Nick Groff Investigates… The Exorcist House!!

Nick Groff is one of the most respected names in television and beyond when it comes to the paranormal. He has had incredible experiences in some of the most haunted locations in the world. As a friend to Arrow in the Head, we’ve shared some very exciting experiences with Nick including a couple of wild and spooky moments that we’ve managed to capture on camera. Thus, we’ve decided to work with the television host and producer extraordinaire so he can share his knowledge and insight on all things that go bump in the night. With this bi-monthly column, we plan to delve into everything from urban legends to ghostly apparitions, to his take on some of the coolest genre flicks ever. This is Nick Groff Investigates…!

THE EXORCIST HOUSE!

In 1973, audiences were horrified by the influential demonic thriller THE EXORCIST. The Academy Award winning film is a terrifying look at a mother desperately trying to save her daughter from an unknown force that appears to be taking over the girl’s body and soul. Directed by William Friedkin, the film features excellent performances from Linda Blair as the young girl, Ellen Burstyn as her mother, and both Jason Miller and the great Max von Sydow as priests hoping to exorcise the demon that has taken over. This brilliant film is far from your typical horror flick, it’s a shocking and deeply personal story that manages to create a sense of dread from the very beginning.

Before writing this weeks Nick Groff Investigates, I revisited this classic tale. And frankly, the film affects me far more as an adult than it did as a child. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m a dad now and much of the horror involved is courtesy of Ms. Burstyn’s electrifying performance as a mother desperately seeking help for her young daughter. Both Burstyn and Blair share a beautiful connection in the beginning, so watching Regan fall under the spell of this vile and demonic entity is intensely sad – and yes, very disturbing and scary. Even if you’ve never seen this brilliant work, there are moments that you are probably aware of with all the copycats, parodies and random entertainment shows that feature clips of this popular tale.

For this viewer however, I find the subtle moments to be just as unnerving as say the green pea sequence or that one crucifix scene. The moment where Regan (Blair) interrupts her mother’s party early in the film is absolutely disturbing. If you are a parent, watching your child go through bizarre behavior and having to suffer through continuous medical examinations is certainly a painful and gut-wrenching experience. If anything, even if the film didn’t take such a demonic turn, I’d still find it frightening. After all, if your child has ever had any sort of medical ailment, any good parent will feel just as miserable and helpless as Regan’s mother does as she watches her daughter drift into darkness.

If you are at all aware of the history of the film and the novel, you certainly have heard the story on which this is based. It involves the possession of a fourteen-year-old boy, one that was subjected to an exorcism. The house where this experience took place – back in 1949 – is located in St. Louis, and it clearly has a dark history behind it. Recently, Nick and I discussed THE EXORCIST, and the story that inspired it. This lead to a series of questions for Nick regarding the house and his own experiences there. And frankly, when he gave me his response to investigating this creepy location, it gave me chills. Here is what Nick had to say about THE EXORCIST, and the very place that the incident is rumored to have taken place. Have any good exorcism stories? Feel free to share in the comments below!

“One of my all time psychological scary movies is THE EXORCIST. This film really got under my skin, and as I grew older it creeped me out even more. I’ve experienced very negative energies at different locations I’ve investigated. So the idea of something so dark that it can overtake a human body and mind like in the film really freaks me out.

I have investigated the real exorcist house in St. Louis. There’s an ominous feeling about the real room where the exorcisms happened on the boy. I can’t pin it, but there’s an energy that is unwelcoming. This is where the real case of a boy who lived in the house for a period of his life when they were trying to rid the negative entity from him. The true case is so bizarre that it fascinated me since childhood. I have heard the true story and read a lot about the details of what the boy went through. We tried to reach out to him for an interview when we investigated the location. He wanted no part of it. He doesn’t even remember that part of his life as if it was blank and never happened. To me that’s genuine, and I believe it actually did happen. Even the hospital they brought him to in St Louis has stories attached to it from when the priests were doing their exorcism on him. I feel the true story is scarier than the film.

Our investigation was definitely one I won’t forget and opened up my mind to other possibilities within the Paranormal field. Either way, if you believe it or not, there is a story attached to this location and will forever haunt. Anything with this type of energy will cause a ripple effect and stain the location forever. Energy can’t be destroyed and what’s interesting is here we are still talking about it today. Always keep your guard up when communicating with the other side because we truly don’t know who or what we are actually speaking to.”