The spooky season may be over, but we’re still celebrating how impactful the horror genre is. One movie that transformed the horror genre entirely was none other than The Exorcist. While it has been 50 years since it was released, this movie’s impact can still be witnessed in horror films to date. Many people from that time claim that it was so frightening that theaters had paramedic assistance for their audience.

To make matters even more bone-chilling, it was based on an actual story. This book-turned-movie goes down in history to be one of the most terrifying movies to exist. However, the most interesting part of The Exorcist is that the crew and cast expressed that they often felt darkness during the set, which led to unexplainable, and some creepy incidents. Here are some of the insights on some behind-the-scenes facts that haunted the cast of The Exorcist.

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The Unexplainable Fire

     Warner Bros.

Sets are carefully created in such a manner that no fire breakouts happen, and in fact, to prevent that, many film sets have giant coolers to keep all lights chilled. However, what should one do if the fire starts without any proper reasoning? This is precisely what happened on the very first set of The Exoricst. The set which was used to create the McNeil house, caught fire. It wasn’t just any normal fire that one could put out easily; this fire eventually burned everything. However, the creepy part is that everything was completely burned, except Regan’s room, where the whole exorcism scene happened. It remained absolutely untouched. Quite fittingly ominous for a film that is based on demons and possessions. Due to this mysterious fire, a priest was called on set to bless it, so that cast and crew members could feel at ease.

People Linked to the Movie Ended Up Dying

     DCU

This may come as a shock to many, but two of the actors in the film, Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros, who were written to have an on-film death, ended up dying in real life as well. It happened shortly after the movie was wrapped, and was about to be released. Even though MacGowran departed due to suffering from influenza, and Maliaros passed away due to natural causes, it doesn’t make it less unsettling to know their end was similar to how they died in the film.

Not only this, but seven other people who were related to cast and crew members ended up dying in unexplainable manners. In addition, the child of Mercedes McCambridge, the actor who was the voice behind the demon, passed away in a murder-suicide, in which he ended up taking the lives of his daughters and wife, before taking his own. This news of the deaths was enough for the cast and crew to stay up all night for quite some time!

An Extra Was Found Guilty of Murder

Anyone who makes a movie hopes that it doesn’t get associated with any crime or controversy. Sadly, The Exorcist was unable to forestall it. Just a few years after the movie’s debut, in 1977, Paul Bateson — who plays a doctor’s assistant — was found guilty of killing movie critic, Addison Verrill. Given that they had worked with him on-site, many members of the cast and crew were perplexed by this information. But to make matters worse, he was subsequently suspected of six additional killings, but never found guilty of them. However, the real truth is still unknown.

Linda Blair Got Attacked

     Warner Bros

Any movie that deals with even a hint of religion often is required to be cautious about how certain concepts and religious views are presented. Since the focus of The Exorcist was a girl who was possessed by a demonic force, there were a number of sacrilegious activities committed. Many viewers did not like her portrayal, and claimed that she was promoting Satan, which led to her, a child star, getting a plethora of death threats. The amount and intensity of threats increased to a point that after the film was released, that she had to keep a bodyguard with her for six months for safety purposes.

Screening in Rome

Screening for this film in general wasn’t an easy feat, as it was met with tons of controversy due to the subject matter. However, when the movie actually debuted in theaters, viewers frequently reported unexplained phenomena that were genuinely unnerving. The first time The Exorcist was shown on a big screen in Rome, it was at a theater that was sandwiched between two churches. On the day of its premiere, there was a severe heavy downpour and lightning storm that unexpectedly occurred. To make the atmosphere even more terrifying, a lightning strike caused one of the ancient crosses, which was 400 years old, to fall in the center of the theater. This unexplainable and unsettling incident convinced many that there was something ominous about this movie.

Cast Members Suffered Through Injuries

Similarly to the audience members who were screaming as they watched this film, so were the characters while shooting it. As unsettling as it may sound, it’s true. When filming the scene where Regan was being haunted, her mother hurriedly approached to rescue her, but ultimately ends up getting pushed to the ground. Actress Ellen Burstyn howled throughout that scene, like a shattering of glass. Unfortunately, those were real screams of pain.

The actress ended up falling on her coccyx with significant force since the stuntman pulled the wire attached to her faster and harder than anticipated. Sadly, this led to permanent chronic spinal damage. However, the unsettling part is that the director still used her real audio, which makes that scene even more unnerving to watch. One might think after this incident, the director and crew members would be careful, but it wasn’t the case. Linda Blair had to suffer through something similar, where she ended up fracturing her spine. During the bed scene where the bed shakes, Blair was rigged to it, which ended up shaking so violently that it broke her back. Unfortunately, she was then diagnosed with chronic pain and scoliosis. However, similar to Ellen’s case, the scene added in the film had her actual scream.