Exorcist Steps, Where Halloween Meets Hollywood, Officially Recognized by D.C. Government

It’s official. It’s really official.

The District Council of the District of Columbia officially dedicated a plaque that recognizes the famous or infamous steps at Prospect and 36th Streets NW as a significant historic location in Washington, D.C.

The fates—and Andrew Huff, the Dupont Film Festival, the D.C. Film Office and others—got together, celebrated and commemorated the occasion. On hand were William Peter Blatty, the author of “The Exorcist,” the novel on which the film is based, along with director William Friedkin and a hundred or so fans, autograph seekers and early Halloween revelers.  They gathered at the site of the stairs, along with Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, and Georgetown University President John DeGioia.

Blatty and Friedkin spent two hours or so on Prospect Street, signing autographs, programs, books, posters and other items. Also on hand were “Exorcist” fans, who remembered the filming, read the books or gather every Halloween for screenings of  “The Exorcist.” It was a film that shook up the horror movie world—and the Georgetown landscape, while it was being filmed more than 40 years ago. 

“It was strange watching the film this time,” said Bill Dunlap, artist and a good friend of Friedkin. Dunlap, who showed up with his wife and daughter, remarked about the 1973 film, “Everyone smoking, those weird telephones and the scenes of Georgetown at that time. It was pretty haunting.

On Prospect Street, promoters dressed as nuns and priests handed out containers for holy waters to hype “Exorcist Live!”  A young girl who answered to the name of Regan, in a greenish, Linda Blair-like dress was also there. 

Friedkin said he had, in one way or another, spend half of his life on this film. “It’s great to see that there are still so many people interested in the film,” he said. “It’s really appreciated.”

Smoke and shrieking noises were in evidence at the bottom of the steps as fans waited for the arrival of of Blatty, Friedkin and the rest. “Somebody should throw a dummy or something down the stairs,” one fan said. “That would really scare the hell out of people.”

Asked what kind of movies he might be directing today,  Friedkin, who is working in the opera world these days, replied: “Movies that are in focus . . . plus, movies that tell a good story.”

“This film is part of the history of Georgetown and Georgetown University,” DiGioia said. “It’s a part of our cultural history,” Evans added. 

The proclamation noted that “The Exorcist” was in the National Film Registry by way of the Library of Congress and that the steps, once known as the “Hitchcock steps”  had taken “their place in the annals of film and Georgetown history as a perennial destination for residents and visitors of the nation’s capital.”