Georgetown · New York · Northern Iraq · 1973
William Friedkin, Owen Roizman and William Peter Blatty O Street, Georgetown, 1972
Ellen Burstyn Chris MacNeil · 1973 still
Linda Blair Regan · 1976
Max von Sydow and Jason Miller Merrin and Karras · 1973 still
A stairway, a campus and a hospital you can walk to today, and a desert city in northern Iraq that stays on the page. The scariest thing in the film was made in a freezer.
INorthern Iraq
The prologue opens at an excavation in northern Iraq, where an amulet and a statue of the demon Pazuzu are found. It was filmed at Hatra.
Drag across the sand to brush it away, or use the brush button.
The figure is drawn for this page; it is not the film’s prop.
Billy Williams photographed the Iraq prologue. Williams, Friedkin and Max von Sydow scouted for a long time before settling on Hatra, a city on the old trade route from India. A temple to the sun god was being rebuilt there, with Iraqi masons recutting stone from the original quarry.
Hatra was founded in the 2nd or 3rd century BCE and is called the best-preserved example of a Parthian city. Daesh occupied it in 2014 and used it for military training. It went on UNESCO’s danger list on 1 July 2015. Restorers cleared 350 tons of rubble and recovered 10 unexploded bombs. The site is now open, with few restrictions, to a growing number of visitors.
The production shot on location in Mosul. The US had no diplomatic relations with Iraq. Friedkin dealt with the ruling Baath Party, which required him to hire many Iraqi crew. It was so hot that some of the crew fell ill and had to be replaced.
The al-Hadba minaret leaned over the city for more than 850 years. It was destroyed in 2017 and has been rebuilt; UNESCO raised $115 million for the reconstruction.
Travel warning
The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ninawa province. Hatra and Mosul are both in it. Hatra lies about 110 km south-west of Mosul. Hatra is on the map below so you can see where the prologue was made, not as a suggestion to go. Check your own government’s advice first.
IINew York, on a stage
Regan’s bedroom was built twice. The duplicate sat inside a refrigerated “cocoon”, usually chilled to about 20 below zero. Breathe into it. Your breath only shows when the room is cold enough.
Take 1: 25 °F (-4 °C). Press and hold to breathe out.
A first test, just below freezing at about 25 degrees, gave too little breath, and the lights warmed the room too fast to shoot. The crew then built a system that could chill the room quickly to anything from zero to 20 below.
A $50,000 air-conditioning unit kept the room below zero. It broke down again and again, and whenever the lights warmed the room, shooting stopped until it was cold once more.
Friedkin said the two-storey house set burned to the ground, which cost three weeks. Apart from the Iraq prologue, the film was made in Georgetown and on studio sets in New York City.
The room is drawn for this page. The stages were in New York; the studio is not named in our sources, and there is nothing to visit.
October 1972, and the tree out front is still in leaf. Shake it.
The tree is drawn for this page.
IIIProspect Street
The MacNeils’ rented house was filmed at 3600 Prospect Street, at the head of the steps. A temporary wing was added before filming.
Filming there waited for the tree out front to drop most of its leaves. By early November 1972, it had.
The closed end of 36th Street below the house is fenced and kept by the owners of 3600 Prospect as their private garden.
A private home. See it only from the public street and the top of the steps; never go to the door.
IV36th Street, between Prospect and M
Walk down one step at a time. The stairway has been counted three ways, and each count is in print.
You are at the top, on Prospect Street. The light from M Street is a long way down.
Top step. Step down with the button or the down arrow.
The stairway is drawn for this page, with 75 steps and two landings.
A public stairway, open at all hours. Come down from Prospect Street, or up from M Street near Key Bridge. The steps are steep and narrow: hold the rail, especially after dark.
Starts at 3051 M Street NW · Nightly · about 90 minutes · under-4s free · free cancellation to 24 hours before
A night walk of about 90 minutes from the Old Stone House on M Street that ends at the Exorcist Steps, with the local story behind the book.
Book a nightVGeorgetown University
The novel’s author studied here. When the film came, so did the camera, and about three hundred of the university’s own.
The chapel
To shoot inside the chapel, Roizman rigged lights on 30-foot towers to bring up the stained glass.
In the story, a statue of the Virgin in the chapel is desecrated.
Father Thomas King, a theology professor, blessed the production more than once after a run of accidents.
The university chapel. See it from the quadrangle; services are the university’s own.
The lawn
About 300 students, staff, faculty and Jesuits worked as extras: passers-by, tennis players, and protesters in front of Healy Hall, at $35 to $128 a day.
Scenes were shot on and near the campus in October and November 1972. The studio paid the university $1,000 a day.
William Peter Blatty, class of 1950, read a 1949 Washington Post story about an exorcism while he was a student here.
A working university. See Healy Hall from the front lawn and the gates; its rooms are for students and staff.
The library steps
The steps of Lauinger Library are among the campus places seen in the film.
Students watch the film each year on Copley Lawn, late on the night before Halloween.
The university library. See the steps from Library Walk.
VIManhattan and the Bronx
Radiology request · New York · 1972–73
Examination room
The examination scenes were shot in real X-ray rooms at NYU Medical Center, on a Saturday afternoon, under the rooms’ own fluorescent light. Norman E. Chase, professor of radiology there, was the film’s technical adviser.
New York University Medical Center was renamed NYU Langone Medical Center in 2008. Its University Hospital, in a new building from 1963, became Tisch Hospital in 1989. Tisch Hospital is at 550 First Avenue.
More medical scenes were shot in a doctors’ complex on Long Island, with the window shades pulled down.
A working hospital, now NYU Langone. See it from First Avenue or across the East River; the wards are for patients and their visitors.
Card game
The poker scene was shot in Hughes Hall at Fordham. Alan Mitchell, then a young Jesuit there, played a Georgetown student.
When Mitchell later saw Copley Hall at Georgetown, he thought Hughes Hall had looked like it.
About 15 km north of First Avenue
A working university building. See it from the Rose Hill campus paths.
Not on the map
Apart from the Iraq prologue, the film was made in Georgetown and on studio sets in New York City.
Production ran from 14 August 1972 to late June 1973.
Studio sets: not a place you can visit.
The kitchen, the basement and the stairs inside the MacNeil house were sets. The cold one is above.
New York City
Live marketplace results for film location tours of New York. None is about this film; check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare tours
VII31 October
On 31 October 2026 a free haunted light show runs at the steps from 7pm to 11pm. No ticket is needed. On 30 October 2015 Mayor Muriel Bowser, with William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty, unveiled a plaque at the foot of the stairs.
William Friedkin, who directed the film, came back to the foot of the steps in 2015 to see the plaque go up, with William Peter Blatty beside him.
Not on the map
7 places to visit in Georgetown and New York. The Hatra pin is there to show where the prologue was made: the UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Nineveh province. The Prospect Street house, the New York stages and Mosul are listed above, not pinned.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public stairway, open at all hours. Come down from Prospect Street, or up from M Street near Key Bridge. The steps are steep and narrow: hold the rail, especially after dark.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. See it from M Street, and from the steps that run down its west wall.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working university. See Healy Hall from the front lawn and the gates; its rooms are for students and staff.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The university chapel. See it from the quadrangle; services are the university’s own.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The university library. See the steps from Library Walk.
Prospect Street to M Street at 36th Street, Georgetown, Washington, DC
The film’s climax was shot here, on the stone stairway beside the old Capital Traction Company station.
A public stairway, open at all hours. Come down from Prospect Street, or up from M Street near Key Bridge. The steps are steep and narrow: hold the rail, especially after dark.
M Street at 36th Street, Georgetown
The Capital Traction Company built its streetcar terminal and car barn here in 1895–97.
See it from M Street, and from the steps that run down its west wall.
37th and O Streets, Georgetown University
Scenes were shot on and near the campus in October and November 1972. The studio paid the university $1,000 a day.
A working university. See Healy Hall from the front lawn and the gates; its rooms are for students and staff.
Dahlgren Quadrangle, Georgetown University
Dahlgren Chapel is on the university archive’s list of campus places seen in the film.
The university chapel. See it from the quadrangle; services are the university’s own.
Library Walk, Georgetown University
The steps of Lauinger Library are among the campus places seen in the film.
The university library. See the steps from Library Walk.
Stay
A small hotel a walk from the campus and the top of the steps.
1310 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Georgetown · 96 rooms and suites · rates on the hotel’s site
A 96-room boutique hotel on Wisconsin Avenue, a walk from the campus, the waterfront and the top of the steps. Pictured: the Car Barn on M Street, not the hotel.
Check datesGo there
A nightly walk that ends at the steps, and live tour listings for Georgetown and New York.
Starts at 3051 M Street NW · Nightly · about 90 minutes · under-4s free · free cancellation to 24 hours before
A night walk of about 90 minutes from the Old Stone House on M Street that ends at the Exorcist Steps, with the local story behind the book.
Book a nightGeorgetown, Washington, DC
Live marketplace results for night walks in Georgetown. Check each itinerary for the steps.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursNew York City
Live marketplace results for film location tours of New York. None is about this film; check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
A free light show at the Exorcist Steps on 31 October 2026, and a walk timed to reach it.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
An original one-sheet from our store, Blatty’s novel, Friedkin’s memoir, a short study and the 1974 soundtrack LP.
An original 1973 US one-sheet, 27 × 41 in, rolled (previously folded), near mint. Art by Bill Gold.
In stock
View posterWilliam Peter Blatty
The 1971 novel, by the Georgetown graduate who wrote and produced the film.
Find the bookWilliam Friedkin
The director’s own account of his films.
Find the bookMark Kermode
A short study of the film.
Find the bookVarious Artists · LP, Warner Bros. Records, 1974
The 1974 US soundtrack LP.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 16 of 16 Moments
Prospect Street to M Street at 36th Street, Georgetown, Washington, DC
The climax was shot on the stone stairway beside the Car Barn.
In 2015 the District, with Friedkin and Blatty, put a plaque at the foot of the stairs.
3600 Prospect Street, Georgetown
The MacNeils’ house was 3600 Prospect Street, with a temporary wing added for the film.
Filming at the house waited for the tree out front to lose most of its leaves.
M Street at 36th Street, Georgetown
The stairway runs down the station’s west wall: Roizman called it a long, narrow chute.
37th and O Streets, Georgetown University
Students and Jesuits played protesters in front of Healy Hall.
Dahlgren Quadrangle, Georgetown University
Roizman lit the chapel’s stained glass from 30-foot towers.
Library Walk, Georgetown University
The Lauinger Library steps appear in the film.
First Avenue at 30th–34th Streets, Manhattan
The examinations were shot in real X-ray rooms at NYU Medical Center.
Rose Hill campus, East Fordham Road, the Bronx
A poker game set at Georgetown was shot in Fordham’s Hughes Hall.
Studio sets in New York City
Regan’s bedroom was duplicated inside a refrigerated cocoon so that breath would show on film.
Friedkin said the two-storey house set burned to the ground, costing three weeks.
Al-Hadr, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq
The prologue opens at an excavation in northern Iraq, where an amulet and a statue of the demon Pazuzu are found. It was filmed at Hatra.
The demon in the prologue is Pazuzu. Real amulets of his head are Neo-Assyrian: the Met’s bronze pendant, 4.3 cm tall, dates from about the 8th–7th century BCE.
Williams, Friedkin and von Sydow settled on Hatra after a long search, while a sun temple was being rebuilt there.
Mosul, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq
The production shot on location in Mosul, in heat that sent some of the crew home ill.
