The Exorcist’s Linda Blair Reflects On Horror Movie’s Legacy & Her Difficult Experience Making It

Linda Blair, star of the horror classic The Exorcist, has reflected on the movie’s enduring legacy and her experience making it. Based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, 1973’s The Exorcist holds a rarefied place of honor within the horror genre and is still widely regarded as the best film in the long-running franchise it would later spawn. Not only did the original Exorcist movie become the first horror film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, but it also held the record for the highest-grossing R-rated horror for over four decades.

During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Blair explained her complicated relationship with the movie which made her a household name, claiming the “project was not easy.” Blair also explained the movie was originally met with a great deal of opposition from churches and religious groups, and her experiences left her with “a lot of trauma.” Check out her comments below:

That was an extremely rare, unique novel that Bill Blatty wrote and bringing it to screen was not without a lot of complications. The industry didn’t want the movie. They fought hard, they got it made. But there’s a lot of things that went into that left … There’s a lot of trauma there. I’ll write about that in my autobiography, if I can ever get the time, so people could better understand the journey I had to go through, and post, for me, how the public treated me, how the churches treated me, religious groups and how they run this country. They can love you and they can hang you, and it’s very dangerous.

Why The Original Exorcist Will Never Be Topped

Inspiring a string of sequels and prequels, as well as a 2016 television series that ran for two seasons, many filmmakers have tried their hand at continuing from the iconic movie directed by the late William Friedkin. Most recently, Halloween trilogy reboot director David Gordon Green was the latest to try his luck with the property via this year’s The Exorcist: Believer. However, despite bringing back original star Ellen Burstyn, and even including a cameo appearance from Blair’s Regan, Green’s movie would largely fall flat with critics, continuing a trend of lackluster sequels that first began with 1977’s much-maligned Exorcist II: The Heretic.

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How Old Was Linda Blair In The Exorcist

Linda Blair made a controversial debut as the demonically-possessed 12-year-old in The Exorcist, although her real age differs from her character’s.

While horror sequels are often notorious for failing to recapture the appeal of their progenitors, over the years The Exorcist franchise seems to have had a far more difficult time than other properties. While this may be due, in part, to the original Exorcist having the benefit of being able to draw directly from Blatty’s ground-breaking novel, it may also be the result of the enormous cultural impact Friedkin’s adaptation inspired. Lauded for elevating the horror genre beyond its largely B-grade movie origins, the original Exorcist has set an impossible bar that any sequel will never be able to live up to.

Renowned for tales of causing audience members to faint in theaters, and inspiring protests and controversies that only served to further its mystique, the buzz surrounding The Exorcist’s original release is unlike that experienced by any other horror movie to come before or since. Less of a movie, and more of a cultural icon deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of the 1970s, no matter what other filmmakers may try, it is unlikely anyone will ever be able to recapture the magic of the first Exorcist movie.