This Paranormal Life - #323 The REAL Curse Behind The Exorcist Movie

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

On Boxing Day 1973 audiences around the world flocked to the must-see cinema event of the year - The Exorcist - clamouring to see if the stories were true; that it was the most shocking film ever made. Even primed with this knowledge they could not be prepared for what they saw that night. People were fainting and vomiting in the aisles (really!) and ambulances lined up outside theatres before showings to save people the time of calling them. But an extremely scary movie isn't paranormal, is it? On this week's episode Kit and Rory dive into the making of this historic film and the alleged curse that followed the cast and crew both during the film's creation and for decades afterwards.LIVE TOUR - www.thisparanormallife.com/tourFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can ghosts feel pain? If I eat a graphics card, does that make me a bionic man? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday

we dive into a different paranormal case and by the end of the episode decide whether it's really paranormal or not. You are, as always, joined by me, Kit Greer-Mulvena, and my co-investigator Rory Pars, who's sitting across from me. How are you doing today, Rory? I'm doing great. A lot of great questions asked already at the start of this podcast. You know, when we look at things like the concept of a cyborg,

correct me if I'm wrong, a cyborg, is that the one that's kind of half human, half robot? I think so. Right? I mean, does that, in that balance, do you kind of have to have, you know, a robot arm and a robot leg and then be part human? Or can I just eat a Microsoft computer? Right. At that point, I am part machine. There's an entire fucking MacBook inside of my stomach.

Well, you know, ancient philosopher Rory did posit on a recent episode because we worked out how much blood was in a human body. And then you posited, okay, well, if there's four liters of blood, if I drink two liters of milk, am I... Well, no, four liters of milk, am I half milk, half milk am i half milk half man yeah yeah exactly or something like that uh but the similar similar idea here how much computer chips do i need to eat to be a bionic man right because at any point you know you can have a robot a robot isn't a robot because it can do something because it can jump high or do math well or something.

It's part robot because part of it is machine. It is a machine. So it's the same with a cyborg. If cyborg just means it's a combination between man and machine, I could just eat a bunch of wires. Right, not... Like spaghetti. Not even connected.

Spaghetti al jurassal. One of my favorites. What does a cyborg mean? I'm pretty sure. It's like RoboCop. You my favorites What does a cyborg mean? I'm pretty sure It's like Robocop You know, he's a cyborg Oh, it's a combination of cybernetic and organism There you go

And I'm sure that there are health risks And complications that we should consider Before, you know, when we begin that procedure But right before we dive in today's episode I'm going to eat my Apple Watch I'm today's episode, I'm going to eat my Apple Watch. I'm going to do it. I'm going to eat it. Please don't.

You can't handle lactose. I don't know if you can handle... Mac-tose. That's when you eat a MacBook from the 1980s. All right, here we go. Going to eat my Apple Watch. We'll see how it goes. You're derailing the podcast so bad.

You can't even fit it in your mouth. Oh, my God. Crunchy. I really hurt on the way down. I can hear the notifications going off from your stomach. Are we going to have to deal with this the entire episode? So I think part of my new robot powers is the ability to spit blood, it seems. Yeah, I think something went dreadfully wrong it might

have cut up the on the way down yeah oh yeah i have to stop podcasting actually i think we need to go to hospital i should have taken off the metal wristband at least right it's not even robot the actual watch but it's just it's like a little pebble that would have been pretty easy but actually the stainless steel sharp wristband, that was probably the problem. All right. Well, now that I have the intelligence of a cyborg. Your voice has been permanently changed. You were smarter with the thing on your wrist because you could ask it questions.

You're like, it's so clear you're changing your voice to try and sound like a robot. Now that my transformation is complete, we can begin the episode. You know, it's probably an episode for another day, but there was a French guy, Mr. Monge II, who, he had a plane. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He ate, didn't he eat like a Boeing 737 or something? Piece by piece for years.

I don't know if it was a Boeing, but I think it was a smaller plane. Not that it f***ing matters. Yeah matters yeah at that point we're splitting hairs yeah because you wouldn't say that he is now a transformer both right both man and plane uh he was just a dude who ate a plane so i can see why why this isn't right we've got to cover that one at some point but today is not that day we got a different paranormal case to dive into. Pretty exciting one too. And one, as a little hint, might be for some of our movie fans in our listenership. A story we're going to get into right after. Some quick words from today's sponsors.

Reminder that all episodes of This Paranormal Life are available ad-free right now on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life all right rory your skin has taken on a slightly mottled uh gray pallor uh since you downed the apple watch um but we are running out of time so i do think we need to power on with the investigation are you able to do that i'm ready and i'm excited you know anytime we get to talk about horror movies and paranormal movies on this podcast, it's always a blast. I didn't say horror movies. I said we might be talking about movies. Well, yeah, okay.

To be fair, we could be talking about a movie production that is a normal movie that has a cursed set. Like we covered Wizard of Oz. I just don't like when you make assumptions, that's all. I don't think that was an assumption. I think that was a safe thing to say. Funny enough, I feel like the one getting shit rammed down my throat the way you're trying to put words in my mouth. Today, Rory, we're going back to Boxing Day 1973.

It may have been Christmas time, but for once, it wasn't Christmas cheer or the season's festivities that had the American people excited. Today was the day that thousands of moviegoers would pour into screenings of a new horror film. So it was a horror film. Yeah, it was, but I wanted to reveal that bit myself. I didn't want you to ram f***ing ideas down my throat. Thanks very much.

Lots of movies do come out at Christmas time and Boxing Day. I've never really understood this phenomenon because I'm normally halfway through a 72-hour food and alcohol-induced coma on Boxing Day. So the idea of heading out to the pictures sounds a little much for me. But is that something you've done? Yeah, I've done it a few times before. When there's a good movie that comes out, Star Wars, weirdly, has kind of become Christmas movies. Also, just Christmas movies have become Christmas movies.

So, yeah, I'll do it. Gun to your head, favorite Christmas movie? It's a deadlock tie between Muppet Christmas Carol and Jingle All the Way. Die Hard coming in close second. Hey, all solid choices. I think this Christmas passed. I think I, this Christmas passed, I think I watched Home Alone for the first time. I'd never seen that one before.

But yeah, big Christmas movie household over here too. Yeah. But the early 70s was a great time for horror audiences. There had been some bangers come out in the previous few years, like Night of the Living Dead, A Clockwork Orange, or researcher Amy's all-time favourite, Rosemary's Baby, which I think gives us a disturbing insight into the twisted mind of researcher Amy. But the people weren't ready for what they saw that night. There were graphic medical procedures, bodily fluids, and perverted acts happening before their eyes.

And that was just the concession stand on the way into the theatre. It was unlike anything they'd seen before. People were screaming in terror, staggering to the exits to escape and even throwing up in the aisles. Cinema operators had to equip themselves with smelling salts to help revive passed out patrons. Oh my god. Ambulances would wait outside screenings to save people the trouble of calling them.

What? And if you don't believe me, I managed to find footage of viewer reactions coming out of these theaters in the early days of this movie's release. Oh, I can't wait to see this. I fainted like 10 minutes after the first beginning of the movie. I walked out and they gave me some water. I think it's disgusting.

Why? I don't know, it's just, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't make me want to get sick like everybody says. My legs are just going, meh. And I want to go in the lobby and not watch it, and I have to cover my ears. I have a friend in there alone, and I don't want to leave her in there alone.

My experience with this movie has been incredible, especially with people fainting. I have never in my life known a movie where people would faint. I mean, it's hard to make people faint. Whoa! Jesus. A woman just hit the deck, and the cinema attendants are helping her up.

As soon as they faint, I get out the smelling salts and we have two kinds. We have a little bottle with smelling salts and I uncap it and I hold it under their nose and they come to or else we have the little pellets and I break them and then they come to. Fantastic movie. It's really gross. It was really terrific. I wanna see if it's gonna make me throw up. Keep an eye on that one guy who just said,

Amazing movie. Yeah. It was people just like hard in their hands, depressed, crying, throwing up, passing out in the cinema. And then one guy just grinning ear to ear, eyes wide. It's about time we saw a proper movie there's something so funny about anytime you see videos like this in the past where it's people experiencing something at the time that felt really cutting edge but now in hindsight is really simple and kind of bad you know these people are walking out of this movie just being

like it's the most realistic thing I've ever seen. I'm not going to sleep for weeks. And then you realize the movie that they're walking out of was like... Thomas the Tank Engine Part 2. Exactly. Something completely mundane, tiny. It's like when you see interviews with people playing Super Mario for the first time, and Mario jumps and stomps a goomba and it's like i

didn't sleep for two days after that it's like the pixels are so sharp and vivid i thought i was looking at a real man crushing a turtle what are you talking about yeah the uh the example i always give is uh you know the original uh i think it was the bram Strucker's Dracula adapted for film for the first time yeah when it first came out in Britain it was censored it wasn't even allowed to be shown they were like humans should never lay eyes on something this grotesque this offensive to God a movie that I think today carries an age warning of 12 years old. I see worse shit on my Twitter feed while I'm in bed. I have nastier shit beamed into my eyes

at 9.01am, one minute after I've woken up. It's really true, especially since Elon Musk took over Twitter. I'm just scrolling through Twitter, blacking out in bed. My mum has to run in

with smelling salts just to keep me alive. This is Rory. And it's because I'm back home in Northern Ireland, all right? I don't always sleep in a bedroom right beside my mother. I usually have my own apartment in a big city because I'm a grown man. I just want to clarify that. I want to clarify that. Sometimes your mom does come to stay.

So sometimes even when you're in the big city, she is next to you. Yeah, well, I can't always have her bake the cookies in Northern Ireland and send them to me. So sometimes it's easier to have her stay with me. She can like... Oh, she's... I thought she was coming to like visit you or like see the city, but you make it sound like she's coming to London to bake cookies for you. And, you know, cook and clean and look after me and rub my tummy when I'm feeling sick

and... Okay, that's insane. How often is that? Barely at all. Every other week, I'd say. Okay, so it's a kind of... Sorry for loving my mother! I'm not going to apologize for that on the podcast. I don't know whether that displays

any love for your mother. It shows that she loves you very much, I suppose. My point still stands is that we've come a long way as a civilization and we've become numb to some of these forms of horror and grotesque media. But back then, this was cutting edge stuff that would scar people for life. The sensation of this film swept across the entire world as the global release unfolded. The majority of international viewers were as deeply disturbed as the American ones. One woman in a British cinema passed out so hard she broke her jaw when she hit the floor. Oh my god. When she was helped off the ground by an ambulance worker she looked at him wide-eyed and said, The devil did this to me. Okay, that's quite a leap.

The film I'm talking about is, of course, The Exorcist. And it's about a little girl that gets possessed by a demon and the battle to free her soul from evil. It was the most graphic and extreme cinema release by far at the time and it sparked a renewed fear of the devil into an entire generation yeah this was a big thing around this time where everyone was kind of blaming the devil for essentially everything every new form of media dungeons and dragons uh there was a big scare around that people saying that it was a cult game that was satanic and worship the devil

video games were becoming popular games like mortal combat they were saying were ultra violent and meant kids were going to run out into the streets and beat each other to death uh it's a cycle that we that we keep seeing um and this was just another instance of it rock and roll why is it so sexy when jimi hendrix thrusts his pelvis and plays the guitar like that must be the devil what is it now vape pens that. Must be the devil. What is it now? Vape pens? That's like blowing the devil's hell smoke. I don't know. There must be some equivalent now.

Yeah, probably. It's probably just the vaccine, let's be honest. Probably the vaccine, Roblox, and being gay, I think are the most demonized things in the new age. My three favorite things. So this thing shocked the world. Home sales of the film were banned in the UK. The outrage in America

was compared to that sparked by Watergate at the time, and Christians were pretty pissed off, of course. Some of them even protested. So all of this is shocking to viewers and to us hearing about it today, but paranormal, surely not. Or is it? For the shocked audiences that saw the movie and threw up everywhere,

they could at least leave the theatre and get on with their lives, safe in the knowledge that it was just a film. But for others, the world of The Exorcist would bleed out into their reality, leaving many to believe that the production of this film itself was cursed. Because even in the earliest stages of filmmaking, strange accidents would take place, and like all good curses, it started off small. Essential props would be misplaced seconds before they were needed for a scene. Rory, we've all been there. How many times have we traveled halfway across the world for a paranormal investigation

only to be face to face with a demon? And uh oh, I forgot my holy water. I mean, a much simpler version of that is, I arrived at the studio yesterday and didn't bring the mic.

Right, you called me last week. You said, Kit, I'm coming to Northern Ireland. Is there anything I need to bring from the studio? I said, brother, you're in luck. We've got absolutely everything except your microphone. The one thing we need to record a podcast on microphone.

You said, bet. And wouldn't you know it? Days before recording, a little f***ing demon must have snatched it right off me. You were in line at Subway whenever you called me. And I was worried about how little you were paying attention to the phone call. Because whenever I said, can you bring the mic? You said, yeah, yeah, honey mustard. Sorry, what?

And I'll take the Doritos. No, not those ones. The chili heat wave ones. Are they part of the meal deal? Yes, I'll bring it all. And I, you meant you'd bring your all to eating that footlong sandwich. It is true. It is true.

It is true. That's not a joke. But granted, on its own, in a vacuum, forgetting things, not paranormal. Not that paranormal. But then came the injuries. One-off accidents quickly became a string of unfortunate injuries. Several of the crew were plagued with sunstroke, and one of the

electricians lost their toes in a freak accident. What?! We don't have the exact details, but presumably, given the nature of his occupation, they were electrocuted to smithereens. He lost his toes? Yeah. My god. That's wild. Look, I've worked, I mean we've both worked on film sets before in the past in some capacity.

They're dangerous places. That's why you have to have health and safety officers and lots of different procedures on set. Granted, usually it means someone bangs their head on a light or steps on something and twists an ankle. Getting your toes blown off of your body is something that would happen in a wizard's duel. Not something that should happen on a film set.

Right. That's a little strange. He was one film set accident away from being turned into a toad. Right. And the kiss

from his true love would only set him free. It's out of this world which granted we are tiptoeing, pun not intended, closer to the world of the paranormal here. We're just tipping, apparently, brother. There's no toes to be seen.

Then, there were the interpersonal conflicts. The director, William Friedkin, slapped William O'Malley, who played Father Dreyer, before shooting a scene to make the actor's hands tremble for the take. Things almost got physical when the director fired a real gun right by actor Jason Miller's ear to get a genuine startled reaction from him. So illegal.

You kind of got to love the chaos of, you know, the current age. Like you say, Rory, we've been on film sets. We've seen the kind of health and safety measures involved. It's quite serious. Yeah. You know, even in actors' contracts or when they step onto a movie set, there's, you know, hardcore legal stipulations. You know, famously, if you're Brad Pitt, it's written into your contract,

every minute we go overtime on a shoot day, you owe me 50K. Right. These kinds of things. It's very tied up. Back then, they were letting it spray. Yeah, nowadays, if you're on a film set and you want to show as much as just a nipple, that is going to be 50 forms filled out,

clearance, people on set, everyone making sure it's a whole big deal. Back in those days, they were just giving people costumes and not telling them that they were tearaway pants. And halfway through the set, they'd just rip them off you and see how you could improvise live. That is

barely a joke as well. I would be shocked if we couldn't find a film that that actually happened in. There were no rules there truly weren't uh thank god for unions although this sounds unhinged behavior like that from directors wasn't that uncommon back in the day i'm sure you've heard stories rory one that comes to mind for me was alfred hitchcock was pretty famous for this stuff. He would do fun little pranks to the actors and crew on set. Like the time he tied a bunch of actors up for a really long time

and gave them laxatives so they would shit themselves on set. Is that a real thing? Kind of funny little ha-has. It's not that funny. That's actually, I think, a crime. It's actually 100% real. He did some pretty sick... They's not that funny. That's actually, I think, a crime. It's actually 100% real. He did some pretty sick... They're not pranks. He abused his actors on set

doing these kind of tricks. One of the most famous ones is the filming of The Shining where Stanley Kubrick famously tortured actress Shelley Duvall repeatedly to essentially make her go really insane. Yeah. You know, requesting that shots be done, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of times

until essentially she was having a mental breakdown. And then it was like, all right, action. Yeah. Let's go. Now, while you're like crying and really having some emotional problems. Great. Let's go. And quite famously, that was a really having some emotional problems. Great, let's go. And quite famously, that was a really difficult thing for her.

There were just different rules back then. For the worst. You know, that's why there are rules now. Yeah. People don't have to shit themselves on set. I mean, and as we're about to see, you know, real talk. It is sad because what happened to Shelley obviously wasn't isolated. And I think realistically, it probably happened to women

far far more than men unfortunately history would repeat itself in that sense Rory one of the worst accidents happened to Ellen Burstyn who played the mother of the possessed Reagan and in the scene where she's thrown away from her daughter she actually sustained

a lifelong back injury in the scene it's said that her scream in she actually sustained a lifelong back injury in the scene. It's said that her scream in the scene is a genuine reaction. Oh my God! Something similar happened to 14-year-old Linda Blair, who played Regan when she was strapped down on the mechanical bed. It was rigged to buck like a bronco to simulate the demon's dark powers. Right.

They had done several takes already, but the director wasn't happy yet. Okay, Linny, I want you to take it up a notch. It's all a bit tame. I want it to feel like you're really hurting. Okay, action! The cameras started rolling and Linda did her best to stick to the director's notes. Suddenly, one of the restraints came loose while it was thrusting from side to side, and Linda was being jostled about like never before. Her back felt like it was on fire. Every movement of the bed was agony. Wow, she's really getting the hang of it now. This is exactly what we need. Unfortunately, the louder she yelled for help, the longer it kept rolling. They thought it was the performance of a lifetime.

performance of a lifetime. Yeah. Look, if your safe word is scream, if your safe word is please stop, you're going to have a problem. All right. You need to make your safe word. Um, bongo or something that would not fit peanut butter. Yeah. Swordfish, something that you can say that isn't, it's like, all right, you know, it might be a little rough. It might be a little bumpy. There's a chance you're going to injure yourself. So your line is the demon's got me. And if anything's wrong, just say the demon has me.

The demon has me. And we'll know something's wrong. She's yelling it and he's like, that's off script. I love it. Great improv, Linda.

Keep it up. Have you ever Ridden on a mechanical bull before? Thankfully no What about you? I did it once At a bar in LA That has

It's like Forget what it's called The Roadhouse Some little cowboy bar Sure And you can basically Pay five dollars Whatever

Go ride this mechanical bull You watch people doing it It looks so easy Oh I think I'm gonna be amazing Yeah And you can basically pay $5, whatever, go ride this mechanical bull. You watch people doing it. It looks so easy. Oh, I think I'm going to be amazing. Yeah. Even knowing where your story is going, Rory, I think that I'm built different ultimately. Right. I will be able to beat the high score on the leaderboard.

You're like, oh, you just got to be like jelly. Just kind of like be tossed about, ride that thing like a slinky. I think I lasted about 14 seconds. The bull did one turn and I went off like a rocket. It is very difficult. There's definitely an art to it. And that was... You knowing what was going to happen.

That was me knowing what's going to happen. And that was a horse with a saddle and a harness that is designed to keep you on for as long as possible. And crucially, a bouncy castle underneath you. If you're rigging a bed to do the same thing, that feels like there's going to be, naturally, complications. That's dangerous. So at this stage, we've had a number of extremely unusual accidents

happening on set and a number of extremely unusual accidents happening on set and a lot of cursed interpersonal relations. I mean... Some, sure, antagonized by the director, but to even add more to that misery, production was insanely delayed due to a slew of problems. The original shooting schedule was 85 days. It ended up taking 224. Hmm, okay.

One of the biggest contributors was a mysterious fire that broke out in the studio. Almost the entire set was reduced to cinders. Except, you know where it didn't burn down, Rory? The only place that didn't burn down was Reagan's bedroom, the one she shares with a demon in the movie. Right. I mean, was it in a different area?

A slightly different area, sure. But also possessed, probably. Okay. But you could see how, if you worked on this film, I mean, Rory, you know, you've got a background in theatre. You've got a background in film. You know that this is not an out-of-pocket idea, the idea of a cursed production. I mean, theatre is one of the most superstitious places on earth. You know, you get lots of people in a high-pressure environment like that, and worries start to circulate about things that could go wrong.

like that and worries start to circulate about things that could go wrong. I mean, you know, the Macbeth curse, the things that can go wrong or that are famed to have gone wrong on stage. Yeah, it's true. But I'll also say, you know, one of the reasons is because productions, there is, it's an environment where so much stuff can go wrong. You know, lights can fail, scripts can run long, and production time is way ahead of schedule. Shit breaks because it's all cobbled together with nails where it looks good from one angle, and in the back it's being held together by duct tape.

It's a very dangerous, strange environment to work in. And film is no different. Yeah, and that's also when the director doesn't have a loaded gun right yeah he sounds like a really bad director but i do think this point is interesting we've obviously had a bunch of bad stuff happen already and we're certainly far from done but the fire feels like the first bit which is potentially connected to kind of a dark energy this is the first almost hint of the reason behind things going wrong. The curse. Is this movie cursed because it involves the devil and demons and possession?

Did they, say, accidentally summon a demon on the movie set? You know, we should know a little bit about this because through creating entertainment through This Paranormal Life, live specifically, we have turned the summoning of demons into entertainment, just like they were trying to do. Yeah, we tried to summon a demon at one of our live shows in London, and he didn't show up. Coward. That's right. I'm calling him out on the podcast. I agree. I see where you're coming from. I will say, though, that nothing so far that has happened is something that has been unexplainable even mysterious fire just kind of means we don't know how the fire started well rory you're gonna have to stay tuned because the curse only got worse you fire a gun by my head oh jesus i think he was really onto something. I slap you.

Oh, my God. There's no cameras. You can't see my trembling hands. Say goodbye to those toes, friend. Shortly into filming, actor Max von Sydow's brother passed away. A short period later, Linda Blair lost

a family member too. She actually lost a lot making that movie. Not just the functionality of her spine. She got so many death threats once the film was released, she had to be escorted by bodyguards for six solid months. Wow! And needless to say, despite the absolute phenomenon and success that this film generated, her career didn't soar after this

movie either. If you think you get typecast by acting in a Marvel movie, try getting possessed in the most controversial movie in history. Right. I mean, which seems cruel because if anything, that shows range. You know, most people who are acting, they're still just playing a human. Right. If your whole thing is like i played a little girl possessed by a demon from another world and i did such a good job a woman vomited and passed out and said it was the devil yeah that's pretty convincing that's a good review for a horror movie well rory on that topic uh her performance was so, she was tipped for Oscar for Best Actress. But crucially, once the news broke and people realised that she wasn't doing the demon voice herself,

that actually someone else did the voice and she acted out on screen, they decided she couldn't win and she was passed up. That's so rude. That's ridiculous. And a fun fact, the demon voice was done by a woman called Mercedes McCambridge, a two-time Oscar-winning actress herself. And I'm not making up this next part.

To prepare for her role doing the demon voice, she had to start chain-smoking to husk up her voice. She started drinking raw eggs along with copious amounts of whiskey to distort her voice even further. Damn. The problem was,

she was a recovering alcoholic. She made a request that since she was giving up her sobriety to nail this role, she would need a priest to watch over her. Oh my God. Eh! Cigarettes, eggs, and whiskey?

How come that's basically my diet and I sound like a f***ing muppet? Why don't I have a cool voice like a rough cowboy? That's brunch at Rory's. I sound like if Kermit the Frog never hit puberty and he stayed a tadpole. Cigarettes, eggs and whiskey is Rory's post-workout meal. That is six days a week for him. Oh, that's not fair. She went fully method.

They really had to tie. They actually had to tie. She went fully method? That was to change her mind. She already changed her voice. I'm starting to think that she just wanted to do these things and the role was the perfect excuse. Yeah.

It's like those guys who take roles in movies where they just have to get insanely jacked. Right. And it's like, I think you just wanted to have a nutritionist and a personal trainer and all of these stuff paid for so you can just get really swole. And then you're like, all right, that movie's done, but I'm actually going to keep the muscle.

Right. So that's done now. Yeah, because I've got more Instagram followers now, so it's kind of working for the brand. You know, that's what I'm waiting on, Rory. You know, I kind of eat like shit, live like shit, live the life of a rat. That's because I'm waiting on the agent calling

and giving me that buff Marvel role. Yeah, you're living the role of a paranormal investigator. That makes sense. Going method. That's why you got that disheveled look where you look like unemployed. Where you look like you've got those

huge bags under your eyes. You look like you haven't slept a day in the last few years. Yeah, just out of shape, grey-skinned, self-conscious. No confidence at all. Just a thin, thin little paper man. But it's acting. But it is acting. Yeah, crucially, sorry.

But it is acting. But it's acting. And inside, I have the confidence of a lion and the posture of a god. Yeah. But again, right now, front-facing, don't look like you could lift a pencil. Don't look like you could spell. There's such little brain activity going on.

I actually think they're making pencils heavier. I do think that they've gotten... Like, whenever I was a kid, it was light work. But, like, now that I'm older and... You look like if you put on a jacket that was too heavy, your knees would buckle. Yeah, well, it was a leather jacket. It was a real genuine leather jacket.

And there were buttons in the pocket and the buttons were heavy. Yeah, I needed the assistant to take it off my shoulder before I could stand up again. But it's acting, it's acting, it's acting. They had to tie down Mercedes. They had to tie her down

while she was recording her lines. She was going so loco. The director says that his memory of her watching her deliver that dialogue still scares him to this day wow Rory this is just about the most effed up movie production we've ever heard of on this paranormal life and we've investigated Willy Wonka where one of the Oompa Loompas killed himself no we did we did that's saying a lot we didn't do that we we investigated the Wizard of Oz where one of the lollipop men hung himself, I believe.

Close enough. Yes, it was pretty close, to be fair. But there's more to this tale. Crucially, why on earth any of it is happening? And we're going to get into that right after some words from today's sponsor. It doesn't take a genius listening to this episode to deduce that the director of the movie

is insane. Like, we can claim that this film is cursed or whatever, but the guy went full Alec Baldwin mode and shot a real gun on set just to freak someone out. Yeah, never a good idea. But as unhinged as they were, they weren't always an agent of chaos.

Even they realized something was going wrong. Things were so bad that the director had no option than to get a priest to exercise the whole production. This is 100% true. He got one of the film's priest consultants to do it. This is so messed up. Father Birmingham wasn't technically qualified to perform an exorcism but he did agree to talk to the cast and say a prayer then don't get him to do it don't if you're

gonna do it get a real priest don't get like an actor playing a priest because i feel like that's not gonna do it director gave the priest a gun and said any demons shoot them on sight brother this is like this is like if during the production of avengers endgame as it goes on the director between takes actually starts hiding behind iron man because thanos is looking pretty big and buff and he's getting a little bit scared of his army right like someone needs to remind him it's not real yeah none of this is the art directors did too much of a good job designing the infinity stones and they work so thanos is floating six feet above the ground all the audience the audience thought he was cgi he's not he busted out of the mac pro in the editing suite and he's real now that's so funny i mean this stuff must happen all the time if If you're shooting horror

movies, presumably the set and the world that you're in is going to be just a scary one. You know, if they're filming Blair Witch and it's all handheld camcorder footage out in the woods in the middle of the night, that's going to be a scary set. I agree. I mean, it could go either way, though, couldn't it? Because I would say that the people who've worked on this, probably if they specialize in that kind of wardrobe, that kind of makeup, that kind of sound design, etc., they've probably worked on horror movies before. So you could also argue this should be light work to them. So the fact that things are going nuts,

I don't know what that says. I don't know either. It seems like this is just a bad production. The story goes that after the blessing, after the exorcism by this priest, the paranormal events, the cursed events calmed down and stopped.

Maybe the prayers had worked, scaring away the demons. But in reality, it still might have been all too late. This movie killed nine people. Whoa! Lee Cobb played Lieutenant Kinderman. He dropped dead from an unexpected heart attack after the movie came out. He was only 64. Barton Heyman was Dr. Klein. He passed away from

heart failure at an even younger age, just 59. Veteran actor Jack McGowan was cast as a main priest, Father Karras, killed in 1973 by influenza. The same year the movie came out, actually. Actor Vasiliki Maliaros died before the movie even came out. A background actor from the movie, Paul Bateson, killed a guy. Stabbed him to death while the movie was still filming. What? I mean, at that point, where are you finding these f***ing people?

You got a director shooting a gun on set you got extras murdering people in their spare time this is crazy it's a bad environment like it definitely calls into question the meaning of saying a movie is cursed because this movie's cursed we can argue over whether it's paranormal or not, but it's f***ing cursed. Yeah, but also, you've got yourself to blame. That's like bringing together milk, eggs, flour, icing, and sugar, and then being pissed off when you end up with a cake. Brother, you made the cake!

You baked the cake! My brother in Christ, I would disagree with that. It's like going to Subway, putting a bunch of meat and salad between two pieces of bread and being angry when you end up with a sandwich. I would disagree with that. But allegedly, the murderer confessed about the murder to the director, William Friedkin, but he didn't say anything until he got caught. That's crazy.

This is a movie by criminals for criminals. It is absolutely insane, which honestly, I'm kind of here for. Like, let's look at, you know, look at the rap world. Look at the home of hip hop in Atlanta, Georgia today. You know, two of the biggest rap artists in history, Young Thug and Gunna, just got put away for a long time uh that's because these guys live the life in the streets and then they make the great music because it's so authentic right we're just seeing the same thing here we get a bunch of

psychos to make a movie about psychos i guess guess, but, I mean, in theory, the smartest thing would be to just get some really good filmmakers who are really good at making movies and can make a good movie about anything. You don't have to actually hire criminals and madmen. Hire actors who are really good at playing criminals and madmen. In fairness, they didn't know the background extra was a serial killer uh if i'm going to a birthday party that's pirate themed i'm going to hire actors who can

dress up like pirates i'm not going to charter a flight to somalia and get a boat full of men to come to this party because they're real pirates. Now, the thing is, though, it will bring a layer of authenticity. Yeah. If you bring the Somalian pirates. But it might also have some unintended consequences. They drink all the punch. Yeah.

They steal from... They steal your wallet. Yeah, exactly. They probably kill a few people as well. Take some people hostage, sure. Bad party vibes. But Rory, if the exorcist really was cursed, then I want to know why. What we're missing here is our motive. Well, it turns out that the exorcism at the heart of the movie

was actually based on a real-life exorcism of a little boy named Robbie in 1949. A boy possessed by the great Pazuzu. Oh damn. As fun as Pazuzu sounds, and it does sound like a smoothie chain, he's real. Pazuzu is a demon described in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology as the demon that brings famine during the dry seasons and locusts during the rainy seasons. He was the king of the demons of the wind. And although they don't say his name in the movie, he appears as a statue in the film.

Pazuzu sounds like a Gen X word for describing a really good butt. You know, like, damn! Shorty got that pazuzu! Like, that dude is caked up. at that Pazuzu Look at that Pazuzu jiggle

You've angered him You've angered him Obviously you've angered him Is it possible That Pazuzu Was angered by the film And cursed the set of the movie They are playing with fire

Making a movie About a real possession About a real demon In theory Are they invoking his wrath people don't say shawty anymore they do they absolutely do they still well i mean we haven't heard in a long time because we're sitting here in northern ireland so we don't have too much reason to say shawty sorry i feel like i was getting distracted there a little bit thinking about that song you know shawtyies like a melody in my head great song

great song so um what were you saying sorry so about the don't call pasuji a shouty well that's all i want that's all i want to ask don't call a demon your shout and i know that you've got into your head what this word means but he is an assyrian bird god, the king of the demons of the wind. I know you're thinking of round, juicy asses. Yeah, thinking about whether or not I have that Pazuzu. He doesn't have one. Because in the right pair of jeans, I think I got a Pazuzu.

You don't. You don't. A forbidden fruit you just want to take a bite out of. Please stop talking. I'm starting to feel like this podcast set is cursed because Rory's brain is stuck on Pazuzu mode. In the final line that we'll hopefully hear from director William Friedkin, he said,

I feel to this day there were forces beyond me that brought things to that movie, like offerings, fate. Please tell me he didn't make any more movies. There were forces beyond me that brought things to that movie. Like offerings. Fate. Please tell me he didn't make any more movies. That's a great question. Let's see his filmography. Yeah, because I mean, the problem is, if this thing was a hit, odds are he was approached by more studios to make more movies.

Well, he's still with us, age 87. Damn, well, two years before the exorcist he made the french connection whoa well you know what they say a good director is only as good as the spines of the child actors they employ so if you cause irreparable damage to a child's back, you're a bad director. I don't feel like that's a controversial take. Right, right. We've really reached the end of talking about all the events that surrounded the supposed curse

of the movie The Exorcist. But the one thing we haven't been able to talk about a ton is the actual paranormal phenomenon at the center of this story, the point of the movie itself exorcism it's something that we talk about all the time and i've covered in previous episodes but we don't actually know a ton about it it's a pretty secretive world it's uh something that i don't know if people even are aware still happens in different pockets of the world yeah probably

more often than you might think. But thankfully for us, here in the commune, we do have an official holy man. In one of the last times we talked about an exorcism, a real Christian priest got in touch saying that he had actually been a part of multiple exorcisms and was able to fill us in a little bit more on what goes down. And I actually messaged them about this case. They haven't got back in time, so I'm just going to withhold

their identity. But, dude, if you're out there listening, let us know and we can give you a shout-out next week. We're going to just withhold their identity

because, again, as you said, they haven't got back so they could be out on a job. So, Mark, good luck. Nope, not Mark. I hope it's all going well. No, it's not Mark. What did I say?

Mark? Oh, Mark? No, no, no. Oh. I'll just bleep it. Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll call him Steve for now. Yeah, Steve.

Mad d***. We won't use his full name. Oh, Jesus. We need to bleep all of it. Oh, shit. Sorry. As is going very poorly already. He wrote that the process of an exorcism depends very much on the denomination

and he can only speak to the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. Right. Saying that he's participated in three exorcisms, which is extremely rare for a priest. What, that few? No. He's like, usually it's hundreds. I'm fighting off demons with a machine gun on the weekends. Three is nothing.

Sometimes we just go on IG Live at the weekend and just get people with possessed relatives to just open their f***ing phones and hope that it does something. Just doing drive-bys, going past graveyards and opening fire. He says that two were clear cases of mental illness as far as he's concerned. Yeah.

One was not. He also wrote that it's important to understand there's a couple different ways this can play out. That on the one hand you have demonic oppression, vivid night terrors, changes in behaviour and attitude, a change in core personality. Which is usually where an entity attacks a person, wearing them down over time. Demonic infestation, on the other hand, usually refers to a specific place that for one reason or another is where the earthly and the supernatural coincide,

like a break in space-time. This is a lot more than I thought it was going to be. Finally, there is demonic possession. Got it. Where an entity has entered and taken there is demonic possession. Got it. Where an entity has entered and taken possession of a person. Got it. But he says this is the rough process. A family member or friend will refer a supposed possession or attack to a priest. Then the priest investigates. They do an interview. Then medical and psychiatric professionals run full batteries to find any possible psychological explanation.

This usually weeds out most cases. We want there to be a modern scientific explanation. Unfortunately, sometimes there aren't. There are specific warning signs to look for, such as preternatural knowledge, speaking ancient or dead languages, changes in voice or expressions of abnormal strength. Once all the steps have been completed, the case is brought to the bishop who will consult with the team to decide whether to continue or not. Exorcism is rarely a one-time event, it usually takes a considerable amount of time.

Right. Isn't this absolutely terrifying that this happens in the real world today? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I'm not qualified enough to speak about this. You can see why this is such a big thing in history, of course, because in the past, you know, especially when religion was much more prominent in society, that's how the world was framed for everyone. And when you had people who had, you know, were suffering with mental illness or health complications, that was the easy answer. It's a demon. There's a possession. We need an exorcism. And as he said, a lot of the cases,

probably that even come up today, are people struggling with mental health issues. But ultimately, there's some little weird things in there that he mentioned where it's like, if someone's speaking an ancient language that there is no way of them knowing, I don't know, man. I'm leaving the room because something's happening

and I'm not part of that conversation anymore. I'm someone who's not educated enough on what's going on to even have an opinion about it. I'm done. I think this is what really fascinates me about religion in 2023. You know, that despite all our modern advances, there are small pockets of modern life that have still not been answered by science, for example.

And in our priest listener friend here's case he's saying look 99.999 of the time it's all fine he's like i'm with you guys it's all fine but but he's like but who do you call in the 0.00001 of the times you know i remember seeing in a tv program where they went to um lourdes in france to an extremely famous catholic pilgrimage site and they talk to you know the resident scientist who who works there because people travel there uh for miracles to happen i remember this yeah yeah i think it was on uh down to earth with zach efron yeah on netflix and uh and it was a very very similar conversation he's like look almost no one has jack shit happened to them the people that do get

healed for example of their illness uh quote unquote miraculously there's always an explanation they're getting treatment elsewhere the sickness went away for whatever reason but we have a folder right we keep a folder of the of the miracles of the one in a million miracles where we have fastidiously explored every possible scientific explanation and it defies all explanation. That's the reason we're here making this podcast is the 0.0001% of times

when shit doesn't add up. It's like the f***ing UFOs, the military. Yeah, 99.9% of the time, it's all fine. We know what it is. And sometimes a green orb flies through a rack and. We know what it is. And sometimes a green orb flies through a rack

and no one knows what it is. Sometimes an egg picks up a family car and throws it across the road. Yeah, yeah, I'm here for it. Yeah, it's funny too. You know, on this podcast we're quite famously

very open-minded and excited about the world of UFOs and extraterrestrial life. And the second we talk about a ghost, it's like, get out of here. That's a complete lie. That's nonsense.

So it's good to be giving that side of the paranormal its fair treatment for once. But I didn't want to get bogged down in the exorcism itself, the exorcism that the movie's based on, or even just the process of exorcism. We want to focus at the end of this episode of This Paranormal Life on the movie of exorcism. We want to focus at the end of this episode of This Paranormal Life on the movie The Exorcist,

on the supposed curse that surrounded the production. This is one of the most famously disturbing, crazy movies of all time and was certainly surrounded by a lot of misfortune. But we have to decide whether or not there was a real paranormal curse that came out of this thing and ruined people's lives. It's a no from me this week. What? It's a no from me this week.

And I don't even think I really need to say why, but I will. Every incident that happened in today's case was explainable by human error, by humans. Sets going on fire, things breaking down, production taking long. I mean, some of it was specifically human error. The bed being too rough that it hurt the girls back and when she said stop, no one stopped.

That's not a mystery as to what went wrong there. I can tell you exactly what went wrong. What about the deaths, Einstein? The death is a little bit mysterious, but also what, when did you say this was taking place? 1973. 1973. I mean, it is recent enough that that is a strange thing. But I mean, especially someone dying of influenza.

I don't think that was a real illness that was affecting a lot of people in the 70s, mid 70s. I could be wrong, but it seems old school, right? I don't know. But I guess that's the only part of it that seems a little bit suspicious. But aside from that, I think what we're experiencing today is workplace negligence being tied into a horror movie. The fact that this thing was so horrific and had such an impact culturally, that being wrapped together with people who are not doing their jobs very well and doing it irresponsibly is creating this as a curse. It's being done as a curse. If four people died on the set of f***ing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, people wouldn't start asking whether or not magic is real.

It means the production was bad and troubled. So I don't know. I don't think there's enough today to say that this is genuinely paranormal. Yeah, it's a problem we have with pretty much any curse case is when does correlation become causation? You know, I earlier name dropped Alec Baldwin. This is a recent example of stuff going wrong on a film production it was the movie rust we all know the story where a gun went off

on set and a woman was tragically killed and it rocked the world and the news went around the world it shocked people because it was unbelievably pointless and tragic and it was caused by, I haven't studied the case, but it appears to be just like negligence on the part of particularly the armorers.

Why was there a loaded gun on set? There's people who their entire job is to handle guns and make sure that there aren't any bullets in the gun when someone's pointing it. No one is questioning i'm sure there's a paranormal podcast out there that is questioning whether rust was cursed but we ain't you shouldn't be listening to that podcast the point is that uh rory made a

great point earlier movies are some of the most complicated and chaotic industries in the world yeah and things can and will go wrong they made an incredible and creepy movie and sadly people's livelihoods and health were damaged along the way yeah that's why it's a double no it's a double no this week but always good to go to hollywood brother oh the glitz the glamour yeah it wasn't very a glamorous peek into Hollywood life in today's episode it was a bit dark I will say but that's what

you f***ers come to this paranormal life for for the dark the dungeons the ghouls and for that juicy pazuzu

they ain't coming to us for pazuzu brother they're going somewhere else it is not this paranormal life they've seen

the cover art of the podcast they know that we're aging twinks at best They're going somewhere else. It is not this paranormal life. They've seen the cover art of the podcast. They know that we're aging twinks at best. So hopefully all this talk of Pazuzu does not curse us in some way. Hopefully we get off scot-free, like when we tried to summon Paimon live in London. Yeah.

But thank you so much for listening to this goddamn bloody episode all about The Exorcist. Go and watch that movie if you ain't seen it. And if you aren't of frail constitution, you should be able to handle it now in 2023. You know, and if you want to stay on the train of cursed movie productions, I mentioned earlier we did a great episode a while back now on the curse supposedly surrounding the production of The Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Crucially, it's over on Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. That is one that most of our listeners haven't heard, but it's right there waiting for you.

Yeah, it was a great episode covering not only the troubled production of The Wizard of Oz, but also a conspiracy theory that Walt Disney was actually the director of the movie. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that will give you a laugh. theory that Walt Disney was actually the director of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that will give you a laugh. We kind of f***ed up some crucial information in recording the episode. Yeah, we got it wrong. Just cut this. Cut this. It's fine. Yeah, we made some

mistakes, but that's kind of funny in itself. So if you want to hear one of the biggest bloopers of all time that we couldn't cut out because it was too big. I talked about it at length. Head on over to patreon.com forward slash

this part of my life where there's even more bonus episodes. We've brought out one every month for the last five years.

How do you like that? So there's a lot now, 60 or so. And we do weekly after parties too. There's a lot of those as well where

we go behind the scenes and discuss the making of this show. It's great stuff. If you want to become possessed yourself and have to have an exorcism performed upon you, you really want to check out those bonus episodes because listening to them is going to do something to your body

and it ain't going to be good. But of course, one of the other rewards that we give on Patreon to our listeners on the $20 or higher tier is a shout out at the end of the other rewards that we give on Patreon to our listeners on the $20 or higher tier is a shout out at the end of the show. I'd say

we round out with it. Rory, what do you say? Let's do it. Thank you so much to Joey Sergii Cottrell. Joey the Sarge Cottrell runs his life with military precision

like a goddamn sergeant. That's cool. Breakfast at 0600 hours. Sharp. Really early for breakfast. When did you go to bed? Granola. Breakfast at 0600 hours. Sharp. Really early for breakfast. When did you go to bed? Granola.

No milk. No time for milk. Milk doesn't keep in the desert so we can't have milk. Is he in the desert? Hell no, but you have to be ready for any combat environment

at any time. Nap time, 6.05. I didn't get enough sleep last night so I'm going to go back to sleep. Okay. So wake up to eat a dry bowl of granola and then fall asleep again. Not a lot of nutrients in the granola either, so pretty tired, pretty weak.

Sleep till 1105. All right. Or so, give or take 30 minutes. It's time to ease up, Serge. That's not very strict at all, then, if it's give or take 30 minutes. Unemployed currently. So kind of lay about, play Xbox. Shout out also to Brent McNamara.

Brent McNamara, potential brother to famed big wave surfer Garrett McNamara, who surfed the biggest wave of all time. Wow. Luckily, he's got a Pazuzu so large, his center of gravity makes him perfect

for surfing. He doesn't even need a f***ing board. Just the sheer displacement of water means he can just stand in the ocean. His giant rump,

a dunk-a-dunk, keeping him upright. It's an incredible feat. Equally impressive and sexy. Thanks, lastly, today, to Optimus Prime.

God damn, we got got a transformer listening to this podcast i mean does when optimus prime listens to podcast does he put airpods in his ears or does he become a truck and play us through the speakers through his radio yeah that's an interesting question i like to think he plays it through the radio yeah it's like he's like laughing along like honk honk honk i mean that's how bumblebee did it right bumble plays it through the radio Yeah And then like he's like laughing along Like honk honk honk I mean that's how Bumblebee did it right Bumblebee talked through the radio Which was really smart

Yes but that's because he F***ed up his voice box I'm pretty sure Oh really I think he Some sort of accident Damn Transformers lore

Yeah there you go People come here for everything Thank you so much to Optimus Thank you to everyone who Supported us on Patreon We will be back with more shoutouts from next week and back before then over on Patreon with the After Party on Friday.

Until then, we'll see you on Tuesday for a brand new Paranormal Tale. Bye-bye!