William Friedkin: ‘The Exorcist’ cast was ‘a gift from God’

By all accounts, director William Friedkin was a man possessed in 1973. The director had already earned a reputation as a fire-breathing perfectionist on the set of the 1971 film “The French Connection,” but he was even more intense, manipulative and volatile while making his follow-up, “The Exorcist,” the unnerving adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s hugely popular novel. Friedkin browbeat studio executives when they tried to eliminate an expensive on-location shoot in Iraq, and at one point dissatisfied with star Max von Sydow’s work, he pulled Blatty aside and told him to write the actor out of some key scenes and put him on the next plane back to Sweden. No one was safe from Friedkin’s wrath except, perhaps, little Linda Blair, the 12-year-old who giggled and slurped on milkshakes between scenes where she channeled Satan.

Friedkin’s extended director’s cut of the film has just hit stores on Blu-ray in a lavish new package from Warner Bros. that celebrates the horror film as a masterpiece for the ages — and, in hindsight, it may well deserve that treatment. The film, routinely cited as “the scariest movie ever made,” was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director, and won four Golden Globes, among them the trophies for best picture, best director and best actress for the precocious Blair. On-screen, the film smothered any trace of showbiz artifice or Hollywood haunted-house clichés, and Friedkin is quick to correct people who call it a horror film — he prefers “theological thriller.”