While the majority of "The Exorcist" preys upon audience members' fears of demonic forces, it also doesn't shy away from body horror. Who could forget the infamous spinning head scene? And while that's scary enough, there's one utterly freaky scene in particular that viewers didn't get to see until the movie's 2000 theatrical re-release. This is the "Exorcist" scene that wasn't released until years later.
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00:00If you thought that the original theatrical release of The Exorcist was scary,
00:04then you haven't seen anything yet. Let's dig into this horrifying sequence that was
00:09unreleased for years. Few films have the lasting notoriety of William Friedkin's The Exorcist.
00:15This 1973 tale of terror traumatized audiences when it released in theaters,
00:19with reports of people fainting in the aisles. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name
00:24by William Peter Blatty, it followed the harrowing story of a young girl named Regan,
00:29who becomes possessed by an unholy force. Her mother calls upon the Catholic Church to
00:34exorcise her daughter, and the priests they send undergo true horror trying to
00:38release poor Regan from the demon's clutches.
00:42I think the point is to make us despair."
00:45There are many shocking scenes in The Exorcist, including Regan levitating several feet off of
00:50her bed, a scene in which her head spins 180 degrees, and the infamous pea soup vomit scene.
00:57But perhaps the most shocking of all never made it into the theatrical cut.
01:01Twenty-seven years later, for a theatrical re-release in 2000, audiences finally got a
01:06chance to see one of the most infamous deleted scenes of all time — Regan's staircase spider
01:12walk. In the original theatrical cut of The Exorcist, the signs of Regan's possession
01:17begin more gradually, before eventually ramping up to her more otherworldly antics.
01:22Friedkin decided to remove the footage of Regan walking backwards on her hands
01:25and feet down the stairs from this version because it ratcheted the terror up too quickly,
01:30and the special effects at the time felt hokey. Friedkin was especially annoyed with the wires
01:34that helped Blair's stunt double do the awkward, creepy walk, so the scene hit the cutting room
01:39floor. The original footage recreates one of the freakiest moments in Blatty's novel,
01:44with Regan creepy crawling her way down the stairs, flicking her tongue out like some kind
01:48of lizard, and then chasing after one of her mother's friends. While some of the spider walk
01:53itself does look a little hokey, the feral nature of Blair's performance and the terrified screams
01:59of her target make it a whole lot scarier. In 2000, Friedkin's director's cut of The
02:04Exorcist was re-released in theaters, famously billed as the version you've never seen.
02:09The new cut added previously deleted scenes, including the infamous spider walk moment.
02:15Horror fans flocked to theaters to see the long-discussed,
02:18rarely-seen deleted scene. In this version, Friedkin reworked the sequence,
02:23removing the tongue-flicking and making blood cascade out of Regan's open mouth.
02:28It's grisly stuff, and it's especially shocking compared to the original footage.
02:32It happens right after Regan's mother discovers the tragic death of a family friend,
02:37who fell down a stairwell on a nearby street and broke his neck. Overwhelmed with fear for
02:42her daughter, who appears to be medically healthy but cannot control the demon inside of her,
02:47and sadness for the dead man, she is at the brink of breaking.
02:51Enter Regan, crawling unnaturally down the stairs, reminding everyone that she's not healthy at all.
02:57Even before the spider walk, The Exorcist was recognized as one of the most impactful films
03:01of the 20th century. It has been referenced in everything from Saturday Night Live,
03:06to X-Men The Last Stand, to Austin Powers' The Spy Who Shagged Me.
03:11The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you."
03:17It also went on to spawn several sequels and prequels, including Exorcist II, The Heretic,
03:23The Exorcist III, Exorcist The Beginning, and Dominion, prequel to The Exorcist.
03:28There was even an Exorcist television series,
03:31starring Geena Davis and Ben Daniels, that ran on Fox for two seasons, ending in 2017.
03:37In 2010, the Library of Congress selected The Exorcist to be preserved in the National Film
03:42Registry, citing it as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The film also holds
03:48its place in history as one of the most cursed horror films ever made. There were multiple
03:52deaths and disasters on set, including injuries to stars Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn. A massive
03:58fire destroyed most of the film's sets, causing massive delays and budget spikes, though Regan's
04:04bedroom somehow survived. That was just weird enough to make the filmmakers call an actual
04:08Jesuit priest to bless the set before filming could resume. Decades after its release,
04:13The Exorcist is still a powerful and striking story about the nature of evil.
04:18The spider-walk sequence is only a tiny part of the film itself,
04:21but it's integral to the overall legend of this extraordinary film.