By Erin Free
One of the most terrifying and uncompromising horror films ever made, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist – a chilling tale of demonic possession in the American suburbs, and a surprisingly heroic depiction of an effective Catholic Church – still stands horribly tall today, undiminished by the passage of time, and delivering more disturbing horror than practically every genre film that has come after it. Boasting affecting, naturalistic performances from Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller, and a grim brand of realism, The Exorcist is a seamless mix of the supernatural and seventies-era character-based filmmaking. And infamously, the horrors on-screen were matched by those experienced during the making of the film.
“It took us nine months to shoot it,” Ellen Burstyn, told The Guardian in 2000. “I’ve never done any other film that took so long. Six day weeks, twelve hour days, for nine months…it was very stressful, and difficult in so many ways. There were emotional heights that had to be hit, and then sustained.” The horror classic’s director, William Friedkin, is famous for his on-screen grit (best espoused in the likes of The French Connection and Cruising), which he has often achieved by creating a hothouse atmosphere on set, pushing his actors to extremes, and grinding extraordinary performances out of them.
Friedkin’s intense, all-or-nothing style of directing was at its most brutal on The Exorcist. In a bold move, Friedkin had cast a Catholic priest and non-actor, Father William O’Malley, in one of the film’s pivotal roles. At the end of the film, O’Malley has to weep over the body of a dead friend; not getting the emotional response that the scene required, Friedkin took drastic action. He looked at Father O’Malley and asked, “Do you trust me?” When the man-of-the-cloth replied in the affirmative, Friedkin slapped the priest across the face with force, which prompted the appropriate levels of shock, confusion and sadness, all of which were caught on camera.
Friedkin put his female stars, Ellen Burstyn and young actress, Linda Blair, through even more physical pain. To create a sense of in-your-face realism when the two actresses are hurled around by demonic forces, Friedkin had them strapped into harnesses, which would then be jerked around violently by members of the crew. Burstyn and Blair suffered serious back injuries, with their resultant grimaces of agony caught on film and included in the final cut. But as the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, and much of the impact of the film can be credited to William Friedkin’s fine direction. The Exorcist is no mere “horror flick”, bringing into play a formidable arsenal of cinematic techniques to deliver its very powerful visceral shocks. It’s a masterpiece, end of story.
