On Location: The Exorcist Stairs

This is the fifth in a month long Halloween-themed series of On Location posts that will take you "back to the scene of the crime" of some of the greatest horror movies ever made.

Located in an unassuming neighborhood in Washington DC, they were once known as "the Hitchcock stairs" before William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin came around. Now, they are "The Exorcist stairs", made (in)famous in the classic horror film when a recently demonized Father Karras (Jason Miller) flings himself out a window and topples down, down, down to his untimely yet heroic end.

Furthermore, not too far from the top of the stairs is the location used for the exterior of the MacNeil house, complete with lamppost, featured so memorably in the film and its iconic poster.