Goofs for
The Exorcist (1973) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The cigarette that Chris stomps out in the park is back in her hand a moment later.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Near the end of the picture, Father Karras's stole seems to disappear in Regan's room, but that's because he puts a blue pullover on top of it because it's cold in there.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Rubber mats are visible on the steps for the famous fall down the staircase scene.
  
  

• Continuity: When father Karras is in the dorm sitting on the bed smoking a cigarette, the priest takes the cigarette from Karras and lays him down on the bed. When father Karras sits up and grabs the priest's arm, the cigarette is still in Karras's right hand. In the next shot, the cigarette is back with the other priest.
  
  
• Continuity: Father Karras's lighter changes hands just as he is about to light a cigarette in his apartment.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The infamous stairs that Father Karras plummets down are indeed adjacent to the house, though the facade of a second story was added for the film.
  
  
• Continuity: After the initial session of exorcism, Father Damien Karras unties Regan's wrist from the bed and ties them together. When Father Merrin returns to resume the session Regan's wrists are again tied to the bed.
  
  
• Continuity: When Karras is drunk in his bed, his friend takes his cigarette from him. A few shots later, when Karras is lying down, the cigarette is in his hand again.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Regan insults Karras's mother, the lines don't match her mouth movements.
  
  
• Continuity: In the basement with the Ouija board, Regan is playing with a table tennis paddle and ball. She puts the ball under the paddle and rests it on the table when her mother brings the Ouija board. Clearly the ball is under the paddle as evidenced by the angle of the paddle. In the very next shot, the paddle is flat on the table and the ball has disappeared. In the next shot, the ball reappears as demonstrated by the angle of the paddle.
  
  
• Continuity: In the 2000 re-release, when Father Merrin asks Chris McNeil what Regan's middle name is, she is wearing a fur coat. When the priests enter Regan's room and Father Karras closes the door in her face, Mrs. McNeil is no longer wearing the coat.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris goes to investigate the noises in the attic, she takes a long candle up the stairs with her. When she actually gets into the attic, it is several inches shorter.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: Once, in the Iraq sequence, the shadow of a microphone is visible on Father Merrin's hat.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the exorcism, Reagan is lying on the bed with her head to one side while green vomit is pouring from her mouth onto the bed. The tube that pumps this "vomit" is visible on the back of her cheek, just under her ear.
  
  
• Continuity: When Father Karras visits his mother at her house, he removes his collar and places it edge-wise on the shelf. In the next shot, the collar is lying down at a different angle.
  
  
• Continuity: After Regan vomits on Fr. Merrin's purple stole we see Fr. Karras washing it off in the bathroom sink. In the next shot when the exorcism resumes and Fr. Merrin is wearing the stole, it is completely dry.
  
  
• Continuity: When Merrin and Karres enter Regans room to start the exorcism, Merrin opens a small black case and produces a crucifix which he kisses then puts on the bedside table. After the priests take a break from the exorcism, Merrin re-enters the room and takes the crucifix out of the case again.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the birds-eye view of the scene where Damien is running around the track before meeting the detective, there is a fly on the camera lens.
  
  
• Continuity: During the exorcism scene, the pillows underneath Regan's head disappear and then reappear.
  
  
• Continuity: Regan has her hands in the air as light streams in front of her. Later, her hands are tied to the bed again.
  
  
• Factual errors: William Peter Blatty closely modeled the exorcism scene on the actual rite of exorcism in the Church's "Rituale Romanum". Father Merrin can be seen opening a copy of the Rituale in the scene in question. However, the priests depart from the Rituale in two important details. First, there should have been four people (apart from Regan) in the room during the exorcism: the exorcist himself; an assistant priest to take over in case the exorcist died midway through; a member of the victim's family of the same sex as the victim, to help restrain her; and a doctor, to (among other things) administer any medication that was needed.
  
  
• Factual errors: Another departure from the "Rituale Romanum": due to the "2 Priest rule", Fr Merrin should have delayed the second round of the exorcism and phoned the bishop to get a replacement for Fr Karras, instead of trying to tackle it on his own.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Regan turns her head, she exposes the edge of the mask that covers the flattened tubes used to pump the "vomit" to her mouth.
  
  
• Continuity: The final scene when the family is driving off in the black Mercedes, the badge naming the type of Mercedes changes from Sxxx to a longer German word.
  
  
• Continuity: When the clock stops, the pendulum stops on the left side of the clock-casing. When the camera cuts back to the clock the pendulum hangs to the right
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the exorcism, Regan's blanket is yellow. Towards the end, when Father Karras is checking her heart, the blanket is blue.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the exorcism scene, the plasma bottle and stand are tipped over, and the nearly-full bottle smashes on the floor. No liquid comes out.
  
  

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