The Exorcist (1973) PART 1

The power of Christ compels you — to listen to this episode! This week on the Grindhouse Syndicate we are celebrating our 150th episode by doing our first ever 2 part episode on a film we have covered before. THATS RIGHT… WE ARE DIVING BACK INTO THE EXORCIST from 1973. And on PART 1 we are focusing on the production only. We are spending an entire episode pulling back the curtain on one of the most legendary and troubled productions in Hollywood history. William Friedkin's 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist is not just one of the greatest horror films ever made — it is a film surrounded by a story so wild, so dark, and so bizarre that it deserves its own episode. We start at the very beginning with the real life case of Roland Doe — the true story of alleged demonic possession that inspired William Peter Blatty to write the novel that would change horror forever. We dig into how Blatty brought that story to the page and eventually to the screen, and then we get into the man behind the camera — William Friedkin. A director whose behind the scenes behavior on this production was so unhinged, so unpredictable, and so controversial that it is a miracle the film got made at all. We talk about the injuries sustained during filming, the deaths connected to the production, and all the eerie and unsettling curse stories that have followed this film for over fifty years. And we close out with the massive cultural earthquake that was the film's release — a moment that genuinely shook the world and changed horror cinema forever. So join us this week because the Grindhouse Syndicate is going behind the curtain on the most cursed production in horror history!