Cursed Films (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Exorcist - full transcript
The release of The Exorcist was surrounded by controversy, as reports of fainting theatre-goers and mysterious on-set accidents raised questions as to whether or not the film itself was evil.
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- The Exorcist is a
tremendously disturbing film
even today.
To see this angelic-looking
young girl
transformed into this
canker-sored,
vomit-spewing...
[Splattering]
Profane...
- Your mother sucks cocks
in hell!
- Violent...
[Loud gasp, hard thud]
Coarsely sexual...
- Let Jesus fuck you!
- ...monstrosity on the screen
is extremely,
extremely unsettling.
All the more so
when it premiered
more than a generation ago.
- The Exorcist was sold on
controversy from day one.
Certainly, you're not going
to shy away
from that kind of marketing.
And it lends itself well
to the idea of a curse.
- Thinking of "The Exorcist"
as cursed
adds to the legacy of the film.
If you're a fan of horror,
you're looking for these
connections.
It's logical to look at some
of the truly wild things
that happened on the set
and to people involved
with the production
and say, this thing was cursed.
♪♪♪
- There was a moment during
production
when their sets caught fire.
It happened at night,
no one was injured,
but most of their sets
were consumed.
Regan's bedroom was
mysteriously undamaged.
- I think it was after that
that they brought in a Jesuit
Priest to bless the set.
There had been a number
of people
either related to cast members,
or people who had been
in the film,
or working on the production,
who had died.
Linda Blair's grandfather died.
Two actors who were
in the film died.
- Max von Sydow's brother dies
on the first day of filming.
- A special effects expert,
who was supposed to keep
the set cool, died.
♪♪♪
- There was all of this
information
about the movie being cursed.
We have a couple different
things to address.
Number one:
Billy's a genius.
When you work with somebody
that's a genius,
you're gonna go for a ride,
let me tell you.
I'm laced into this piece
of equipment.
It is literally manipulated
by men.
In this particular take,
the lacing came loose.
I am... having my back pounded.
I mean, I'm crying,
I'm screaming.
They think I'm acting up
a storm.
It fractured my lower spine.
No, they didn't send me
to a doctor.
It is the footage
that's in the movie.
- William Friedkin is famously
a two-fisted director.
He would fire a gun off
behind somebody
to get them to jump if
he needed them to do that.
- I mean, sometimes the things
he did were,
were, were... pretty harsh.
What would happen
if I shoot the gun?
[Gunshot pops]
So if I'd be in the bed
and he's gonna shoot a gun,
he has to tell me because I'm
not allowed to do that, right?
I can't jum--
the devil can't jump.
[Gun fires, screaming]
- That's done during
the first time
they see Regan looking like
the demon.
And I played that scene,
so I was there.
Yeah, I was originally hired
'cause they felt Linda Blair
was too young to do...
what turned out to be
the masturbation scene.
But then I ended up doing
the masturbation scene,
the vomiting scene,
the levitation scene,
and I played Pazuzu's face.
So it was a very,
very long movie.
It was kind of like, uh,
who do you have to fuck to get
off this movie? [Chuckles]
[Shrill scream,
glass shattering]
- In every movie,
if it has anything to do
with action and things,
somebody is always gonna
get hurt.
- When Regan slaps Chris across
the room,
that was achieved by putting
Ellen Burstyn in a harness.
[Loud gasp, hard slap]
The first take,
it wasn't particularly brutal
enough for Friedkin,
so he had a word
with the gentleman
on the other end of the rope
to... give it to her -
yank a little extra hard
on Ellen Burstyn's harness
to get her to fly across
the room as needed -
uh, resulting in Ellen Burstyn
being injured from that scene.
And that's the shot
that's in the film.
- It's an agreement actors
and directors
and productions make
to get a performance
for something that entertains
millions across the world.
And what's it for? For you.
- Certainly, if you're
marketing that film,
you're going to tacitly
embrace such stories.
- That's something that...
that's been happening since
Hitchcock or before.
That's him building up
hysteria around Psycho;
that you can't come into
the film late,
and people were getting sick.
So, you see, Friedkin
and the PR folks, uh,
who were handling "The Exorcist"
when that came out, helped
people buy into the hysteria
of what the curse behind
this movie is.
And it also sold a lot
of tickets.
- A few months ago, I was
listening to an old podcast
and they had mentioned that
there was an actual murderer
who was in "The Exorcist".
There had always been,
you know the, the stories
about the curse of
"The Exorcist",
but this one... just seemed
to be left out.
So it fascinated me
and I set out writing
a report for Esquire.
In 1972, William Friedkin
went to the...
NYU radiology department
and watched them perform
a procedure
that was essentially taking
pictures
of the blood vessels
in somebody's brain.
It looked pretty gruesome
and he saw that, and, you know,
thought that it was perfect
for his horror movie.
During my research, I spoke
with a number of people
who were involved
in filming that scene.
One of them was Barton Lane
who's actually the man in the
film performing the procedure.
- Okay, you're gonna feel
some pressure here.
Now don't move.
- I happened to be doing
a procedure one day
when the Chief of my department
came by with a visitor.
- [Whimpering]
- At the end of the procedure,
I was introduced to,
uh, Mr. Friedkin,
and they said,
"We're gonna be making a movie
here in a few months,"
and, uh, my Chairman said,
"Would you like to be in it?"
I said, "Yes."
So here are some photographs
that were taken
during the filming of
the angiography sequence.
This first one
is Mr. Friedkin and myself
and the make-up artist.
- Friedkin wanted everybody
who...
was performing that procedure,
that day
to be in his movie,
and one of them included
a young technician
named Paul Bateson,
and so he ends up being
in the film.
- Paul was the Chief neuro
radiology technologist.
I worked with him on an almost
daily basis for four years.
- Regan, I'm just gonna move
you down on the table, okay?
- I would characterize him
as being quiet,
very nice to the patients.
- September 14th, 1977,
the body of a variety reporter
named, Addison Verrill,
was found in his West Village
apartment.
One Village Voice reporter
named, Arthur Bell,
noted that this looked like
an assailant
that the victim knew.
And Arthur Bell gets a phone
call from an anonymous person
who says...
"I killed Addison Verrill."
This caller explained that
he wasn't a psychopath;
that he was an alcoholic
and that this was a crime
of passion,
and that he and Verrill
had sex and did drugs
until early in the morning,
and then gone back
to Verrill's apartment
where he hit him over
the head with a pan
and then stabbed him
in the chest.
He also had mentioned that
if he gets caught
he would never be able
to practice again.
The phone call eventually
led police to Paul Bateson.
When they got to Paul's
apartment,
he told police,
"I know why you're here."
And they took him into custody
where he eventually confessed
to the, the crime.
It makes sense
for people to connect
this larger real-life horror
to this curse of "The Exorcist";
that these horrors are real,
evil is real.
- In 1972, Pope Paul VI
issued a proclamation
lamenting the loss
of belief in evil
as a real entity,
as a real metaphysical entity,
and in the devil
as a real entity.
And then it's after that
that you get "The Exorcist",
which is trying to prove
the existence of, of the devil.
"The Exorcist" starts actually
in Mesopotamia
trying to show you
that evil goes way back.
Not only goes way back,
but it can still intrude
into a family
and disrupt their whole life.
- To say that "The Exorcist"
is a cursed film
taps into the Catholicism
of the people watching it.
It, it taps into the imagery
in the film
of the guy digging up an idol
and unleashing this demon.
[Traffic rumbles]
- The people who made
"The Exorcist"
definitely did their research.
The fact that the movie opens
up with this excavation
at the site of Hatra
in Northern Iraq,
is very much accurate
because Pazuzu does come
from Northern Iraq.
- Pazuzu turned out to be
the icon of the entire movie.
'Cause the way they did it -
they like to call it subliminal,
but it's not subliminal
'cause subliminal means
that you don't see it,
but it certainly was that flash.
And people said,
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"You see that face?"
"What face?"
"The face!"
- This is made out of bronze,
so it's cast metal.
You might wear this if you
were, say, a pregnant woman,
um, or you might put it as
an amulet on a newborn baby
because Pazuzu's enemy Lamashtu,
um, was especially interested
in pregnant women and in babies.
That giant statue of Pazuzu,
while it looks great
and it's terrifying,
it's much bigger than any
images of Pazuzu
that we know.
Usually he's a small amulet
and it seems like a demon
with his power
would be dangerous to make
on a large scale.
♪♪♪
- How does horror treat
what is probably
the single most important
meaning making system
that human beings
have evolved over time?
Which is to say,
how does it treat religion?
Horror is a really,
really powerful artifact
that speaks clearly and directly
to the fact that we are
still concerned
with really important questions.
Which is why I call horror and
religion cultural siblings.
You don't get horror
building on religion,
so much as they are dealing
With exactly the same questions:
Where do we go when we die?
How did we get here?
Does life have any meaning?
Is there a God?
Why do we suffer?
Religions claim to have
answered those questions,
but the answers are never
really very satisfactory
for a very long time.
- I have been working on
a book project
on how horror is used
as a missionary tool.
- I do not believe.
So, to recap, four words
necessary to destroy
the forces of the supernatural,
witchcraft,
superstition, psychic,
et cetera, et cetera.
- There is a subgenre
of horror films
where a character
who's a skeptic
confronts evidence
of the supernatural.
- ...and can only exist in
an atmosphere of belief.
Belief is final.
- And in the process,
the skeptic becomes a believer.
For example,
"Night of the Demon,"
from 1957, I believe.
- Oh, but, uh,
if I could make my point,
I could persuade you.
- I'm not open to persuasion.
- But a scientist should have
an open mind.
- That's what investigations
are for.
- All of those films,
uh, are meant to show you
that evil does exist.
At the end, for example,
of "The Exorcist",
you have a message
that the devil exists
and that the church
and Christianity
is the answer to that.
- The good guys in this movie
were not the rationalists,
the doctors,
the psychiatrists,
the sophisticated partygoers,
but they were the figures
of faith
who seemed to have the answers
and were willing to make
the sacrifices.
- A lot of the development
in horror film
has come as a reaction
to the fear of the loss
of belief in God
and the fear of the loss
of belief in the devil.
Horror films,
at least some of them,
are there to counteract
the secularization
that, uh, is perceived
to be taking place.
- As a matter of fact,
the Pope himself
is being quoted as part of
the film's publicity campaign.
Demol-- Demonology, he said,
is an important part
of Catholic doctrine
that really ought to be
studied again.
- I've heard an interview
with Blatty,
the author of "The Exorcist",
who said he heard Billy Graham
say that the devil,
it's in the celluloid
film itself.
- There were stories that
projecting the film
would invite demons into
your theater.
That's an urban legend
happening right in front of you
for the movie that you've got
in release.
There's a trailer that had
to be pulled
because it was potentially
seizure-inducing.
They were leaning very hard
into the controversial nature
and the illicit and the taboo.
You're gonna be fucked up
if you watch this movie.
- David Sheehan is with us
tonight to talk about a movie
that has people passing out.
- The manager of The National
Theater in Westwood
says that there indeed are
at least a dozen people
who faint or become ill
during every showing.
- I fainted like ten minutes
after the...
first beginning of the movie.
- I passed out.
- You did?
- In about the first
half hour, yeah.
- "The Exorcist" was no longer
just the most successful
motion picture in film history,
but had become an unquestioned
sociological phenomenon.
- What made "The Exorcist"
different,
it had the hook of the true
story.
Billy Friedkin makes
"The Exorcist"
based on this true story
that William Peter Blatty
wrote about.
People who are Catholic
know that there is...
a thing called exorcism
in the church.
They may not know anybody
who's been a part of it,
but they at least know that
it's a part of Catholic culture.
- Some psychiatrists are
calling "The Exorcist"
a dangerous movie
because it does give credibility
to a variety of superstitions,
including the devil myth
and the power of ritual.
- There has been
a significant uptick
of exorcisms recently,
and this is a fact.
Some of that might be fueled
by the great popularity
of possession-based
horror movies,
all of which are sort of twigs
growing off the tree
of "The Exorcist".
There are people in our society
who never would have heard
of exorcism,
who never would have heard
of possession,
were it not for "The Exorcist".
- When we look at the movie
called "The Exorcist",
what, to me, that movie did
was bring it on the big screen,
the reality that an exorcism
can and will be successful
if done correctly.
An exorcism can look
frightening,
but does not need to be.
It's not dangerous
as long as it is done
biblically.
My name is Vincent Bauhaus
and I am an exorcist.
[Knocking]
- Hi, how are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
- Fine. Welcome back.
- Good to see you again.
- You too. How are you?
- I'm very well.
The people that we are going
to meet are people
that have been the victim
of attack,
of witchcraft.
- Someone somewhere,
he's monitoring me.
I don't know who,
I don't know where.
They are always there
attacking me.
- Mhmm.
- So I don't know what it is,
and now I'm feeling
they are inside of me.
- Yeah.
- Like a python spirit is there.
- And then very interestingly,
we're gonna see a gentleman
who has played
with a Ouija Board
on a daily basis
for four years.
- Hey, where'd this come from?
- I started messing around
with a Ouija Board more
and even worshipping
and calling upon the devil.
- Oh, you was worshipping
the devil?
- Well, basically,
it got to that point
because I felt like God,
you know, has abandoned me.
He wouldn't hear me.
- And we're gonna see a person
very wounded
by their childhood.
Have seat.
- Okay, let me turn
my phone off.
- You got time, dude.
I got a story,
it's like straight out
of Hollywood.
- Once my dad left,
it's like all hell broke loose
on me.
This thing wanted to choke me
somehow and kill me.
'Cause I remember driving
my truck
to go get another load
in the middle of the daytime
and I saw that seatbelt
trying to get around me.
- We're gonna see those people
get set free
from that terrible curse
that was placed upon them.
- Are we going to read
the word of God
or what do we...?
- We're gonna pray.
- Amen.
- Oh, thank you Lord Almighty
God,
and loose the anointing
upon Victoria.
Lord let that anointing
penetrate her right now.
There will be a healing of that
broken and wounded soul
or wounded heart.
Who are you?
- [Whimpering]
- Who are you?
Don't hide from me.
Say, I renounce...
- I renounce...
- Witchcraft.
- Witchcraft.
- I also renounce...
- I also renounce...
- Opening...
- Opening...
- My mind...
- My mind...
- To the demonic realms.
- To the demonic realms.
Smite it!
You...
whether you are python...
or religion.
Get out.
- [Coughing]
Get loose!
- [Coughing]
- Get out.
Loose Elena!
- Say "I lift."
- Oh no... Lord!
- Say, I lift...
Say, I lift...
I lift...
- I lift...
- Lift the...
- The...
- Curse! Curse!
- [Groaning]
- Say it!
- Curse!
- We...
- We...
- Lift...
- Lift...
- The...
- The...
- Curse.
- Curse.
- All in the name of Jesus
Christ, get out of him! - Oh!
- I'd wanna be very careful
that the individual,
who may be very earnest,
is not riffing off of something
that had its point of origin
from a horror movie.
- What you notice is
a lot of the language
sounds very much like
late-night television...
uh, language.
Like, uh, my name is Legion,
or I am Lucifer.
[Man groans]
- Who are you?
- There's this principle called
the availability heuristic.
It basically means that the
more easily that we can draw
an example of something to mind,
the more likely we are to think
that thing is true
and to kind of use it
to fill in the blanks.
When an exorcist says,
I wanna speak to the demon,
you're gonna give that person
a demon
in the only way you know how.
Whether you got it from
late-night television...
[Vomiting, vomit splatters]
or some dimly remembered
experience
at the theatre,
you're gonna fill that in
with the information that
you have.
- [Whimpers]
- Severed.
The evil spirit will no longer
be able to hide
in that pain or in that trauma.
Loose! I command you!
Loose the anointing upon you!
Now leave!
- [Sniffling]
[Coughing]
- Fire!
Fire!
Loose! Out!
Snake, get out!
[Vomits]
In the name of Jesus Christ,
that's witchcraft... coming out.
When is a horror movie
a problem?
It is very dangerous
and it's a very real possibility
that a child could
definitely develop
a spiritual problem
with evil spirits, with demons,
if it's watching a horror movie.
[Reporters chatter]
- Linda, there's are various
rumors
that you were affected
psychologically by the film,
which are, no doubt, untrue,
but what is the situation?
Didn't it disturb you
in any way?
- No, it didn't at all.
So the movie comes out
and journalists were asking me,
like, are you okay?
Are you mentally ill?
I don't think there's many
young people
that could've survived it.
It was hard.
People, they would run.
People were so afraid of me.
- One of the problems with
these ideas of curses
is that perhaps we could be
projecting
onto an actual person
after they're done filming.
If you look at someone like
Linda Blair,
the studio had to get
bodyguards for her
because people actually thought
that she might be evil.
If you can think back to being
a young teenager,
could you imagine being seen
as the devil?
- I won't talk about it.
- No, there's stuff that
I don't talk about.
Um... so what's another one?
- The kid from "The Omen"
didn't need bodyguards.
He didn't get stigmatized
the way she did.
And, in a weird way,
she's a victim in this movie;
she's not the demon,
but the female character
gets branded as evil
and, and, of the devil
and, and that kid gets to sort
of slip back into anonymity,
which I find curious.
I think it's somewhat telling
that she has now kind of
walked away from all of that
and, in fact, spends her time
saving animals.
It's a very interesting coda
to what she's been through.
- Sure, there are things that
happened I wish didn't,
but it's what,
it was what's made me, me.
Look at me, look at me,
look at me.
♪ Do-do do do-do do-do do-do ♪
♪ Da-da-da da, da-da da... ♪
What did Linda want in life?
Linda, at a young age,
wanted to be a veterinarian.
But one day we got a call
for a movie
and it was called
"The Exorcist".
- "The Exorcist" had long been
awaited
but no one, no matter how close
or deeply involved in the film,
could possibly have anticipated
what was to happen
at every theater
where this film played.
- Warner Brothers did not
believe this movie
was going to do anything.
And there's a certain
PR person - um,
and she divulged to me
years later
when we became friendly
as adults -
and she said she was told
to create this whole fear
around the movie
to try to bring in an audience.
You know, pregnant women
shouldn't go.
People are throwing up.
They parked the ambulances
outside the theaters.
A lot of this was PR.
[Ave Maria plays]
- Is this really real?
As an exorcist,
all I can say,
is that an exorcism proves
that there is evil.
If there is evil,
there must be a devil.
And if there is a devil,
there certainly is a God.
- Someone who requests
an exorcism
might be very sincere,
but they haven't asked
themselves
Where's this idea really
coming from?
And who is this
so-called Exorcist
who's coming along to help me?
Does this person have
any sort of church
or organization,
or oversight at his or her back?
Or is this just sort of a,
uh, religious troubadour
who's charging money?
- Before I became involved
in performing exorcisms,
I... used to run a furniture
company.
You don't live too far
from here,
so it's good I'm here
very regularly.
- Okay.
- And I think we're gonna do
a bit more on the, on the,
on the, on the, on the...
the FaceTime thingy.
- Okay.
- People are probably not gonna
wanna hear this.
I think we bring upon
our own hell
and our own heaven,
and we bring curses upon us.
Otherwise, you have to believe
that there are really demonic
forces out there.
- So we're good, right?
- Yeah.
- Awesome! Great, man!
I'm just a simple guy.
I just...
wanna be able to, you know,
live my life here.
One...
I don't have a house,
I don't have an apartment,
I don't have anything.
Four, five...
I'm glad to do this.
It's like the money comes
through one hand
and goes through the other.
- Maybe we are disturbing
the forces.
I went to work every day
and I said,
"This is just a movie."
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
- The Exorcist is a
tremendously disturbing film
even today.
To see this angelic-looking
young girl
transformed into this
canker-sored,
vomit-spewing...
[Splattering]
Profane...
- Your mother sucks cocks
in hell!
- Violent...
[Loud gasp, hard thud]
Coarsely sexual...
- Let Jesus fuck you!
- ...monstrosity on the screen
is extremely,
extremely unsettling.
All the more so
when it premiered
more than a generation ago.
- The Exorcist was sold on
controversy from day one.
Certainly, you're not going
to shy away
from that kind of marketing.
And it lends itself well
to the idea of a curse.
- Thinking of "The Exorcist"
as cursed
adds to the legacy of the film.
If you're a fan of horror,
you're looking for these
connections.
It's logical to look at some
of the truly wild things
that happened on the set
and to people involved
with the production
and say, this thing was cursed.
♪♪♪
- There was a moment during
production
when their sets caught fire.
It happened at night,
no one was injured,
but most of their sets
were consumed.
Regan's bedroom was
mysteriously undamaged.
- I think it was after that
that they brought in a Jesuit
Priest to bless the set.
There had been a number
of people
either related to cast members,
or people who had been
in the film,
or working on the production,
who had died.
Linda Blair's grandfather died.
Two actors who were
in the film died.
- Max von Sydow's brother dies
on the first day of filming.
- A special effects expert,
who was supposed to keep
the set cool, died.
♪♪♪
- There was all of this
information
about the movie being cursed.
We have a couple different
things to address.
Number one:
Billy's a genius.
When you work with somebody
that's a genius,
you're gonna go for a ride,
let me tell you.
I'm laced into this piece
of equipment.
It is literally manipulated
by men.
In this particular take,
the lacing came loose.
I am... having my back pounded.
I mean, I'm crying,
I'm screaming.
They think I'm acting up
a storm.
It fractured my lower spine.
No, they didn't send me
to a doctor.
It is the footage
that's in the movie.
- William Friedkin is famously
a two-fisted director.
He would fire a gun off
behind somebody
to get them to jump if
he needed them to do that.
- I mean, sometimes the things
he did were,
were, were... pretty harsh.
What would happen
if I shoot the gun?
[Gunshot pops]
So if I'd be in the bed
and he's gonna shoot a gun,
he has to tell me because I'm
not allowed to do that, right?
I can't jum--
the devil can't jump.
[Gun fires, screaming]
- That's done during
the first time
they see Regan looking like
the demon.
And I played that scene,
so I was there.
Yeah, I was originally hired
'cause they felt Linda Blair
was too young to do...
what turned out to be
the masturbation scene.
But then I ended up doing
the masturbation scene,
the vomiting scene,
the levitation scene,
and I played Pazuzu's face.
So it was a very,
very long movie.
It was kind of like, uh,
who do you have to fuck to get
off this movie? [Chuckles]
[Shrill scream,
glass shattering]
- In every movie,
if it has anything to do
with action and things,
somebody is always gonna
get hurt.
- When Regan slaps Chris across
the room,
that was achieved by putting
Ellen Burstyn in a harness.
[Loud gasp, hard slap]
The first take,
it wasn't particularly brutal
enough for Friedkin,
so he had a word
with the gentleman
on the other end of the rope
to... give it to her -
yank a little extra hard
on Ellen Burstyn's harness
to get her to fly across
the room as needed -
uh, resulting in Ellen Burstyn
being injured from that scene.
And that's the shot
that's in the film.
- It's an agreement actors
and directors
and productions make
to get a performance
for something that entertains
millions across the world.
And what's it for? For you.
- Certainly, if you're
marketing that film,
you're going to tacitly
embrace such stories.
- That's something that...
that's been happening since
Hitchcock or before.
That's him building up
hysteria around Psycho;
that you can't come into
the film late,
and people were getting sick.
So, you see, Friedkin
and the PR folks, uh,
who were handling "The Exorcist"
when that came out, helped
people buy into the hysteria
of what the curse behind
this movie is.
And it also sold a lot
of tickets.
- A few months ago, I was
listening to an old podcast
and they had mentioned that
there was an actual murderer
who was in "The Exorcist".
There had always been,
you know the, the stories
about the curse of
"The Exorcist",
but this one... just seemed
to be left out.
So it fascinated me
and I set out writing
a report for Esquire.
In 1972, William Friedkin
went to the...
NYU radiology department
and watched them perform
a procedure
that was essentially taking
pictures
of the blood vessels
in somebody's brain.
It looked pretty gruesome
and he saw that, and, you know,
thought that it was perfect
for his horror movie.
During my research, I spoke
with a number of people
who were involved
in filming that scene.
One of them was Barton Lane
who's actually the man in the
film performing the procedure.
- Okay, you're gonna feel
some pressure here.
Now don't move.
- I happened to be doing
a procedure one day
when the Chief of my department
came by with a visitor.
- [Whimpering]
- At the end of the procedure,
I was introduced to,
uh, Mr. Friedkin,
and they said,
"We're gonna be making a movie
here in a few months,"
and, uh, my Chairman said,
"Would you like to be in it?"
I said, "Yes."
So here are some photographs
that were taken
during the filming of
the angiography sequence.
This first one
is Mr. Friedkin and myself
and the make-up artist.
- Friedkin wanted everybody
who...
was performing that procedure,
that day
to be in his movie,
and one of them included
a young technician
named Paul Bateson,
and so he ends up being
in the film.
- Paul was the Chief neuro
radiology technologist.
I worked with him on an almost
daily basis for four years.
- Regan, I'm just gonna move
you down on the table, okay?
- I would characterize him
as being quiet,
very nice to the patients.
- September 14th, 1977,
the body of a variety reporter
named, Addison Verrill,
was found in his West Village
apartment.
One Village Voice reporter
named, Arthur Bell,
noted that this looked like
an assailant
that the victim knew.
And Arthur Bell gets a phone
call from an anonymous person
who says...
"I killed Addison Verrill."
This caller explained that
he wasn't a psychopath;
that he was an alcoholic
and that this was a crime
of passion,
and that he and Verrill
had sex and did drugs
until early in the morning,
and then gone back
to Verrill's apartment
where he hit him over
the head with a pan
and then stabbed him
in the chest.
He also had mentioned that
if he gets caught
he would never be able
to practice again.
The phone call eventually
led police to Paul Bateson.
When they got to Paul's
apartment,
he told police,
"I know why you're here."
And they took him into custody
where he eventually confessed
to the, the crime.
It makes sense
for people to connect
this larger real-life horror
to this curse of "The Exorcist";
that these horrors are real,
evil is real.
- In 1972, Pope Paul VI
issued a proclamation
lamenting the loss
of belief in evil
as a real entity,
as a real metaphysical entity,
and in the devil
as a real entity.
And then it's after that
that you get "The Exorcist",
which is trying to prove
the existence of, of the devil.
"The Exorcist" starts actually
in Mesopotamia
trying to show you
that evil goes way back.
Not only goes way back,
but it can still intrude
into a family
and disrupt their whole life.
- To say that "The Exorcist"
is a cursed film
taps into the Catholicism
of the people watching it.
It, it taps into the imagery
in the film
of the guy digging up an idol
and unleashing this demon.
[Traffic rumbles]
- The people who made
"The Exorcist"
definitely did their research.
The fact that the movie opens
up with this excavation
at the site of Hatra
in Northern Iraq,
is very much accurate
because Pazuzu does come
from Northern Iraq.
- Pazuzu turned out to be
the icon of the entire movie.
'Cause the way they did it -
they like to call it subliminal,
but it's not subliminal
'cause subliminal means
that you don't see it,
but it certainly was that flash.
And people said,
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"You see that face?"
"What face?"
"The face!"
- This is made out of bronze,
so it's cast metal.
You might wear this if you
were, say, a pregnant woman,
um, or you might put it as
an amulet on a newborn baby
because Pazuzu's enemy Lamashtu,
um, was especially interested
in pregnant women and in babies.
That giant statue of Pazuzu,
while it looks great
and it's terrifying,
it's much bigger than any
images of Pazuzu
that we know.
Usually he's a small amulet
and it seems like a demon
with his power
would be dangerous to make
on a large scale.
♪♪♪
- How does horror treat
what is probably
the single most important
meaning making system
that human beings
have evolved over time?
Which is to say,
how does it treat religion?
Horror is a really,
really powerful artifact
that speaks clearly and directly
to the fact that we are
still concerned
with really important questions.
Which is why I call horror and
religion cultural siblings.
You don't get horror
building on religion,
so much as they are dealing
With exactly the same questions:
Where do we go when we die?
How did we get here?
Does life have any meaning?
Is there a God?
Why do we suffer?
Religions claim to have
answered those questions,
but the answers are never
really very satisfactory
for a very long time.
- I have been working on
a book project
on how horror is used
as a missionary tool.
- I do not believe.
So, to recap, four words
necessary to destroy
the forces of the supernatural,
witchcraft,
superstition, psychic,
et cetera, et cetera.
- There is a subgenre
of horror films
where a character
who's a skeptic
confronts evidence
of the supernatural.
- ...and can only exist in
an atmosphere of belief.
Belief is final.
- And in the process,
the skeptic becomes a believer.
For example,
"Night of the Demon,"
from 1957, I believe.
- Oh, but, uh,
if I could make my point,
I could persuade you.
- I'm not open to persuasion.
- But a scientist should have
an open mind.
- That's what investigations
are for.
- All of those films,
uh, are meant to show you
that evil does exist.
At the end, for example,
of "The Exorcist",
you have a message
that the devil exists
and that the church
and Christianity
is the answer to that.
- The good guys in this movie
were not the rationalists,
the doctors,
the psychiatrists,
the sophisticated partygoers,
but they were the figures
of faith
who seemed to have the answers
and were willing to make
the sacrifices.
- A lot of the development
in horror film
has come as a reaction
to the fear of the loss
of belief in God
and the fear of the loss
of belief in the devil.
Horror films,
at least some of them,
are there to counteract
the secularization
that, uh, is perceived
to be taking place.
- As a matter of fact,
the Pope himself
is being quoted as part of
the film's publicity campaign.
Demol-- Demonology, he said,
is an important part
of Catholic doctrine
that really ought to be
studied again.
- I've heard an interview
with Blatty,
the author of "The Exorcist",
who said he heard Billy Graham
say that the devil,
it's in the celluloid
film itself.
- There were stories that
projecting the film
would invite demons into
your theater.
That's an urban legend
happening right in front of you
for the movie that you've got
in release.
There's a trailer that had
to be pulled
because it was potentially
seizure-inducing.
They were leaning very hard
into the controversial nature
and the illicit and the taboo.
You're gonna be fucked up
if you watch this movie.
- David Sheehan is with us
tonight to talk about a movie
that has people passing out.
- The manager of The National
Theater in Westwood
says that there indeed are
at least a dozen people
who faint or become ill
during every showing.
- I fainted like ten minutes
after the...
first beginning of the movie.
- I passed out.
- You did?
- In about the first
half hour, yeah.
- "The Exorcist" was no longer
just the most successful
motion picture in film history,
but had become an unquestioned
sociological phenomenon.
- What made "The Exorcist"
different,
it had the hook of the true
story.
Billy Friedkin makes
"The Exorcist"
based on this true story
that William Peter Blatty
wrote about.
People who are Catholic
know that there is...
a thing called exorcism
in the church.
They may not know anybody
who's been a part of it,
but they at least know that
it's a part of Catholic culture.
- Some psychiatrists are
calling "The Exorcist"
a dangerous movie
because it does give credibility
to a variety of superstitions,
including the devil myth
and the power of ritual.
- There has been
a significant uptick
of exorcisms recently,
and this is a fact.
Some of that might be fueled
by the great popularity
of possession-based
horror movies,
all of which are sort of twigs
growing off the tree
of "The Exorcist".
There are people in our society
who never would have heard
of exorcism,
who never would have heard
of possession,
were it not for "The Exorcist".
- When we look at the movie
called "The Exorcist",
what, to me, that movie did
was bring it on the big screen,
the reality that an exorcism
can and will be successful
if done correctly.
An exorcism can look
frightening,
but does not need to be.
It's not dangerous
as long as it is done
biblically.
My name is Vincent Bauhaus
and I am an exorcist.
[Knocking]
- Hi, how are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
- Fine. Welcome back.
- Good to see you again.
- You too. How are you?
- I'm very well.
The people that we are going
to meet are people
that have been the victim
of attack,
of witchcraft.
- Someone somewhere,
he's monitoring me.
I don't know who,
I don't know where.
They are always there
attacking me.
- Mhmm.
- So I don't know what it is,
and now I'm feeling
they are inside of me.
- Yeah.
- Like a python spirit is there.
- And then very interestingly,
we're gonna see a gentleman
who has played
with a Ouija Board
on a daily basis
for four years.
- Hey, where'd this come from?
- I started messing around
with a Ouija Board more
and even worshipping
and calling upon the devil.
- Oh, you was worshipping
the devil?
- Well, basically,
it got to that point
because I felt like God,
you know, has abandoned me.
He wouldn't hear me.
- And we're gonna see a person
very wounded
by their childhood.
Have seat.
- Okay, let me turn
my phone off.
- You got time, dude.
I got a story,
it's like straight out
of Hollywood.
- Once my dad left,
it's like all hell broke loose
on me.
This thing wanted to choke me
somehow and kill me.
'Cause I remember driving
my truck
to go get another load
in the middle of the daytime
and I saw that seatbelt
trying to get around me.
- We're gonna see those people
get set free
from that terrible curse
that was placed upon them.
- Are we going to read
the word of God
or what do we...?
- We're gonna pray.
- Amen.
- Oh, thank you Lord Almighty
God,
and loose the anointing
upon Victoria.
Lord let that anointing
penetrate her right now.
There will be a healing of that
broken and wounded soul
or wounded heart.
Who are you?
- [Whimpering]
- Who are you?
Don't hide from me.
Say, I renounce...
- I renounce...
- Witchcraft.
- Witchcraft.
- I also renounce...
- I also renounce...
- Opening...
- Opening...
- My mind...
- My mind...
- To the demonic realms.
- To the demonic realms.
Smite it!
You...
whether you are python...
or religion.
Get out.
- [Coughing]
Get loose!
- [Coughing]
- Get out.
Loose Elena!
- Say "I lift."
- Oh no... Lord!
- Say, I lift...
Say, I lift...
I lift...
- I lift...
- Lift the...
- The...
- Curse! Curse!
- [Groaning]
- Say it!
- Curse!
- We...
- We...
- Lift...
- Lift...
- The...
- The...
- Curse.
- Curse.
- All in the name of Jesus
Christ, get out of him! - Oh!
- I'd wanna be very careful
that the individual,
who may be very earnest,
is not riffing off of something
that had its point of origin
from a horror movie.
- What you notice is
a lot of the language
sounds very much like
late-night television...
uh, language.
Like, uh, my name is Legion,
or I am Lucifer.
[Man groans]
- Who are you?
- There's this principle called
the availability heuristic.
It basically means that the
more easily that we can draw
an example of something to mind,
the more likely we are to think
that thing is true
and to kind of use it
to fill in the blanks.
When an exorcist says,
I wanna speak to the demon,
you're gonna give that person
a demon
in the only way you know how.
Whether you got it from
late-night television...
[Vomiting, vomit splatters]
or some dimly remembered
experience
at the theatre,
you're gonna fill that in
with the information that
you have.
- [Whimpers]
- Severed.
The evil spirit will no longer
be able to hide
in that pain or in that trauma.
Loose! I command you!
Loose the anointing upon you!
Now leave!
- [Sniffling]
[Coughing]
- Fire!
Fire!
Loose! Out!
Snake, get out!
[Vomits]
In the name of Jesus Christ,
that's witchcraft... coming out.
When is a horror movie
a problem?
It is very dangerous
and it's a very real possibility
that a child could
definitely develop
a spiritual problem
with evil spirits, with demons,
if it's watching a horror movie.
[Reporters chatter]
- Linda, there's are various
rumors
that you were affected
psychologically by the film,
which are, no doubt, untrue,
but what is the situation?
Didn't it disturb you
in any way?
- No, it didn't at all.
So the movie comes out
and journalists were asking me,
like, are you okay?
Are you mentally ill?
I don't think there's many
young people
that could've survived it.
It was hard.
People, they would run.
People were so afraid of me.
- One of the problems with
these ideas of curses
is that perhaps we could be
projecting
onto an actual person
after they're done filming.
If you look at someone like
Linda Blair,
the studio had to get
bodyguards for her
because people actually thought
that she might be evil.
If you can think back to being
a young teenager,
could you imagine being seen
as the devil?
- I won't talk about it.
- No, there's stuff that
I don't talk about.
Um... so what's another one?
- The kid from "The Omen"
didn't need bodyguards.
He didn't get stigmatized
the way she did.
And, in a weird way,
she's a victim in this movie;
she's not the demon,
but the female character
gets branded as evil
and, and, of the devil
and, and that kid gets to sort
of slip back into anonymity,
which I find curious.
I think it's somewhat telling
that she has now kind of
walked away from all of that
and, in fact, spends her time
saving animals.
It's a very interesting coda
to what she's been through.
- Sure, there are things that
happened I wish didn't,
but it's what,
it was what's made me, me.
Look at me, look at me,
look at me.
♪ Do-do do do-do do-do do-do ♪
♪ Da-da-da da, da-da da... ♪
What did Linda want in life?
Linda, at a young age,
wanted to be a veterinarian.
But one day we got a call
for a movie
and it was called
"The Exorcist".
- "The Exorcist" had long been
awaited
but no one, no matter how close
or deeply involved in the film,
could possibly have anticipated
what was to happen
at every theater
where this film played.
- Warner Brothers did not
believe this movie
was going to do anything.
And there's a certain
PR person - um,
and she divulged to me
years later
when we became friendly
as adults -
and she said she was told
to create this whole fear
around the movie
to try to bring in an audience.
You know, pregnant women
shouldn't go.
People are throwing up.
They parked the ambulances
outside the theaters.
A lot of this was PR.
[Ave Maria plays]
- Is this really real?
As an exorcist,
all I can say,
is that an exorcism proves
that there is evil.
If there is evil,
there must be a devil.
And if there is a devil,
there certainly is a God.
- Someone who requests
an exorcism
might be very sincere,
but they haven't asked
themselves
Where's this idea really
coming from?
And who is this
so-called Exorcist
who's coming along to help me?
Does this person have
any sort of church
or organization,
or oversight at his or her back?
Or is this just sort of a,
uh, religious troubadour
who's charging money?
- Before I became involved
in performing exorcisms,
I... used to run a furniture
company.
You don't live too far
from here,
so it's good I'm here
very regularly.
- Okay.
- And I think we're gonna do
a bit more on the, on the,
on the, on the, on the...
the FaceTime thingy.
- Okay.
- People are probably not gonna
wanna hear this.
I think we bring upon
our own hell
and our own heaven,
and we bring curses upon us.
Otherwise, you have to believe
that there are really demonic
forces out there.
- So we're good, right?
- Yeah.
- Awesome! Great, man!
I'm just a simple guy.
I just...
wanna be able to, you know,
live my life here.
One...
I don't have a house,
I don't have an apartment,
I don't have anything.
Four, five...
I'm glad to do this.
It's like the money comes
through one hand
and goes through the other.
- Maybe we are disturbing
the forces.
I went to work every day
and I said,
"This is just a movie."