitation, alleging repeated use of subliminal and semi-subliminal imagery and sound effects. In addition to the Pazuzu face, 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.<ref name="Key book">Template:Cite book</ref>
A 1991 Video Watchdog article examined the claim, with stills of several uses of subliminal "flashing". "I saw subliminal cuts in a number of films before I ever put them in The Exorcist", Friedkin told the authors, "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."<ref name="Lucas">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In a 1999 interview, Blatty said "[t]here are no subliminal images. If you can see it, it's not subliminal."Template:Sfn
Title sequence
The title sequence was the first major project for Dan Perri, the film title designer, whom Friedkin sought out after seeing his work on Electra Glide in Blue. His plan for the titles evolved as the film progressed. For the words themselves Perri chose to keep the Weiss Initials typeface used on the cover of Blatty's novel. The filmmakers wanted them in red, but it was hard to choose an exact shade since red tends to spill on a black background.<ref name="Perri article" />
Perri's input into the film's opening extended beyond the credits. Friedkin told him he wanted the film to begin with a sunrise, which he had not filmed while there. The closest shot he had was one at midday, of the sun in an orange sky, with rising heat visible. Perri suggested an "implied sunrise", fading in on the sun and going from black and white to color over 30 seconds, giving the film a sense of beginning it had lacked, he said.<ref name="Perri article" />Template:Efn
Music
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells became very popular after its use in the film.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Friedkin recalled in 2015 that he had wanted something like Brahms' "Lullaby" with "a kind of childhood feel". He had gone to see studio head John Calley, who directed him to the company's nearby music library. There he found Oldfield's record and persuaded the company to buy the rights.<ref name="Friedkin Vice interview" />
Lalo Schifrin said that after he had written six minutes of music for the "flash face" and a working score, trailer executives told Friedkin they wanted softer music but Friedkin never told him; Friedkin rejected the score. In 2005 Schifrin said this was in retaliation for an earlier "incident" between the two.<ref name="Schifrin interview">Template:Cite interview</ref> Schifrin denies claims he used his original Exorcist music several years later for The Amityville Horror.Template:Sfn Friedkin threw away the tapes of Schifrin's score in the studio parking lot.<ref name=fear />Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In an interview shortly after the film's release, Friedkin said he had hired an unnamed composer "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.<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" /> Bernard Herrmann turned down the job after viewing a rough cut.<ref name="CF general story" /> In 1975, Herrmann said that Friedkin objected to his intention to use an organ and insisted on sharing composing credit.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref>Template:Efn
Friedkin ultimately used modern classical compositions, including portions of the 1972 Cello Concerto No. 1 and Polymorphia, among other pieces by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki; Five Pieces for Orchestra by Austrian composer Anton Webern, and original music by Jack Nitzsche, all heard only during scene transitions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are only 17 minutes of music in the two-hour film. Friedkin said, "What I wanted, 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",<ref name="CF Friedkin interview" /> an aspect praised by Judith Crist.<ref name="Crist review">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Greek song on the radio as Father Karras leaves his mother's house is Template:Lang (Template:Lang, "My Tale"), sung by Giannis Kalatzis. Part of Hans Werner Henze's 1966 composition Fantasia for Strings is played over the closing credits.<ref>Brett Allen-Bayes (January 9, 2014), "Henze: Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings", Limelight. Template:Webarchive.</ref>Template:Sfn
In 1998, a restored and remastered soundtrack was released (without Tubular Bells) with three pieces from Schifrin's rejected score: "Music from the unused Trailer", an 11-minute "Suite from the Unused Score", and "Rock Ballad (Unused Theme)".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That same year, the Japanese version of the original soundtrack LP omitted the Schifrin pieces but restored the main theme, and the Night of the Electric Insects movement from George Crumb's string quartet Black Angels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 2000 cut features new music by Steve Boeddeker,<ref name="Studio Sound article">Template:Cite magazine</ref> as well as brief source music by Les Baxter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Waxwork Records released the remastered score in 2017. They included Friedkin's liner notes with art by Justin Erickson of Phantom City Creative.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Releases
Theatrical
Warner Bros. scheduled The Exorcist for release on December 26, 1973. It had been scheduled for an earlier release, but was postponed due to post-production delays.<ref name="2015 THR article">Template:Cite news</ref> Friedkin was angry about this, believing that it hurt the film commercially. He had wanted a release before or on the holiday. It has been speculated that the studio wanted to avoid any controversy that might have come from releasing a film about demonic possession before a major religious holiday. Crowther, conversely, believes the studio chose Christmas to stoke controversy around the film.<ref name="iNews curse story" /> Friedkin supposedly had seen what Paramount had done to make The Godfather a runaway success after its own troubled production. He had wanted the studio to choose a more favorable release date, such as March, like Godfather.<ref name="Indiewire piece">Template:Cite news</ref>
The post-holiday release served to help The Exorcist sell tickets, as most moviegoers had time off. It was the highest-grossing Christmas week release after 1997's Titanic, and is still in second place.<ref name="Indiewire piece" /> The ExorcistTemplate:'s first run lasted 105 weeks, or just over two years.<ref name="Mojo">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1979, the film was re-released in 70 mm, with its original 1.75:1 aspect ratio<ref name="BBFC Exorcist file">Template:Cite web</ref> expanded to 2.20:1.<ref name="2018 THR story">Template:Cite news</ref> A longer cut, subtitled "The Version You've Never Seen"<ref name="rottentomatoes.com">Template:Cite web</ref> (later re-labeled "Extended Director's Cut"), was released theatrically in 2000,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with additions and changes.<ref name="collins">Template:Cite web</ref>
Home media
A 25th anniversary special edition box set was released in 1998 on VHS and DVD,<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> with the original ending as a special feature.<ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview" /> Blatty was pleased that the scene was restored, saying it was "the way it ought to be seen".<ref name="2000 Austin Chronicle interview" />
"The Version You've Never Seen" was released on VHS and DVD in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray with slight alterations as the "Extended Director's Cut" in 2010;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Blu-Ray featured a restored version of both cuts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A 40th-anniversary Blu-ray was released in 2013, with both cuts, many previously released bonus features and two featurettes about Blatty.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology, a box set, was released on DVD in 2006, and on Blu-ray in 2014. It includes both cuts, the sequels Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III, and the prequels Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Both the theatrical and extended versions of the film were released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 19, 2023, to mark the film's 50th anniversary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reception
Box office
Warner Bros. initially had low expectations for The Exorcist, since it was a horror film without major stars that had gone well over budget. The film was not previewed for critics and initially booked for 30 screens in 24 theaters, mostly in large cities and metropolitan areas.<ref name="Opening">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film grossed $1.9 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) in its first week, setting records for each theater it was booked in,<ref name=Opening/> with an average of $70,000, equivalent to $Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-year.Template:Inflation-fn Within its first month, it had grossed $7.4 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) nationwide; studio executives expected it to surpass My Fair Lady as the studio's most financially successful film.<ref name="Van Gelder NYT article">Template:Cite news</ref> The huge crowds forced the studio to expand to a 366-screen wide release very quickly.<ref name="In Theaters Everywhere">Template:Cite book</ref> At the time that releasing strategy had rarely been used for anything but exploitation films.<ref name="Laughing Screaming">Template:Cite book</ref> Many theaters in large cities were not located near downtowns, where Warner Bros. had booked the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force before planning the release of The Exorcist.<ref name="Indiewire piece" /> By February, The Exorcist accounted for 15 percent of the distributor's grosses in key markets.Template:Sfn
None of the theaters booked for the initial release were in Black neighborhoods such as South Central Los Angeles, since the studio did not expect that audience to be interested in the film, which had no Black characters. After the theater in predominantly White Westwood showing the film was overwhelmed with moviegoers from South Central, it was booked into theaters there.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Black enthusiasm for The Exorcist has been credited with ending mainstream studio support for blaxploitation movies, since Hollywood realized that Black audiences did not show any preference for them.<ref name="Last Great American Picture Show">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Framing Blackness">Template:Cite book</ref> The New York Times reported that the audience lined up to see the film was between one-quarter and one-third Black at a theater on the mostly White Upper East Side of Manhattan showing the film. One Black patron said, when asked why that might be, that they "relate to voodoo and witchcraft and that kind of devil stuff ... Many still believe in black magic, especially those from Haiti and the Deep South."<ref name="Klemesrud NYT article">Template:Cite news</ref>
The Exorcist earned $66.3 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) in distributors' rentals during its theatrical release in 1974 in the United States and Canada, becoming the second most popular film of that year (behind The StingTemplate:'s $68.5 million)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film of all time<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> although it eventually became the highest-grossing 1973 release.<ref name=Finler>Template:Cite book</ref> Warner Bros. retained more of that money than usual since it released the film under four-wall distribution, the first time a major studio had done that. Under that arrangement the studio rents the theater from the owner in the initial run and keeps all the ticket revenue. Warner Bros. also did some things that had made The Godfather successful for Paramount, such as making theaters commit to showing the film for at least 24 weeks.<ref name="In Theaters Everywhere" />Template:Efn Overseas, the film earned rentals of $46 million<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> for a worldwide total of $112.3 million ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn). It became the highest-grossing film in Japan with rentals of over $8.2 million in its first 11 weeks.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> After several reissues, the film has grossed $232.6 million in the United States and Canada,<ref name="Mojo" /> which adjusted for inflation,Template:Efn 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.<ref name="mojo-inflation" /> Template:As of, it has grossed $441 million worldwide,<ref name="Mojo" /> ($Template:Formatprice in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fnTemplate:Efn).
Initial critical response
Upon release the film received mixed critical reviews. Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic, wrote, "This is the scariest film I've seen in years—the only scary film I've seen in years."Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Arthur D. Murphy of Variety noted that it was "an expert telling of a supernatural horror story".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the horror-film magazine Castle of Frankenstein, Joe Dante, later director of Piranha and The Howling, called it "an amazing film, and one destined to become at the very least a horror classic ... there has never been anything like this on the screen before".<ref name="Dante">Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Efn Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, praising the actors (particularly Burstyn) and the special effects, but concluded: "I am not sure exactly what reasons people will have for seeing this movie; surely enjoyment won't be one ... Are people so numb they need movies of this intensity in order to feel anything at all?"<ref name="EbertExorcist">Template:Cite web</ref>
In the middle of the range was Judith Crist. Her New York review 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 had left out what made readers connect with characters in the novel; he was also perhaps limited since the film could not leave things to the imagination as his book had.<ref name="Crist review" /> 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.<ref name="New Yorker review" /> Vincent Canby, writing in The New York Times, dismissed The Exorcist as "a chunk of elegant occultist claptrap ... a practically impossible film to sit through ... [e]stablish[ing] a new low for grotesque special effects."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice complained, "Friedkin's biggest weakness is his inability to provide enough visual information about his characters ... The Exorcist succeeds on one level as an effectively excruciating entertainment, but on another, deeper level it is a thoroughly evil film."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rolling StoneTemplate:'s Jon Landau called The Exorcist "nothing more than a religious porn film, the gaudiest piece of shlock this side of Cecil B. DeMille".Template:Sfn Film QuarterlyTemplate:'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".<ref name="Film Quarterly" /> The San Francisco Bay GuardianTemplate:'s reviewer called it "quite simply the dumbest, most insultingly anti-intellectual movie I have ever come across".<ref name="Dante" />
Audience reaction
Audience members screamed and fled the theater during the only sneak preview.<ref name="America article" /> When it was over, studio head John Calley and the other executives were stunned, but they noticed that everyone who saw it was still outside the theater talking about it.<ref name=fear />Template:Rp They believed the film was brilliant, but did not know how to market it, and decided on the limited early release after Christmas.Template:Sfn Burstyn recalled watching a television news report showing moviegoers in Montreal lining up during the dead of winter at 4Template:Nbspa.m. in frigid weather the morning the film opened.Template:Sfn Despite its mixed reviews and the controversies over its content and viewer reaction, The Exorcist was a runaway hit. In New York City, patrons endured Template:Convert cold, rain, and sleet<ref name="Van Gelder NYT article" /> in long lines during a normally slow time of year for the movies to buy tickets, even after having seen it once. Crowds outside theaters sometimes rioted.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The New York Times 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. Another "wanted to be part of the madness". A repeat viewer told the newspaper that the film was "better than Psycho", making him feel "contaminated". Many had never waited in line that long for a movie before, or not in a long time.<ref name="Klemesrud NYT article" />
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Reports of strong audience reactions were widespread. Many viewers fainted;<ref name="BBFC Exorcist file" /> a woman in New York was said to have miscarried during a showing.<ref name="Klemesrud NYT article" /> One man was carried out on a stretcher after 20 minutes.<ref name="CF general story">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Nausea was frequent; a Cinefantastique reviewer recalled how the vomit in the bathroom blocked access to the sinks.<ref name="Laughing Screaming" /> The manager of Toronto's University Theater, which sold out its four daily showings, said "We have a plumber practically living here now". Viewers seemed particularly disturbed by the crucifix scenes.<ref name="Toronto Star article">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn Some theaters arranged for ambulances to be on call.<ref name="Toronto Star article" /> Many audience members found the angiography to be the film's most unsettling scene.<ref name="Danny Peary" /><ref name="New Scientist review" />Template:Efn Some Catholic viewers, particularly those who had lapsed in their faith but also including some priests, experienced spiritual crises. Many parishes reported callers inquiring about having an exorcism performed. The Rev. Richard Woods, a professor at Loyola of Chicago, said most of his calls were from lapsed Catholics for whom the film resurfaced their religious education prior to Vatican II.Template:Efn He said, "It stirs up memories of all those descriptions of hell that you got from nuns."<ref name="NYT Church story">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1975, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease published a paper by a psychiatrist documenting four cases of "cinematic neurosis" triggered by the film. In all he believed scenes depicting Regan's possession had surfaced a latent condition. He recommended physicians view the movie with the patient to help identify the sources of their trauma.<ref name="JNMD article">Template:Cite journal</ref> Other external causes were suggested. One writer at Castle of Frankenstein took note of Friedkin's pride in the film's sound, which theaters played at maximum volume, and wondered if its low frequencies had induced or amplified patrons' anxiety.<ref name="CF general story" /> Another writer there blamed the reactions on the mainstream audience's general unfamiliarity with horror-movie conventions, speculating that "these people hadn't gone to see a monster movie since 1935."<ref name="CF Roen">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Zinoman wrote four decades later: "The Exorcist ... was one of the rare horror movies that became part of the national conversation ... It was a movie you needed to have an opinion about."Template:Sfn Journalists complained that coverage of the film was distracting the public from the ongoing Watergate scandal. Much of that coverage focused on the audience which, film historian William Paul wrote, "had become a spectacle equal to the film". He did not think any other film's audience received as much coverage as The ExorcistTemplate:'s.<ref name="Laughing Screaming" />
Religious response
"One of the best things that could happen is if the Pope denounces it", Friedkin said. The crucifix scene, and others, involved material sacrilegious to Catholics. Officially the Church, whose influence over film content had declined following the demise of the Hays Office and the associated Production Code a few years earlier,Template:Efn had bemoaned Warner Bros.' choice of release date. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting's Catholic Film Newsletter rated the film A-IVTemplate:Sndashsuitable for adults onlyTemplate:Sndashwith 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.<ref name="Religious response article" />
Individual priests familiar with the theology were also critical. One 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 that Karras and Merrin were incompetent. "They departed from the ritual in the most stupid and reckless manner", he said. "They tried to fight the Demon Template:Sic 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."<ref name="NYT Church story" />
Some non-Catholics were critical. Kael, incredulous that Georgetown and several priests facilitated the production, wrote:<ref name="New Yorker review" />
Kael nonetheless described The Exorcist as "the biggest recruiting poster the Catholic Church has had since the sunnier days of Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's" since the film "says that [it] is the true faith, feared by the Devil, and that its rituals can exorcise demons".<ref name="New Yorker review" />Template:Efn A later historian has found that the Church was not as critical of the film as reports suggested, privately considering it faith-affirming.<ref name="Religious response article" /> Authorities in predominantly Muslim Tunisia banned the film before its 1975 release there as "unjustified propaganda in favor of Christianity".Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn
In February 1974, the Jesuit magazine America ran several commentaries and responses by priests to the film. The editors allowed Blatty to respond later that month. He praised some of the commentators' points, but was disappointed by some misconceptions of the film held by both critics and defenders.<ref name="Blatty America response">Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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. It appeared to him that for many viewers, including some of the America writers, the film ended with the demon triumphant through the deaths of the priests despite being exorcised from Regan. The ending of the novel made this clearer, but even in the film he saw Karras's suicide as a sacrificial act of love that reaffirmed his faith.<ref name="Blatty America response" />
American Protestant groups also took critical note of the Exorcist phenomenon and its religious implications. Evangelist Billy Graham told the National Enquirer that "the Devil is in every frame of that film",<ref name="Billy Graham interview">Template:Cite interview</ref> a remark later characterized as Graham believing the print itself was possessed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn The Rev. Lester Kinsolving, an Episcopal priest and syndicated newspaper columnist, argued the Church approved the film only because its heroes were priests.<ref name="Kinsolving column">Template:Cite news</ref> The Christian Century, the leading voice of mainline Protestantism, likewise denounced the film as "hardcore pornography [that to Protestants offers] a completely impossible solution" to evil. Protestant groups around the country picketed the film and offered support to those who might be disturbed by it.<ref name="Religious response article" />
Rating controversy
The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) ratings board had been established several years before to replace the Production Code. It had already been criticized for its indirect censorship; reportedly almost a third of the films submitted had been recut to avoid an X rating, which barred admission to minors. Since many theaters did not show those films and newspapers did not run advertisements 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 any Hollywood film before, he also needed the R rating. Before release, Aaron Stern, the head of the MPAA ratings board, watched the film himself. He told Friedkin that The Exorcist was "an important film" which would receive an R rating as submitted.Template:Sfn
Some critics, reacting to reports of the film's effect on children who had seen it, questioned the R rating. In February 1974, Roy Meacham, a television critic in Washington, D.C., who had praised the film, wrote that he had heard of a girl being taken from the theater in an ambulance, even though his station regularly warned against letting children see it.<ref name="Meacham NYT piece">Template:Cite news</ref> Meacham said that the children she saw leaving showings "were drained and drawn afterward; their eyes had a look I had never seen before." He suggested that the MPAA had yielded to pressure from Warner Bros., and doubted MPAA head Jack Valenti's claims that the R rating was justified in the absence of sex or nudity. After a week in Washington's theaters, Meacham recalled, authorities cited the crucifix scene to invoke a local ordinance that forbade 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.<ref name="Meacham NYT piece" /> There were also reports of theaters not strictly enforcing the R rating.<ref name="Van Gelder NYT article" /> Meacham wrote that the board had lost its moral authority, and feared communities across the country would pass their own, perhaps more restrictive laws on what could be shown.<ref name="Meacham NYT piece" /> Kael echoed his insinuations that the board had yielded to studio pressure due to the film's cost.Template:Sfn<ref name="New Yorker review" /> Ebert, who had favorably reviewed the film, found the special effects unusually graphic, making it "stupefying" that it had been rated R.<ref name="EbertExorcist"/> Stern's successor as ratings board chair, Richard Heffner, said of The Exorcist: "How could anything be worse than this? And it got an R?"Template:Sfn
Boston and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, attempted to prevent showings. A court in the former city blocked the ban, saying the film did not meet the U.S. Supreme Court's standard of obscenity.<ref name="Today show piece">Template:Cite news</ref> Authorities there still told theaters not to admit minors.Template:Sfn In Mississippi, police arrested the projectionist and manager after the film's first showing;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a jury convicted the theater of obscenity and fined it $100.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1976, holding the state's obscenity statute too vague to be enforceable under the 1972 Miller v. California decision.<ref>Template:Cite court</ref>
Viewing restrictions in United Kingdom
Upon its United Kingdom release in March 1974,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Exorcist drew protests around Britain from the Nationwide Festival of Light (NFL), a Christian public action group. Local clergy and concerned citizens handed out leaflets offering spiritual support afterwards to those queuing for the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A letter-writing campaign to local councils by the NFL led many of them to screen The Exorcist before permitting showings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was thus banned in some areas, such as Dinefwr Borough (now Carmarthenshire) and Ceredigion in Wales.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1981, The Exorcist was released on home video in the UK.<ref name="BBFC">Template:Cite web</ref> After the passage of the Video Recordings Act 1984, it was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for a home video certificate. A majority voted to grant it, but director James Ferman vetoed them. He believed that, even with a proposed 18 certificate, the film's notoriety would lead underage viewers to seek it out. As a result, all UK video copies of The Exorcist were withdrawn in 1988.<ref name="BBFC" /> Following a successful theatrical re-release in 1998, the film was submitted for home video release again in 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was passed uncut with an 18 certificate, signifying a relaxation of the censorship rules for home video in the UK. In 2001, Channel 4 showed The Exorcist on UK broadcast television for the first time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After release
The ExorcistTemplate:'s box office records stood for years. It was the top-grossing R-rated horror film for almost half a century.<ref name="BOM R-rated horror chart">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1999, The Sixth Sense beat the film as the highest-grossing supernatural horror film until It took that honor in 2017.<ref name="BOM supernatural horror">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn On both charts, The Exorcist, along with The Blair Witch Project, are the only 20th-century releases in the top ten.<ref name="BOM R-rated horror chart" /><ref name="BOM supernatural horror" />
Since its release, The ExorcistTemplate:'s critical reputation has grown. Template:Rotten Tomatoes prose<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The director's cut received an 88% rating from the same site, with a 7.30 rating, based on 82 reviews, while its consensus reading "The Exorcist has withstood the test of time, and it still has that renegade feel and the power to shock."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel named it one of the top five films of 1973.<ref name="Siskel Official Web Page">Template:Cite web</ref> The English film critic Mark Kermode believes The Exorcist to be the best film ever made.<ref name="BFI Blatty obit">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Director Martin Scorsese put The Exorcist on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Robert Eggers,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Alex Proyas,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and David Fincher,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> have cited The Exorcist as a favorite. In 2008, it was named one of EmpireTemplate:'s "500 Greatest Movies Ever Made".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Times put it on a similar list of a thousand films.<ref name="Times best list" /> John Carpenter listed The Exorcist as one of his top eight scariest horror classics,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and said it influenced his 1980 film The Fog.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Some critics wondered, in advance of its 2000 re-release, whether The Exorcist would affect contemporary audiences, since it had been so widely imitated and emulated. The Hartford CourantTemplate:'s Malcolm Johnson described it as a "little old hat in 2000". Some scenes, such as Ritalin being proposed as a treatment for Regan, provoked unintended laughter. But the film's performances were still effective, and the longer version made the medical professionals seem like "witch doctors".<ref name="2000 Courant review" /> The Tribune found it "a deeper movie now". Friedkin, an odd choice to direct at the time, now proved the best for critic Michael Wilmington, as he knew "how to convey a convincing atmosphere of modern chaos and dread".<ref name="2000 Trib review">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022 Rolling Stone ranked the movie at #1 on a 101 Best Horror Movies of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Themes
Critics and scholars attributed The ExorcistTemplate:'s box office success to social anxiety following the cultural, political and social upheavals of the late 1960s.<ref name="America article" /><ref name="Religious response article" />Template:Sfn<ref name="Possessed Women, Haunted States">Template:Cite book</ref> Amy Chambers wrote: "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".<ref name="Religious response article" /> Kermode writes that by stylistically distancing itself from the more Gothic horror films of the 1960s, the film "presented a credible portrait of the modern urban world ripped apart by an obscene, ancient evil".Template:Sfn Stephen King calls The Exorcist "a social horror film if there ever was one" in his 1983 treatise on the genre, Danse Macabre. He sees the possessed Regan symbolizing for middle-aged viewers the outspoken youth protesting the Vietnam War.Template:Sfn Danny Peary comments on the symbolic and real fragmentation throughout the film: "With the world in such disorder, the Devil can make a dramatic entrance."<ref name="Danny Peary" />
At the time of the film's release, the Watergate scandal was worsening, implicating President Richard Nixon. In 2019, The A.V. ClubTemplate:'s Tom Breihan said that "the spectacle of The Exorcist might've mirrored" Watergate.<ref name="A.V. Club piece">Template:Cite news</ref> In a Christian Century article, theologian Carl Raschke connected the "psychodramas of the American soul" resulting from "the cynical mood of our age [arising] by default from the wreck of traditional religious as well as social values".<ref>Template:Cite magazine, cited by Chambers</ref> Breihan reads the film itself as reactionary, "built on reverence of tradition" despite its surface transgressiveness. He wrote that "it almost sneers at the politics of the '60s", noting Chris dismissing her film's take on student protest as "the Walt Disney version of the Ho Chi Minh story". In the only scene she is shown shooting, her character, a faculty member at the fictional college, counsels a group of protesters that change can only come from the system.<ref name="A.V. Club piece" />
Second-wave feminism has figured in discussions of The Exorcist. At the time, the U.S. women's liberation movement had enjoyed some early gains in legislatures and courts. CommentatorsTemplate:Who have seen the film's depiction of a single working mother and her uncontrollable daughter who are rescued by patriarchal authority as a reaction against feminism.<ref name="A.V. Club piece" /><ref name="America article" /><ref name="ReWire Marcotte piece">Template:Cite news</ref> Former studio executive Peter Biskind, in Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, 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.Template:Sfn Many feminist critics, like Biskind, note the film's focus on the female body as the site of horror. "When her body changes, Regan becomes someone else; someone sexual, whose desire is a dark visitor" 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 ... enemy of all that is pure or holy."<ref name="Doyle book">Template:Cite book</ref> But Australian film studies professor Barbara Creed, in The Monstrous-Feminine, which inaugurated psychoanalytic feminist film theory, counters the prevailing feminist take on The Exorcist by insisting that Pazuzu is femaleTemplate:Sfn 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",Template:Sfn as she navigates an incestuous desire for her mother.Template:Sfn University of Toronto professor S. Trimble writes that the film tapped into "white American fears of nightmare futures" that could result from the women's liberation, gay liberation and Black Power movements' challenge to the established 1970s social order. Trimble writes that, 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 follows older horror movies that use gender-bending to create a monster.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Texas State religious studies professor Joseph Laycock<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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[ing] beliefs about divine or supernatural intervention in the realm of everyday experience", as tolerant of Ouija boards and practices from other spiritual traditions as it was devout in its Catholic faith.Template:Sfn In the early 1970s, organized religion in America had increasingly turned towards the rational as the country became more secular: "The authentic folk piety depicted in The Exorcist likely appealed to audiences [at the time] because it was a welcome alternative to rationalized religion and a cultural myth of universal secularization."Template:Sfn
Litigation
Lawsuits among the creators of The Exorcist began before the film was released, and continued into the 21st century. In November 1973, Blatty sued the studio and Friedkin. He demanded equal billing with Friedkin, who he further claimed had barred him from the set. Friedkin said he had only barred him from post-production; Blatty settled for the "William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist" line.<ref name="AFI" /> In February 1974, Dietz claimed Friedkin had made her sign a nondisclosure agreement. 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 she neither claimed to have been the only double for the possession scenes nor talked about it to the media. The Screen Actors Guild ruled her contract was not binding, but then Dietz declined to arbitrate the matter.<ref name="AFI" />
In 2001, following the release of the extended version, Blatty and Friedkin sued Warner Bros., alleging that they had been cheated out of profits they would receive for helping promote the film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later that year, they sued again, alleging that the studio had further defrauded them over the last decade by failing to get full market value for various licensing deals for the film.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Efn It was settled confidentially two years later.<ref name="LA Times 2003 settlement story" /> In 2012, Blatty sued Warner Bros. again, asking for the opportunity to inspect the studio's records and accounts, to see whether he had been paid what he was owed.<ref name="2010 THR story">Template:Cite news</ref>
Legacy
The Exorcist has had a lasting effect on the horror film genre and become a cultural reference point.
Effect on films and industry
Cinefantastique wrote, "The Exorcist has done for the horror film what 2001 did for science fiction, legitimizing it in the eyes of thousands who previously considered horror movies nothing more than a giggle."<ref name="Laughing Screaming" /> Studios subsequently allotted large budgets to horror films with similar themes like The Omen, The Sentinel, Burnt Offerings, Audrey Rose, and The Amityville Horror.<ref name="Lost Illusions">Template:Cite book</ref> Horror films began to cast well-known actors, who until then had often avoided the genre in their career prime.Template:Sfn Friedkin's use of works like Polymorphia in the score also led to the use of modern avant-garde composers like Krzysztof Penderecki in later horror films such as The Shining. Composers of original music for those films adopted some avant-garde techniques, like dissonant intervals such as tritones, sound massing and tone clusters, to create unease and tension.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>
The film's success led Warner Bros. to release the sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic in 1977, marking one of the first times a studio had done that with a major film not planned to have one, launching a franchise. While many classic horror films of the 1930s had spawned series of films, the practice had declined in the 1960s. Before the 1970s, most sequels had been secondary properties for the studios. The other big-budget horror films made in the wake of The Exorcist also led to sequels and franchises.Template:Sfn Amy Chambers observes that Friedkin set a precedent not only by extensively consulting with technical experts in the subject matter, in his case physicians and priests, but foregrounding that reliance by including those experts' names and credentials in the film's credits and press kit, a practice now common.<ref name="Religious response article" />
Cultural reference point
The Exorcist has become a cultural reference point.<ref name="Religious response article" /> Its imagery, particularly Regan in her bedroom, has been used by political cartoonists like Mike Luckovich and Mike Peters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote when criticizing the nation's apparent indulgence of President Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions: "[P]eople 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Father Merrin's arrival scene is another reference. In an episode of the CBS sitcom Square Pegs, Don Novello, as his Saturday Night Live (SNL) character Father Guido Sarducci, enters a classroom, similarly backlit amidst fog, in order to exorcise a character "possessed" by the Pac-Man video game.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> In an episode set on Halloween 2019, an episode of Evil, another CBS series, paid homage to the scene.<ref name="Evil episode">Template:Cite episode</ref><ref name="EW Evil story">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1992, the heavy metal band Pantera named its sixth studio album Vulgar Display of Power, from the possessed Regan's riposte to Karras when he suggests she could make the straps disappear,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> similarly titling a book about the band's adventures on tour.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2023 a protist that lives inside a South American termite's gut was named Daimonympha friedkini after the movie and its director.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Popular comedy took inspiration from the film. SNL parodied the film during its first season, with Richard Pryor in the Karras role and Laraine Newman as Regan.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref><ref name="Washingtonian Blatty article" /> In 2023, the show again parodied the film, with host Jenna Ortega in the Regan role.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ghostbusters, in 1984, included The Exorcist among the horror films it referenced.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In one scene, Sigourney Weaver's character, possessed by an evil spirit, begins to speak with a deep, husky voice and levitates above her bed as Bill Murray's character talks with her.<ref name="A.V. Club piece" /><ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> In 1990, Blair starred as a housewife needing exorcism in the parody Repossessed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Religious wariness toward the film abated as it became a classic. Jesuit Jim McDermott wrote in a 2019 issue of America: "The Exorcist exposed people around the world to the question of evil in a new and terrifying way ... It is a film that takes on big questions and aspires to do much more than shock."Template:Check quotation<ref name="America article" /> In the heavily Baptist American South, 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 recalls, it "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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> British Baptist minister Peter Laws has credited the film with persuading him to abandon atheism and become a Christian, since "it suggested ... that God might be the only truly effective answer to evil, that [He] might be real and the church might sometimes be filed under 'solution', not 'problemTemplate:'".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 2015, the District of Columbia posted a commemorative plaque on the Exorcist steps,<ref name="NYT plaque story">Template:Cite news</ref> since they had become a tourist attraction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At a ceremony the day before Halloween that year, Blatty and Friedkin were present as the plaque, with Mayor Muriel Bowser's signature, was unveiled.<ref name="NYT plaque story" /> Friedkin said that having his name on the plaque was a greater honor than another Academy Award, 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."<ref name="Friedkin Vice interview" />
Accolades
The Exorcist was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won two. It was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture.<ref name="Oscars1974">Template:Cite web</ref> It won four of seven Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama.<ref name="The Exorcist – Golden Globes">Template:Cite web</ref> Robert Knudson and Chris Newman won The ExorcistTemplate:'s first Oscar, for Best Sound, thanking Friedkin, the studio and their crews, at the ceremony.<ref name="Sound acceptance speech">Template:Cite web</ref> Blatty won for Best Adapted Screenplay, accepting the award from Angie Dickinson and Miller, who applauded Blatty vigorously. 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 his parents, "whose love and whose courage have brought me to this moment and to this place".<ref name="Blatty Oscar speech">Template:Cite web</ref> The next morning, Blatty complained in The Hollywood Reporter (THR) that The Exorcist had not won all the awards it was nominated for, as it was "head and shoulders, the finest film made this year and in many other years". He accused veteran director George Cukor of having campaigned against the film.<ref name="Blatty THR post-Oscars rant">Template:Cite news</ref>
American Film Institute Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – No. 3<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Regan MacNeil – No. 9 Villain<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Related media
Sequels and prequels
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A year after The ExorcistTemplate:'s release, New York reported that a sequel was planned, with Friedkin producing and Blatty uninvolved.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Friedkin backed out, and only Blair and von Sydow returned.Template:Efn Boorman directed and Richard Burton played the lead.<ref name="Exorcist II AFI" /> The film suffered production problems, particular cast and crew health issues, and was beset by regular script rewrites and personnel changes.Template:Sfn Upon its release in 1977, Exorcist II: The Heretic had what was then Warner Bros.' largest opening-day gross, but was less successful than the original.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Afterward, Blatty and Friedkin began planning a story and script for a sequel of their own. Blatty continued after Friedkin dropped out and developed the story into the novel Legion in 1983, after Hollywood showed little interest. He saw it as an exploration of the same themes within the same fictional universe by some of the original's minor characters. The media saw it as a sequel, and it sold well.<ref name="Den of Geek Exorcist III">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1990, Blatty adapted a more streamlined script from the novel for Morgan Creek Productions and 20th Century Fox, titled The Exorcist III. He also directed, with George C. Scott replacing the deceased Cobb as Kinderman.Template:Efn
Morgan Creek and James G. Robinson, producer of Exorcist III, had commissioned a prequel story about a young Father Merrin's first confrontation with Pazuzu. It was produced in 2002, with Paul Schrader directing and Stellan Skarsgård in the lead.<ref name="NYT prequel story">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LAT prequel story">Template:Cite news</ref> Robinson hired Renny Harlin to reshoot most of the film with Skarsgård and a new cast after disagreements with Schrader. Harlin's version, heavy on action and horror, was released in 2004 as Exorcist: The Beginning, and was a critical and commercial failure. Schrader's version received a limited release in 2005 as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, a version Blatty found much better.<ref name="NYT Dominion story" />
In 2020, Morgan Creek announced a reboot of the film;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> fans petitioned to cancel it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the end of the year, Blumhouse Productions and Morgan Creek said that David Gordon Green would instead direct a direct sequel to the 1973 film,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and later a trilogy produced by Jason Blum alongside James and David Robinson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Burstyn reprised her role, with Leslie Odom Jr. co-starring. The films would be released by Universal Pictures and Peacock, with the second and third films optioned as Peacock exclusives. The first, The Exorcist: Believer,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was released in October 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, following the film's very poor reception, plans for the trilogy were officially scrapped the following year and the franchise was rebooted again with a new installment from director Mike Flanagan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Television series
Template:Main The Fox television series The Exorcist (2016–2017) followed two priests investigating possible cases of demonic possession and performing exorcisms. In the fifth episode, Angela Rance was revealed as the adult Regan, making the series a direct sequel to the original film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was canceled after its second season.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Other 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1998, the script was anthologized in The Exorcist/Legion – Two Classic Screenplays,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and again as a standalone text in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
- 1973 in film
- 1973 in the United States
- List of 1970s films based on actual events
- List of American films of 1973
- List of cult films
- List of film and television accidents
- List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada
- List of horror films of 1973
- List of films considered the best
- List of films featuring fictional films
Notes
References
Works cited
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