Produced in 1973, this film was quite controversial at the time of its release due to its “sensitive subject matter.” Before this time, there had been few movies dealing with demonic possession, especially in color with terrifying, state-of-the-art, special effects. Based on the best selling novel by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, the story actually takes place in the Prospect Avenue apartment once inhabited by the author when he was a student at Georgetown, University. Back in 1950, Blatty won $10,000 on the Groucho Marx show “You Bet Your Life”. When Groucho asked him about how he would spend the money, he said he planned to take some time off to “work on a novel.” Some twenty years later, this story was the result.
Starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Jason Miller and Linda Blair, the original shooting of the film was scheduled for eighty-five days, but instead lasted for two hundred and twenty-four! It is unique because of the special effects, which cleverly enhance the power of the demon over Linda Blair’s character (Regan MacNeil). There are few who have seen the movie who could ever forget the scene where her head spins all the way around her neck, her mouth spitting green bile (actually thick pea soup) and uttering obscenities. Her possession is real and captivating.
By some accounts, director Friedkin abused the cast. He was said to have slapped one actor across the face before rolling the camera and insisted that Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn be placed in harnesses while crewmembers yanked them violently about. Ellen Burstyn suffered a permanent spinal injury because of a harness jerking her too hard during the filming of the sequence where her possessed daughter throws her away from the bed. The bedroom set, in order to capture authentic icy breath, had to be refrigerated and was cooled by four air conditioners, which sometimes plunged the temperatures to 30-40 below zero!
The end result is a spine-tingling thriller, like no other.
Have YOU seen this classic film? What do YOU think about it?