While the ageless devil-possession fright flick The Exorcist is still quite scary in itself, the story behind the film is also startling.  In this series of articles, thus, we peek...

(Note: This is the first installment of a special three-part series that will examine the background of that seminal 1973 shocker, The Exorcist.   The author, Paul Davis, who is new to HORROR-WOOD, is an young English fan of The Exorcist who feels the film is significant because "it is more than just your average horror film--it is about something--be it the existence of God, the mysteries of faith, etc., and no matter how many people say that the film has dated rather horribly, to me it has and always will stand the test of time. I have befriended the man who started it all, William Peter Blatty, and I will continue until I've spoken to everybody from Linda Blair and William Friedkin right through to special effects guru Marcel Vercoutere and the demon herself Mercedes McCambridge. So now sit back and enjoy the truth behind the tale of possession that shocked millions...The Exorcist.") 

How can horror be truly defined? Dread? Intense fear?

Many filmmakers in the Seventies tried to define horror on a number of occasions, John Carpenter’s Halloween attempted to personify horror in the shape of mad man Michael Myers, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre defined horror through the eyes of a faceless killer who got a "buzz" out of mutilating teenagers with his trusty chainsaw. These films were acclaimed in there own way and have gradually gained a respectable stature in classic horror cinema, but is it right that horror should carry the label of a guy in a white mask wielding a large kitchen knife or even a guy wielding a chain saw? I think not.

In my own state of mind, horror can be clearly identified in The Exorcist. The torture and rape (if I may call it that) of a young girl by demons and medics has endured both praise and heavy criticism for over twenty five years, so much so that it has only just been granted a video certificate by the British Board Of Film Classification after a lengthy fifteen year ban.

For thousands of people in America the phenomenon began back on Boxing Day 1973, the release of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist caused a nationwide panic with both the US public and the censors, the pre-release hype was enough to start a mile long queue outside the two theaters it was playing raking in an amazing $94,000 in it’s first weekend. For the British public it began in March 1974, again it had the same effect; only this time religious groups who decided to picket each show were hounding the hoards of moviegoers. As for me, the phenomenon began on a cold morning in 1989; having heard about The Exorcist through a television documentary about Haunted Hollywood, I acquired a copy through my older brother and as you can imagine, being nine years old at the time, it totally in captured me.

Ten years on I am still enthralled by the sight of the possessed little girl vomiting disgusting green bile into the face of a priest and I’m still looking into the powerful legacy that the film carries and the amazing impact it had on world cinema.

What is it that enables The Exorcist to entrap unsuspecting audiences? It’s happened to me, it happened to film journalist Mark Kermode. Perhaps it is the documentary reality and the modern day setting of the film that tells the audience to think about their own vocation and provoke them into questioning their own belief in God. I tend to think that the pace of the film (which is often criticized nowadays) is what gives The Exorcist an undying power to unsettle and disturb, as the audience attach themselves to the movie’s characters they feel their anguish making the film an emotional event, because that is one thing that is unique about The Exorcist from other horror films, the development of the characters and the various goings on that take place in order to finish a psychological jigsaw that will puzzle you throughout the duration of the movie.

On August 20th 1949, a 20 year-old student called William Peter Blatty, came across a newspaper article in the Washington Post at Georgetown University. The article was a brief outline about a so-called case of demonic possession that was taking place in nearby Mount Rainer, Maryland. The possessed was a 14 year-old boy called Robbie Mannheim (or John Hoffman depending on your source), who lived with his family at 3210 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainer, Maryland. It is said by Thomas B. Allen, author of the 1993 book Possessed, that Robbie had a good relationship with his Aunt who was a self-professed medium and that they’d regularly used an Ouija board to contact spirits on the other side. On 15th January 1949, unexplainable events such as footsteps in the walls, strange scratching noises and drumbeats would occasionally baffle the family, but this was only the beginning. Eleven days later, Robbie’s aunt unexpectedly died in St. Louis, and Robbie immediately tried contacting her through his Ouija board.

Over the next few weeks Robbie’s bedroom was a haven for a series of strange noises, but on Thursday 17th February Robbie spent the evening at the house of the family’s local minister and what Reverend Luther Miles Schulze witnessed that night, would force him to recommend a Catholic priest to the family. The Reverend witnessed Robbie’s bed violently shaking and the un-aided movement of a heavy armchair and the mattress that Robbie slept on.

Between 27th February and 4th March, in the control of Father Hughes, Robbie underwent an exorcism at Georgetown Hospital, where he brutally attacked Father Hughes with a bedspring. The manifestations did not end there. Branding would amazingly appear on the boy’s skin, in red welts the words "Saturday," "Louis," and "3 1/2 weeks" randomly scratched themselves onto his body. While these occurrences were under way, Father Raymond Bishop and Father William Bowdern were investigating the possibility of demonic possession. The Mannheim’s were conducting private seances, and claiming that it was indeed Robbie’s aunt who was inhabiting his body.

Finally on Wednesday 16th March, Father Bowdern conducted an exorcism in the home of Robbie’s uncle in St. Louis. During the ceremony, more branding and welts would appear on Robbie’s back, including the words "Spite" and "Hell." Robbie would also spit accurately into the faces of the priests, he would mime masturbation and he would constantly taunt the priests about the sexual relations of priests and nuns. He even spouted out phrases in Latin, a language that he had never known of or studied.

Having failed to have Robbie put away in a mental asylum, Robbie was returned to his home town where he was put into a secure mental ward. The exorcism was continued here on Easter Sunday, where probably the most brutal attack took place. During this exorcism the word "Exit" appeared on Robbie’s chest, with an arrow pointing down to his penis. When this had fully formed, Robbie threw a powerful blow to Father Bowdern’s genitals. Following these attacks, Father Bishop accounted that Robbie spoke ‘the voice of the devil’ during the exorcism, that Robbie’s physical appearance had become sinister and that when ever the exorcism was being performed, the room unnaturally dropped in temperature.

Then on Monday 18th April at 11pm, during the thirtieth exorcism, Robbie jumped to his feet and yelled, "Satan! Satan! I am Saint Michael, and I command you, Satan, and other evil spirits, to leave this body, in the name of Dominus. Immediately! Now! Now! Now!"

Robbie then endured the most violent spasm yet, until the disturbance suddenly stopped. He looked up at the priests and said, "He’s gone."

This case of possession not only interested Blatty, but also seemed to excite him. What I mean by that is that Blatty is a religious man who had considered entering the priesthood, and if this story could prove that evil spirits and devils existed, it was possible that angels also existed.

Twenty years had passed and now Blatty was a successful comedy writer. Some of his work included Promise Her Anything and the second Pink Panther movie A Shot In The Dark. In the late Sixties, comedy had dried up considerably and Blatty eventually became unemployed and instead of constantly turning up at the local employment agency, he was reminded of the 1949 case and wanted to write a non-fiction piece on the Maryland exorcism. His first step was to contact the aging Father Bowdern. Blatty asked Bowdern for help while he wrote a true to life account of the 1949 events, which Blatty thought would authenticate to the general public that the devil was manifesting in the real world. Bowdern was willing to help Blatty, but was denied clarification to publicize the story, because of the family.

Blatty was now right where he’d started. Though he didn’t want to abandon the idea. He had now decided to write a fictional story based on the Maryland exorcism. He contacted Father Thomas Bermingham, his teacher in high school, to be his technical adviser on the project and make sure that the story stayed clear of comedy. They both conducted extensive research for just under a year before Blatty wrote the first page of The Exorcist. To separate Blatty’s story from the 1949 case, he made the possessed a 12 year-old girl instead of 14 year-old boy.

NEXT MONTH: FROM NOVEL TO FILM: Filming The Exorcist…it was hell!

Thanks, Paul, for exposing the devilish true story behind The Exorcist.  We wait with baited breath to read about the deviltry on the movie's set next month.  Cheers!

Article copyright Paul Davis

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