--- title: Exorcist Steps Made Tourist Attraction in Washington DC description: Just in time for Halloween canonical: https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-31T17:30:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:14:58.214Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Exorcist Steps Made Tourist Attraction in Washington DC og:description: Just in time for Halloween og:url: https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e2591355124ef8b/69886f0bcf40a8f061c406fe/exorcist.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Max Von Sydow stands in priest uniform in a scene from the film 'The Exorcist', 1973. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Exorcist Steps Made Tourist Attraction in Washington DC twitter:description: Just in time for Halloween twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e2591355124ef8b/69886f0bcf40a8f061c406fe/exorcist.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Exorcist Steps' Recognized as Tourist Icon By Washington D.C. by [Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly Oct 31, 2015 5:30 PM UTC  Max Von Sydow stands in priest uniform in a scene from the film 'The Exorcist', 1973. Max Von Sydow stands in priest uniform in a scene from the film 'The Exorcist', 1973.Warner Brothers/Getty Images by [Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly Oct 31, 2015 5:30 PM UTC Tourists regularly visit Washington, D.C. to pose for photos with the spooky stone steps from [_The Exorcist_](http://www.ew.com/article/2012/10/31/the-exorcist-10-creepy-details). This spot served as the location for — **spoiler alert!** — the death of Father Karras (Jason Miller) in the film. Now the city officially recognized The Exorcist Steps as a tourist attraction. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a special plaque with this designation. “It is important that all the tourists know exactly what these steps mean to D.C. history and they are indeed an icon in our town,” she said. “It is also a marker for us to put in the ground to say that we are going to double and redouble our efforts to make D.C. a film town.” The ceremony was followed by a screening of the 1972 horror film with director [William Friedken](http://www.ew.com/article/2014/12/02/exorcist-director-says-the-babadook-is-terrifying). See photos of him posing with the steps. The film starred [Linda Blair](http://www.ew.com/article/2005/02/27/why-linda-blair-scares-us-exorcist) as a child possessed by evil spirits. In an attempt to free her, Father Karras took the demon into himself and plunged out the window to his death at the bottom of the stone steps. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/31/exorcist-steps-washington-dc-tourist-attraction?) _originally appeared in_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/"},"headline":"'Exorcist Steps' Recognized as Tourist Icon By Washington D.C.","datePublished":"2015-10-31T17:30:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:14:58.214Z","description":"Just in time for Halloween","url":"https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e2591355124ef8b/69886f0bcf40a8f061c406fe/exorcist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Entertainment Weekly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e2591355124ef8b/69886f0bcf40a8f061c406fe/exorcist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Max Von Sydow stands in priest uniform in a scene from the film 'The Exorcist', 1973. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)","caption":"Max Von Sydow stands in priest uniform in a scene from the film 'The Exorcist', 1973. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)","creditText":"Warner Brothers/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4095519/exorcist-steps-washington-halloween/","name":"'Exorcist Steps' Recognized as Tourist Icon By Washington D.C."}}]}] ```