The Exorcist

Star Cast

• Ellen Burstyn

  Chris MacNeil

• Max von Sydow

  Father Merrin

• Lee J. Cobb

  Lt. Kinderman

• Kitty Winn

  Sharon

• Jack MacGowran

  Burke Dennings

• Jason Miller

  Father Karras

• Linda Blair

  Regan

• Reverend William O'Malley

  Father Dyer (as Reverend William O'Malley S.J.)

• Barton Heyman

  Dr. Klein

• Peter Masterson

  Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director (as Pete Masterson)

• Rudolf Schündler

  Karl

• Gina Petrushka

  Willi

• Robert Symonds

  Dr. Taney

• Arthur Storch

  Psychiatrist

• Reverend Thomas

  Tom, President of University (as Reverend Thomas Bermingham S.J.)

Goofs

• The cigarette that Chris stomps out in the park is back in her hand a moment later.
• Position of the planchette on the Ouija board.
• Near the end of the picture, Father Karras's stole seems to disappear in Regan's room, but that's because he puts a blue pullover on top of it because it's cold in there.
• Rubber mats are visible on the steps for the famous fall down the staircase scene.
• The white towel around Father Karras's neck.
• When father Karras is in the dorm sitting on the bed smoking a cigarette, the priest takes the cigarette from Karras and lays him down on the bed. When father Karras sits up and grabs the priest's arm, the cigarette is still in Karras's right hand. In the next shot, the cigarette is back with the other priest.
• Father Karras's lighter changes hands just as he is about to light a cigarette in his apartment.
• One viewer claims wires lifting Regan over the bed are "clearly visible" but his idea of "clearly visible" seems generous.
• The infamous stairs that Father Karras plummets down are indeed adjacent to the house, though the facade of a second story was added for the film.
• After the initial session of exorcism, Father Damien Karras unties Regan's wrist from the bed and ties them together. When Father Merrin returns to resume the session Regan's wrists are again tied to the bed.

Taglines

• The Devil Inside
• The Scariest Movie Of All Time Has Returned. In The Version _You've Never Seen Before_.
• Somewhere between science and superstition, there is another world. The world of darkness.
• Nobody expected it, nobody believed it, and nobody could stop it. The one hope, the only hope: THE EXORCIST

Trivias

• Ellen Burstyn agreed to doing the movie only if her character didn't have to say the scripted line: "I believe in the devil!" The producers agreed to eliminate the utterance.
• John Boorman had been offered the chance to direct, but declined because he felt the storyline was "cruel towards children". He did, however, accept the offer to direct the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).
• Mercedes McCambridge had to sue Warner Brothers for credit as the voice of the demon.
• Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine were approached to play the role of Chris MacNeil. Audrey Hepburn was also approached and only agreed to do it if it was filmed in Rome. Anne Bancroft was another choice but she was in her first month of pregnancy and was dropped.
• There were originally many very brief "blink and you'll miss them" cutaway shots in this film, intended to create unease in the viewer. For instance: when the priest is dreaming of his mother coming up out of the subway, there is a brief cutaway of a face (Eileen Dietz), painted black and white, grimacing. There are two other places where this image is displayed: when Regan, lying on the bed, turns to look at Father Merrin and Father Karras, and just after the head-turning scene. The same image is later superimposed over scenes later in the film: the first can be seen on the hood of the stove when Chris MacNeil has just returned home from speaking with the doctors and the lights go out in the kitchen; the next image can be seen in the scene directly following the former, on the inside door of Regan's bedroom when Chris MacNeil goes to check on her after realizing that Sharon wasn't present in the house; the first image is the same as the others: the "painted face"; the second image on the door is an image of the statue that Father Merrin sees in the prologue. All of these shots were removed before theatrical release but have been restored for "The Version You've Never Seen".
• Ellen Burstyn received a permanent spinal injury during filming. In the sequence where she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, a harness jerked her hard away from the bed. She fell on her coccyx and screamed in pain, which was filmed for the movie.
• In the "Version You've Never Seen" a digital coat was added to Chris MacNeil in the scene where Karras and Merrin go to confront the demon for the first time. This was an obvious goof in the original release which showed Chris with and without the coat in different scenes happening around the same time.
• The archaeological dig site seen at the beginning of the movie is the actual site of ancient Nineveh in Hatra, Iraq.
• The first scene to be shot was of a distressed Karras pacing the corridors of Bellevue psychiatric hospital, agitatedly discussing with his uncle his mother's incarceration.
• The refrigerated bedroom set was cooled with four air conditioners and temperatures would plunge to around 30 to 40 below zero. It was so cold that perspiration would freeze on some of the cast and crew. On one occasion the air was saturated with moisture resulting in a thin layer of snow falling on the set before the crew arrived for filming.

Awards

1. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Picture
   Recipient(s): William Peter Blatty
2. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Film Editing
   Recipient(s): John C. Broderick Bud S. Smith Evan A. Lottman Norman Gay
3. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Cinematography
   Recipient(s): Owen Roizman
4. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
   Recipient(s): Bill Malley Jerry Wunderlich
5. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Actress in a Leading Role
   Recipient(s): Ellen Burstyn
6. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Director
   Recipient(s): William Friedkin
7. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Won
   Category: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
   Recipient(s): William Peter Blatty
8. Oscar
   Event: Academy Awards, USA
   Result: Won
   Category: Best Sound
   Recipient(s): Robert Knudson Christopher Newman
9. DGA Award
   Event: Directors Guild of America, USA
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
   Recipient(s): William Friedkin
10. Golden Globe
    Event: Golden Globes, USA
    Result: Won
    Category: Best Director - Motion Picture
    Recipient(s): William Friedkin