When The Exorcist opened in 1973, people were fainting and vomiting in the aisles. The story of an innocent girl possessed by a demon continues to horrify audiences to this day. Terrifying imagery, brilliant acting, an inspired soundtrack, innovative special effects, and an amazing script came together to create this masterpiece of horror. As with many beloved horror classics, such as The Shining, The Exorcist conspiracy theories abound (such as the one about the film being cursed).
What appears on screen isn't the entire story, however. Things were equally as strange and shocking with The Exorcist behind the scenes—just ask the cast. From extreme acting techniques to rumors of a curse, these weird facts about The Exorcist will shock and amaze you. This list goes to show that to make such an impactful film, extreme measures must be taken.
The Movie Is Closely Connected to Several Real Life Deaths
Actor Jack MacGowran and actress Vasiliki Maliaros both died shortly after filming wrapped on The Excorcist. MacGowran of the flu, Maliaros of natural causes. Linda Blair's grandfather and actor Max Von Sydow's brother died during production, and the son of Mercedes McCambridge, who voiced the demon, murdered his wife and two daughters before taking his own life after being accused of fraud in November of 1987.
All told, nine people associated with the movie died violently, mysteriously, or during or immediately after filming.
Linda Blair was 14 year old when The Exorcist hit theaters in the United States, but that didn't stop religious zealots from threatening her life. The threats were so plentiful, Warner Bros hired police bodyguards to live with the Blair family, and follow them everywhere they went, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for six months after the film premiered.
These threats continued for years, in part encouraged by sequels, and Linda's parents were forced to hide her with friends in Vermont, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Director William Friedkin Fired Guns Behind Actors to Startle Them
William Friedkin had no qualms about terrorizing his actors. He routinely fired guns without warning to startle performers into genuine reactions of horror. At one point he was reproached by actor Jason Miller, who said, 'Never do that again. I'm an actor, I don't need all these artificial stimulants.'
Apparently Friedkin never lost touch with his inner assh*le. Check out the documentary Lost Souls, about the making of the cinematic excretion The Island of Dr. Moreau, for more tales of his tyrannical antics.
Friedkin Insisted on Seeing the Actors' Breath, So Regan's Room Was Refrigerated
In order to achieve the effect of seeing the actors's breath, Friedkin had the set for Regan's bedroom refrigerated. Four giant air conditioners were run all night, reaching temperature of -30 or -40 degrees. The air on set got so cold, when cast and crew members sweat, it froze on their skin. At one point it snowed on the set, on account of all the moisture in the air from the cast and crew bodies crammed into the small space.
This was all particularly uncomfortable for Linda Blair, who was wearing nothing more than a thin nightgown. And was a teenager. Which, creepy. Seriously, Friedkin. WTF, man.
Smoke billows from a herb burner filling the Spirit Room with an eerie haze.
A woman stands over Hollywood actress Megan Duffy chanting and shaking a rattle carved with a head inspired by shamanic art, as her client lies motionless on a narrow bed.
The tension in the air is thick as the 'healer' places an ornate dagger on Duffy's wrist and, breathing deep, rapid breathes, summons 'higher beings' from the spirit world, asking them to rid her body of evil demons.
The woman carrying out the 'working' is Rachel Stavis - the world's only non-denominational Exorcist.
And in a television first DailyMailTV was invited to witness Stavis carry out a real-life Hollywood exorcism.
We watched as Stavis worked on actress Duffy - best known for starring alongside Elijah Wood in 2012 horror movie Maniac - ridding her of an evil 'entity' that she believes has attached itself to her.
Sister of Darkness: Rachel Stavis reveals to DailyMailTV how she has performed exorcisms on Hollywood moguls, Oscar winners and politicians and for the first time opens up one of her exorcisms to the cameras
Exorcism: Rachel Stavis, performs an exorcism on actress Megan Duffy in her Studio City home - her first ever televised casting out of evil spirits. She tells DailyMailTV that people may be skeptical but she wants to show how she helps those she feels are possessed
Powers: Rachel Stavis tells DailyMailTV that she has known since she was a child that she could sense the presence of demons and the reasons for them being there, leading to her being able to exorcise them - as she showed on actress Megan Duffy
Symbolism: Rachel Stavis uses a dagger as part of the exorcism, representing her casting out of the demon she says she has found in actress Megan Duffy
Stavis says Duffy has a 'Clive', the name she gives to low-level, low energy entities or demons that have caused the actress to feel negative and down in the dumps of late.
Stavis, dubbed the Sister of Darkness, has gone public with her extraordinary gift with the release of her new book: Sister of Darkness The Chronicles of a Modern Exorcist.
The horror screenwriter and novelist has secretly been an exorcist to the stars for years, helping Hollywood's elite to get rid of their demons.
She has cleansed thousands of tormented people from Hollywood moguls, actors and actresses to stay-at-home moms and politicians.
Stavis, 39, has never advertised her services and works pro bono, first starting her hobby by helping 'possessed' friends and family in her spare time.
But word soon spread around Hollywood about her unusual gift and now she has a waiting list of mostly high profile clients all desperate to be cleansed.
'My clients range all over the place, but I do see a lot of people you'd think of as famous,' she says.
'I see heads of studios, rock icons, Oscar winners, politicians, I see all kinds of people, I also see the girl next door and this grandma and regular people who are suffering as well.'
Most people's knowledge of the subject comes from watching hit 1973 supernatural horror film The Exorcist.
And Stavis says the movie, which sees a teenage girl possessed by a mysterious entity, isn't far from the truth.
'With The Exorcist, there's definite truth and the book is so amazing and it's one of my favorite books of all time,' she admits.
As a child raised in California Stavis quickly discovered she wasn't your typical girl.
She began to see 'monsters' floating around her bedroom or attached to other children.
'I realized very quickly I could see something other people couldn't,' she tells DailyMailTV in an exclusive interview.
'I tried to ignore it, I didn't feel like it was a gift at all, it was pretty scary and horrible.
Close to the truth: Stavis calls The Exorcist her favorite book and says the movie version is close to how she sees the world. The 1973 classic was adapted from William Peter Blatty's novel published two years before and saw Max von Sydow play Fr Lankester Merrin as he battled the demons who posessed Regan MacNeil, played by Linda Blair
understanding: 'With The Exorcist, there's definite truth,' Stavis tells DailyMailTV. She classified demons by the scale of their ambition and says that like The Exorcist portrays, demons attach themselves to people to 'feed'. 'They're gonna feed until they can't,' she says
'I learned pretty quickly that other people didn't have it because every time I tried to talk about it people were like, 'what, that's crazy, no, we don't talk about it'.
'So I didn't talk about it, I kept it hidden and went on with my life, became a writer and tried to live normally.'
But as she grew older a series of events in adulthood forced Stavis to acknowledge her unique ability and embrace her power to heal.
Since then, she has dedicated her life to helping others cast off the evil forces she says feed off of us.
'I see manifestations of entities, sometimes they have a face, sometimes they don't,' she explains.
'When I was a child I called them monsters..they still are monsters, these are things that have never existed as human beings.
'But there was no definitive guide book for me growing up so I had to create one.'
Stavis has named and classified all the demons she encounters from the most common and smallest of entities she calls 'Clives' - named because they look like drawings by artist Clive Barker - to the more dangerous 'wraiths' that she says cause night terrors and physical injury and 'roam-walkers' that can shift from person to person.
'I don't know if I can ever explain to people exactly how this works, how I can see things and how that translates,' Stavis says of her talent.
'I do my best to be down to earth, I'm definitely not new agey, out there, that's just not who I am, I'm not all peace and light.
'It is a weird juxtaposition of living, I'm a writer, I'm going through my life trying to have a sense of normalcy trying not to see these weird things, but you have to realize I've never not seen these things. If it all stopped one day that would freak me out, for me this is normal.'
Organized religions like the Catholic Church have a very specific set of guidelines about demonic possession and exorcisms, which the Vatican updated in 1999, but the subject has remained hugely controversial.
Afflicted: Megan Duffy turned to Rachel Stavis for a second time and allowed DailyMailTV to witness their encounter. 'It was really weird I just couldn't stop my teeth from chattering and I was shivering. It felt joyful. It was weird,' Duffy said
Cured? When Duffy opened her eyes she seemed drowsy and told DailyMailTV the experience - her second exorcism - felt 'strange'
Her view is that, like The Exorcist portrays, demons attach themselves to people to 'feed'.
'They're gonna feed until they can't,' she says. 'Most entities are looking to survive and this is what they survive on, low frequency energies they get from people. Who knows why anything exists the way it does.'
But the exorcist says the more 'malevolent' entities like the 'movie style' entities are looking for big targets, 'world changers'.
'Those types of entities are rare and they are looking for big game changers in the world,' she says. 'Not to be clichéd but this war between good and evil does go on, you see it every day. This is the type of entity is trying to tip the scales into darkness.'
Stavis' $1.2million house in the hills of Studio City, Los Angeles seems specially built for exorcisms.
The property has ornate stained glass windows, chunky medieval style doors and a Spirit Room filled with an eclectic collection of art and memorabilia.
But surprisingly Stavis hasn't lived in the house for years, in fact she only moved in two months ago.
In the Spirit Room actress Duffy is waiting patiently for her 'working'.
Stavis insists we all take off our shoes and no metal, jewelry, or cell phones are allowed.
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The exorcist lights herbs and the air fills with an oily smoke that envelopes its occupants and after a while burns the throat.
Stavis closes her eyes and calls in her 'master teachers', before asking the 'higher beings' to enter the room.
Addressing them directly she said: 'I ask you to send your energy through the body and spirit, moving that energy through the body and spirit, identifying any negative entities that do not belong and do not serve and pushing them up and out.'
Half way through the 25 minute session Duffy seems overcome with emotion and suddenly lets out an almost surreal giggle.
Stavis walks slowly around Duffy shaking a rainstick and brandishing an ornate dagger against her wrist.
The whole thing is intense but there's no Hollywood drama.
No one throws up, the lights don't flicker, the doors don't slam and nothing falls off the walls.
Towards the end Stavis loudly chimes a bell over and over again, the chimes getting faster, until it suddenly stops. A Tibetan gong signals the end.
When Duffy opens her eyes she seems drowsy and said the experience - her second exorcism - felt 'strange'.
Samsung 36 inch induction range. Tool of the trade: During the exorcism, Stavis shakes a rattle whose head is inspired by shamanic tradition. She says it and other noise makers agitate the energy in the room as part of the process of casting out the entities which have taken hold of the people who come to her
Spiritual: Rachel Stavis says she is agnostic but acknowledges the power of symbols from religious and spiritual traditions
Egyptian symbolism: Among the many spiritual symbols in Rachel Stavis' home in Studio City are those of the gods worshiped in ancient Egypt
'It was really weird I just couldn't stop my teeth from chattering and I was shivering. It felt joyful. It was weird,' she explained.
For Stavis exorcism can be exhausting.
'It's very draining, it's hard on the body believe it or not, you get aches and pains, there's been times after the more extreme exorcisms that I can't move for days afterwards,' she says.
ME AND MY EXORCISM
Megan Duffy met Rachel Stavis at a bar for a mutual friend's birthday party and they started talking.
'At some point we went outside and I was a glass and half of wine in and she said, 'I don't want to alarm you but you have an entity that's attached itself to you and it's holding you back from the things you want to do'.
'At first I thought she was joking, it was a lot of friends who work in the horror film industry. But she told me more about what she did and offered to do a session with me.
'I was like, 'is my head gonna spin, am I gonna puke green, what's going to happen?'
'I started becoming more intrigued and after about two years of becoming friends I said okay Rachel I'll take you up on it.
'At the time I had a lot of jobs that almost went my way but didn't which made me sad, I also had a couple of jerks I dated and some friends who were bringing me down and I didn't quite know how to fix it. So I thought why not and I thought it would be a cool being able to tell the story I had an exorcism.'
Duffy, 38, who was raised a Roman Catholic, said the experience wasn't what she expected and she was initially 'scared' of what might happen.
But after leaving Stavis' Spirit Room she felt amazing, so much so she decided to come back for a second session three months later.
'I started feeling there was a darkness trying to get hold of me again and I was fighting it,' she said. 'I believe the entity has now left me but there's always a chance it will come back.'
Duffy added: 'I am a believer, absolutely, I guess who knows for sure whether it's a literal spirit or a placebo, I just know that what Rachel did made me feel whole and complete and empowered and strong and I started attracting the things I wanted in my life almost immediately, it worked.'
A lot of Stavis' clients see her just once, however.
And she says for a lot of people coming to see her is the last resort.
'I've even had women come to see me who cannot conceive, they've tried everything and will call me a month later and say they're pregnant, people who have been addicted and have tried everything to quit who come once and never touch it [drugs] again, that's not a placebo, I can see that, they can feel that,' she says.
Stavis often sees clients who think they are possessed when they're not.
'If you're suffering with mental illness there's certainly a chance you could also have attachment, it's not mutually exclusive, but then there are people who think they're possessed when they're not,' she says.
As for her most extreme experiences she says they involve a specific type of entity which most people would consider the devil or the demon they see in movies like The Exorcist.
'I call it a movie style entity, I call it a 'roam-walker' in my book, because of the way it moves between the realms, if you will, is very easy, it is a very malevolent, very intelligent being.
'Those are the ones where the possession is very serious, you can see cuts and bruises on the body, it can move from person to person, which other entities cannot do.
'Those are the ones that are dangerous and scary. People don't realize that they can also take over buildings, which they do, they overtake spaces.
'When you are going through to exorcise the space and you have an entity essentially owning the space, that can be very dangerous, things can come off walls, things can fall on you. If you have people with you they can get sick, they can get harmed.
'There is another entity that takes over buildings as well, almost as malevolent as a roam walker, but not quite. That's called a Collector, what that does is it takes over a space where trauma has happened, where people have died in horrible ways.
'It collects the deceased people who have not moved on from that space in order to drain the living, to scare the living, if you will.'
Stavis recalls encountering a Collector in the basement of a former slaughterhouse in LA which is now used as a movie studio.
Movie bosses called her in after workers seemed to be getting hurt on set all the time, especially in the basement.
I've had skeptics come in who won't tell me anything about what's wrong with them and they come in expecting nothing, expecting BS, and those are the ones that sit up crying and say I don't know what just happened to me, I feel like a totally different human being now, and they leave joyous
Stavis says she went down to the basement in the middle of the night and water started dripping out of disused pipes.
In another room in the maze like 13,000 sq ft basement, utility cords that had been innocuous one minute were suddenly shaped like a noose the next.
Then she discovered something even more chilling.
'We went to another room and there was no pipes, no nothing, but the room was full of water, water was coming down the walls, we had to remove the entity.'
Stavis is aware that many skeptics don't believe in her 'gift' and she says being a woman and not religious doesn't help her cause.
'Naturally people are going to be skeptical about the whole thing, this is a very controversial subject, people feel very strongly, their opinions are very strong,' she says.
'But I've had skeptics come in who won't tell me anything about what's wrong with them and they come in expecting nothing, expecting BS, and those are the ones that sit up crying and say I don't know what just happened to me, I feel like a totally different human being now, and they leave joyous.'
However, convincing the doubters of her abilities isn't high on Stavis' agenda.
'We're afraid of these things, we don't want to change our world view, we don't want to look at this differently, because if this does exist in some way, that can be scary, but in a way too, that's also empowering.
'Once you know and understand it there are ways you can help yourself..so why not.
'You don't have to see things my way, you don't have to agree with it, but it's helping people. That's all that matters to me.'
As for any personal life Stavis says: 'I honestly don't have time for boyfriends I'm too busy and with what I do it is difficult.
'But at least now it's out there, they're gonna know going in, if somebody wants to ask me out, they're gonna be like 'this chick is weird'.'
Stavis admits that she's had several marriage proposals from people who have contacted her online, but doesn't intend to set up a Tinder profile any time soon.
She added: 'Being an exorcist has its downfalls but it's the most rewarding thing I do, because I believe it is my calling, why do I have this, there's a reason, there's a destiny involved.
'I don't charge people, this is not my job, I write, that's what I've done for years for a living, but I find this more rewarding in a lot of ways because I want to help people, that's what keeps me going.'
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In 1973, Warner Bros. and Hoya Productions introduced the world to what is still referred to by many today as one of the scariest horror films to ever hit the silver screen. Granted, many of the films’ special effects are laughable in the modern age of technology, but for the time,The Exorcist was a truly terrifying motion picture.
Today, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, based on William Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name, has become a household name, sparking five succeeding prequels and/or sequels spanning from 1977 to 2005. Microsoft excel 2016 shortcuts cheat sheet. But what happened to the original cast?
From Linda Blair’s Regan to Mercedes McCambridge’s voice of the demon, the film’s actors have had variable outcomes post-Exorcist.
Here is where the cast of The Exorcist is now.
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10 Kitty Winn (Sharon Spencer)
Sharon Spencer, a sort of tutor for Regan (Linda Blair) and close friend and assistant to her mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), is a fairly soft-spoken woman, and though a minor character, the audience can see the toll Regan’s possession takes on the woman, as she’s developed close, emotional ties with the MacNeil family.
The part is played by Kitty Winn, at the time a 29-year-old actress who continued with the franchise by playing the same character in the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), which was absolutely dismantled by most critics. Now 71-years-old, Winn is long retired, her last film, Mirrors, released in 1978.
9 Max von Sydow (Father Merrin)
An experienced, elderly priest and archeologist, Father Merrin has experienced evil before, and understands it better than anyone. He’s performed exorcists before, which is why it comes as no surprise when he’s recruited to perform yet another on a young girl.
Max von Sydow is now an 86-year-old man, though his acting career is very much alive. Not only has he since appeared in such films as Footloose (1979), Shutter Island (2010) and a little film known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), but he’s also going to be the newest cast member in season 6 of Game of Thrones as the Three-Eyed Raven.
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8 Jason Miller (Father Karras)
A man whose faith has been shaken, Father Karras is still mourning the loss of his mother, a traumatic event that has visibly altered Karras’ beliefs. However, when he agrees to see Regan and sees the reality of the possession, he takes the case, battling both the evil inside the young girl as well as his own skeletons.
Jason Miller was 34-years-old at the time The Exorcist was released, and the playwright/actor went on to act in several films including Toy Soldiers (1984) and Rudy (1993) following the success of The Exorcist. His last film, Finding Home, was released in 2003. On May 13, 2001, Miller died of a heart attack at his home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was 62-years-old.
7 Mercedes McCambridge (Voice of the Demon)
Though the part consisted only of voiceover work (once it was determined that simply altering the voice of Linda Blair wasn’t nearly as frightening as it needed to be), Mercedes McCambridge’s role in The Exorcist has led her to cult status, as the voice is often credited by fans as one of the many reasons the film was so creepy. Following the film, McCambride ended up taking Warner Bros. to court because she was uncredited for her role as the voice of the demon.
In the early '80s, she retired from film, her last being Echoes in 1982. However, there is a chance one of the lost films of Orson Welles, The Other Side of the Wind (shot between 1970 and 1976) will finally come to fruition this year, bringing McCambridge back to the big screen. Unfortunately, she won’t be able to see the finished product, as McCambridge passed away on March 2, 2004 of natural causes.
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6 Vasiliki Maliaros (Father Karras’ Mother)
The deceased mother of Father Karras appears several times in the film, and plays an integral part of his story, as she is supposedly the reason he has lost his faith by the time Chris MacNeil finds him. She appears several times in the memory of Father Karras as well as in the demon’s mocking.
The actress that plays her, Vasiliki Maliaros, was a Greek woman spotted by Friedkin in a Greek restaurant in NYC. Prior to this role, she had no acting experience whatsoever, and this film was her only role. Before the film was released, on February 9, 1973, Maliaros died at 89-years-old of natural causes.
5 Jack MacGowran (Burke Dennings)
Burke Dennings is the eccentric film director working with actress Chris MacNeil on their current project at the opening of The Exorcist. Dennings appears to be very flirty with Chris throughout the film, something touched upon in a conversation between Regan and Chris. When he’s thrown from a window while Regan’s possessed, police enter the picture to investigate a potential homicide.
Jack MacGowran has 75 credits as an actor, his latest film being The Exorcist. However, MacGowran would never see it hit theaters. On January 30, 1973, MacGowran died of complications from influenza, which he’d contracted while in London during a flu epidemic.
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4 Barton Heyman (Dr. Klein)
Dr. Klein, a very small role in the film, actually puts the argument of the plot into words: is this a possession, or a psychological phenomenon? Because possessions are religiously based, they aren’t widely accepted as a reality, something the film takes into consideration. The film takes a stance on this imbalance, pitting science and the supernatural against one another in the form of doctors and priests.
Dr. Klein is played by Barton Heyman, who was a character actor for about thirty years. He worked in many roles from TV shows to film to stage acting, his last roles in Dead Man Walking (1995) starring Sean Penn and Rescuing Desire (1996). On May 15, 1996, Heyman passed away due to heart failure at 59-years-old.
3 Lee J. Cobb (Lt. William Kinderman)
Lt. Kinderman is another character in The Exorcist that’s more grounded in reality than he is in the supernatural. He’s a cunning, assertive cop that believes there are ties from the MacNeil family to the desecration at the church as well as to the death of beloved director, Burke Dennings. He believes Dennings’ death is a homicide. His suspect: young Regan.
Lee J. Cobb was a character actor following WWII. He acted in such stage productions as 1949’s Death of a Salesman and King Lear in 1968. He also acted in films such as Exodus (1960) and Clint Eastwood’s Coogan’s Bluff (1968). Unfortunately, on February 11, 1976, Cobb died of a heart attack. He was 64-years-old.
2 Ellen Burstyn (Chris MacNeil)
Chris MacNeil is an actress that has moved herself and her daughter to Washington D.C. for her latest role. She is a short-tempered, driven woman that would do anything to help her daughter. So when things begin to go wrong for young Regan, Chris consults everyone in her power to help make things right.
Ellen Burstyn has had a successful film career, moving from her humble television beginnings to the Oscar winning actress she is today. Her performance in The Exorcist earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress as well, though she ultimately won the award for her performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974). Recently, Burstyn appeared in the TV movie Flowers in the Attic (2014) as well as two huge films known as Interstellar (2014) and The Age of Adaline (2015). Burstyn is still acting today at 83-years-old.
1 Linda Blair (Regan MacNeil)
Regan is the centerfold of the film, an innocent and sweet 12-year-old girl who becomes increasingly aggressive, demonstrating truly uncharacteristic qualities that send her friends and family for a loop. Eventually, the clergy is sought after, as the only reasonable explanation for this sudden change is possession.
Jack Macgowran
The star of the film herself, Linda Blair became an iconic actor as a child, skyrocketing to fame following her role as Regan. While no role would ever outshine the child possessed by a demon, Blair continues to act today. However, her main focus now is on her love for animals. She has an organization known as the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, which works to rehabilitate abused, neglected and abandoned animals.