William Friedkin’s screen adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel about a seemingly ordinary girl who becomes possessed by the devil presented filmgoers with unprecedented images of horror. Always aiming for realism even with his most fantastical creations, makeup artist Dick Smith’s process for finalizing actress Linda Blair’s transformation into the demonic Regan required weeks of camera tests and multiple application variations. Collaborating with special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere, Smith employed his mastery with foam latex to create a life-size body cast of Blair for the iconic, horrifying head-spinning scene and fashioned a hidden, plastic mouthpiece to produce Regan’s projectile vomit.