More than half a century after its game-changing 1973 release, The Exorcist (airing this month on SYFY) continues to rate atop many critics’ lists of the greatest horror movies ever made.
Directed by the late William Friedkin and inspired by the same-named novel from William Peter Blatty, the movie rattled contemporary audiences with its spine-tingling showdown between religious faith and the deepest-seeded forces of evil, while spawning a larger book and screen franchise whose latest installment — a yet-untitled film from director Mike Flanagan — is set to arrive sometime in 2026.
But though The Exorcist still stands out in fans’ minds for its horrifically head-turning supernatural twists (pun intended!), what many viewers might not know is that both the movie and the book drew on actual events to weave their highly dramatized tales of possession and purging.
An unexplained real-life possession case inspired the events of The Exorcist
Speaking at a lookback Q&A in 2012, Friedkin himself shared a bit of the real-life lore behind his movie adaptation, confessing his own fundamental belief in the underlying mystery that fuels the film’s demon-cleansing plot.
Noting that Blatty’s original novel was itself inspired by real accounts of a reported 1949 possession involving a 13-year-old boy (portrayed by a girl, Linda Blair, in its fictional treatments to protect the child’s identity), Friedkin recounted how the victim’s ordeal tested the real-life family who endured its remarkable horrors.
“The family was Lutheran,” said Friedkin (via Entertainment Weekly), “and they went through all the stages you see in the film: They went to doctors, clinics, and finally went back to their own pastor in the Lutheran church, who recommended they see a priest,” Friedkin said.
Friedkin even found a surprising alliance within some corners of the Catholic faith during the film’s production and promotion, a benefit he attributed to his own interpretation of the exorcism ritual’s long-held status as an esoteric, but well-established church practice.
“The Cardinal in New York preached about it from the pulpit and said great things about it,” Friedkin said of his film. “The guy who was the head of the Jesuit order at the time, Father Pedro Arrupe, who was headquartered in Milan, he had his own print of it and would show it to his fellow priests and bishops and cardinals.”
In the end, Friedkin reflected on his landmark horror film as an optimist’s examination of the unexplained, a stylized exploration through art of the mysteries that science — at least so far — hasn’t found a measured way to directly address.
“I did this film because I believe in the story. This film was made by a believer,” he maintained. “…I know it’s voted this-and-that horror film, but to me, it’s about the mystery of faith.”
Experience the demonically dreadful terror of the The Exorcist on SYFY, where the movie is part of this month’s lineup of classic spooky stories and must-watch genre classics. Check the full TV schedule here!
