“From the Vault” is our EXCLUSIVE daily peek into the extensive library of WOW shows, interviews, and pop culture ephemera we’ve collected over the last three decades.
Today, is Friday the 13th, of course. What a perfect day to check out this 2005 episode of AMC’s Movies that Shook the World in which horror icon Linda Blair looks back on the making of The Exorcist. Learn how she channeled demonic spirits at such a young age, how she didn’t really like having to swear (“YOUR MOTHER SUCKS C*CKS IN HELL!”), how director Bill Friedkin filled the set with rotting eggs and smelly cheeses to get the actors in the mood, and how she suffered a terrible accident while flailing about the bed in a climactic scene. Fascinating stuff, and a powerful reminder that movie still terrifies and challenges us forty years later.
Watch below.
MOVIES THAT SHOOK THE WORLD gives viewers an in-depth look at the most important films of all time from a fresh perspective: how popular culture influenced their creation, and how they, in turn, influenced society once they were released.
In nine half-hour episodes of MOVIES THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, we turned this unique lens on THE GRADUATE, FATAL ATTRACTION, THE BIRTH OF A NATION, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, DO THE RIGHT THING and THE EXORCIST. Interviewees included Spike Lee, Glenn Close, Ann Archer, Stanley Jaffe, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael Douglas, Peter Bart, Al Franken, Bill Nunn, Mario Van Peebles, Richard Edson, Debbie Allen, Adrian Lyne, Ione Skye, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martha Coolidge, Julie Dash, Craig T. Nelson, Andrea Dworkin, Zach Galligan, Linda Gray, Buck Henry, Sherry Lansing, Kasi Lemmons, Catherine McKinnon, Michael Medved, Erin Brockovich, Roger Ebert, Barbara Hershey, Katie Rophie, Richard Schickel, Thelma Schoonmaker, John Lurie and many others
Executive Producers: Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato
Supervising Producer: Gabriel Rotello
Producers: Natalie Aaron & Jim Eckles