SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.Further proof of the idea that ideas of black-and-white morality are no longer as clear is the fact that the doctors, who are unable to provide any meaningful solution, are dressed in white which is traditionally associated with heroism, and the priests, who end up sacrificing their lives to save Regan, are dressed in black which is traditionally associated with villainy.

2.This comparison between doctors and priests is extended to the color schema in their respective procedures. When Regan undergoes her angiogram, she’s clothed in typical blue hospital ware. While the procedure happens, her face has a red cross over her head, an eerie foreshadowing of another red use of a crucifix – her infamous masturbation scene – before it happens.

Furthermore, the pain and winces Linda Blair gives off while undergoing the procedure, makes it only slightly less hard to watch than her actual exorcism. The uncomfortable feeling found in both scenes – the angiogram and the exorcism – combined with the fact that the both of them are covered in hues of blue is meant to elevate the status of the priests and make their services seem as legitimate as the doctors. The difference in efficacy, thus pushes the priests forward as the “best” solution . (See Point 5)

3. One interesting way to interpret the story is to view the narrative as a symbolic journey for Regan to find a true “Father” in the psychoanalytic sense. According to Jacques Lacan, the “name-of-the-Father”/paternal metaphor sets upon rules and restrictions on ones actions and desires. ^[1]This is a gross over simplification of the theory but should suffice here. If you want to check out more, I’d read Bruce Fink’s A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis Chapter … Continue reading . The story uses male role-models as stand-in’s for different interpretations of rules that Regan should use to engage with society.

The “father” theory is heavily supported early on in the film. An innocent Regan is seen reading tabloid papers that explicitly mention her father leaving. In other words, the expectations have not been set for her. Given that she’s about to become a teenager- a group known for angst, hormones, and mood swings – it feels appropriate to view her upcoming possession as a crystallization of all multiple “negative” feelings. She has no “direction” on what to do.

We know that the black-and-white goodness of her father has been shattered as the camera tracks out of Chris and Sharon’s argument with Regan’s father to a dejected Regan who watches and hears from afar. Not having her father on her birthday has broken the feeling of structure in her life. The black-and-white image repetition here is on purpose and continues the motif. It’s no coincidence that there’s a burning fire next to Chris (re: the sun). A world of “easy rules” is no longer available.

At a literal level, we know that Regan knows of Chris and Burke having a potential romantic interest in one another. She says she’s fine with it when she’s cute and childlike, but then once she “grows up” she immediately kills the man by twisting his head and throwing him out of a window. Burke could be a stand-in for a materialistic order.

The doctors are a stand-in for the guarantees of the medical order. Lt. Kinderman is a stand-in for the legal order. Merrin and Karras are stand-ins for the spiritual order. The medical order and legal order are both unable to resolve the issue on their own accord and are both eventually “beaten” by the spiritual order.

The issue is made even more prominent by the fact that the film spends time developing and showing both Merrin and Karras’s other strengths. The former is a renowned archaeologist and the latter is a studied psychiatrist on top of being a former boxer, but what lets the both of them succeed helping Regan is their faith.

What pushes the theory into more than just neat coincidence for me is the defacement of the Virgin Mary scene. If we take Regan to be the culprit (see: Point 4) , then her attempt at giving Mary the “Phallus” is an attempt at establishing another order. The “Virgin” Mary who gave birth to the Lord now has the ability to establish the “paternal” metaphor as well.

If one takes the Pazuzu as symbolic of an order of “Evil against Evil “, then this desecrated idol becomes a new way of engaging in the social order. This is exemplified because the St.Joseph statue is the same image found in both the Medal Merrin digs up at the start of the film and the pendant Karras wears. The defiled Mary works as part of a pair with the statue in the same way the Pazuzu head works with the pendant; it’s another doubling of hope and despair.

This theory goes even further because Damien’s mother’s name is Mary and she’s constantly positioned under the lights and headlights. She’s the eventual reason he goes to save Regan, and as such one can view Damien as a Jesus surrogate. He takes on the sins of Regan, stand-in for humanity, and then dies for those sins, bringing about the eventual “victory.”

4.There’s good reason to believe that it’s Regan that defaced the Virgin Mary figure. The “embellishments” on Mary look like a mixture of clay and blood; we know that Regan has clay because of her sculptures and we know that she can get blood because of the crucifix masturbation scene. It also serves to reason that the entity/(ies) in her wants to deface and be profane. Additionally, it could be seen as a huge prank; it’s believable that a teenager, especially one under demonic influence, would think a black-magic prank in a Church would be funny.

Regardless, the nature of the scene’s breakdown is very similar to Regan’s act of taking control of the scene’s point-of-view (POV). The first time this happens, it’s when when she overhears Chris talking to her father.

The second time it happens is when Chris is having her party. The shot looks happy and festive, but the camera tracks back to reveal that Regan is “in charge” of what’s going to happen now. Singlehandedly, she ruins all the niceties, adds a sense of omen, and then urinates on the ground for good measure. Profane and in bad taste.

The way the Virgin Mary defacement scene happens in the same way. We enter a shot assuming a neutral view. In this sense, Mary’s inclusion in the establishing shot of the Church’s interior functions much the same way the clock inserts in the establishing montage^[2] I describe this in the non-spoiler section in the 4th image gallery near the start of the film do; we’re alerted of a presence without knowing something is off.

The priest then places flowers that call back to the sun’s color scheme, cueing us in that something is bad, before pulling back the curtain to reveal who’s really in charge; in this case, the defaced Mary operates much like Regan does in her two POV usurpations.

5. There’s a reason that Father Merrin makes his way from Northern Iraq to Woostock and Stephen King says it best: “It’s the face of the Werewolf again, a Jekyll-and-Hyde tale in which sweet, lovely, and loving Regan turns into a foul-talking monster strapped into her bed and croaking (in the voice of Mercedes McCambridge) such charming homilies as ‘You’re going to let Jesus fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.’ Religious trappings aside, every adult in American understood what the film’s powerful subtext was saying; they understood that the demon in Regan MacNeil would have responded enthusiastically to the Fish Cheer in Woodstock.” ^[3] King, S. (2010). Danse macabre. Gallery.

Even without mentioning the festivities at the location, the name itself acts as a double to the initial Vietnam War in-movie scene that presented itself as having no “real” purpose. It’s clearer here; the loss of faith in fundamental values is the fear that’s being tackled and parents at the time could see their own kids, due to fear and the climate, eventually progressing down a similar path to Regan. Further, proof of why the film was so shocking when it came out.

Taken to its logical end-point, one could view The Exorcist as a conservative horror story where “Christian” values end up establishing order. Given the climate then (and even now), having Chris be a single, divorced, atheist mother can be taken as an indictment of more progressive values. In spite of her wealth, she has to rely on a God-given man to help ensure her daughter can go on the right path. This would also mean one could take the “father” theory and view it in a simpler way; children need both mother and father doing their jobs to ensure success for all involved.

Granted, these takes definitely feels more the case in the Extended Cut, which is closer to screenwriter Peter Blatty’s vision, but is only a possible interpretation in the theatrical cut which offers far more wiggle room. Friedkin did a good job trimming the overt propaganda and allowed the viewer an infinite space to explore ones own faith in the theatrical cut.

6.The source of the entity that possesses Reagan is so ambiguous despite the fact that the film seemingly tells you directly. At first Chris finds an Ouija board and Regan mentions having played it by herself, which is against the rules and an omen, with a spirit named Captain Howdy. We clearly see the placard move, so we’re led to believe that she might be in trouble with some spirit.

Regan shows Chris a clay bird creature she made. The bird is important because it demonstrates that Regan uses Clay which ties her to Virgin Mary defacement, the colors of the bird are the same shades of the sun which marks conflict, and a lone bird flies through one of the sun-cast frames (Gallery 2 in the Non-Spoiler section) when Merrin finds the Pazuzu head. In other words, the bird sculpture is a Pazuzu emissary. Friedkin even frames the sculpture as an entity on the same level as Chris and Regan, by framing the three bodies as separate using the basement architecture.

Later on, “Tubular Bells” plays as the doctors explain that Regan has somnambular type possession and is suffering due the nature of her own beliefs. We of course know she’s being possessed by something, but the nature of that something is made more complicated by this reveal about belief. As Karras demonstrates when he first throws fake holy water on Regan, the spirit possessing her believes it’s real so Regan’s body still recoils upon being hit. It feels tenable that if Regan is possessed by an evil spirit that believes that holy water is hurting, it would react violently.

This psychological angle is amplified when the presence goads Karras into performing the exorcism, claiming the procedure will bring Regan and the spirit close together. On one hand, it could just be a demon taunting a priest while being confident in its power to avoid being exorcised. On the other hand, it could be an entity that is faking the place of a demon and as such cannot be exorcised the same way. The psychological bend makes the nature of the possession impossible to wholeheartedly assess.

Later on when Karras is exploring Regans possession’s, the camera zooms in on a “Red Riding Hood” wall-art placement behind him. Alongside, the innocent red riding hood is the wolf in her grandmother’s disguise. The scene cuts to Karras in front of this wall-art and the bird sculpture in front of him. Does this mean that Captain Howdy is just masquerading as Pazuzu or was Captain Howdy just a disguise Pazuzu was using the whole time to infiltrate the house and get the trust of Regan ?This is then made more complicated by Pazuzu’s nature as a ward of “Evil against Evil”, so is his presence actually stopping a whole other entity from taking control?

Karras goes through Regan’s drawings, one of which features a yellow lion with red wings. The symbol by itself extends the color motif, but it gains power because Merrin directly mentions how Satan takes the form of a golden lion while performing the ritual. Does this mean that Pazuzu is protecting against Satan? Merrin tells Karras that there is only one evil entity when the latter tries to offer a personality treatment for Regan., so we know that the former at least thinks they’re all one in the same.

Even when we technically “see” Pazuzu during Regan’s exorcism, the shot, reverse-shot of Merrin staring at the spectacle makes it appear that it might just be a vision on the part of the elderly priest. Given how worried and out of sorts he is during the start of the film, it’s not a far leap to say that his obsession with Pazuzu might be coloring the way he approaches the situation.

The fact that Karras sees the imagine of his mother later on, along with Merrin’s own words that the demon is a “liar”, means that full credence cannot be given to the projections and images during an exorcism. It might just be him projecting his guilt in the same way Merrin might be projecting his obsession with Pazuzu. Am I saying that I don’t think Pazuzu is involved? Not at all. I just think the film offers the room to not rush to that judgement.

7.One of the biggest debates in the film is who placed the crucifix under Regan’s bed. The initial evidence heavily suggests Karl (Rudolf Schündler). Early on in the film, we are shown that he’s headstrong and bad at following orders. It takes both Chris and his wife Willie (Gina Petrushka) yelling at him to wait for the stores to open to get him to stop.

Later on he loses his temper with Burke and tries to beat the guest. Granted, the provocations are worth, but the action verifies that he is unable to control himself when emotions go too high. Finally, we can infer that he’s at least partially spiritual because he refers to Regan as “it” while possessed. He can only see the specter of evil. Taken together with his strange denial of the charge, it’s not hard to assume he’s the one who placed it there.

However, because he mentions not placing it there, and we have no guaranteed proof on who took the crucifix, it’s still possible another character did it. I think there’s a good chance it’s Regan herself. If one believes that she desecrated the Virgin Mary ( see Point 4) , then it makes sense that she’d be able to steal a crucifix from the location for her own use. The fact that she’s the one who takes the crucifix from the table Chris put it on to masturbate with it a few moments later proves that she’s capable of sleuthing around and taking things. Furthermore, why would she immediately take the crucifix back unless she placed it there and knew it was missing to begin with? Neither answer is shut in case, but both make thinking about the events more interesting.

9.The attention to detail in the lighting is awesome. Outside of just usuing them brighten or darken faces to demonstrate a character’s current spiritual situation, Friedkin also uses the lights flickers as another calling card for something wrong going on.

The first time this happens is after Regan pisses on the floor. Chris asks Willie if she can scrub out Regan’s stain from the floor. Willie indicates she can, and immediately, as if in sharp negation, we hear Regan screaming from her room. The lights dim out solidifying our fears which are then confirmed when Chris opens the door and sees her daughter being shaken by the bed.

The second time this happens is when Chris comes back to her house after getting the opinion that Regan needs psychological evaluation. She gets into the kitchen, the lights flicker, then the lights go out, and the shadows fall on Chris’s face like a prison of shadows. The light comes back and Chris learns of Burke’s death soon after.

10.Kinderman’s first visit to the house starts with him coming to the set of stairs and finding a Pazuzu shaped bauble, similar to the head that Merrin dug up. He comes into the house and drinks in a room filled with yellow. He directly mentions that drafts are a hotbed for illness when told about Regan’s sickness. He’s obviously mentioning the winds in reference to physical illnesses not spiritual ones, but the nature of Pazuzu along with the running motif of the presence of wind before horrific events makes the mention pertinent.

The scene ends with him first picking up one Regan’s gray and unpainted sculptures from among a series of yellow sculptures – a chance for redemption and a another occurrence of a symbol of evil being found alongside an symbol of good- and second asking Chris for an autograph while praising her for her work in a movie Angel. The name of the film is so overt and poignant at the time it’s mentioned that it makes us think of Chris’s role in a more serious fashion on top of reinforcing the importance of the previous in-movie scene, at the very least in the back of our mind.

11.Damien’s dream sequence happens 42 minutes in, right as he’s recoiling from the death of his mother. Throughout the scene, we can hear his breathing in the background along with some murmurings; it’s an injection of realism that keeps us from being pulled out of the grounded style of the movie due to the nature of the surrealistic dream that also ties the themes of the story together in a poetic montage.

The montage starts with the medal of St. Joseph falling down. The symbol is connected to both Damien and Merrin. The former gets the medal from his deceased mother, and the latter finds it in a dig. Thus, the first image may be reference to Damien’s guilt or a reference to Merrin “starting” the battle by finding the medal. The former is further supported by the fact that this is Damien’s guilt infused dream while the latter is supported by the next image: a dog running in a desert – a direct reference to the opening confrontation between Merrin and Pazuzu; it’s something Damien wouldn’t know of. The overarching journey of the movie and Damien’s own journey bleed into one another; it’s obvious they’re connected.

We see Mary frowning with black encroaching upon her from all angles before she disappears in an instant. The paused clock from the start shows up. Then we see Mary walking up the stairs of a subway. This is not a coincidence. Earlier on when Damien is taking care of Mary, he’s tending to her leg and warns her not to walk up and down the stairs on it. Is he dreaming of seeing her healthy and feeling guilty about her death?

We see him call out to his mother frantically. She mouths something; clearly something is off. Then Pazuzu’s face flashes for a brief moment. Mary’s death is connected to the demon’s presence. Damien runs across the street, but Mary can stay no longer and goes down the stairs. Is it because the dream is ending or because he thinks she’s gone to Hell? The medal falls onto the ground and the dream ends with a sharp scream from Regan – letting us know where the journey is going to go.

This power of these images is amplified by the ambiguity regarding how Mary died. We see her healthy, and then we see her unwell and institutionalized. However, Dyer (William O’Malley) reveals that Mary was found dead in her home after a few days. How she got out, how she died, and how long her corpse remained unnoticed all add to the unease and give Damien’s angst a more poignant feeling. He wasn’t there for here long enough for her to have passed and remained there. The feeling of despair in the dream sequence thus becomes heavier.

The entire sequence is genius filmmaking. It primes the audience for the spectral happenings in the last act while not undermining the practical nature of the movie. It simultaneously ties up past, present, and future strands of the story, letting individual and collective stories flow into one another seamlessly. Some of the images stay on the screen for only a second to create a subliminal effect. ^[4] I should know. Getting some of these stills took dozens of take on slow-motion playback.

12.I believe that it’s possible that Father Merrin died by taking on Regan’s heart issues onto himself. We cut on him holding Regan’s hand and praying and aren’t allowed to see how he ends up dying. Based on a previous knowledge, we know that he’s been taking heart medication for a while and almost died in his last exorcism.

However, right before he goes in for his final session, he asks Damien how Regan’s heart is and learns that its too weak; medicine would render her comatose. Given how Damien ends up dying, taking in the demon from Regan, it raises the possibility that Merrin likewise took on her heart condition to ensure she stayed alive for Damien to come in and finish.

13.The ending is what cinches the deal and makes The Exorcist the one of the ultimate in cinematic ambiguity. By this point, Reagan and Chris have left the house and we’re convinced that the evil has left. But then the camera lingers on the staircase. It’s the third POV shot with the first being when Karras decides not to choke out Reagan and the second being when reagan sees Dreyer’s neck and then reaches out to kiss his cheek. (I’ll planning on writing more on this later)

The POV shot makes the staircase seem like it’s own character, a fact which seems like it should have been obvious given how prominent the staircase has been featured. Everything that’s happened on this staircase has been evil; it’s been the place where two people have died and the location where a Pazuzu like bauble was found.

A staircase additionally creates a relationship of height; a relationship set up in the first scene of the film when the child and then Pazuzu are positioned above Merrin, casting him in a position of less power. The bottom of the staircase is where all the above events happened which reinforces this dynamic.

As Dyer looks down the staircase, we’re immediately worried that the battle between good and evil has not finished. Then “Tubular Bells” starts to play and we know that the shot of the staircase was not for naught; it’s a sign of evil returning. Dyer turns around and the ending card comes in along with a triumphant score; the battle may have been won, but the war is never-ending. Or that’s at least one interpretation of what the ending can entail. It’s entire set-up relies on the motifs used, up to that moment, to foreshadow an imminent evil, but the triumphant score and the niceties of Reagan kissing Dyer previously abate our concerns. The ending is totally up for interpretation.

14. I went ahead and tried to individually keep track of the actual mentions of “God” and “Jesus Christ” throughout the film, and it turns out only 3 characters mention these names before the exorcism proper. The first person to invoke both names, as I mentioned in the non-spoiler section, is Chris the atheist. The second person to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, is Damien when grieving for his mother (possible additional evidence for the surrogate Jesus theory). This time it’s a man who has lost his faith. The third person to invoke the name of Jesus Christ is a possessed Reagan as she masturbates with the crucifix and says, “Let Jesus fuck you.” This time it’s a literal demon.

It’s telling then that the final exorcism ends with these 3 characters. The first one to mention the lord, Chris, asks Damien if her daughter will die. This second utter refuses to let the daughter die and goes up to save her. He then exorcises the 3rd utterer and the sequence concludes.

This is excellent screen-writing on the part of Blatty, sub-consciously showing the viewer how omnipresent God is even for those who don’t believe; the name has seeped into our sub-conscious. It’s telling that outside of 3 mentions of God before the exorcism, 2 by possessed Regan and 1 by Damien, every other invocation of God comes from Chris, the one who most strongly tries to get rid of the crucifix.