Was ‘The Exorcist’a Cursed Production?

The concept of “Cursed Films” and their productions is one that has been mythologized by social media and several documentaries. When a film has a behindthe-scenes story so disastrous that there had to be some kind of supernatural intervention. Having a fraught production is not exclusive to horror, of course. Across every single genre there’s going to be films with baggage, from something as minor as personal conflicts between actors, to major catastrophes, injuries and even deaths. Even a wholesome family feature like The Wizard of Oz can have a real dark side when you research what the cast had to go through, but when it’s a horror film it almost becomes a selling point. The disasters add to the film’s mystique, that it was just as terrifying to make as it was to watch, a film so scary that it was demonic. The horrific helicopter crash in The Twilight Zone: The Movie; the mysterious deaths and human skeletons in Poltergeist; Cannibal Holocaust is more recognized for its horrific production than the content or quality of the actual film.

The Exorcist is one such film. Directed by William Friedkin and released in 1973, The Exorcist was part of a brand-new chapter of horror films. There are films before it that are still regarded as great, but horror films of the 1970s, chiefly The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Exorcist, are still regarded as truly terrifying. The mass hysteria surrounding The Exorcist lives in infamy, the visceral and physical reactions it caused in those watching it, that no one had seen a film quite like it. The twisted possession of young Regan McNeil, played masterfully by Linda Blair, and the attempts to expel the demon inside of her, is still regarded as one of the most terrifying films of all time, even 49 years later.