The staircase Father Karras hurls himself down at the climax of The Exorcist is a real, public outdoor stairway connecting M Street and Prospect Street in Georgetown, Washington D.C., beside the Car Barn building near the Key Bridge. It has been known locally and internationally as the Exorcist Steps ever since, and the neighbourhood association eventually gave that name a degree of official recognition.
The house above the steps — the Georgetown row house where the possession takes place — is also real, on nearby Prospect Street, though as with most film houses only its exterior appears in the finished film.
A stunt performed on the real stairs
The steps are steep, narrow and genuinely severe. Counts differ depending on where you start: the figure most often quoted in connection with the film is 75, while the city's landmark documentation counts 97 between M Street and Prospect Street.
The fall was performed by a stunt double for Jason Miller, not by the actor, and it was done on the real staircase rather than a set — the production had the steps covered in rubber matting, commonly described as about half an inch thick, and the stuntman went down them twice.
It is a well-told local story that Georgetown University students charged spectators a few dollars each to watch the stunt from neighbouring rooftops. Director William Friedkin generally favoured practical, in-camera effects, and the steps sequence is one of the clearest examples in the film: a real fall, down a real, otherwise unmodified public staircase.
From ordinary steps to protected landmark
For years after the film's 1973 release, the stairs were simply a well-known but informally named local curiosity — a strenuous shortcut between Georgetown's upper streets and the waterfront, and a magnet for Halloween visitors and horror fans.
A plaque marking the steps' role in the film was dedicated in 2015, with Friedkin and the novel's author William Peter Blatty present. The stairway was subsequently designated a historic landmark — though, as local reporting pointed out at the time, the designation rests on the steps' significance to Georgetown's transportation and industrial history rather than on the film. The horror fame and the official protection arrived by separate routes.
The house on Prospect Street
The Georgetown house used for the MacNeil residence's exterior sits on Prospect Street, close to the top of the steps, on a section of the street lined with similar 19th-century row houses. As with the steps, only the outside was filmed there; the interiors of the house — the bedroom at the centre of the story — were built as elaborate, famously refrigerated sets on a soundstage, kept cold enough that the actors' visible breath is real, not an effect.
The rest of the film's Georgetown exteriors — street scenes, the university campus glimpsed in places — draw on the neighbourhood's genuinely old, largely unaltered federal-era streetscape, one of the reasons Friedkin favoured Georgetown as a filming base in the first place.
Visiting the location
- Where
- The Exorcist Steps, between Prospect Street NW and M Street NW, Georgetown, Washington D.C., beside the Car Barn building.
- Getting there
- Central Georgetown has no Metro station; the nearest is Foggy Bottom–GWU, roughly a 20–25 minute walk, or reachable by DC Circulator bus.
- Access
- A public outdoor city staircase, free and open at all times, in ordinary daily use by pedestrians moving between the two streets.
- The steps are steep and can be slick after rain — take care, especially descending.
- The commemorative plaque is mounted at the base, on M Street, easy to miss if you only glance at the stairs themselves.
- The Georgetown waterfront along the Potomac is a short walk downhill and worth combining with the visit.
- The Prospect Street house nearby is a private residence — view respectfully from the street only.
Frequently asked questions
Are the Exorcist Steps a real staircase?
Yes — a public outdoor stairway between M Street and Prospect Street in Georgetown, Washington D.C., in ordinary daily use and freely accessible.
Was the fall down the steps a real stunt?
Yes. A stunt double for Jason Miller fell down the real staircase — twice — with the steps covered in rubber matting roughly half an inch thick. It was not a set or an optical effect.
How many Exorcist Steps are there?
It depends on the count. The figure usually quoted in connection with the film is 75; the city's landmark documentation counts 97 steps between M Street and Prospect Street.
Can you visit the house from The Exorcist?
You can view its exterior on Prospect Street near the top of the steps — it is a private residence, so there is no public access, and the interiors seen in the film were studio sets.