The Exorcist Stairs

In the Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington, D.C., a narrow, steep set of stone steps hugs the wall between Prospect Street and M Street. To the casual passer-by, they may seem like just another urban cut-through—but horror fans know them as the Exorcist Stairs, immortalised in the climactic scene of the 1973 film The Exorcist.

In the film’s final moments, Father Karras hurls himself out of the MacNeil home and tumbles violently down these very stairs in a desperate act of sacrifice and salvation. The image of his body bouncing against the hard stone has become one of the most recognisable and chilling visuals in horror cinema.

The stairs are steep—75 steps in total—and enclosed by high walls, adding to their claustrophobic and eerie feel. Despite their notoriety, the stairs remain open to the public and largely unmarked, though a plaque was added in 2015 honouring their cinematic legacy.

Visiting the Exorcist Stairs offers an oddly spiritual moment for horror fans—a quiet, physical connection to one of the genre’s darkest, most unsettling masterpieces. Whether in daylight or shadow, the stairs feel haunted not by ghosts, but by film history itself.