This being Halloween week, I’ve been celebrating the horror genre each day in Daily Dialogue, so it makes sense to continue the trend with our Great Scene today — from the 1973 movie The Exorcist. Adapted for the screen by William Peter Blatty from his best-selling novel and directed by William Friedkin, the movie grossed an astonishing $441M in worldwide B.O. receipts.
Safe to say, it became a cultural phenomenon. And speaking personally, when I saw it in a theater in Virginia Beach over the Christmas holidays, I remember being absolutely mesmerized by the story – and scared stupid.
There are a number of memorable moments in the movie with the pea soup and head-spinning ranking right up there. But since I was a theology student, I suppose that it makes sense the scene I recall with the most clarity is this one: Where Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Father Karras (Jason Miller) work double duty in the rite of exorcism upon Regan (Linda Blair), the poor girl who is possessed by a demon.
Here is the scene taken from what purports to be the shooting script:
Regan sits up and with a nightmare slowness, a fraction at atime, her head begins to turn, swiveling like a mannequin's andcreaking with the sound of a rusted mechanism. Once againDamien's attention is diverted and Merrin has to prompt him. MERRINDamien!!! Her head completely turns in a 360-degree turn and stares atKarras. KARRASAmen. MERRINDefender of the human race... A thunderous earthquake knock both priests to the ground. MERRIN...look down in pity... REGAN/DEMONYou killed your mother!!! You left her alone to die!!!! She'llnever forgive you!!! Bastard!!! KARRASShut up!! MERRIN... upon this your servant, Regan Teresa MacNeil. Another quake knocks them to the ground. Regan falls back, thebed sheets fly off of the bed and the straps slowly rip apart.Regan's eyes roll back into the socket and she slowly starts tolevitate. MERRINI command you by the judge of the living and the dead, to departfrom this servant of God. Regan is now levitating toward the ceiling, arms out stretchedlike a cross. MERRINIt's the power! (To Karras)- Holy water. Karras runs to the bedside table and grabs the bottle of holywater, he runs back and gives it to Merrin. MERRINIt's the power of Christ, that compels you. MERRIN + KARRASThe power of Christ compels you. Merrin sprinkles holy water. MERRIN + KARRASThe power of Christ compels you. Merrin sprinkles holy water and we see a cut appear on her skin. MERRIN + KARRASThe power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you. Regan begins to descend. MERRIN + KARRASThe power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.The power of Christ compels you. Regan lands back on the bed once more. MERRIN + KARRASThe power of Christ compels you. Karras rushes to the bed and ties her hands together to symbolizethe cross. MERRINHe brought you low by his bloodstained cross! Do not despise mycommand because you no me to be a sinner. It's God himself whocommands you! The majestic Christ who commands! God the Fathercommands you! God the son commands you! As Karras turns away, Regan raises her tied hands and deals him apowerful blow on the back of his head. He falls to the floor. MERRINGod the holy spirit commands you! Merrin sprinkles more holy water on Regan, she falls back andscreams in pain. MERRINThe mystery of the cross commands you! The blood of the martyrscommands you! The priests are again knocked to the floor by an earthquake.Briefly Regan lifts herself toward an apparition of the demonstatue Pazuzu. MERRINGive way to Christ, you prince of murderers. You're guilty,before Almighty God, guilty before his son, guilty before thewhole human race. It's the Lord who expels you. He who is comingto judge both the living and the dead and the world by fire. As Merrin kneels by the bed, Karras crawls over and covers Reganwith a blanket. MERRINAre you tired? Karras nods. MERRINLet's rest before we start again. Merrin leaves the room, but Karras stays sat on the bed,shivering with both coldness and fear. Regan is asleep.
And now the movie version of the scene:
We often talk about the importance of conflict in our stories. Hard to imagine a more compelling conflict than between two very human priests, their Holy Water, and exorcism liturgy versus a demon and the power of Satan.
How about you? Do you remember the first time you saw The Exorcist?
Being a theology/religion student myself, I don't remember being scared stiff (I was 20 when I saw it, though) so much as 'pumped' or 'psyched'. I had never seen the struggle between pure good and pure evil portrayed so compellingly.
There does seem to be a challenge unique to religiously-themed horror, though: how to avoid letting what I call the 'intrinsically compelling' nature of the subject matter make the writer lazy about characterization, plot, dialogue, etc. How many truly great explicitly religious horror films are there, with compelling characters and story as well as serious theology? Um, The Exorcist…On the other hand is everything else, like the lesser "Exorcism of Emily Rose", "The Reaping", etc.
NEVER seen "The Exorcist." Never plan to either.
My aunt, who at one time was trying to get accepted in a nun convent, told me she worked in a movie theatre when this show was being played in the 70s, and its reception caused quite the rue with the audience; freaked people out like no other movie before or after.
So in that reguard this movie bears SOME merit. But having been arround Christians who actually performed exorcism on people who were DEMON OPRESSED and them telling me later about what actually happened just seeing bits and pieces of "The Exorcist" makes me shake my head with contempt at it.
Demon possession is NO JOKE, it's actually quite serious, and has MAJOR consequences on how a person lives their life.
If I remember right according to the prayer meeting deliverance of one lady, you'd NEVER suspect would be involved with demonic activity, hissed and writhed on the ground like a snake, when the people who treating her where in process of getting the demon out.
And I remember praying for a guy in a group setting once, who stiffened out and started talking with another voice when we prayed for him. It was VERY WIERD.
Even in the bible when Jesus delivered a few demon possessed people, the manifestions were pretty chilling. What I'm getting at is, demon posessiona and opression is a condition that shouldn't be taken lightly and off handely dismissed — it's real.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Get off yer high horse, E.C. THE EXORCIST is a classic because it takes the subject of demonic possession absolutely seriously and treats it with documentary-like realism. What makes you think it approaches the subject like a joke or dismissively? That was SCARY MOVIE 4 (or maybe 3, not sure). Your comments show you have no understanding of what THE EXORCIST are about – try watching it.
For my own part, I saw it when it was rereleased in the late 70s, I was about 12 or 13. Pretty frightening, and it's actually gotten scarier over the years. One reason is although I'm not a parent, I'm closer to the mother's age now and get more what she's going through. Plus the implications about lost faith and good and evil eluded me when I was younger.