William Friedkin never intended for ‘The Exorcist’ to be a horror movie
The effect that The Exorcist had on the horror genre was profound. Before William Friedkin‘s iconic adaptation of the best-selling book, horror films generally kept the supernatural out of the real world. Friedkin decided to show the gritty reality of life on screen, whether it was the decrepit New York City streets or the posh horror of Washington, D.C., in the 1970s. It was a bold move that would eventually lead to The Exorcist outstripping the director’s impressive filmography.
There’s good reason, though. The Exorcist broke down barriers for the horror genre. Although it was considered B-movie material for most of its history, horror was starting to gain the respect and acclaim it deserved, thanks to The Exorcist. As the first horror film to be nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, The Exorcist had some serious critical bona fides to go with its commercial success.
However, Friedkin himself thought of the movie in a different way. In a 2014 interview with TheLipTV, Friedkin was asked whether he saw the film as a horror movie. “Absolutely not,” the director responded, “because I read the diaries of the priest, the doctors, the nurses and the patience who were involved in the actual case in 1949 in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was a 14-year-old boy, not a 12-year-old girl, and Bill Blatty – who wrote the novel and the screenplay – was an undergraduate at Georgetown when this case appeared on the front pages of The Washington Post.”
“[It] states unequivocally that this was a case of demonic possession as deemed by the Catholic church, which had only approved three such cases in the 20th century in this country,” he added. “You can read what Blatty did then and see that this appeared to be something beyond anyone’s knowledge of a normal illness or disease, which I believe as well. I’ve studied the case at length. I know the family and the people who were actually involved, and something happened here that was not a horror film.”
Friedkin claimed, “Blatty and I never spoke of making a horror film. We talked about making a film which was about the mystery of faith. I felt that The Exorcist story was one of the most powerful things you could do in dealing with the mystery of faith and God’s love and forgiveness.”
However, the general reception of The Exorcist eventually helped change Friedkin’s mind. “I certainly do not belong to any religious faith, but I never intended The Exorcist to be a horror film, and now I recognise that it is!” he concluded. “The public, over 40 years, thinks of it as a horror film. So I must be wrong: it’s a friggin’ horror film. But I thought of it as a powerful story about the mystery of faith.”
Watch Friedkin discuss the film down below.
