The Exorcist’s cursed damage report

The web is stuffed with information, each true and in any other case. In Movie Trivia Truth Examine, we’ll browse the depths of the online’s most user-generated trivia boards and wikis and put them beneath the microscope. How true are the IMDb Trivia pages? You need the reality? Are you able to deal with the reality? We’re about to seek out out.

Declare: “An viewers member who noticed [The Exorcist] in 1974 throughout its authentic theatrical launch fainted and broke her jaw on the seat in entrance of her. She then sued Warner Bros. and the filmmakers, claiming that using subliminal imagery within the movie had induced her to go out. The studio settled out of court docket for an undisclosed sum.” Supply: IMDb

Ranking: Inconclusive

Context: Far be it from us to disclaim The Exorcist yet one more lawsuit, however this declare seems to have been made up. We regarded by way of newspaper information, blogs, and documentaries, listened to interviews and audio commentaries, and located no point out of an unfortunate viewers member who fainted of their seat, broke their jaw on the chair in entrance of them, and tried to sue WB. We’re not saying it didn’t occur, however it could be the uncommon time The New York Occasions didn’t do a narrative in regards to the outrageous response to the movie. The Exorcist is awful with lawsuits and tales of its “cursed manufacturing.”

“9 folks died” throughout its year-long manufacturing, Ellen Burstyn says in Mark Kermode’s 1999 documentary, Worry Of God: 25 Years Of The Exorcist. There are explanations for that, too. “When you’ve got a manufacturing that lasts two or three weeks, nothing occurs,” says Max von Sydow within the documentary. “However when you have a manufacturing that lasts for a yr or 9 months, quite a lot of issues need to occur, accidents or no matter.”

Although it’s troublesome to inform if the rumor began on IMDb or Wikipedia, the latter went to higher lengths to verify the factoid’s validity. First showing on Wikipedia in 2006, the story later carried a quotation main again to IMDb till the put up was quietly eliminated in 2008, together with different “completely nugatory and meaningless trivia,” because the Wiki editor so elegantly put it. However as a result of it continued to hang around on IMDb, the story unfold. It appeared in at least one school thesis (which cites Wikipedia), on a number of film blogs, the content material churn of the 2010s, and eventually, as engagement bait on social media. Except for the filmgoer’s pronouns, the verbiage stays largely unchanged, and the 2 events at all times settle out of court docket.

In its protection, the rumor sounds true. In 1974, The New York Occasions reported fainting spells, vomiting, and abrupt exits “earlier than the movie was half over.” They famous a safety guard who advised them that folks had coronary heart assaults: “One girl even had a miscarriage.” Even these tales don’t maintain as much as scrutiny. A follow-up report from The Occasions refutes the safety guard’s declare, with a theater operator saying he had no data of coronary heart assaults however was conscious of the vomiting and blackouts.

Horror motion pictures have lengthy employed medical threat as a advertising approach. Earlier than schlockmeister William Fortress shocked the seats of anxious Tingler viewers, theaters have been staffed with nurses who provided “nerve tonic” to quell fears through the 1931 launch of Dracula. Right this moment, advertising departments nonetheless exploit people tales of stomach-churning slashers. Terrifier 2 reportedly made viewers puke of their popcorn in 2022, and the hype helped make that micro-budget splatterfest successful, simply because it did for The Exorcist in 1974.

Within the previous years, viewers members advised warfare tales of their battle with the satan, because the scars from moviegoing accidents of years previous lingered with the aching reminiscence of an historical wound. A lot in order that in 1995, Tom Morris of Braintree, Massachusetts, despatched a letter to Roger Ebert to lastly resolve his response. Sadly for us, Tom didn’t obtain a damaged jaw—just a few bloody shins. He writes:

“I recall a rumor that The Exorcist used subliminal messaging to have an effect on the viewers. Once I noticed it on its preliminary theatrical launch, I handed out at one level—and I don’t faint simply. It was early within the movie when she was having her mind X-rayed: The scene confirmed Regan with a needle in her neck, and there’s a gyrating X-ray machine and the machine-gunlike sound of sheets of movie quickly advancing. I recoil on the thought {that a} film may have such an affect on me with out some type of unfair benefit. Possibly the hype surrounding the movie and the crowded theater set me up for it. Once I got here to, I observed that I’d slumped down and jammed my shins towards the metallic fringe of the seat in entrance of me. They have been reduce and bleeding. In all probability one of many few instances that watching a film led to bodily damage.

Anecdotal circumstances of damage and sickness didn’t make The Exorcist a goal for litigation. It was merely dishonest enterprise practices that did that. Along with fainting spells, the film was additionally a authorized headache for Warner Bros. Many individuals sued over this image.

Voice actor Ken Nordine took WB to court docket over failing to pay his wage, and for utilizing his sound results with out compensation. The declare was settled out of court docket. “It is extremely substantial,” Nordine mentioned. “I’m happy.” In the meantime, director William Friedkin and author William Peter Blatty sued the studio quite a few instances over credit score, income, and broadcast TV rights.

It’s potential {that a} moviegoer misplaced consciousness and broke their jaw throughout a screening, but when they did, it received no protection. Extra doubtless, the declare is a swirl of the numerous different ghost tales in regards to the movie. Unsurprisingly, Friedkin had essentially the most salient phrases to supply about the complete endeavor:

“There was quite a lot of stuff written about The Exorcist and behind the scenes of The Exorcist,” Friedkin says within the 2000 director’s commentary. “Nearly everyone who wrote about it knew little or no, if something, about it.”

“A whole lot of incorrect data was handed on to the general public and kind of added to the darkish legend that the movie accommodates to today. I’ve to say that many of the tales that I noticed, if not all of them, have been utterly made up out of complete fabric.”