A Night of Discussing 'The Exorcist' | Real Excavation Sites and the Madness of Making People Believe—How the Most Feared Movie in History Was Made [Cinema Teacher's Behind-the-Scenes Talk]

🎬 Cinema Teacher's Behind-the-Scenes Talk Stories from the "outside" of the film that couldn't be fully told in the main Friday review. Behind-the-scenes secrets, cultural impact, episodes only the teacher knows—this is a Wednesday night aside, quietly told by the Cinema Teacher alone. Please enjoy it alongside the main feature. There are almost no spoilers.

Tonight is about 'The Exorcist'. For those who have seen it, I'll provide the answer to "why it was so scary," and for those who haven't, I'll explain "why a half-century-old film is still feared today."

Wednesday, July 22, 2026. Night. Today, neither Tokku nor Yoi-kun is here. I'm talking alone, perhaps sipping some liquor. The main feature on Friday will have a slightly different tone than the usual talk. I won't say what we're doing yet. It's something to look forward to when you watch it. However, as a preparation for that, tonight I want to talk about the obsession of two men. The men who made this film "look real"—Mr. Friedkin and Mr. Blatty. Without these two, that film would have ended up as just a haunted house movie.

It started with a true story

First, let me talk about the original author, William Peter Blatty. He was a devout Catholic.

In 1949, Blatty, then a student at Georgetown University, read an article in the newspaper. It was a report on a true story where a boy in Maryland was possessed by a demon, and Jesuit priests performed an exorcism. The boy is referred to by the pseudonym "Roland Doe." It is said that his late aunt taught him how to use a Ouija board (a tool for necromancy), and the strange occurrences began after her death.

More than twenty years later, this article became a novel in Blatty's mind. He didn't write it as a mere ghost story. Blatty himself was a man who grappled with faith throughout his life. For him, this story was—an attempt to prove faith, based on the idea that "if the devil exists, then God must also exist on the other side."

I want you to keep this in mind. The original author wrote this as a "story of faith." By depicting the existence of evil, he paradoxically tried to believe in the existence of good. This premise will have a profound effect on the main story on Friday.

The director stripped away the faith

However, William Friedkin, who directed the film adaptation, took a completely different approach.

Friedkin originally came from a documentary background. His interest was not in "proving faith," but in "making the audience believe that this is really happening." Therefore, he stripped away the religious "explanation of salvation" that Blatty had infused into the film. He left almost no theological comfort.

What happened as a result? It is said that when the original author, Blatty, watched the finished film, he lamented, "Everyone thinks the devil won." The story that was supposed to be a victory of faith had become, at the director's hands, a film with no God in sight and no bottom to its depths.

I believe this "misalignment between author and director" is exactly what made this film a masterpiece. Blatty's "wanting to believe" and Friedkin's "wanting to make people believe." The audience falls into the rift where these two collide. Whether there is salvation or not, one cannot decide. That inability to decide is what has captured and held people for half a century.

It was filmed at a real excavation site

Now, let's talk about how far Friedkin's obsession with "making people believe" went. Let's talk about the opening scene in Iraq.

In that scene where the old priest Merrin walks through the desert ruins, Friedkin didn't film it on a set. He actually went to Iraq and filmed it at a real excavation site in the ancient city of Hatra. He brought cameras into a real excavation that was being led by German archaeologists at the time. Many of the shots of Merrin, played by Max von Sydow, walking through the ruins aren't even staged. They are in the middle of real excavation work.

Moreover, what was being dug up at that site were real artifacts. In 240 AD, this city was conquered, and its inhabitants and statues were beheaded. The excavation team was actually digging up those headless statues. Many of the unsettling relics seen in the film are—real, decapitated ancient statues.

There was only one thing that the script required that wasn't conveniently buried at the site: "a large statue of the demon Pazuzu on the hill." So what did Warner Bros. do? They built one themselves and air-freighted it to Baghdad. Surrounded by real ruins and real artifacts, they placed only one fake demon. The audience cannot tell the difference. Among the real things, only the demon is an imposter.

This is Friedkin's "making people believe." He films a lie in an environment that couldn't be more real. The audience's logic is disarmed in the face of that authenticity.

The cold and the sound were also real.

Obsession remains the same, even in a bedroom where an exorcism takes place.

The freezing air in that room. The white breath exhaled by the actors. Mr. Friedkin cooled the bedroom set itself to sub-zero temperatures using massive refrigeration equipment. Special effects like using smoke to simulate breath would dissipate too quickly and look fake. So, he filmed real white breath in real cold air. The actors were truly freezing while they performed. The essence of the 'demonic presence' that the audience feels from the screen is nothing more than sub-zero air.

The sound is the same. Ordinary horror films play scary music during scary scenes to tell the audience, 'Be scared here.' Mr. Friedkin rejected that. He discarded almost the entire score prepared by the composer. Instead, he used only the first few notes of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells.' That song is not inherently scary at all. The second half is actually upbeat progressive rock. Mr. Friedkin said, 'I wanted a song with the feel of childhood, like Brahms' Lullaby.'

Think about it. He created terror not with sounds of terror, but with sounds of innocence. And in the opening scenes in Iraq, he conversely 'added' sound. The hammering of excavation, the sound of prayers, the barking of dogs nearby, the electronic creaking—he layered these unsettlingly to transform a ruin where nothing had happened yet into a place already filled with something. Pulling back where he should pull back, adding where he should add. Everything is to put the audience's logic to sleep and make their bodies believe directly.

The story took place in the land where it was born

Let me tell you about another interesting connection. The main setting of this film is Georgetown in Washington D.C. Why here?

Remember, the original author, Mr. Blatty, learned of the true story of an exorcism from 1949 when he was a student at Georgetown University. In other words, Georgetown is the very land where this story was born. He used the place where he picked up the seeds of the story as the setting for the story itself.

And that famous scene. The steep, long stone stairs where Father Karras tumbles down. Those actually exist in Georgetown. They are not a set built for filming. They remain a tourist attraction today, the real stairs known as the 'Exorcist Steps' that fans visit. Mr. Friedkin insisted on 'the real thing' here as well.

It is a strange circle when you think about it. Mr. Blatty learned the true story in Georgetown and wrote the story. Mr. Friedkin filmed the climax of the story on the real stairs in that same Georgetown. The story happens in the land where the story was born. Fiction returned to its hometown and became real there. The nature of this film, 'wrapping lies in reality,' had already begun at the stage of choosing the setting.

…By the way, the opening scene in Iraq. That long, seemingly unnecessary prologue is actually the 'single point' that supports the entire main story. But that discussion—let's save it for Monday's 'What is that' session with Tok. I'll leave the reveal for his question.

Movies do not betray you. The author who wanted to believe and the director who wanted to make people believe. The obsession of those two has kept a fake demon, made of real ruins, real cold air, and an innocent lullaby, alive for half a century. Only a lie made to look exactly like the truth disarms a person's logic. That is the kind of story this is.

On Friday, I will discuss this film with Tok and Yoi-kun. I won't say anything about the plan yet. But tonight, having laid out Friedkin's obsession like this, I think again. That director went to such lengths, risking his life, to make the demon 'look real.' That is something a person who doesn't believe in demons cannot do. Those who want to make others believe are half-believers themselves. I will probably be the same on Friday. Whatever I do.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: On Friday, I will discuss 'The Exorcist' with Tok and Yoi-kun. I might do something a little dangerous. Look forward to it.

📢 Friday Release: Movie Talk 'The Exorcist'

【A Word from the Staff】

Mr. Friedkin is just as particular as Mr. Kubrick. While Mr. Kubrick repeats countless takes to create a satisfying scene, Mr. Friedkin focuses on thorough realism, layering preparations to capture a single moment within a single take. Sometimes he slaps an actor to make them look frightened, and he doesn't hesitate to fire a gun to create a look of surprise. I think the world created by that obsession blossomed most in 'Sorcerer.' Simply put, he is a crazy guy on a different vector from Mr. Kubrick, but perhaps masterpieces that remain for posterity are born from the hands of such people. Speaking of this film, the stiffness and coldness of the screen once the exorcism begins in the second half—that is the perfect place for a confrontation with a demon, and it makes you wonder if there is any God in a place like this.
However, while Mr. Friedkin focused on realism, he was not an atheist. That is the interesting part; he identified as an agnostic, stating, 'The power of God and the human soul are things humans cannot know,' and described this film as 'filmed as a believer.' Indeed, there is no expression in 'The Exorcist' that says, 'This is God.' Mr. Friedkin's unique realism—that God cannot be known, yet exists—I think makes this film one level deeper.

(Staff/A good occult film leaves behind a question about God)

👉 Discussing 'Exorcism' in full in the main episode → 'The Exorcist' Analysis (#24) Updating Friday!

👉 The night Yoi first came → 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' Analysis (#16)—Why can't you look away even though it's an ugly film?

【Fact Check】

✅ Verified Facts

• Original author William Peter Blatty was a devout Catholic. While attending Georgetown University in 1949, he learned of the true story of an exorcism of a boy in Maryland (pseudonym Roland Doe) through newspaper reports, which became the inspiration for the original novel (1971). Source:https://exorcist.fandom.com/wiki/The_Exorcist / https://washingtonian.com/2015/10/19/think-the-exorcist-was-just-a-horror-movie-author-william-peter-blatty-says-youre-wrong/

• Blatty wrote this story as a matter of faith, good and evil, and the soul. After watching the theatrical version, he lamented, 'Everyone thinks the devil won' (the discrepancy between the author's intent and the feel of the theatrical version). Source:https://www.evolutionofhorror.com/blog/tale-of-two-bills

• The opening scene in Iraq was actually filmed at the excavation site of the Hatra ruins in Iraq (an ancient city and current UNESCO World Heritage site). Friedkin brought cameras to a real excavation site run by German archaeologists, and many of the shots of Merrin walking were not staged. Real artifacts (statues beheaded during the conquest of 240 AD) were being unearthed at the site. Source:https://www.youngpioneertours.com/the-roots-of-exorcist-curse/ / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatra

• The main setting is Georgetown in Washington D.C., around the area of the author Blatty's alma mater, Georgetown University. The steep stone steps where Karras falls in the climax are real and still exist today as a tourist attraction known as 'The Exorcist Steps.' Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exorcist / https://washingtonian.com/2015/10/19/think-the-exorcist-was-just-a-horror-movie-author-william-peter-blatty-says-youre-wrong/

• Since the large Pazuzu statue required by the script was not at the site, Warner Bros. produced the statue and air-freighted it to Baghdad (from Friedkin's autobiography 'The Friedkin Connection'). Source:https://www.youngpioneertours.com/the-roots-of-exorcist-curse/

• The bedroom scene for the exorcism was filmed with the set cooled to sub-zero temperatures using refrigeration equipment to capture the actors' real visible breath. Source:https://nofilmschool.com/the-exorcist / https://cinephiliabeyond.org/william-friedkins-the-exorcist-the-most-terrifying-film-we-ever-laid-eyes-on/

• Friedkin rejected composer Lalo Schifrin's score and minimized the music. He used only the opening part of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' as the theme (the song as a whole is not a scary piece). Friedkin testified that he wanted 'the feeling of childhood, like Brahms' Lullaby.' Source:https://riotfest.org/2020/10/29/the-exorcist-soundtrack/ / https://www.vice.com/en/article/revisiting-the-exorcist-with-director-william-friedkin-1030/

• The sound in the opening Iraq scene is constructed by layering the sounds of excavation hammers, prayers, dogs fighting, and electronic noises (mentioned in this behind-the-scenes talk as an example of sound design. The interpretation of Merrin's past and the foreshadowing of his heart condition = the meaning of the opening, will be covered in 'Are What #24'). Source:https://rennyo01.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/exorcist-iraq-prologue-its-purpose/

⚠️ Secondary Information / Needs Re-verification

• There are various theories regarding the details of the 1949 true story (the boy's real name, the Ouija board, the sequence of events), and later investigations have pointed out embellishments and exaggerations.

• Specific number of days for filming in Hatra and details of staff testimonies (based on autobiographies and secondary sources).

🔍 Various Theories / Original Framing

• The reading that 'the audience falls into the rift between Blatty's obsession (to believe) and Friedkin's (to make people believe)' is the framing of this behind-the-scenes talk.

• The circular reading that 'the story happens in the land where it was born (Georgetown) / fiction returns home and becomes reality' is the framing of this behind-the-scenes talk.

• 'Only a lie crafted to look exactly like the truth can disarm human logic' is the thesis of this behind-the-scenes talk.

• In this behind-the-scenes talk, I have intentionally avoided interpreting the meaning of the opening scene in Iraq, leaving that for 'Are Nani #24'.