The Exorcist (1973) is William Friedkin’s supernatural horror film about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and the two Catholic priests who try to save her. William Peter Blatty adapted it from his own 1971 bestseller and produced it. The film was a box office phenomenon, and it became the first horror film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It introduced Regan MacNeil and the demon Pazuzu. Its realism, its shocks and the stories about its troubled production made it a cultural landmark, and many still call it the scariest film ever made.
At a glance
| Release date | December 26, 1973 |
| Director | William Friedkin |
| Writer | William Peter Blatty (screenplay) |
| Based on | The Exorcist (1971 novel) by William Peter Blatty |
| Starring | Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller, Linda Blair |
| Runtime | 122 minutes (original release) |
| Rating | R (MPAA) |
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $193 million in its original run; about $441 million including re-releases |
| Franchise | The Exorcist: five follow-up films, from Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) to The Exorcist: Believer (2023), plus a TV series (2016–2017) |
Plot summary
The film opens in northern Iraq, where the elderly priest Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) unearths a small stone figure of a winged demon at an archaeological dig. In Georgetown, Washington, D.C., the actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is shooting a film and renting a house with her 12-year-old daughter, Regan (Linda Blair). Regan plays with a Ouija board and talks about an imaginary friend she calls “Captain Howdy.” Then her behavior turns frightening, and doctors can find nothing physically wrong with her. Meanwhile, Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a psychiatrist who counsels Georgetown’s priests, is grieving for his mother and losing his faith.
As Regan’s condition worsens and a family friend dies in mysterious circumstances, Chris turns to Karras. He is skeptical about possession but slowly becomes convinced, and the Church sends for an experienced exorcist, Father Merrin, to lead the rite with him.
Spoiler section: the ending
The exorcism is long and brutal. Merrin, who has a heart condition, dies of a heart attack during the ritual. Karras demands that the demon take him instead, and it does, freeing Regan. To stop it from hurting her, Karras throws himself from the bedroom window and falls down the steep stone steps outside, where Father Dyer gives him last rites. Regan recovers with no memory of what happened and leaves Washington with her mother.
Production and behind the scenes
Blatty’s novel was inspired partly by an exorcism performed in 1949 by the Jesuit priest William S. Bowdern. It sold poorly at first, until an appearance by Blatty on The Dick Cavett Show sent it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Warner Bros. first hired Mark Rydell to direct, but Blatty pushed for Friedkin, who then won the Best Picture Oscar for The French Connection. Directors considered before that included Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Stanley Kubrick and John Boorman. The studio objected to casting relative unknowns. Burstyn told Friedkin she was “destined” to play Chris, and Blair, whose experience was mainly modeling, won Regan after screen tests with Burstyn.
Principal photography began on August 14, 1972. Many interiors were shot in New York City, while the exteriors were filmed in Georgetown. The shoot ran twice as long as scheduled and cost almost three times the original budget. Early on, a fire destroyed every part of the house set except Regan’s room, delaying production by six weeks. To show the actors’ breath, Regan’s bedroom set was refrigerated to −20 °F (−29 °C), and it stayed cold enough to film for only about three minutes at a time. Makeup artist Dick Smith created Regan’s possessed look and a life-size dummy for the head-turning effect, which was performed live on set. Friedkin had planned to use a treated version of Blair’s voice for the demon, but he cast the veteran radio actress Mercedes McCambridge instead.
Release and reception
Warner Bros. expected little from a horror film with no major stars that had gone far over budget. It opened the day after Christmas 1973 on just 30 screens without critics’ previews. It grossed $1.9 million in its first week and set records in every theater it played, and there were reports of long lines in the dead of winter. Reviews were mixed. Stanley Kauffmann called it “the scariest film I’ve seen in years,” and Roger Ebert gave it four stars. The Catholic Film Newsletter rated it suitable for adults only, with reservations. Critics also asked why the MPAA had given the film an R rather than an X.
The film received ten Academy Award nominations. It won two: Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay for Blatty. It also won four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. It was the top-grossing R-rated horror film for almost half a century. In the UK, it drew protests from the Christian campaign group the Nationwide Festival of Light, and some local councils banned it. Today it holds a 78% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 83.
Legacy and influence
Cinefantastique wrote that The Exorcist did for horror “what 2001 did for science fiction.” Studios began giving large budgets to horror films such as The Omen and The Amityville Horror, and established stars stopped avoiding the genre. Friedkin’s use of avant-garde concert music encouraged later films, including The Shining, to do the same. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2010. AFI ranked it No. 3 on its list of the most thrilling American films and named Regan the No. 9 screen villain. The sequels began with Exorcist II: The Heretic in 1977, directed by John Boorman with Blair and von Sydow returning. Blatty wrote and directed The Exorcist III (1990), and Burstyn and Blair returned in The Exorcist: Believer in 2023. In 2000, an extended cut subtitled “The Version You’ve Never Seen” was released in theaters.
Trivia
- Merrin’s arrival outside the MacNeil house, silhouetted in a misty streetlight, became the film’s poster image. It was inspired by René Magritte’s painting Empire of Light, and it was von Sydow’s first day on set.
- Talk of an “Exorcist curse” grew out of the production’s accidents and delays. Blatty said Friedkin started the story by blaming “devils” in an interview, and the historian Sarah Crowther has suggested the studio helped spread it as marketing.
- Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells became very popular after the film used it.
- Friedkin reportedly fired blanks without warning on set to get startled reactions from his actors.
- In 2015, Washington, D.C., put a commemorative plaque on the “Exorcist steps” in Georgetown, which had become a tourist attraction.
- Blatty sued the studio and Friedkin before release, demanding equal billing. He settled for the credit “William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.”
Related links
- Regan MacNeil / Pazuzu and Father Merrin (characters)
- Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
- William Friedkin (director)
- William Peter Blatty (author, screenwriter and producer)
- Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow and Jason Miller (cast)
- The Conjuring, a modern possession hit
