Iconic Horror Classic Arrives On Max Just In Time For Halloween Season
If you’re finding that you’re entirely over the warm temperatures and are longing for that crisp breeze, we’re here to tell you that fall is just around the corner. And you don’t need to take it from us (or from a calendar) as Max has announced its September lineup, and The Exorcist is set to land on September 1. There’s no better way to know that Halloween is just around the corner than with the arrival of William Friedkin’s scare-fest that kicked off an entire franchise.
The Exorcist Changed Horror
In 1973, Friedkin blew the socks off theatergoers everywhere when he helmed the adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name. The Exorcist stars Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream) as Chris MacNeil, an actress who has just started a new job in Washington, D.C. When her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), begins to display odd and mystifying behaviors, Chris at first believes something is medically wrong with the young girl.
However, doctors are unable to find anything medical going on with Regan, yet her behavior gets worse and worse, with all signs pointing to possession. Seeking out the help of two priests in the Catholic church, Chris does everything she can for her child, whose demonic possession takes the center of the story of The Exorcist. With one of the priests suffering from a crisis of faith, the power of Satan pushes to undermine the holy men at every turn and claim the little girl for good.
The Rare Major Award-Winning Horror
The title would serve as Linda Blair’s debut as a young movie star, with the actress’s name forever synonymous with Regan MacNeil. Other main players included two-time Academy Award nominee Max von Sydow as Father Lankester Merrin and Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras, the latter of whom ended up nabbing an Academy Award nomination for his work in Friedkin’s movie.
A Best Picture Nominee
By the time Ellen Burstyn played the distraught mother in The Exorcist, she had already been nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in The Last Picture Show and only went on to gain more success and critical acclaim over the next several decades.
One of those pieces of acclaim would come in the form of yet another nomination at the Academy Awards for her role as Chris MacNeil. In all, The Exorcist was up for a whopping 10 Oscars that year, with William Peter Blatty taking home the trophy for Best Adapted Screenplay and Robert Knudson and Chris Newman winning for Best Sound. Despite losing Best Picture, it will forever go down in history as the first horror movie to be up for the accolade.
A Box Office Juggernaut
As one can imagine, there was an overwhelming outcry from not just the Catholic Church but many other religious institutions upon The Exorcist’s release. Still, that didn’t keep audiences away – and may have made them even more intrigued – as the film absolutely crushed its production budget of $12 million thanks to its staggering box office haul of $441.3 million.
Still Going Today With An Original Star
Realizing what a hit they had, Warner Bros. quickly pushed for production to move forward on a sequel that would eventually be titled Exorcist II: The Heretic. Both Blair and von Sydow returned for the follow-up, with John Boorman taking over the directorial duties. In the years since, four more films have either served as sequels, prequels, or off-shoots, with the most recent being David Gordon Green’s 2023 feature, The Exorcist: Believer.
Largely a miss with the fandom, The Exorcist: Believer didn’t quite pack the punch that the studio was hoping for despite bringing Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil back into the fold along with a cameo from Linda Blair. But, our faith in the film series isn’t shaken yet as Mike Flanagan is the next director entrusted with returning the franchise to its former glory.
See where it all began on September 1 when The Exorcist begins streaming on Max.
