Behind The Exorcist

A rare close-up photo of Jason Miller’s bloodied hand taken during the filming of Father Karras’ last rites, highlighting the detail of Dick Smith’s make-up. Photo courtesy of Dick Smith.

23 November 12

Dick Smith retouches Linda Blair’s make-up on the set of The Exorcist.

1 November 12

31 October 12

Happy Halloween!

25 October 12

Artist Marc Hagan-Guirey has created a series of 13 kirigami buildings based on infamous haunted locations in film and television, including The Addams Family, The Shining, Psycho, The Amityville Horror, and The Exorcist. Each “horrorgami” piece is crafted from a single sheet of paper, and will be on display and for sale at Gallery One-And-A-Half in London from November 1st - 14th.

16 October 12

Ellen Burstyn consoles a distressed Linda Blair on the set of The Exorcist after a rig around her midriff, which lifted her off the bed to create the illusion of a demonic attack, came loose and damaged her back.

21 September 12

It’s Captain Howdy Time! t-shirt design by Mike Handy.

2 September 12

Before making frenemies with Captain Howdy and projectile vomiting on the Georgetown clergy, Linda Blair was an adorable, button-nosed child model and star of many classic commercials for the Ideal Toy Company. Check out this pre-Exorcist clip for the Kerry, Velvet, Crissy, and Mia dolls!

2 September 12

The Exorcist poster by Christopher Franchi. Limited edition signed and numbered prints are available to purchase here.

18 August 12

I picked the still out of the stills pack because it struck a chord with me. When you looked at this still, you knew somehow that whatever is about to happen inside that house is not going to be good! I adapted it with Dick Knipe for the final poster, taking a lot of the detail out of it and turning it into a design, and after that no one wanted to see anything else. I’d been specifically told by William Friedkin and Warner Bros. that we mustn’t use an image of the girl possessed, or show anything that had any hint of religious connotation to it. They were concerned about that. Friedkin was very involved, he was there all the time. For the other ideas, we shot some specially posed photographs which are not from the movie: the open door and something going on inside - you just see the hand; the girl on the bed; the girl smiling. But Friedkin and Warners rejected all of them, told me to chuck them out. They certainly picked the right image, which was used all over the world. And the movie became the biggest hit in Warners’ history.

— Bill Gold, on designing the poster for The Exorcist.

16 August 12

Limited edition vintage style lunchbox and thermos by Christopher Franchi.

10 August 12

26 July 12

25 July 12

A still from the original ending of The Exorcist, which was eventually cut from the film before its theatrical release in 1973. The scene was partially restored for the Director’s Cut, but due to missing audio the dialogue referencing to Casablanca was left out, which was as follows:

Lt. Kinderman: I’m reminded of a line in the film Casablanca. At the end Bogart says to Claude Rains, “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Fr. Dyer: You look a little bit like Bogart.
Lt. Kinderman: You noticed…

5 July 12

First images from the premiere of John Pielmeier’s stage adaptation of The Exorcist, currently showing at the Geffen Playhouse in LA.

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