[Justin]

Welcome to the forums!

The contact thing is commonly mistaken for an error, though it’s actually not Linda Blair’s eye but that of Captain Howdy/Eileen Dietz.

As for the missing scene, unfortunately there is no where you can watch the full sequence, but there’s a short snippet of it in the 25th Anniversary documentary Fear of God. I assume it was never added back because the sound was apparently lost, but it would be nice as a DVD extra in the future…

[Witch of Endor]

What makes you say the mistake is Captain Howdy’s eyes?

[fatherbowdern]

I think Justin is pointing out the double-exposed image of Regan/Captain Howdy superimposed on top of one another. Regan (Blair) has the green/yellow cat eyes, while Captain Howdy’s (Dietz) eyes are dark brown. It’s not a mistake and if you listen to how they did the superimposing on the 25th Anniversary FOG, you’ll hear about how they did it back then. I think it was a thick sheet of glass with cellulose being filmed at the same time. I’m sure Justin can fill us in on that one too.

[Jagged]

Those were opticals done in post production, along with the vomit also an optical as the pea soup did not give the effect friedkin wanted. Copies of the documentation relating to it come up for sale on ebay every now and again.
This shot is Eileen’s face superimposed over the dummy not Linda.

[TinkDncr82]

Ok hello everybody I’m new to this board. First thing…has anybody else noticed that Linda Blair’s “Pazuzu” contact slides off of her pupil when she looks directly at the screen after her head spins? You can see her brown eye peaking out behind the lens. Also, does anybody know of anywhere you can find the scene with Regan and her mom walking around Washington DC? Why was that never put back in the film? Ok fellow fans, have a good one!

[fatherbowdern]

Jagged, you’re right on the vomit scene. Friedkin was unhappy with Dick Smith’s vomit device and we see Eileen in that contraption for only a split second after the shot of Karras getting hit with the spew.

If I remember correctly, I saw a documentary with chief cinematographer Roizman talking about how the split image was done in production, not post production. I remember this because he talked about it being a “classic” way of shooting double images. And, you’re right, that’s Dietz over top of Blair’s. We see that image overlay in two scenes: when Merrin arrives and right after the head spinning. I wish I could find the excerpt from Roizman (but, then again, he could have been “fantasizing” about his wonderful shots)! 🙂

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