Voted by Entertainment Weekly to be the scariest film of all time, The Exorcist can truly boast what few horror films can… the ultimate villain. As bad as serial killers, psychopaths, and mutant monsters may be, historically and mythologically speaking, no one really outdoes the devil. But the film’s origin lies in not in nightmare, but in game shows. Author William Peter Blatty won ten grand on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life and informed Marx that he would use the money to write a novel. Blatty based his novel on the account of one Reverend William O’Malley, who would later claim that, with the exception of gender and location, virtually everything in the story - about a young child possessed by the devil and the effort of two priests to free her - was true.

Linda Blair became one of the most parodied children in history due to her role in the film as the possessed little girl, Regan. Her agency passed on over thirty names to the producers before her mother finally took her to an audition herself. The role of Regan’s mother, Chris, was almost as difficult to cast, passing from Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn, Geraldine Page, and Anne Bancroft before finally settling on Ellen Burstyn. Some of Hollywood’s biggest heavyweights were offered the director’s chair and ultimately refused. Stanley Kubrick ( 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange), Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man), Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon), Mike Nichols (The Graduate), and John Boorman (Deliverance) all rejected the directing duties -- in Boorman’s case, citing that the story was “cruel towards children” -- leaving the job eventually in the hands of The French Connection director William Friedkin.

Friedkin notoriously abused the cast to achieve his desired result of unsettled surprise: firing guns off behind the actors, slapping actors across the face immediately prior to a take, putting actors in harnesses to have them jerked around (which, unfortunately, resulted in a permanent spinal injury for Burstyn.) But the result was undeniably authentic.

Portentous circumstances plagued the year-long shoot: Nine people associated with the shoot died, an inexplicable fire destroyed one of the sets, and two of the actors died before the film’s release. The film’s technical advisor, Reverend Thomas Bermingham was constrained to bless the set and calm the anxious cast and crew.

The Exorcist became one of the most controversial films of all time, not only for its explicitly demonic content but also because of its effect on viewers. Mass hysteria resulted in audience members screaming, fainting, and vomiting. Paramedics were sometimes called in to handle severe cases. In towns in the U.K. where the film was banned, field trips were arranged to bus eager viewers to the nearest playing screen. Worst of all, Linda Blair began receiving death threats, prompting the studio to protect her with bodyguards for six months after the film’s release.

Despite the fray surrounding the picture, The Exorcist remains the (inflation-adjusted) highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The film returned to theaters again in 2003 with an unedited director’s cut and was met with similar success and commotion, proving that while many people may not believe in the devil, they sure as hell fear him.