The Exorcist

Four years before Star Wars, and two before Jaws, came the story of a single mother in Washington, D.C., fighting to save her little girl from the devil, and it created its own cultural phenomenon. People waited in line for six or seven hours to see it, fainted in the cinemas, became physically ill, wept, and had to leave.

Based on the bestselling book by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist was groundbreaking in many ways.

It exposed people around the world to the question of evil in a new and terrifying way. The inclusion of the Catholic church, and actual Jesuit priests, in the production also set a precedent.

It changed cinema. It legitimized horror, becoming more than just a medium to scare people, but to actually make them think, and question their own faith, or lack thereof.

Based on the real story of the exorcism of a fourteen-year-old boy in 1949, The Exorcist was a horror film without major stars, that had a tumultuous production, a director who legitimately scared his cast and crew, that had gone well over budget, and was allegedly cursed.

This is the story of how The Exorcist became one of the rare horror movies that became part of the national conversation and consciousness.

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