On my top ten list of movies that scared the pants off of me when I was a kid, this one is at the top. The Exorcist is one of those movies that has scared children for generations.
I’m going to add a spoiler alert here, on the off chance that you’ve never seen this movie before. I know, I know, “who hasn’t”, you ask? Just in case, if you haven’t and you are reading this, consider yourself alerted.
Based off of the book written in 1971 by William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the screen version, The Exorcist, was directed by William Friedkin. The movie is 2 hours 2 minutes long and was released on December 26, 1973. I can’t think of a better after Christmas present honestly.
An archeological dig in Hatra, Iraq, being overseen by Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), unearths the demon Pazuzu, releasing him onto earth.
Around the same time, a 12 year-old girl named Regan (Linda Blair) finds a Ouija board in the basement of the townhouse she is living in, on location with her mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), in Georgetown.
Playing with it, as a curious 12 year-old is apt to do, she meets an imaginary friend named Captain Howdy; after which, strange things begin happening to her. She goes from sweet, and fun loving, to using obscene language, telling her mother’s party guest that he is going to die right before she urinates where she stands. Later that evening, after her mother has cleaned her up and put her back to bed, her bed begins to shake off the floor.
At her wits end, Regan’s mother consults a plethora of doctors about what could be wrong with her daughter. Regan is exposed to a number of tests, yet, the doctors can find nothing wrong with her. They suggest to her mother, that her aberrations are psychological, and that an exorcism may help. Suggesting that just as she believes she’s being possessed, so might she believe that the exorcism really worked. Their belief being that Regan’s mind might need to be tricked back to normal.
Eager to help her daughter anyway she can, Chris contacts Father Damian Karras (Jason Miller) who agrees to come see Regan and then make a determination. His observations on his visit stir him to contact the church about an exorcism, believing the girl to be in extreme peril, not only from what could harm her physically, but what it could do to her soul if she doesn’t receive help immediately from the church.
He and Father Merrin return to the house to perform the exorcism, where they observe Pazuzu use the body of Regan to perform vulgar acts, talk in a foreign language, and get into the heads of both of the priests; where it torments each of them mercilessly.
They eventually end up getting the demon out of Regan, where it jumps into Father Karras. He has a moments clarity before the demon takes a hold completely, and flings himself out of the window, down several flights of stairs, before landing barely alive at the bottom. He is given the last rights and dies directly after.
There are so many different ways that this movie scares you, from Regan doing the crab walk backwards down the stairs, to watching her head spin around as she spews green pea soup all over the room and everyone in it.
The make-up used to turn her into demon Regan, as well as the special effects to make the various bed shakes and levitation happen, were exceptional for the time. Granted, they didn’t have the technology then that they do today, but that is part of what makes this movie one of the greats.
There are many people that I have heard comment over the years, that their parents wouldn’t allow them to bring Ouija boards into their houses, much less play with them, after watching this movie, for fear that something similar would happen to them. Perhaps their fears were for good reason, or perhaps it really is just a toy with no connection to anything, demonic or otherwise. That my dear readers, is as they say, a topic for another discussion.
This is the one movie that no matter how many times I watch it, I still enjoy it. It doesn’t scare me like it once did, when I was a little kid watching it for the first time, sneaking a peak around the corner of the living room wall because I was supposed to be in bed while the adults watched their movie, but it’s still a go to when I want a good horror movie to watch.
I give this movie 5 severed heads and highly recommend watching it at least once, and if you’ve already seen it, well give it another watch for the nostalgia, it’s worth it.
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