4. The Exorcist
The Exorcist, likely the most shocking horror movie (or at least it was to audiences in 1973), did not bypass the crew in terms of horror, either. The accidents on set were numerous. The lead actress, Linda Blair, had her back injured on the set, when she was being thrashed on her bed. Ellen Burstyn, who played the possessed girls mother, also injured herself during the shoot when a piece of stunt equipment malfunctioned. She was meant to be pulled back by a harness, but the harness evidently pulled her too hard, causing her to land wrong. The subsequent screams can be seen on film, and are 100% genuine. According to the actress herself, there were up to nine deaths surrounding the production. Jack McGowen, one of the actors in the film whose character was killed by the possessed girl at the center of the story, died about a month before the film was released. The cause of death was evidently flu complication. Valsiliki Maliaros, who appeared in the film as well, also died weeks before the release date. Max von Sydows brother also died during the production, as did Linda Blairs grandfather. The deaths do not stop there a night watchman working on set also died, though the cause of death is not known. A man responsible for refrigeration of the set (the set was built to be very cold, to allow for the unpleasant atmosphere that is so palpable in the film) was also killed. The newborn baby of one of the cameramen died shortly after birth. A carpenter working on the film evidently lost a few fingers. A fire early on in the production cost the filmmakers six weeks, as the entire set burned down. The cause of the fire is not known to this day. To appease the fears of his crew, director Friedkin reportedly tried to commission an actual exorcism for the set. When that was denied, Reverend Thomas Bermingham came in to perform a blessing for the cast and the crew. The ceremony was repeated each time the crew changed location for shooting. In by far the most interesting story connected to the film, during the films premier in Rome, a storm had been building. As Joe Hyams, a prominent Hollywood columnist, recalls: The film was playing at the Metropolitan Theatre, just off this huge piazza in the heart of Rome which has these two twin Sixteenth Century churches with identical crosses on top. In Italy, of course, the film was an enormous success and I was standing outside the theatre watching the crowd go in, queuing in this rain and lightning, and loving it. And then in the middle of all this I heard some noise or commotion coming from the piazza, so I walk round and lightning had struck one of the crosses on top of those churches! That cross was probably four hundred years old, about seven or eight feet long-and it fell right in the middle of the piazza. It was only thanks to the bad weather that it didn't fall on nine Italians because that Piazza was usually very crowded. Well, as soon as the cross fell, the local policeman immediately took charge of the situation - but nobody went near to that cross. Now, I'm skeptical, but I start to think, 'This is getting crazy. OK there's a lightning storm and the lightning hit the cross. But there's been a lot of lightning in Rome over the past four hundred years, and this happens now when our movie is opening just down the street?' We left town about three days later, and even then that cross hadn't been moved from the spot where it fell. The authorities had taped the area off while they investigated what might have happened.