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The Real Horror Behind The Exorcist A Cursed Film · Mystery Archives Episodes

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Some movies scare you on screen and others you feel in your
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bones. In 1973, a film hit theaters
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that made people faint, vomit, and even claim to be possessed.
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But what most don't know is that the real horror might have
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happened behind the camera. Tonight we're going to uncover
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the story of The Exorcist, a movie so dark and so cursed that
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even those who made it claimed that something followed them
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home. I'm your host, Cody Richardson,
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and this is Mystery Archives. When you talk about horror
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cinema, The Exorcist stands at the top not just for what's on
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screen, but for what went wrong behind it.
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The film was based on William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel, which
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itself was inspired by a true case, the 1949 exorcism of a boy
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only known by the pseudonym of Roland Doe.
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That real event, documented by priests in Maryland, allegedly
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involved moving furniture, guttural voices and the word
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hell being carved into the boy's flesh.
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Director William Friedkin and Bladdy wanted to tell the story
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truthfully and not as fantasy, but as something that could
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actually happen. They filmed in Washington, DC
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and New York, transforming ordinary neighborhoods into
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scenes of demonic horror. But even before the cameras
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rolled, something strange began to happen.
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The set of the McNeil House, Reagan's home in the film,
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suddenly caught fire. A bird had flown into a circuit
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box, causing a massive electrical blaze that burned
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down most of the stage. Everything was destroyed except
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for one room, Reagan's bedroom, the site of the possession.
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It remained untouched, perfect, almost as if protected.
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It seemed to be the first of many signs that something was
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not quite right. Production then halted for weeks
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while repairs were made, and Friedkin, known for being
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skeptical, reportedly asked a Catholic priest to come to the
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studio and blessed the set before they resumed filming.
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The shoot for the film was only supposed to last 85 days, and it
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took more than 200. Accidents became routine.
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Equipment malfunctioned constantly, and actors and crew
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were injured in very bizarre ways.
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Ellen Burstein, who played Reagan's mother, suffered a
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permanent spinal injury during a stunt gone wrong in the film.
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When Reagan slaps her and sends her crashing to the floor, That
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scream that you hear, that's real.
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Linda Blair, who was just 12 years old during filming, was
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thrown violently by a mechanical rig, which also caused her to
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fracture her spine. The cold temperature of her room
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scene kept near freezing for realistic breath vapor left her
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shaking uncontrollably between takes.
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And then came the deaths. Actor Jack Mcgrawan, who played
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Burke Dennings, died just after finishing his scenes.
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Actress Valiski Maliaros, who played Father Karis's mother,
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died shortly after him. Both characters, coincidentally
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also die in the film. A night watchman assigned to the
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set passed away unexpectedly, and so did a technician's
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brother. In total, nine people connected
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to The Exorcist would die before the film ever premiered.
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When the film was sent to be processed, certain reels came
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back inexplicably damaged. Audio was warped, images were
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distorted, and Friedkin called it a devil's glitch.
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Whenever the cameras were turned on, there always seemed to be
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something else in the room with the crew.
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Whispers about a presence soon enveloped everyone.
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Cold drafts would sweep through closed sets, props moved in
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between takes, lights flickered with no electrical issues ever
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found. One cameraman claimed that he
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saw what looked like a face flash across a monitor during
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playback, and not an actor or a part of any scene, just one
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frame, and then it was gone. Another technician quit after
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claiming that he heard growling through his headset, though no
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one else seemed to hear it. There's one story as well that
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stands out, and it happened during a late night rehearsal.
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A heavy refrigerator unit, which was part of the set dressing for
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Reagan's room, shifted several inches on its own, and the whole
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crew could hear it scraping across the floor.
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Even Friedkin, the skeptic, admitted that the atmosphere
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fell cursed after the fire and the accumulating misfortunes.
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Blatty urged Friedkin to bring in a priest again, so Father
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Thomas Birmingham, who had advised on the film, performed a
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blessing on set. He reportedly said that
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afterward the crew seemed lighter, but that evil, as he
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put it, had been disturbed, not banished.
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According to interviews, strange events continued even after the
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blessing. One day, while filming the
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exorcism scene, the temperature in the sound stage plummeted,
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and it plummeted so sharply that crew members could see their own
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breath in the air. The studio thermometer red below
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freezing, yet the air conditioning was off.
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Then came the Thunder, the sound of booming cracks outside the
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warehouse. And this normally wouldn't be
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strange, except for the fact that there were no storms
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outside when The Exorcist film finally premiered.
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The chaos then spread to the audience in multiple cities.
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Moviegoers fainted, vomited, or ran screaming from the theater.
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Paramedics were called to some of the showings.
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In Rome, a theater reportedly stood across from a 400 year old
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church, and during the first screening there, lightning
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struck the church's cross, causing it to fall to the
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ground. People began calling the film
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cursed. Some Catholic groups denounced
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it as demonic, and others claimed that by watching it, one
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was inviting possession. And then, amid the hysteria,
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Warner Brothers, the studio responsible for The Exorcist,
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received reports of a man who had passed away in the theater
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from a heart attack during the film's most violent scene.
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In one of the most unsettling coincidences in cinematic
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history, a real life murderer appears in the film itself
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during the infamous hospital and geography scene when young
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Reagan is undergoing medical tests, you see actual medical
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staff, not actors, performing the procedure.
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One of them, the radiology technician standing beside Linda
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Blair, was Paul Bateson. Bateson was a real employee at
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the NYU Medical Center, where Friedkin shot the scene to make
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it look authentic. He was quiet, skilled and
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unassuming, exactly what a director wanted to portray.
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Realism. But just a few years later,
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Bateson was arrested for murder. In 1979, he was convicted for
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killing film critic Addison Viral, who had been brutally
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murdered in his New York apartment.
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Police connected Bates into the crime after he drunkenly
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confessed to a journalist at a bar, claiming that he had killed
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Viral after meeting him at a gay nightclub.
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Even worse, prosecutors and the NYPD investigators suspected
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Bateson was also responsible for a string of unsolved murders in
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the early 1970s, a series known as the Bag Murders.
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And these murders were absolutely horrific.
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I mean, murder itself is God awful.
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But these men, when they were found, they were found
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dismembered and stuffed into plastic bags floating down the
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Hudson River. The crimes were never solved,
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but the timing and Bateson's own vague admissions suggested that
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he may have been involved. William Friedkin, who was both
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horrified and fascinated, later visited Bateson in prison.
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Their conversation inspired Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising,
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starring Al Pacino, a movie about a serial killer praying on
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men in the underground New York club scene.
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The real life connection really is chilling in a film about
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demonic possession featuring a man who would later be convicted
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of murder, a killer immortalized on film years before anyone
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knew. I had mentioned previously a few
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notable deaths surrounding The Exorcist, but to give you the
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full scope of just how much darkness surrounded it's filming
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and release, these are all the deaths associated with the film
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Jack Mcgrawan. He played Burke Dennings, the
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drunken film director and the story who dies after being
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thrown from a window by Reagan's demonic force.
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McGowan died shortly after finishing his scenes from
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complications related to the flu and the film was in post
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production. He never did live to see it.
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Vasiliki Malerios, who played Father Karis's elderly mother in
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the film, also died during post production, albeit of natural
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causes. But like her character, she
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passed before the film's release.
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While shooting in Rome, actor Max von Sydow, who played Father
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Marin, received word that his brother had died unexpectedly in
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Sweden. He left the set for the funeral,
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obviously incredibly shaken. As filming began, 12 year old
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Linda Blair lost her grandfather.
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The family took it as an omen that death had entered the
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production even before cameras had started rolling.
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There were also other deaths that aren't typically talked
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about surrounding the film. And night Watchman who was
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assigned to the set died unexpectedly.
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A crew member's newborn baby died during filming, and an
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actor in one of the early scenes was later killed in a motorcycle
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accident. None of these incidents alone
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prove anything, but together they seem to form a chilling
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pattern of loss that really can't be ignored, in my opinion.
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But even after the film came out, there were certainly
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tragedies that seem to be loosely connected to it.
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Mercedes Mccambridge, the voice of the demon Pazuzu, rather
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iconic, really, suffered a terrible personal loss.
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Her son actually murdered his wife and children before then
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taking his own life in 1987. Maybe it's all coincidence, the
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kind that accumulates when you blend religion and fear and
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human frailty. But maybe the film just didn't
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depict evil. Maybe it truly did disturb
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something. I've covered this topic before
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and this was several years ago, but I have my own story to tell
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and it's actually the only time in Mystery Archives history that
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I've had something manifest in my home as a result of a topic
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that I was researching. I've told the story many a times
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in my live streams. It actually, I mean, it occurred
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whilst I was editing the original video, so I can't quite
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recall if I included it within that video or not, but I figured
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I would go ahead and talk about it again here and now.
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So I remember that I had recorded my video and my office
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setup actually was towards this part of the room.
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My house is not very big. This is kind of like my dining
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room area over here. As you can sort of tell, my
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setup hasn't moved a whole lot since then, but I remember
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editing it. I was editing the original video
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and I heard a strange popping sound.
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And this, I believe from what I remember, was probably like
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between like 4:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon.
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So it was still light outside. There was no storm or anything
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like that, but I heard the strange electrical popping sound
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and I remember standing up and there there's a window where my
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PC setup used to be. And I remember looking out over
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thinking like maybe it was a transformer or something like
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that, albeit it didn't seem to be loud enough.
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And obviously my, my power wasn't interrupted or anything
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like that. So I'm like, you know, maybe,
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maybe something happened nearby. I I don't know I dismissed it at
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first, but the weird thing that happened was when I sat down I
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had for context the monitor that I had wasn't very good on anti
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glare. So it kind of especially with
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the sunlight hitting it a little bit it it tended to refract part
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of the room. With that being said, I sat down
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and off in the corner by my front door I saw in the bottom.
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So this would have been my bottom left of the screen.
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I saw some kind of figure and all I know is now I was raised
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religious for a short period of time.
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I was raised Catholic. I've been very open about that,
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but I'm more I would consider myself more of a spiritual
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theist personally, as in I don't, you know, I I'm a very
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spiritual person, but I don't necessarily adhere to any
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specific religion in particular. Anyways, with that, with that
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being said, it literally struck so much fear in me just from
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seeing this figure right? And I know for a fact at that
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time there was no one else in the house with me other than my
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dog. And I'll get to that later here
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in or in just a moment. But I remember seeing the
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reflection of the figure in my monitor and something, it
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triggered something in me where I literally started praying out
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loud. Like I was praying out loud out
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of pure terror. And I believe I started saying
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the Our Father and within, I want to say it felt like easily
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5-10 minutes of this, but it had to have maybe been like, if I
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were to guess between 30 and 60 seconds.
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And then I remember looking like I was, I was so scared, you
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guys, that I couldn't continue to look at the figure in my
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screen. And I sure as shit, as, as tough
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as we like to be sometimes when you encounter something like
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this, something that's so out of your depth of normalcy, I'll be,
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I'll be straight up. I'll be, you know, I was, I was
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too scared to turn around and see what could be there and what
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would have made it even worse, as if I couldn't fucking see it.
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And then like, I look back on my screen or something and it's
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still there. You know what I mean?
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Like, God, God, I have chills just thinking about it now.
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But Long story short, I began to pray out loud and this figure
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just vanished. And that feeling of terror and
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oppression vanished with it. But I remember being very
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freaked out over that and that really led me to the conviction
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that I really think there's something dark and evil that
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surrounds this film. And with that being said, the
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film that is shown these days or the film that made it to
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widespread dissemination, as far as like the film that you can
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purchase on DVD, Blu-ray, stream, all of that VHS I'm sure
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back in the day was actually not the original cut of the film.
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The original cut of the film is what people believe to actually
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be truly cursed or haunted or however you want to look at it.
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But that was my experience. And, and what makes it even
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weirder is for for the longest time prior to that, and even
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after, for no reason at all, my dog Luna would stare into that
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corner like she was watching something.
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And it used to freak me out. I I remember, I'd be like, can
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we not do that? You know, this was, you know,
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before even anything manifested. And then obviously that was the
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first thing on my mind anytime she would do it after.
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And it, it certainly could could have just been a coincidence or
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just weird timing. I have no idea.
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But yeah, that day, no one was, no one was there with me.
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My ex at the time was out somewhere, I can't remember
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exactly. I think she was with her parents
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or something. So it was just me and and Luna.
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And I know for a fact that that definitely wasn't my dog.
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So yeah, I have some personal ties to this story.
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And I think for me, that just makes it really hit home a
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little harder. As I was recording this, Luna
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just so happens to be laying over on the linoleum area that I
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have over by my front door in that very corner.
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And it freaked me the fuck out because I heard like, a weird
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scratching noise. And I was like, you got to be
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shitting me right now. And thankfully, this time it was
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very much a false alarm. For a film that's half a century
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old, The Exorcist continues to unsettle.
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It's not just because of spinning heads or projectile
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vomit. It's because we feel deep down
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that maybe it captured something.
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Something real. Something that doesn't care
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about cameras or scripts or credits.
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Something that still wants to be seen with fires and injuries,
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deaths and whispers of possession.
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All of these things tied to 1 terrifying film and arguably one
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of the most terrifying ever made.
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Were these coincidences or consequences?
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Maybe there's a reason The Exorcist feels so different from
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any other horror movie. Maybe the evil on screen we see
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isn't just fiction but a reflection.
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But I'll let you be the judge of that.
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But if you rewatch it alone and the lights start to flicker.
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Or, God forbid, you see a figure in the corner of your room.
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Don't look away. You might just want to say a
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prayer or two. Thank you guys so much for
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watching this episode. I'm definitely integrating more
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in person segments. I've had a couple of friends
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suggest that to me, fellow Youtubers, that they think that
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part of the reason why my numbers are down a good amount.
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And again, I'm not just trying to bitch when I say that is that
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perhaps people are thinking that I'm AI or YouTube itself is
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considering that I'm AI, which I'm very much not obviously.
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And if I was, I wouldn't, I wouldn't fucking know that I
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was. But with that being said, guys,
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if you enjoyed the video, please hit the like button.
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Hype it if you can. I know that it's a pretty new
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watching independently outside of the creator sphere.
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So if you can definitely hype it up.
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I do it on Patreon. So aside from that, guys, I did
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just put out my 4th book. So I've got stories from the
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I think it's a couple bucks more by comparison, but it's just for
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But with that being said, visit my store at Mystery Archives dot
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So I've kind of tried to have some stuff rolling out
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that will definitely be coming out here shortly in November.
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So appreciate you all as always. And yeah, this has been Cody
23:36
here at Mystery Archives. Make sure to stay safe out there
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from creepy manifestations and cursed movies, demons and all
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the rest of it, and I'll see you next time.
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Take care.