Did You Know?: The Exorcist

Did you know, that John Boorman was actually approached to direct The Exorcist? Boorman was approached but declined because he felt story was "too cruel towards children." He later went on to direct the god awful sequel The Exorcist II: The Heretic. Those are just some of the facts I bet you didn't know about The Exorcist. Dive in and see what else I dug up on one of the most genre defining series.

This was just cruel to about everyone...

Also, the agency representing Linda Blair (Reagan) overlooked her for the part. Her mother eventually brought her in herself to try out for the role. 

Stanley Kubrick wanted to direct this film, but the only catch was that he would also produce it. Since the studio worried that the project would go over budget in his hands they eventually decided on Mark Rydell to direct. But it doesn't end there, William Peter Blatty (the author of the original novel) insisted on William Friedken to direct instead. After a long standoff with the studio Blatty eventually got his way. But could you imagine if Kubrik had directed it?..

There are also an abundance of hidden images in the film. From IMDB here is a list of each of the shots: "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. In the "The Version You've Never Seen", the same image is superimposed over other scenes 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 statue of "Pazuzu" (encountered by Father Merrin) can clearly been seen in the background during the exorcism in the original film. The face of the statue is also imposed onto Regan's bedroom door in "The Version You've Never Seen"."

Blink and you'll miss it!

And finally, Christian evangelist Billy Graham claimed that there was an actual demon living in the celluloid of this film.

Huh, I wonder if that means there is a demon living in my dvd of the film. Would explain a lot. Anyways thanks for reading and expect another one of these next week!