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<h1>Fact vs. Fiction -The Exorcist</h1>
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably seen the 1973 film, The Exorcist. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve more than likely heard of it, and if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve had to have at least seen photos of the main character—little Regan—looking downright macabre and spewing split pea soup all around.  44 years after this movie’s release, it’s still sending chills up our spines and raising the worst kind of goose bumps on our skin.  
But what’s even more terrifying than the film that’s been dubbed The Scariest Movie of All Time? 

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<center>photo source: Pixabay</center>

<h1>The true story behind it</h1>

Yes, you read that correctly. 

 A child was actually possessed, and it’s a chilling tale—but: Spoiler alert! No one’s head actually turned all the way around. 
In this article, we’re going to explore the factual story vs. the fictional story in The Exorcist. 
 
<h1>Fact vs. Fiction #1: The Beginning of the End</h1>
<h1>Fact</h1> The true story sits in 1949 Maryland. It begins in the home of a fourteen year old boy who ended up being referred to by the media as Roland Doe.  In his story, his aunt had brought him a Ouija board to play with when she was visiting. Shortly after, this same aunt had died, and Roland began to use the Ouija board as a way to keep in contact with her. His aunt began “speaking” to him in a friendly manner through the board and Roland became delighted at this.  
<h1>Fiction</h1> In The Exorcist, the possessed is a twelve year old girl named Regan MacNeil who lives in 1970 Georgetown, NY.  She, like Roland, used a Ouija Board to contact spirits, but it was not given to her. Instead, she found the Ouija Board in the basement of her house. Rather than using the board to contact anyone specific, she enjoyed simply playing around with it and eventually befriended a spirit who she referred to as Captain Howdy. Like Roland’s ghostly aunt, Captain Howdy was also very friendly to Regan. 
 
<h1>Fact Vs. Fiction #2 When Friends turn to Enemies</h1>
<h1>Fact</h1> After Roland had been in contact with his deceased aunt for some time, things around his house began to take an odd and incredibly horrifying turn. While there was no one—pets included—upstairs, Roland and his family would hear insatiable and loud tapping, knocking, and stomping. The sounds then began to come to them from under the house. The family did not have a basement, so their first reaction was to assume it was the work of outdoor pests. However, calling a pest control company proved to be fruitless. There was no pest problem of any kind to be found. 
While Roland’s family was still scratching their heads with confusion as to where the sounds were coming from, things around the house began to move on their own. Kitchen chairs would slide across the floor at random, scratching noises could be heard from inside the bathroom cupboards, and most horrific of all – one night, Roland’s mother walked into his bedroom to find his bed shaking uncontrollably with him sitting on it, stiff and scared, making it an impossibility for him to be making his bed do this on his own.  
<h1>Fiction</h1>  Regan MacNeil and her mother also began hearing noises coming from an unoccupied attic and chalked it up to rats.  As with Roland’s case, the exterminator found no traces of rats or any other kind of critterly nuisance. After this, Regan’s mother finds her on her bed as it rattles on its own as well. 
 
<h1>Fact vs. Fiction #3: Bizarre Behavior</h1>
<h1>Fact</h1> Bruises, carvings of words such as “hell”, cuts, and other increasingly outlandish things were being found all over the boy on a daily basis. This began when he had complained of stomach pains one night and once his mother saw his stomach, she saw it had been severely cut up in such a way that it could not have been self inflicted. In the following days, the boy began speaking in Latin—a language that he had never taken classes on or the family had any literature around the house. They had taken him to many different doctors and psychiatrists to find a solution, but there was nothing to be found and nothing that could be done. Roland’s family’s hope depleted as his antics became increased with violence and depravity. Roland was still in contact with his “aunt”, and his family began to think that this had something to do with it and also felt that this really was not the aunt he thought it was. Finally—as a last resort, they reached out to the Lutheran Church to help their boy.  
<h1>Fiction</h1>As Regan kept up her contact with Captain Howdy, she, too, began exhibiting strange behaviors. After she was found with her bed shaking, a few nights later, she came downstairs while her mother was throwing a party. Regan only said five words as she urinated on the rug in front of everyone, but they were ominous ones—“you’re gonna die up there”.  She also had mysterious marks on her, but her stomach read “help me” and appeared to have been protruding from the inside of her. Her mother, like Roland’s mother, took her to several different doctors and they found nothing and instead – suggested it might be epilepsy. Her mother, knowing that her daughter’s problem did not lie in epilepsy, turned to a priest for help also as a last resort.  
 
<h1>Fact vs. Fiction #4 The Main Event</h1>
<h1>Fact</h1> During the first visit that Roland had with a pastor, he spat on him, and at any mention of the Lord’s name or an utterance of a prayer, began gyrating, swearing, and screaming profanities. To conduct the investigation needed for approval from the Lutheran church to provide an exorcism, the pastor stayed the night in the house. He reported that he heard noises that sounded as if someone was scratching from under the floorboards, an armchair moved across the room and then tipped over, and even his blanket was moving on its own.  He found that there was definitive evidence that there was something sinister at play in the house. The next day, the exorcism began and the pastor had to ensure that the boy was tied down as his explosions were becoming more physical than verbal. The priest stated that the strength this young boy had was superhuman and could have, in no way, come from his body. The voice he spoke in was demonic sounding and he continued to rattle on in Latin through his exorcism.  He vomited, urinated, and with his eyes closed, was able to spit across the room and into the eyes of the attending pastors. Drawers opened on their own during the exorcising sessions and chairs continued to move across the room as well. The pastors were drained and scared, shaky that a resolution could even come from such a case. 
Finally, after about thirty sessions of being spat on, cursed at, threatened, screamed at in Latin, the utterance of Christ’s name delivered the boy from the demon that was possessing him, and at that moment, a noise like a giant clap of thunder could be heard.  
He has no recollection of this time in his life and went on to marry, raise children, and live an otherwise normal life. 
 
<h1>Fiction</h1> Regan met with Father Karras and began speaking in his deceased mother’s voice, profusely vomiting, speaking backwards English, and opening drawers on her own. She has a feeding tube and is completely restrained to her bed. Her face is covered in scabs, boils, and vomit, and her eyes glow fluorescent yellow. Terrified, Karras recruits Father Merrin—an older, more experienced priest—to help him with the exorcism. Together, they are vomited on, spat on, and tormented with the things that the demon inside of Regan is saying. At one point, she sits upright, her head turns completely around, and she growls at Father Karras. Her restraints to her bed break, and she levitates.  
Regan’s exorcism wasn’t quite as successful as Roland in the real story’s was. After she kills Father Merrin, Father Karras begs the demon to “come into him”, and it does. However, the demon’s stint in Karras’ body is rather short as he immediately runs towards Regan’s bedroom window, jumps out, and lands six flights down breaking his neck. 
Regan had no recollection of it and her and her mother move away from the house to start new somewhere else. 
 
All in All… 
It’s plain to see that there are many things that are correlated in the true story as well as the fictional story. The spitting, the profanity, the familial alarm, the clergymen, and the noises coming from empty spaces in the house were all the same. Though Hollywood certainly spooked up this true story, it’s really a mystery still as to if they even really needed to.