MOVIE NEWS – There is no doubt that The Exorcist is a milestone in the history of horror films, both in terms of its theme and the extremely high quality of its execution. The story: a 12-year-old girl is possessed by the devil, and two priests undertake to free her from the evil.

Regarding the film’s effect on the audience: during the 1973 screening, there were people who ran out of the cinema, some fainted, and there were also viewers who had the food returned previously consumed. On top of that, it spread that the Roman Catholic Church was outraged by the film’s theme and its presentation.

The extraordinary viewer reactions are well documented, but the claim about the church was not true. The position of the US bishops was that the film was not recommended for a wider audience due to certain scenes, but they welcomed the story’s lofty message that the power of faith can defeat evil. The church leaders were also happy to confirm that the production depicts the exorcism ceremony exactly according to the official Catholic ritual. The exorcism scenes in the film also owed their credibility to the fact that director William Friedkin asked a certain Father Henle as an expert, who participated in a 1949 ceremony where a demon was cast out of a 13-year-old boy.

Then why did the news spread that the church was outraged by the film? Because the marketing people of the producing Warner Bros. studio wanted it that way. They thought it would be good for ticket sales if people heard that the production caused a great scandal among Catholics. The calculation came in, even though they held themselves back. A thorough study of the Exorcist phenomenon was published in the journal History of Human Sciences in 2021, and it states that there was a reminder circulating in the ranks of Warner Bros. that it would be best to throw it into the public consciousness, that the Pope himself was freaked out by the Exorcist. However, it seems that even Warner felt that this was too drastic an idea, so in the end they did not go ahead with it.

The Exorcist really upset some of the viewers, but not because of the religious aspects. Friedkin put a lot of emphasis on the authenticity of the medical scenes – for example: brain catheterization on x-ray, close up – and maybe this is where the true horror comes from, which tested the tolerance of many. Another objection was that in the film a minor becomes the suffering subject of obsession.

Another Exorcist is coming to theaters soon, as the opening piece of a new trilogy. The production does not tell the same story in a modern form, but continues the story. The main character (Leslie Odom Jr.)‘s daughter is possessed by a demon, so the desperate father seeks help. Among other things, he turns to the character of Ellen Burstyn – the actress who played the mother of the possessed little girl Regan in the original 1973 Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Oscar®. Now the same character returns 50 years later.

The shooting has already been completed, the production is in post-production.

(The Exorcist – domestic release: October 12, 2023.)