‘The Exorcist’ is Absolutely Terrifying! | Movie Review

Last year, I did a Halloween-themed post titled, 10 Songs to Get You Into the Spooky Season 2022. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy enough albums this year to put together a new list of Halloween-themed songs for 2023. I still wanted to do some sort of spooky-related post, though, so I figured, why not review The Exorcist (1973)? With the film’s 50th anniversary this year, director William Friedkin’s death this past August, and The Exorcist: Believer (2023) being released earlier this month, The Exorcist is trending again. It’s perfect timing!

For some reason, I’ve been obsessed with The Exorcist these past few years, but I never had the courage to watch it until a few weeks ago. I’m a poser because I wore an Exorcist shirt when I went to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party last year. So, my bad! I’m not sure what it was about the movie that caught my attention because I’m not a horror movie fan. Then again, I like Carrie (1976), which is also about a woman in distress. Anyways, we’re getting off topic, let’s just get into it!

The Exorcist is about a 12-year-old girl named Regan MacNeil who becomes possessed by a demon and her mother, after many desperate attempts, considers having an exorcism performed on her daughter, to cure her. It was based on writer William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name.

Is it a horror film or a psychological thriller? Friedkin thinks it’s the latter. According to StudioBinder, “Horror is a genre of storytelling intended to scare, shock, and thrill its audience.” Personally, I think it’s a horror film because everything about the film is terrifying. From the music, Regan’s demon makeup, the storyline, the medical tests conducted on Regan, the head-spinning scenes, the white demon face, everything! Even the filmmaking process was terrifying. 

For starters, at least nine people related to the cast and production crew died during and after the filmmaking process. Two of those people, Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros, played characters that actually died in the movie.

Actors Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair, who played Chris and Regan MacNeil respectively, both suffered from back injuries caused by stunts they did for the film. According to The Guardian, Burstyn broke her coccyx after she was pulled too hard by a cable wire, for the scene where demonic Regan slaps her character in the face. The zoomed up shot of Burstyn on the floor screaming in pain is real; she wasn’t faking it. For Blair, she fractured her lower spine during the scene where her character violently shakes on the bed. According to Slash Film, she wasn’t properly strapped to the mechanically rigged bed, resulting in her real cries for help that made it into the film.

The MacNeil home set also caught on fire, delaying the filmmaking process for six weeks. Strangely enough, the only room that remained untouched from the fire was Regan’s bedroom. According to CBS News, a nearby Jesuit priest was asked to bless the set before filming resumed. Plus, Friedkin was difficult to work with. Besides being responsible for Burstyn’s back injury, Friedkin would fire guns on set to gain real scares from the actors and even slapped a priest to gain a genuine reaction out of him. Father William O’Malley’s hands were shaking during the scene where his character, Father Dyer, finds Father Karras, played by Jason Miller, dead at the bottom of the stairs; the reason being Friedkin slapping O’Malley in the face beforehand. 

Was all the cruelty and pain behind-the-scenes worth it? Well, The Exorcist changed cinematic history for the better. I do feel bad about what happened to Burstyn and Blair, though, because no actor should ever have to suffer from pain to achieve great art.

The Exorcist is a slow burner, which usually I’m not crazy about. The first time I watched the film, I didn’t get it because the opening is this long sequence shot in Iraq with the Pazuzu statue, and then it jumps from one scene to another. Also, I found it choppy in spots. There’s a bar scene where Father Karras tells Father Kanavan, played by Father Thomas Bermingham, that he’s lost his faith, and then it jumps to a different scene in broad daylight. One moment, Regan is screaming her head off when a shrink visits her and the next, Father Karras is jogging at a track field. The scenes don’t go into too much detail, but that’s part of the film’s charm; they leave viewers interpreting the scenes how they view them.

The Exorcist is a film that requires viewers to think and question why things happen a certain way. Take Regan’s possession, for example; why did the demon choose to possess her? The film doesn’t give an explanation for that; we do know she was playing with an Ouija board and communicating with an imaginary friend named Captain Howdy. According to the 1971 novel of the same name, Pazuzu, the demon, took over Regan through the Ouija board. However, there are explanations on Stack Exchange that assume Pazuzu chose Regan in order to lure Father Karras into its trap. These explanations aren’t totally far off, considering that Pazuzu psychologically attacks him because of his lack of faith and guilt over his mother’s death.

Then, there’s the white demon face. It appears a couple of times in the original theatrical cut, during Father Karras’ nightmare and Regan’s exorcism scene. The Exorcist doesn’t explain what the heck that thing is, but they wouldn’t randomly show a scary demon face, would they? The white demon face is actually Pazuzu. According to Vulture, the white demon face was an outtake from makeup tests performed on Eileen Dietz, Blair’s body double. It wasn’t meant to be in the film, but Friedkin added it in at the last minute.

The slow burner format of The Exorcist works well because it builds the story and characters better. Father Karras is a troubled psychiatrist at Georgetown University fighting his inner demons. Early in the film, he expresses his guilt over his mother’s death, which Pazuzu uses to its advantage. Chris is a working actress that loves her daughter very much. She’s not a religious woman and rather than assuming Regan is possessed, she thinks something is mentally wrong with her and goes to doctors for help initially, before going to Father Karras, out of desperation.

Lieutenant Kinderman, played by Lee J. Cobb, is a homicide investigator who’s convinced that Regan killed Burke Dennings. He’s not very religious, but he comes to the conclusion that Denning’s death and the desecration of the church are linked together. Father Dyer is a priest at Georgetown University and a good friend of Father Karras. The film’s alternate ending shows Father Dyer and Lieutenant Kinderman forming a friendship with one another, which is explored more during The Exorcist III (1990). Regan, Chris’ daughter, is a shy and curious 12-year-old girl. Her parents’ divorce put her in a difficult situation and she’s quite lonely, due to her mother’s busy work schedule. 

Father Merrin, played by Max von Sydow, is a man of experience and knows a thing or two about exorcisms. He’s the one that finds the Pazuzu artifact and statue early in the film. Interestingly enough, when Father Karras listens to the recordings of demonic Regan, the demon shouts, “Merrin! Fear the priest!” That scene took place before Father Merrin met demonic Regan, so it leaves viewers curious about how Pazuzu knew of him, in the first place. Maybe him uncovering the Pazuzu artifact had something to do with it. 

There are so many great scenes in The Exorcist. One that comes to mind is where Chris meets Father Karras for the first time. Here’s an atheist and a priest that doesn’t know what to believe anymore discussing the possibility of performing an exorcism on Regan. It’s a well-constructed scene. Another great scene is where Father Karras sees the words, “HELP ME” appear on demonic Regan’s stomach while she’s sleeping. Her skin is extremely pale and bruised, which is uncomfortable to look at, and she’s growling in her sleep. That was the moment where Father Karras realized an exorcism was Regan’s only hope.

My favorite scene, however, is the ending, where Father Karras fights with Pazuzu, and demands the demon to free Regan and come into him instead. The demon then takes over Father Karras’ body, but before he could harm Regan, he commits suicide by jumping out of her bedroom window and falling down the stairs. I loved that he sacrificed himself for a girl he never met before; he only met the demon inside of her. It goes to show what a great man Father Karras was, despite his battles. It’s a shame his fate came to a tragic end, but he saved Regan by doing so.

Don’t get me wrong, the makeup for The Exorcist plays a crucial part in making it one of the scariest films of all time. However, it wouldn’t have had the same impact without the sound effects and music. Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (1973) became iconic after it was used in the film, for a good reason. The voice of demonic Regan was done by radio and film actress Mercedes McCambridge. According to Screen Rant, she swallowed raw eggs, smoked cigarettes, and drank alcohol to achieve the voice of demonic Regan. Man, she sounds like something that literally came from hell, so evil and frightening. Even the sound effects with the dogs barking, bees buzzing, and twisting a leather wallet for Regan’s head-spinning scenes add to the creepiness of the film. When I first watched The Exorcist, the film score itself was so eerie that I had chills the entire time because I had no idea what was going to happen next.

Keep in mind that I’ve only seen the theatrical cut of the film, so I don’t know how it compares to the 2000 extended cut. But, the original film is a classic and I really enjoyed it; this is coming from someone that doesn’t like horror films. It’s not the greatest film I’ve ever seen, but I can see why fans love The Exorcist so much. For those that are sensitive to strong language and religious topics, don’t watch The Exorcist! If you’re curious to see what all the hype is all about, though, check it out! What’s the worst that can happen?

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Take care and see ya real soon!

Lana