There were a number of deaths that occurred during the making of and shortly after the completion of the movie. Jack MacGowran, the actor that played the role of Burke Dennings died of a heart attck and Valsiliki Maliaros who played Father Karras’s mother also died shortly before the film’s release.

 

Strange events continued to plague the production when unexplainably the set caught fire and was completely destroyed. No-one was at the set when the fire started and the cause remains unknown.

 

Due to the accidental deaths and fires on set, and even supposed mental breakdowns from the young Linda Blair (Regan), some would say that an actual demon was trying to stop the filming of this movie. Some rumours state that four to nine people died during the fifteen month fiming period. Another rumor states that the man who Regan said would die up there was accidently killed while filming. There were other deaths too. One was that of Max Von Sydow's brother and Linda Blair's grandfather. A night watchman for the set, a crewmember that refrigerated the bedroom for the exorcism scenes, and a cameraman's newborn baby were also part of the unexplained deaths.

 

There was also strange behavior and panic by the cast and crew reported by while filming. Future interviews from the makers of the film have them saying that the filming was a very creepy experience. There were also strange happenins at screenings for the film. They were filled with people vomiting, fainting, and breaking into hysterics. "The Exorcist" has proven to have some of the strangest audience reactions of all time. For some reason, the death tolls rose in the areas surrounding Georgetown after the movie was released. Heart attacks were recorded all over the world during premiers. There was even a lightning strike that destroyed a 400-year-old cross during the Italian premiere at the Metropolitan Theatre in Rome. Some of these rumours have been confirmed false, but many still believe that something was trying to stop the film. Although there were no incidents on the film's sequels, the original director for the prequel Exorcist: The Beginning, John Frankenheimer, died before filming began.