Maryland Couple Buys The House Which Inspired The Exorcist Story

A Maryland couple learned that the reason they got such a great deal on their dream home was because it was the house where a Catholic priest performed an exorcism on a teenage boy, events which inspired the hit 1971 novel and 1973 movie The Exorcist.

Danielle Witt and Ben Rockey-Harris said they stumbled across the three-bedroom house last year in Cottage City, Maryland, which they said was going for cheap at $377,000, more then $50,000 lower than its estimated value, as previous buyers bailed out.

"Honestly, the first thing I thought was, oh, God, this is going to tank our resale value. And then the next thought I had was, maybe I better rewatch that, start learning more about what it is that we just bought. And also, I had no idea that that was even based on a real story," Witt told NPR.

The couple said they were not afraid of the home's history, with Witt noting that she was knowledgeable about the occult and that demons haunt people, rather than properties.