1 minute read
The Film Was Cursed
from Horror Maven Final
by Yvonne A
By Unethical Directing
The fact that it is one in the canon of cursed films only exacerbates this. The stories are very well known by this point: how the house they were shooting at caught fire and was burned to the ground, except for the set of Regan’s room; how they brought a priest to bless the set as a precaution; the amount of mass hysteria that spread across the audience worldwide; and, as it is commonplace with cursed films, the misfortune that befell the cast and crew. Injuries, deaths, and the deaths of family members. Standard fare for a cursed film, unfortunate events that are connected through the production of a highly controversial horror picture.
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However,injuries don’t just happen, and not all accidents are entirely free from blame. As academics of film and film production, it is our responsibility to demystify these cursed films, and give due credit to those who had to endure it.
Production starts in 1972, and it becomes clear to the cast and crew, as it becomes clear to anyone researching the production of this film, that most of the on-set chaos sits squarely on the shoulders of Friedkin himself. He had gained a reputation for his rather manic and irrational demeanor and his, to say the least, “peculiar” directing methods. Friedkin was known to fire guns or hit actors to elicit a real jump of fright. He was known to be incredibly intense and would do anything to get the take he wanted, including turning the set into an icebox for the camera to catch the fogged breath. There was clearly a method to this madness, but the authenticity of a scene meant more to him than the health and safety of the actors, which resulted in both Blair and Ellen Burstyn, who played Regan’s mother, receiving permanent spine damage due to faulty special effect riggings. The shots that end up in the film are usually the exact ones where the actors are really injured by the riggings and pulleys of early special effects setups, and Friedkin insisting on continuing despite those injuries, or encouraging further ones.
