William Friedkin really ought to have taken a hint. His adaptation of William Peter Blatty's best selling novel about a young girl who finds herself possessed by the Babylonian demon Pazuzu, and the efforts of two Catholic priests to exorcise her, has become a classic of the horror genre thanks to powerful performances, some ground breaking special effects, and the haunting use of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. But it might remain equally as infamous for the Exorcist Curse that blighted the production, cast and crew during filming and beyond. Whilst the film was being made there was a studio fire that destroyed the entirety of sets for the MacNeil's house, which had to be rebuilt from scratch and set production back six weeks. Luckily nobody was on the set at the time, but that means the origin of the fire has never been identified. Oh, and Reagan's bedroom was fine. Friedkin did acquiesce to a priest blessing the set before filming began to quash members of the production's fears, but that didn't save actor Jack MacGowran dying a scant few weeks before the film's release. The priest came back multiple times, but still there were strange incidents: Linda Blair was injured during a scene where she thrashes around on the bed, Ellen Burstyn was thrown across the room stronger than Blair could've managed. The devil hates bad publicity, apparently. What other movie sets were cursed? Share any examples we missed in the comments below.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
