The Exorcist

1973's THE EXORCIST is the film that launched a million theological debates and pea green soup jokes.  An undisputed classic that time cannot tarnish.  Discussing such a movie is often difficult, because for me it is just about perfect.  Director William Friedkin so deftly builds and modulates William Peter Blatty's story (based on his novel which in turn was based on true events) that I have to rank it not only as one of the best horror films of all time, but one of the best, period.  That's what struck me during my most recent revisit - how gradually the film inches toward that final section, when Fathers Merrin and Karras hover over a demon possessed twelve year old girl named Regan.  A surefooted, increasingly sinister traipse toward a graphic showdown in which medical science seems to have gone out for a long smoke.

Regan (Linda Blair) is living with her divorced actress mother Chris (Ellyn Burstyn) in D.C. while the latter is shooting a movie at Georgetown.  She's introduced as a polite, happy young girl, but is soon acting quite strangely and inappropriately.  Her outbursts become profane, and the girl seems to have almost telekinetic abilities.  Chris also begins noticing strange sounds in the attic, and her daughter's use of a Ouija board.  In a scene that has led many to believe that Blatty's later THE NINTH CONFIGURATION is a sequel to this movie, Regan (just before peeing on the floor) informs an astronaut attending her mother's soiree that he will die in space.

The results of batteries of neurological tests (quiet horrific themselves) prove unremarkable.  Regan begins to forgo hygiene and no longer seems to resemble that sweet little girl, especially after she masturbates with a crucifix. Is she merely trying to get attention?  Angry that her father didn't even call her on her birthday?  Angry at her mother for some reason? The victim of abuse at the hands of one of her mother's friends?  The troubled father Karras, who is also a psychiatrist, (Jason Miller) is called upon when all the other specialists are left baffled.  They don't necessarily believe in demon possession, but are remiss to offer any other options or yet another explanation about the temporal lobe.   Fr./Dr. Karras will join his mentor, Fr. Merrin (Max von Sydow), himself troubled by his findings during a mission trip in Iraq, in an attempt to drive out what may be the Devil himself. The film's climax sent some of the original audiences for barf bags. 

To say that THE EXORCIST is a tense, unnerving experience is to state the obvious.   It is one of the most successful films ever to do so.  This has atmosphere to the nth, even during the quieter scenes.  Somehow Friedkin straddles the horrific with the absurd all the way through.  I'm sure some have laughed during the vile, expletive laden torrents expelled through poor Regan, but in context it's just terrifying and sad.  Blatty's examination of lapsed faith and guilt gets plenty of mileage as well.  He is not condemning the Catholic church; in fact, many high level clergy have endorsed this film, one for for the ages, and still not for everyone, to again state the obvious.  THE EXORCIST is also the film that launched a million nightmares.  I can attest......