Thread by @ATRightMovies

THE EXORCIST was released 51 years ago today. Acclaimed as one of the greatest horror films ever made, and among the most enduring works of director William Friedkin, the power of the making of story compels you to read it...

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In 1961, aspiring writer William Peter Blatty appeared on TV quiz show You Bet Your Life. He won $10k, allowing him to quit his job and write full time. He had 4 novels published and moved into screenwriting, penning The Pink Panther Sequel - A Shot In The Dark - in 1964.

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Returning to literature in 1971, Blatty wrote a horror novel based on the 1949 demonic possession of a 14-year-old-boy in Cottage City, Maryland. It changed his life. Blatty called his book The Exorcist and Warner Bros bought the rights, with Blatty as writer and producer.

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Looking for a younger-but-established director, WB approached Arthur Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, John Boorman and Mike Nicholls about The Exorcist. They all turned the gig down. Boorman said the film was, “cruel towards children.”

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Alfred Hitchcock had turned down the chance to buy the rights and another huge name in Stanley Kubrick was considered at one point but WB eventually turned to The Cowboys (1972) director Mark Rydell, who accepted.

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Years earlier, Blatty had a run in with young filmmaker William Friedkin who called one of Blatty’s scripts “a piece of shit.” Blatty was impressed by Friedkin’s honesty and, as Friedkin had since directed The French Connection, Blatty wanted him for The Exorcist.

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Friedkin was supposed to attend a dinner the night he received The Exorcist novel to read. He became so engrossed that he missed his engagement entirely. And, when Blatty stood his ground with WB, the studio fired Rydell and hired Friedkin to direct.

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Friedkin’s first choice to play the lead role of Chris MacNeil was Audrey Hepburn. Given Hepburn’s huge popularity, the studio was keen too. However, Hepburn was living in Rome at the time and said she would only do it if it was filmed there.

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Anne Bancroft was approached but couldn’t do it as she was pregnant. Jane Fonda reportedly called the script “capitalist bullshit” (she denies this). And Shirley MacLaine (who Blatty had based the character on) said no to make the similar The Possession of Joel Delaney.

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At one point Debbie Reynolds and her teenage daughter Carrie Fisher were strongly considered. Ellen Burstyn though, strongly campaigned for the role, calling up Friedkin to tell him she "had to play this role". It paid off and she won the part of Chris.

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Burstyn would go on to be Oscar-nominated for her performance but it wasn’t all plain sailing. Filming the scene where Chris is thrown across the room by the demon, Burstyn fractured her coccyx. That take – and her real scream - is the one we see in the film.

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Friedkin said that Paul Newman wanted to play Father Karras, but Friedkin didn’t want a big star. He did consider Roy Scheider and, according to Blatty, Gene Hackman was considered too before young actor Stacy Keach was hired.

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Then, Friedkin saw Jason Miller in Broadway play That Championship Season. Miller had studied to be a Jesuit priest and convinced Friedkin to allow him to screen test for the part of Karras. Despite having never been in a film before, Miller was hired, and Keach relieved.

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To prepare for the role, Miller spent three weeks living with the Jesuits again in Georgetown. It did some good as he also ended up Oscar-nominated for his performance.

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In casting 12-year old Regan MacNeil, Friedkin considered Denise Nickerson, famous for playing Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. She pulled out of contention when her parents were troubled by the material.

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Jamie Lee Curtis would later claim her mother, Janet Leigh, received a call from a producer asking if 13-year old Jamie could audition for Regan, to which Leigh said “I don’t think so.” Friedkin said “This is completely untrue.”

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Blair, so her mother - Elinore - turned up at Friedkin’s office asking if Linda could audition. Blair said she had to read the "worst language you could ever imagine" and won the part.

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Blair spent many hours in the makeup chair for her transformation into the possessed Regan. The crew set up a TV nearby so she could watch I Love Lucy and The Flying Nun. Makeup artist Dick Smith later said "Oh how I learned to hate The Flying Nun.”

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Blair's spine was fractured when filming the "It's burning!" scene where Regan's body is bouncing up and down off the bed. The device that was supposed to lift her up and down broke loose, and her back was permanently injured.

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Filming the controversial crucifix scene, Blair had to stab the crucifix into a sponge filled with fake blood. The shots of the crotch area were filmed with Blair’s older stand-in actress Eileen Dietz.

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Friedkin’s plan was for Linda Blair to provide the voice of the demon – Pazuzu – and the sound effects team spent 150 hours electronically modifying Blair’s voice. Friedkin thought it worked in some scenes but lacked power in others so decided to use a voice artist instead.

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Mercedes McCambridge had won an acting Oscar for All The King’s Men in 1949 and, by this time, was “the world’s greatest living radio actress” according to Orson Welles. Friedkin approached her about voicing Pazuzu and she accepted.

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To alter her voice for recording, McCambridge would swallow raw eggs and chain smoke beforehand. She was also bound to a chair with pieces of a torn sheet to get a realistic sound of struggling against restraints. Friedkin said her performance terrified him.

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After the film was released, McCambridge had to sue Warner Bros in order to get credit for her performance. She said when she found out she was uncredited she accidentally got in the wrong car and drove away before realising she’d stolen it.

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The studio wanted Marlon Brando to play Father Merrin – the title character. Friedkin immediately vetoed it, saying that it would become a Brando movie. Friedkin always wanted Max Von Sydow who, 40 years later would say “I still don’t know why he wanted me.”

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Von Sydow was only 44 years old at the time and it took many hours in the chair with makeup artist Dick Smith to age Von Sydow 30 years. Von Sydow’s daily 3 hour regime was achieved with a mix of stipple and liquid latex.

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Karras’ mother was played by Vasiliki Maliaros, who had never acted in a movie before. Her only acting experience was in Greek stage dramas and she was discovered in a restaurant. Friedkin selected her because she looked like his own mother.

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William Peter Blatty has a cameo in the film as a movie producer. We see him (below, right) discussing a scene with Burke Dennings on the set of Chris' film.

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The demon is not named in the film but called Pazuzu. This demon was known in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology as one that brings famine during the dry seasons and locusts during the rainy seasons. He was the king of the demons of the wind.

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Friedkin said he took "the power of Christ compels you" from a tape of an actual exorcism performed at the Vatican, where the phrase was said repeatedly. Friedkin also said he took the sound of the possessed boy from that tape and mixed it into the film.

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The subliminal shots 3 or 4 frame recurring shot we see of the white faced demon are rejected makeup tests for Regan's possible appearance when possessed. It’s the face of Eileen Dietz that we see.

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The effect where words appear in Regan's skin was achieved by making a latex replica of Blair's belly and writing “help me” with cleaning fluid. Dick Smith then heated the blisters to deflate them. The film was run backwards and it looked like words rising from her skin.

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Friedkin originally wanted legendary composer Bernard Herrmann to compose the music. After seeing the film, Hermann said "I might be able to help you with this piece of s***… I'll see if I can come up with something." Fredkin decided he probably wasn’t the right person.

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Friedkin hired another famed composer in Lalo Schifrin to write the music. After scoring the trailer, WB told Friedkin the music was too dramatic and Schifrin was to change. Friedkin didn’t tell Schifrin the feedback and Schifrin said “I’m sure he did it deliberately.”

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At that time, Friedkin was in the office of Atlantic Records owner Ahmet Ertegun, and came across Mike Oldfield's new album Tubular Bells. After hearing the opening part, he decided immediately to use it as the main theme for the movie.

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The sound effects supervisor was Gonzalo Gavira, whose work Friedkin admired on El Topo. The famous sound of Regan’s head turning 360 degrees was made by taking an old leather wallet and twisting it back and forth against the microphone.

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The opening scenes were filmed in Iraq and Friedkin had to take an all-British crew the US had terrible diplomatic relations with Iraq at the time. They were allowed to film at archaeological digs provided they taught some Iraqi filmmakers how to make fake blood.

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At 4am one day, Friedkin received a call from a producer telling him the set was burning down. The story was that a pigeon flew into a lightbox, causing a fire. Production was shut down for two months while the set was rebuilt.

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Friedkin would fire guns on the set to startle actors during scenes. Jason Miller had a huge argument with him when a gun went off near his ear and Von Sydow went looking for the guns. The only actor Friedkin would warn in advance was Linda Blair.

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Father Dyer is played by William O’Malley, a real priest and not an actor. To get a better reaction from him in one scene, Friedkin slapped him across the face. This, apparently, is why he is shaking when he performs the last rites for Father Karras.

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After working 7 days a week for 4 months, Dick Smith quit after Friedkin started screaming at him over an issue with Max von Sydow's hairline, even though Smith warned him it would happen. Smith returned to finish the film but took at least 1 day off per week.

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On one occasion, Friedkin reportedly brought rotten meat and eggs on the set to create the foul smell of the demon. Some crew members of the crew got sick and Ellen Burstyn asked him where he wanted her to throw up if she got sick.

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Friedkin's attention to detail was so strong that one scene showing breakfast being cooked took over a day to shoot because Friedkin insisted on using bacon without preservatives so it didn’t smoke on the screen.

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The ‘Exorcist Curse’ is legendary. Ellen Burstyn said 9 deaths occurred during filming, including actors Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros, Max von Sydow's brother, Linda Blair's grandfather, the night watchman, and the assistant cameraman's baby.

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In the arteriogram scene, one of the assistants is played by Paul Bateson, an x-ray technician at NYU. In 1979, he was convicted of the murder of a film critic and confessed to 6 more murders. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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For the vomiting scenes, Eileen Dietz doubled for Linda Blair. Dick Smith rigged Dietz's face with plexiglass and a nozzle from which pea soup could be shot. The set-up was so complex that Dietz could hardly swallow or close her mouth.

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In filming the vomiting scene, the vomit was mean to hit Jason Miller in the chest, but the plastic tubing misfired, hitting him in the face. His reaction of shock and disgust while wiping away the vomit is genuine, as Miller was furious.

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Contortionist Ann Miles performed spiderwalk scene. Miles was strapped into a harness hung from the ceiling and just barely touched the staircase. Friedkin deleted the scene as, he said, it was too difficult to remove the wires. It was re-added 30 years later.

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Before the days of Steadicam, the shot of Sharon and the doctors running to Regan's required a camera operator to be hoisted up by a pulley. A very complex shot (the Steadicam was invented two years later).

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One of the most famous shots in cinema is when Father Merrin steps out of a cab and stands in front of the MacNeil house. bathed in an eerie glow. Friedkin was inspired by the Rene Magritte’s ‘The Empire of Light’.

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Regan’s bedroom set was refrigerated with air conditioners and temperatures went below subzero. It was so cold that perspiration would freeze on some of the cast and crew. One time it got so cold that in a thin layer of snow fell on the set due to freezing air moisture.

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In editing, Friedkin cut out several scenes he deemed unnecessary. Blatty thought these scenes were key to the film and refused to speak to Friedkin for a while. Years later Friedkin made a "Version You've Never Seen" cut that included those scenes as a favour to Blatty.

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The first trailer, which showed almost nothing but images of the white-faced demon flashing in and out of darkness, was banned in many theaters. It was deemed "too frightening".

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The film was released in the UK with an X rating, and some councils banned it. This led to travel companies creating bus trips where groups of movie fans would be taken to the closest town showing the film. Audience reactions from the time show its reception…

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Many critics were horrified by the film. Pauline Kael said “When [parents] see The Exorcist and watch Linda Blair urinating on the carpet and jabbing at herself with a crucifix, are they envious? Do they feel, 'That might have been my little Susie-famous forever?"

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The film attracted huge religious attention and Blair was accused of glorifying Satan. She was heckled in the street, received death threats and later recalled how “Police were hired to live at my house” as well as WB hiring bodyguards to protect her.

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Made for a budget of $12m, The Exorcist grossed $441.3m – a massive $2.9bn in today’s money. It was the first horror to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

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One week after The Exorcist’s release, Warner Bros called William Friedkin. The movie was smashing box office records and the studio wanted to propose a sequel. “Hell no," Friedkin replied, and hung up the phone.

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