MOVIE NEWS – The Oscar-winning horror classic The Exorcist was shown fifty years ago, a milestone in the history of horror films. The Exorcist: The Believer, the continuation of the classic story, will be released in cinemas in the autumn, and also, according to the creators’ intention, the beginning of a trilogy. Nat Segaloff’s book, The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear, was published at the right time, which, thanks to the author’s extremely thorough research, reveals the behind-the-scenes secrets of the making of the film and traces its history to the present day.

William Friedkin’s 1973 film was based on William Peter Blatty’s 1971 bestseller, and due to the enormous success of the book, shocking rumors about Blatty were circulating long before the film. According to one, he was so skilled in the occult sciences because he regularly held black masses in the basement of his house among his friends in honor of Satan. The other rumor was that she was born because her daughter was born possessed and without eyes. (It is not difficult to detect here the influence of Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic, the Oscar-winning Rosemary’s Child, where the son of Satan inherits his father’s evil eyes.)

The book also reveals that the commissioned composer fell out with the director after Friedkin asked Bernard Herrmann, who scored Golden Citizen and Psycho, to compose a better score for him than for Golden Citizen (considered one of the ten most important works in film history). Herrmann flew from England to America and watched the first, raw version of The Exorcist. then he shook his head. I would have liked to make a better film than The Golden Citizen, he said and flew home.

It is well known that everyone hated the 1977 sequel to The Exorcist directed by John Boorman. But there was one exception: Martin Scorsese, according to Segaloff’s book. One of the greatest filmmakers of our time justified his opinion by saying that he was deeply affected by the subject because of his Catholic guilt, and although he liked the first film, he liked Eret even more because it plowed a new furrow into his guilt.

One of the special features of the new exorcist film is that Ellen Burstyn, who won an Oscar for her lead role in the original work, is also in it. The actress, who turned 91 this year, told Segaloff that she was terribly surprised when director David Gordon Green approached her because he offered her so much gas, which was more than she had earned in her entire life. Since the actress didn’t feel much like it, she said no, and Green casually doubled the offer. Burstyn also stipulated that the production should support the activities of the Actors Studio master’s program, and this was no obstacle either.

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