Debuting on this day in 1973, The Exorcist, a horror film featuring Linda Blair as a girl overtaken by a malevolent spirit, would become known as one of the most terrifying movies ever created.
This film is adapted from William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name, which narrates the last officially sanctioned Catholic exorcism conducted in the United States during the late 1940s.
In the storyline, Blair portrays Regan, a sweet 12-year-old girl who begins to exhibit strange behavior. Concerned, her mother (Ellen Burstyn) reaches out to a priest, who advises that an exorcism be performed. The roles of the two priests who eventually conduct the exorcism in Regan’s Georgetown home are played by Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller.
Directed by William Friedkin, The Exorcist became a massive box-office hit, frightening audiences to the extent that some fainted during showings. Iconic scenes include Regan’s head spinning, her body levitating, and the infamous green bile vomiting. The film garnered 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture, although it lost both honors to The Sting.
The success of The Exorcist led to several sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Exorcist III (1990), which was both written and directed by William Peter Blatty, who had previously won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for the original film, Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) helmed by Renny Harlin, and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005), directed by Paul Schrader.
While the third installment wasn’t too terrible, the original still stands unmatched.
The Exorcist skyrocketed Linda Blair, who began her entertainment career in commercials as a child, to Hollywood fame, earning her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress (which she lost to Tatum O’Neal for Paper Moon). Although she appeared in a series of made-for-TV movies and reprised her role as Regan in Exorcist II: The Heretic, none of her subsequent work reached the same level of commercial success as The Exorcist.
