All language subtitles for Cursed.Films.S01E01.The.Exorcist.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD2.0.H.264-monkee.English

- The Exorcist is a
tremendously disturbing film

even today.

To see this angelic-looking
young girl

transformed into this
canker-sored,

vomit-spewing...

Profane...

- Your mother sucks cocks
in hell!

- Violent...

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?

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.

- 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?

- 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.

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.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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?

- 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.

Get loose!

- 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!

- 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.

- 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...

or some dimly remembered
experience

at the theatre,

you're gonna fill that in

with the information that
you have.

- 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!

- Fire!

Fire!

Loose! Out!

Snake, get out!

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.

- 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.

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.

- 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."