The Exorcist Trivia
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This Exorcist trivia quiz has 108 free questions with answers and covers the film that made audiences faint in 1973 and everything around it: William Peter Blatty's novel and the Georgetown exorcism it drew on, the casting battles that passed over Brando, Nicholson and Carol Burnett, the refrigerated bedroom, the pea soup, the wallet that became a rotating head, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and the score that ended up in a parking lot. It also covers what came after: the R-rating fight and the UK video ban, the box-office records that stood until It, the first horror Best Picture nomination, Exorcist II, Blatty's own Exorcist III, the two duelling prequels, the Fox series, Believer and the coming Martyrs reboot. Easy questions ask who directed and who played Regan; hard ones want the stunt double's name, the town that fined a theatre $100 and the termite parasite named after the director. Every answer has been checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the films, the novel and the 1949 case, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 108 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was The Exorcist released in US cinemas?
1973
The Exorcist opened in US cinemas on December 26, 1973, the day after Christmas, in a small number of theatres before expanding as queues and word of mouth built.
Q 02Who directed The Exorcist (1973)?
William Friedkin
William Friedkin was not the studio's first choice: Warner pursued other directors and came round only after The French Connection became a hit.
Q 03Who wrote the 1971 novel The Exorcist and won an Oscar for adapting it?
William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty was a comic novelist and screenwriter first; he had wanted to write about the 1949 case since college, but for years his agent and publisher would not hear of it.
Q 04Who played the possessed 12-year-old Regan MacNeil?
Linda Blair
Linda Blair got the part when her mother brought her in without an appointment; the makers had been auditioning older girls, doubting that a 12-year-old could carry the film.
Q 05In which Washington, D.C. neighbourhood is The Exorcist set?
Georgetown
The author heard about the real 1949 case as a Georgetown student in the class of 1950, so he set the story by the campus.
Q 06What is the name of the demon that possesses Regan?
Pazuzu
Pazuzu was a real Mesopotamian wind demon, but a useful one: pregnant women wore his image as an amulet to keep the baby-snatching demoness Lamashtu away.
Q 07What does Regan use to contact the 'friendly' spirit she calls Captain Howdy?
A Ouija board
A Ouija board also figures in the real 1949 case behind the story: the boy is said to have been introduced to one by an aunt who dabbled in spiritualism.
Q 08Which instrumental piece by Mike Oldfield became famous as the theme of The Exorcist?
Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells had sold slowly until the film borrowed its opening piano theme; the album then became an international hit and reached number one in the UK in 1974.
Q 09The Exorcist was the first horror film ever nominated for which Academy Award?
Best Picture
Best Picture had never had a horror nominee, and this one came from a studio that expected little: Warner opened it on only about 30 screens, then watched it collect ten nominations and two Oscars.
Q 10Which of these really happened when The Exorcist was first released?
Audiences fainted and vomited in cinemas
Audiences fainted and vomited in cinemas, yet the queues only grew: people waited for hours in the cold, and reporters stood in lobbies to interview those coming out.
Q 11Which 2017 film finally overtook The Exorcist as the highest-grossing R-rated horror movie?
It
It, the Stephen King adaptation about a child-eating clown, needed just two weeks in US cinemas to pass a domestic total The Exorcist had built up over 44 years and two re-releases.
Q 12What is the famous image of Father Merrin arriving at the MacNeil house, used on the poster, based on?
A René Magritte painting
A René Magritte painting gave the shot its look: his Empire of Light series shows a lamp-lit house at night beneath a bright daytime sky, and the film kept the lamp, the house and the dark.
Q 13Which film director, played by Jack MacGowran, is found dead below Regan's bedroom window?
Burke Dennings
Q 21Why was Regan's bedroom set refrigerated during the exorcism scenes?
So the actors' breath would be visible
The set was chilled 'So the actors' breath would be visible' on camera, signalling the demon's supernatural cold; air-conditioning units froze the room so hard that the crew worked in winter clothing.
Q 22How was the sound of Regan's head rotating created?
By twisting a leather wallet
By twisting a leather wallet full of credit cards, a sound-effects man made the crack of Regan's turning neck; the team shunned electronic sounds and built the film's noises from real recordings such as dogs and a trapped bee.
Q 23How did The Exorcist's director startle his actors into looks of real shock on camera?
Burke Dennings, the hard-drinking director of Chris MacNeil's film, is the demon's first victim; Jack MacGowran died of influenza soon after finishing the part, one of the deaths that fed talk of a curse on the set.
Q 14Which 2023 legacy sequel brought Ellen Burstyn back as Chris MacNeil?
The Exorcist: Believer
The Exorcist: Believer was an expensive bet: Universal and Peacock had paid about $400 million for the rights to a new trilogy, and its opening weekend was reported as a disappointment against that price.
Q 15The Exorcist's novelist insisted on which job on the film before he would sell the rights?
Producer
Producer was his condition for selling, and it cost him: an early offer for the rights and one interested star both fell away over the demand.
Q 16Which voice actress supplied The Exorcist's demon voice after raw eggs, whiskey and chain-smoking?
Mercedes McCambridge
Mercedes McCambridge, an Oscar winner for All the King's Men, had herself tied to a chair to sound like a demon straining at its bonds; she was left off the first prints and credited only after she protested.
Q 17Which actor originally signed to play The Exorcist's Father Karras had his contract bought out?
Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach was under contract when a playwright who had studied for the priesthood insisted he was Karras and begged for a screen test; the director watched it and told the studio to pay Keach off.
Q 18Which actress did the novelist use as the model for Chris MacNeil?
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine, the novelist's friend and neighbour, recognised lines she had once said in Chris MacNeil's dialogue; the director passed over her because she had just made another possession film.
Q 19Warner Bros. wanted which star to play Father Merrin, only for the director to refuse?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando was the studio's pick for Merrin, but the director refused, fearing the film would become 'a Brando movie', and cast Max von Sydow, who had played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Q 20Where were The Exorcist's opening archaeological-dig scenes shot?
In and near Mosul, Iraq
In and near Mosul, Iraq: the US had no diplomatic relations with Iraq, so the director dealt directly with the ruling Ba'ath Party, which let him film if he hired local crew and taught them to make film blood.
By firing a gun on set
By firing a gun on set without warning: he let off blanks to jolt Jason Miller in one take, and cast members remember him doing it again and again during the long, gruelling shoot.
Q 24Which famous Exorcist scene was cut before the 1973 premiere and restored in the 2000 director's cut?
The spider-walk
The spider-walk, performed by stuntwoman Ann Miles, was cut before the premiere; the director later said the wires holding her had shown, and they were erased digitally for the 2000 version.
Q 25Which makeup artist designed the ageing makeup that turned Max von Sydow into Father Merrin?
Dick Smith
Dick Smith added some 30 years to an actor still in his forties, with hours in the chair each morning; some joke that the old priest wears more makeup than the possessed girl.
Q 26Which composer's avant-garde works, including Polymorphia, were used on The Exorcist's soundtrack?
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki wrote these pieces for the concert hall, but after this film horror cinema adopted them: Polymorphia turns up again in The Shining.
Q 27Which line do the priests chant as Regan rises off her bed in The Exorcist?
The power of Christ compels you
The power of Christ compels you: the two priests shout it again and again while Regan floats above the bed, a shot done for real with the young actress lifted on wires painted to disappear.
Q 28Which director made the 1977 sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic?
John Boorman
John Boorman had turned down the original, which he disliked, then agreed to make its sequel, and ended up recutting the prints while they were already playing in cinemas.
Q 29Which actor replaced the late Lee J. Cobb as Lieutenant Kinderman in The Exorcist III?
George C. Scott
George C. Scott played the detective in a sequel first shot without any exorcism; after test screenings the studio had a new climax written and reshot to add one.
Q 30The murderer in The Exorcist III was partly modelled on which real-life criminal?
The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer inspired the film's Gemini murderer, and he was a viewer too: in January 1974 he mailed a San Francisco newspaper his own verdict on The Exorcist.