Читать книгу Walking With Ghosts - Lisa Yorio - Страница 8

GEORGETOWN - WASHINGTON

2001

Many years ago, in July 2001, I went with my friend, Janet, to Washington, DC on vacation. We decided to go to the old historic district of Georgetown. It was a beautiful stroll walking down the cobblestone streets and viewing the Victorian buildings, shops, and restaurants. I wanted to visit the sites and see the famous steps where one of the ending scenes from the movie” TheExorcist” was filmed. This is when the demon possesses the priest and jumps out the window. He topples down a long set of concrete steps and cracks his head open dying in the street. I was excited and anxious to photograph these steps in hope of catching some paranormal anomaly on film.

The Exorcist, released in 1973, was a movie about a young girl who gets possessed by an evil demon. The mother turns to a priest for help. He then gets the Catholic Church involved. He along with another priest performs an exorcism on the young girl. Her face contorts looking demonic; she vomits uncontrollably; levitates; curses; and speaks in tongues. She is very violent towards her mother and the priests. There are some very lewd and shocking scenes in the movie. The voice of the demon is so deep and scary it is hard to believe a young girl is saying such vulgar things.

There was so much controversy surrounding the film. Many odd occurrences happened during the filming of this movie.

As I recall from watching an interview and reading several articles, there were a lot of strange incidents that occurred on the set. There was a fire that caused the filming to be shut down for a few days. Sometimes the temperature was very cold in the studio; a couple of actors died during the filming; a few actors were hurt and the director acted a little crazy. His approach was very unconventional. He literally scared the hell out of the actors in the process of directing the movie. He would shoot a rifle up in the air and do various other techniques in order to shock and scare the actors and then film their reaction. This was genuine fear on their faces during certain scenes. This is what made the movie look so authentic.

I saw this movie when I was 9 years old. My parents advised me against watching it. That made me even more curious to see why it was so scary. The night that I watched the movie I was terrified. I was very nervous; nauseous; dizzy; and was vomiting. I thought I was becoming possessed. The movie scared me so much that it haunted me for 3 years after watching it. I couldn’t sleep at night, and when I did I had several scary nightmares. I felt anxious and alone. This was during a rough time in my life. My mother had just passed away, we moved, and my father got remarried. My stress level was so high at the time that I am sure this is why the movie had such a profound effect on me.

Years went by and I was no longer scared by this movie, only fascinated. I found out many years later that the famous steps were located in Georgetown. My curiosity intensified, so I decided to find them and take photographs of the steps. I noticed a wall along the sidewalk with a painting of the steps and a short story behind the filming of “The Exorcist”.

I wasn’t sure exactly where they were located. Janet and I were walking on the sidewalk and suddenly I got a strange feeling. I felt like something was drawing me to this particular spot. When I stopped walking and looked up, I saw the scary stairway.

As I approached the steps I was a little scared. They were not in the dark; gloomy; area that I expected. The steps are located between an Exxon gas station on the left, and a small park on the right. In the movie, it looked like a dark alleyway with nothing surrounding it but the house towering over the long stairway.

I got startled as I took a picture standing at the bottom of the steps looking up. All of a sudden, as I was about to photograph the steps, a jogger appeared at the top and started running down towards me. I felt uneasy and thought the steps were cursed. I was afraid to touch them. I snapped three photos of the eerie steps. It was a clear, hot, summer night so the pictures should have come out perfect. However, this was not the case.

When I went to pick up the film, I was anxious to see the steps. I was shocked when I realized that all the pictures of the steps weren’t there. They were never developed and appeared to be all black. There were no images present. At first I thought it was the film. Sometimes the end of the role gets exposed and doesn’t develop properly. In the beginning of the role of film were pictures of the Washington monuments, then the steps, and then there were pictures of scenery at the end of the role. All the photos prior to and after the steps came out very clear and in focus. I thought that it was strange that the only pictures that didn’t come out were the eerie steps that were in the middle of the role of film. I was disappointed because I was hoping to show my friends at work evidence of paranormal activity.

It seemed something didn’t want me to photograph these steps. Was it just a coincidence or was it the same evil energy associated with the movie causing the film not to be developed? This strange phenomenon adds to the mystery of the bad luck surrounding the making of the movie.