"The Exorcist" Experience

[rowrrbazzle]

Capt. Nik Guran, stationed in Iraq, was watching a DVD of “The Exorcist”.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/movies/jump/2377429

As the film began, Guran had the weird realization he was sitting at the location where director William Friedkin shot the opening sequence of his 1973 horror classic…

“And then the Army hatched this idea,” Friedkin continued, “to turn the whole area into a tourist attraction and call it ‘The Exorcist Experience.’”…

…the soldiers hired unemployed Mosul University students as guides, created a parking lot, opened a police station and revamped a nearby hotel. The theme park, which is officially backed by the Pentagon, will be turned over to the Iraqis once it is operating. Admission will be $2 or $5 with a kabob lunch.

A flaming kabob would be appropriate.

Friedkin recounts a couple of stories about that shoot that I haven’t heard. Here’s one:

“We were guests of the Baath Party, then run by a guy who looked like Groucho Marx,” Friedkin said, “and every morning I trained my Iraqi guides to salute his picture by chanting, ‘Hooray for Captain Spalding!’” – a reference to Groucho’s character in Animal Crackers.