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Director: William Friedkin
Screenplay: William Peter Blatty
Cast: Ellen Burstyn (as Chris MacNeil); Max von Sydow (as Father Lankester
Merrin); Jason Miller (as Father Damien Karras); Linda Blair (as Regan MacNeil);
Mercedes McCambridge (as the Voice of the Demon); Lee J. Cobb (as Lieutenant
William F. Kinderman)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #100
For all the pea coloured puke and
expletives about peoples' mothers, it gets ignored how drastically entrenched
in the New American Wave of seventies cinema The Exorcist is. This isn't surprising considering William Friedkin as a director before
and after this film, even when he was making genre movies, but in retrospect
(and against the public perception of what The
Exorcist is as a film), the scene of Linda
Blair's head turning a hundred and eighty degrees around being repeated in
word of mouth, while disturbing and iconic, does water down the significance of
the character drama that makes 75% percent of it. The last time I saw the film
I had even dismissed it a little as a rollercoaster of shock scenes, something
I look back at as the comment of a younger, dumber self I wish to take back.
It's a rare and risky task to
have made a horror film this realistic and serious in time at this point in
time, in hindsight to what many American horror films were from the early
seventies, where outside the wave of exploitation films many Hollywood horror
films still played the genre off lightly and with camp, intentional or not. When
many films were period or very phantastical, this reality based drama where
demons and evil are made a living entity would've stood out considerably as
well, a film which could've failed immediately if it came off as pretentious at
any point. The Exorcist has in its favour
William Peter Blatty, the author of
the original novel and someone who had experience in screenwriting in his
elaborate career beforehand. Able to have some creative control in adapting his
own source novel to screen, he stressed the importance of its central message,
the notion of evil being real and having to overcome it, carefully written to
emphasis the emotional devastation of a young girl Regan (Linda Blair) being possessed, without psychology or medicine able
to prevent it. Friedkin shows absolute restrain in depicting this even with its
notoriety for its more extreme scenes, showing the extent of this possession, a
verisimilitude found in its Washington locations and a more cynical, adult tone
which even for a film from the seventies, where this genre was at its grittiest,
stand outs from others. (Note, for example, the frequent use of expletives like
"fuck" in dialogue without becoming overbearing, a realism to the
dialogue that feels natural to the ear). The casting as throughout is also
exceptional, even a side character like Lee
J. Cobb's movie obsessed police detective having enough prescience on
screen to be memorable (and even front a second sequel in 1990).
When the film does have shocks,
it's not only nasty still but, with the added effect of its emotional core, has
material that you couldn't get away with in most modern Hollywood horror, a
level of transgression justified in wanting to depict to destructiveness of a
demonic possession, but still amazing to witness in what was depicted. Obviously
the crucifix masturbation scene is still extreme to this day, but there's a
chilling nature alongside the head spinning and blasphemy with the witnessing
of a young girl being both physically and mentally transformed in such
horrifying ways. The biggest advantage The
Exorcist has in retaining its power is that, even if you're an atheist and
the demonic incidents are purely fantastical, Father Karras' crisis still
connects if viewed as a man doubting the entire point of his life when a loved
one is cruelly pulled away, and his position within the Catholic Church becomes
marred in doubt to the point of his own life, whilst Regan's possession can be
a metaphor for violent mental illness as one's child starts to act in ways self
destructive and without control, her mother slowly becoming ravaged emotionally
by grief. Most of the film is a drama with two, very well integrated sides, and
with Regan's story the extremity depicted through elaborate special effects - a
floating bed, a room built within a freezer - is always after lengthy,
character based drama, building these figures up before something gruesome and
terrifying, especially if a viewer was religious or a parent, takes place. It helps
as well that even today the effects still stand up, as repulsive in context
that it's a young teenage girl being physically devastated without becoming
pointlessly offensive for a viewer, whilst it would be considered a sin not to
mention Mercedes McCambridge as well,
giving a figure that's only seen properly in a flash frame and ancient statues
a full prescience that's still creepy to listen to.
The only aspect I had some grievances
with, at least on this viewing, is how the titular exorcism become a sudden
rush of various practical effects whilst the drama lingers in the background. Really
the grievance is only because Max von
Sydow, as Father Merrin, is one of the greatest actors of the medium, and
any more dialogue for him would be wanted, a candidate for someone who could
read the telephone book aloud for hours and be utterly compelling to watch and
listen to. Even if an odd way to begin at first, the prologue entirely in Northern
Iraq with Merrin is underrated in how it sets up as well the ominous, world
weary tone of the film before it gets to the Washington D.C. locations, showing
the demonic figure behind it all as something more than a Catholic concept but
something universally evil; unfortunately said demon (wisely not named Pazuzu
as it is mythological and in Blatty's original source material due to how
"cute" the name sounds in a modern English tongue), when further
stories in this universe should've expanded on this intercontinental and
ancient horrors quality, was depicted in a very unfortunately sequel. Aside from
the few quibbles in content by the end however, growing older and more
knowledgeable on horror cinema has given The
Exorcism greater effect on me. Now I can appreciate how serious it is but
also justifies this by having a dramatic depth to add alongside it. I learnt as
well how, with its reputation of audiences fainting in the aisles, a visceral
tone as disturbing as in this film can be matched by a quality of incredible
drama and work perfectly when everyone (direction, script, cast and production
team) is on top of their game. Considering how hard and long the film took, how
it developed a curse in Hollywood lore and was nearly scrapped by the studio
that bankrolled it, it deserved the legacy it did, and if anything only now can
I appreciate this with a greater need for more in my horror films.
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