ST. LOUIS (KSDk) — Many consider the 1973 film “The Exorcist” the scariest movie of all time. Wednesday is the 40th anniversary of the film’s release.
If the mere thought of the famous flick gives you the chills, consider this: It’s directly based on a true incident that happened in St. Louis.
The real story that inspired the famous book and movie happened in 1949. It began in Maryland, ended in St. Louis, and involved several Jesuits from Saint Louis University.
Father Raymond J. Bishop, S.J. kept a day-by-day account of the exorcism.
Read the diary: Link – PDF File
20-Minute Video Recap of the Movie
Warning: Bad language, sexual references, violence.
Editor’s note: The demon represents the devil. The girl represents the world. The priests represent the Church. The primeval struggle continues – unabated.
4 Comments
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 
Doug,
My Father attended SLU and his Father, they talked about the event. By the way I share the last name of Max Von Sydow (the Exorcist actor) Our family condensed our name during WWII, it sounded to German. My Greatgrandparents had my Granfather in Germany and moved to the U.S. Before the Wars.
Trivia!
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. You might remember, Max Von Sydow also played Jesus in the 1965 movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told:”
Doug
Yes,
I have that DVD/The Greatest Story Ever Told! I believe he played both Christ and Satan(Steven King movie) extremely versatile. The Final Inquiry was a good movie, that explores the death of Christ, after the fact. I will not watch the Recap of the Exorcist….seen it many times, but I did read the PDF!
Your link is broken for viewing the .pdf file.