The room where the haunted boy was released was haunted ever more. No one would enter that place again. Meanwhile, the impossible task of casting The Exorcist. The actors who said yes, no, and “hell no.” Friedkin’s remarkable interview with Linda Blair after more than 1,000 girls had auditioned and failed. Shooting begins, tragedies overwhelm a cursed set. A Manhattan barfly gets his shot at fame. It’s all leading up to the exorcism sequence, a story of damnation and pea soup and a demon’s voice summoned from a lifetime of alcohol, tobacco, and bronchitis.