10 Horror Movie Moments More Terrifying When You Know The Truth
8. The Angiogram Scene Features A Future Murderer - The Exorcist
Though there are certainly more scary moments in The Exorcist, ever since its original theatrical release the scene that's caused the most visceral responses has been the one where Regan (Linda Blair) undergoes a cerebral angiography in an attempt to deduce the cause of her behaviour.
The perceived realism of the procedure as depicted in the film lends it a disturbingly skin-crawling quality, and one that's made even worse once you know the future destiny of one actor involved in the scene.
The actor playing the radiological technician is a man called Paul Bateson, a real radiologist who in 1977 - four years after the film's release - murdered a journalist, Addison Verrill.
Bateson was also viewed as a person of interest in a number of other killings in New York City at the time, though never decisively tied to any of them, despite some continuing to incorrectly label him as a serial killer.
Even so, knowing that one of the most unnerving scenes in one of the greatest horror films of all time co-stars a man who went on to brutally kill a person a few years later is genuinely frightening.