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The Exorcist's Set Was So Brutal, Even The Cast's Injuries Made The Final Cut

Fifty years later, the behind-the-scenes stories are almost as disturbing as the movie itself.

By The Clapperboard Staff · July 17, 2026 · 2 min read

The Exorcist's Set Was So Brutal, Even The Cast's Injuries Made The Final Cut

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They Turned A Real Bedroom Into An Actual Meat Locker — On Purpose

Regan's freezer of a bedroom, on screen.

Director William Friedkin, who insisted on real cold over movie tricks.

William Friedkin wasn't satisfied with fake fog for the exorcism scenes, so he had Regan's bedroom set built inside a refrigerated 'cocoon' that could hit -20°F. The catch: the set lights warmed the air so fast that the crew could only shoot for a few minutes at a time before having to re-freeze the whole room.

The Spider-Walk Was A Real Contortionist Bent Into Genuinely Impossible Angles

Linda Blair as Regan, whose face was grafted onto the contortionist's spider-walk.

The scene that was too unsettling for 1973 audiences.

For Regan's infamous backwards crawl down the stairs, Friedkin hired contortionist Linda R. Hager to actually fold her body into the shot rather than fake it with effects. The scene got cut from the 1973 theatrical release because the rigging wires were too visible, only resurfacing decades later once CGI could scrub them out for the 2000 director's cut.

Father Dyer Was Played By An Actual Priest — Who Got Slapped For Real To Get The Take

Father William O'Malley, real-life Jesuit priest turned Father Dyer.

Jesuit priest Father William O'Malley wasn't acting when he played Father Dyer; he was a real theology teacher who also served as the film's technical advisor. To get a genuinely shocked reaction for the last-rites scene, Friedkin reportedly asked O'Malley, 'Do you trust me?' — then slapped him across the face right before yelling action.

Ellen Burstyn's Real Scream Of Pain Made It Into The Movie

Ellen Burstyn, whose real back injury ended up in the finished film.

Linda Blair, who also fractured her spine in a separate bed-rig accident.

During the scene where Regan throws her mother across the room, Burstyn warned the crew the harness was yanking her too hard — and got hurt anyway on the very next take. Friedkin kept the cameras rolling through her cry of genuine agony instead of calling cut, and that unedited take is the one audiences still see.

The 'Cursed Set' Rumors Started Because Genuinely Terrible Things Kept Happening

The film that reportedly needed its own blessing to finish shooting.

Max von Sydow, who had to fly home mid-shoot after his brother's death.

Before filming even wrapped, a fire destroyed the entire MacNeil house set overnight — except, eerily, Regan's bedroom. Add in a string of crew deaths, a newborn's death, a carpenter losing a thumb, and Max von Sydow's brother dying during his first week of shooting, and it's no wonder Friedkin asked technical advisor Father Thomas Bermingham to bless the set, even though the priest insisted he couldn't perform an actual exorcism.

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