Chris: "And how do you go about getting an exorcism?"
Father Karras: "I beg your pardon?"
Chris: "If a person was possessed by a demon of some kind, how do you go about getting an exorcism?"
Father Karras: "Well, the first thing I'd do is put them into a time machine and send them back to the 16th century."
Chris: "I didn't get you?"
Father Karras: "Well it just doesn't happen anymore Mrs. MacNeil."
Chris: "Oh yeah, since when?"
Father Karras: "Since we learned about mental illness, paranoia, schizophrenia.
All the things they taught me in Harvard. Mrs. MacNeil since the day I joined the Jesuits,
I've never met one priest who has performed an exorcism, not one."
Chris: "Yeah well, it just so happens that somebody very close to me is probably possessed, and needs an exorcist.
(she bursts into tears) Father Karras, it's my little girl."

Before there was a house in Amityville, there was a house at 3600 Prospect Street in the Georgetown suburb of Washington, D.C.
During the making of the movie the Exorcist, some pretty mysterious things happened. When everyone had just finished shooting a scene they decided to pack it up for the night. Somehow the set caught on fire, but the weird thing was the way it caught fire.
No explanation could be found as to how it happened.
No arsenist was found, no combustive materials and no electrical problems were found and to this day no one knows why or how that set caught fire.

Many young actresses auditioned for the role of Regan McNeil. One of those actresses was Anissa Jones, who played "Buffy" in the TV Series "Family Affair".
She lost out to Linda Blair and then, for reasons unknown, her life spiraled out of control. She died of a multiple drug overdose on August 28, 1976 at the age of 18.
In the scene where Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) are looking at the message on Regan's stomach which spells out "Help Me", the room had to be refrigerated for a special effect. Every cast member and member of the crew got the flu after that scene....except Linda Blair.

Actor Jack MacGowran, who played director Burke Dennings, died of pneumonia after completing his part in the movie.
Eight other people died during the whole 15 month period in which the movie was made: a night watchman, a member of the FX crew among them.
Even today, it is said that the curse still exists.
Renny Harlin, who directed the upcoming Exorcist: The Beginning, told SCI FI Wire that he had his own brush with the rumored "Exorcist curse" when filming in Rome late last year. Harlin began shooting a new version of the troubled film last December in Rome, replacing original helmer Paul Schrader, who had previously shot his own version of the movie.
"I've shot movies on the top of the Alps, and I've done deep underwater ... diving with sharks, and I've never had any injuries," Harlin said in an interview. "But two weeks into shooting this one, I got hit by a car on a street in Rome and ended up in a hospital for two weeks and shot the entire movie with my leg in a cast." Coincidence? Bad Luck...or was something evil actually at work? Nothing can be proved that an actual evil was at work.