Production Hell - The Exorcist

TL;DR

The Exorcist's production was plagued by fires, injuries, multiple deaths, and budget chaos so severe that cast and crew genuinely believed the film was cursed.

Key Points

• 1.A pigeon flew into a circuit box, burning the entire McNeel house set to the ground; the only room untouched was Reagan's bedroom. Rebuilt sets were then flooded by a malfunctioning sprinkler, causing additional weeks of delay.
• 2.At least five people connected to the production died during filming, including actors Jack MacGowran and the actress playing Karras's mother, plus a crew member operating the cooling system and a night watchman shot on set.
• 3.Linda Blair fractured her spine from an improperly secured bed harness and developed a lifelong fear of cold after weeks of shooting in sub-zero temperatures in just a nightgown; Ellen Burstyn fractured her coccyx from a stunt gone wrong — and Friedkin kept that take in the film.
• 4.The budget ballooned from $5 million to over $10 million, and the planned 85-day shoot stretched beyond 200 days, driven by set disasters, crew illness in Iraq, and Friedkin's obsessive perfectionism (he spent three days filming bacon curling in a pan).
• 5.The film was ultimately a massive success, earning nearly $200 million in its initial 1973 run and over $400 million total across re-releases — equivalent to over a billion dollars today — becoming the first horror film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.