The Exorcist is regarded by some to be ‘the scariest movie of all time’ but it is as much a film about magic and fantasy as films such as The Wizard Of Oz, Mary Poppins or The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. There is something exciting about magic, the way it defies the logic and reason that rule our everyday world. Entering strange new lands somewhere over the rainbow, jumping into chalk drawings, tea parties in the air, or entering a wardrobe to find mysterious magical countries at the back of it is what keeps children and adults alike hooked.
Attention-Seeking
Children misunderstood or not being paid any attention is a common thread in magical fantasy films. The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy is misunderstood. Her aunt and uncle are too busy tending to the farm to pay her any attention and the wicked Miss Gulch is intent on destroying the one thing closest to her – her dog Toto. Mary Poppins’, Michael and Jane are neglected by their career-minded father and women’s rights activist mother who are too busy to pay them any attention whilst the children of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe have been evacuated from the city to the country to live with strange adults who expect them to be not seen and not heard.
Similarly, The Exorcist’s Regan McNeil is an only child whose mother, Chris McNeil, whilst certainly attentive and doting is a highly successful, in-demand film star who, at the top of her game, has an extremely busy schedule. Her father is estranged and living in Europe which, as a telling cover of a magazine shows, is public knowledge. Their address at Prospect Street is a temporary one suggesting that Chris’s career involves a lot of upheaval and moving around which makes making meaningful, long-term friendships difficult. Regan is not seen interacting with other children as she lives in a world of adults. Her one and only friend is a figment of her imagination with whom she confides – Captain Howdy. It is perhaps interesting that Regan’s ‘symptoms’ only really start to rear their head after her father fails to contact her on her birthday.With all these adults busy and preoccupied with their own concerns it is understandable that Regan might develop a ‘personality’ which suddenly demands attention – such as forecasting the death of a party guest before urinating on the carpet, murdering her mother’s close friends, Burke Dennings, desecrating the local church and claiming to be ‘the devil himself’. With such strange behaviour, Regan unequivocally has people’s attention now as she is surrounded by her mother, her mother’s personal assistant, househelp, doctors, psychiatrists, detectives and members of the clergy. Where once Regan was just a child and hardly noticed she has now become the focal point of all these people’s attention as each try to the solve the mystery that surrounds her ailment.
Regan’s ‘demon’ outsmarts doctors and psychiatrists, appears to get away with murder as her condition prevents interrogation by the wily detective Kinderman and almost overcomes God when the eponymous exorcist Father Merrin has a fatal heart attack in the middle of the exorcism. It isn’t until Merrin’s assistant ‘Father’ Damien Karras literally beats the demon out of Regan and hurls himself out of her bedroom window to his death that she is finally cured and freed from her illness suggesting that all Regan needed was a firm hand from a father figure (literally in this case) to bring her back down to earth. Once Regan receives the discipline she sought after she returns back to normality and to the innocent little girl she once was albeit with battle scars thus mirroring Dorothy’s return from Oz, Michael and Jane’s new-found relationship with their parents and the children’s return from their magical adventures in Narnia to the mundane and boring normality of the real world as we know it.
Forces Of Nature
The weather in The Exorcist plays a large part in suggesting some unseen force that hangs in the air. There is something magical and mysterious about smoke or fog which creates an other-worldly ambience. The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West makes her entrance and exit from the film in a cloud of smoke. Mary Poppins transforms chimney smoke into a set of stairs during the chimney sweep sequence which they use to climb atop the rooftops and see a world rarely seen by anyone other than chimney sweeps. The Exorcist makes use of dense fog to similarly create an air of mystery as Father Merrin arrives at the McNeil house to perform the exorcism. It was this image of a silhouetted Father Merrin standing in a shaft of light emanating from Regan’s bedroom that was used for the poster art.
Likewise there is always a breeze blowing in Georgetown (Chris’s stroll along a Georgetown street, establishing shots of leaves rushing outside a psychiatric hospital and the McNeil residence) suggesting an otherworldly presence felt but unseen. Mary Poppins arrives with the change of wind and leaves with a change of wind as Bert notices when he sings, ‘Wind’s in the east, mist coming in, like something is brewing about to begin’. It is wind that carries Jane and Michael’s nanny advert up the chimney pipe, it is wind that blows all the other prospective nanny applicants down the street much to Jane and Michael’s delight and it is wind in the form of a ferocious tornado that carries Dorothy’s house off to the land of Oz.
Magic
The Exorcist is a film about the dark side of magic where rather than being fun it is life-threatening and a force of evil rather than good. Like these films The Exorcist starts off in a recognisable, ‘real’ world before whisking us into another world of dark fantasy before returning us back again to the normality of the real world. Where the fantasy in Oz, Cherry Tree Lane or Narnia are worlds we wish to visit again, the world we’re dragged through in The Exorcist is definitely not a world we’d want to revisit any time soon. Rather than wishing to return to this world of dark magic and demons we are relieved with reality and the mundane when it finally returns. ‘It was a realistic film about inexplicable things’ said director William Friedkin explaining the philosophy behind his approach to The Exorcist ‘I’d sort of fallen under the spell of the magic realists, so there was that element as well… In a way we live with magic all the time, although the magic has some explanation to someone. So I was thinking back then perhaps this is a good way to view The Exorcist – as a realistic film about inexplicable events that cannot be interpreted even by the people involved.’
We are first introduced to the suggestion of magic by way of an Ouija Board which Regan has found in the basement closet and through which she has supposedly met her imaginary friend Captain Howdy. When Chris reaches out to grab the planchette it magically slides underneath her hands coming to a standstill on the word NO as if suggesting she is not welcome. This subtle phenomenon is only jokingly referred to by Chris as she says ‘You really don’t want me to play?’ to Regan but it foreshadows yet darker things to come. Once Regan is fully possessed by the ‘demon’ she is in command of truly superior powers. Not only is she able to take on the personalities and at one point the appearance of other people (Karras’s mother), she is also able to make inanimate objects move without touching them such as a large, heavy chest of drawers, chairs, doors and other various inanimate objects reminiscent of the scene where Mary Poppins helps the children clean up their messy bedrooms by snapping her fingers. Cupboard drawers and doors open and close unaided and inanimate objects and toys move of their own accord at the snap of a finger to the cheery tune of A Spoonful of Sugar. Cupboard doors are banging open and shut, a chest of drawers are sliding and out and various toys and jumping up and down excitedly in almost exactly the same chaotic fashion as the inanimate objects in Regan’s room.
During the climactic exorcism, Regan performs an act of levitation as she miraculously floats high above her bed defying gravity which is reminiscent of the Tea Party On The Ceiling scene in Mary Poppins where Uncle Albert, Bert and the children are all able to defy gravity and float up to the ceiling when engaged in uncontrollable fits of laughter. Mary Poppins too demonstrates her ability to defy gravity numerous times during the course of the movie and she makes her entrance and departure with the act of levitation.
Ambiguity
Another common link between The Exorcist and magical fantasy films is the sense of ambiguity running throughout them all. Was Dorothy really whisked up to a magical land called Oz by a tornado or was it all just an elaborate dream as the film suggests by having Dorothy wake up in bed surrounded by all the colourful characters she met in Oz in their earthly, mundane, black and white form? Did Mary Poppins, Bert, Jane and Michael really jump into a chalk pavement painting and have a wonderful adventure in cartoon-land or was it all just in their mind as suggested when Mary Poppins later that evening denies to the children that it ever happened? Did Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan really enter the magical land of Narnia through an old wardrobe or did they too just imagine it? Even Edmund accuses Lucy of lying about Narnia when she first tells him about it. All these films seem to suggest that either interpretation is acceptable depending on the viewer’s belief system. If one is a fantasist who likes to believe that impossible things can happen then they may accept that Dorothy did indeed visit a land called Oz, that MaryPoppins, Bert, Jane and Michael did indeed jump into a chalk pavement painting or that Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan did indeed enter Narnia through the back of a wardrobe. However, if one is a realist they may equally accept that Dorothy was knocked unconscious by the in-blowing window pane and subsequently dreamed the whole adventure in Oz, or that the adventures in the chalk drawing were merely a fantasy rather than a reality and that the adventures in Narnia were also a figment of the children’s imagination or Freudian ‘wish-fulfilment’ so concocted in order to escape the boredom of reality. And so it is with The Exorcist. Is Regan really possessed by a ‘demon’ or is there a rational, logical reason for her apparent transformation? A fantasist might believe that Regan is possessed by an actual demon who defies logic and reason until cast out and overcome by the self-sacrifice of a devotee of God or a realist might believe that Regan was suffering from some extreme psychological disorder that could only be cured by the disciplinary action of a father figure so missing in Regan’s life. Each reading is perfectly viable and it is this level of ambiguity that gives each of these stories their added depth.
Father Figure
The eponymous exorcist, Father Lancaster Merrin mirrors the eponymous wizard of Oz and Aslan – the eponymous lion of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe as he too guides the story’s hero, Father Damien Karras, towards his goal in the battle against Regan’s ‘demon’. He is first introduced in the opening segment of the film on an archaeological dig in Northern Iraq. It is during this segment that a history between Father Merrin and some dark, powerful force is established as Merrin comes face to face with his nemesis as personified by a demonic-looking statue amidst the ancient Babylonian ruins. Father Merrin is not seen until the last portion of the film when he is summoned to perform the exorcism of the demon from Regan.
Like the so-called wizard of Oz and Aslan, Merrin is a man of great standing, almost mythological, who is much respected amongst his peers and was the first name to be selected as the exorcist. A man well advanced in years, his search for truth is tireless as we have seen from the archaeological dig in Iraq, despite an apparent heart condition for which he has to take medication. Merrin is wise and experienced in dealing with the nature of evil as demonstrated when advising Father Karras on dealing with the demon – ‘Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He’s a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. So don’t listen. Remember that. Do not listen.’ When faced with the demon’s profane and disgusting language and turn of phrases Merrin’s response is a firm command, ‘Be silent.’ As the demon continues to attempt to distract the priests with its vile tongue (literally at one point displaying it’s long, black tongue lapping voraciously), Merrin continues with the exorcism with the utmost professionalism. Where Father Karras shows his vulnerability during the demon’s torrent of abuse by hiding behind a padded bed post or reacting emotionally to the demon’s taunts, Merrin is resolute in his steely determination. It is quite clear he has been here before and he knows exactly how to deal with such a phenomena. Indeed when first summoned to perform the exorcism by telegram, Merrin does not even have to open the telegram to know what is coming. However, whereas he is solid as a rock when confronted with the demon, he shows a tender side when interacting with the by-now distraught Chris McNeil or the inexperienced Karras as a father might his daughter or son.
During the exorcism Merrin displays almost magical qualities in his fight against the demon. Instead of a wand or magical staff his magical tools are his bottle of holy water and his copy of the Roman Ritual (the standard body of text used for Catholic exorcisms). The holy water appears to have more than just a psychological effect on the demon who reacts violently to the water because at one point the water also magically excoriates Regan’s skin on contact leaving a nasty, bloody gash suggesting the power of good is more than a match for the power of evil.
Like Aslan the Lion, Father Merrin loses his life in the fight against evil as his already frail heart finally gives in. And though Merrin is not resurrected as Aslan was after his crucifixion we can or could imagine Father Merrin departing from our world of material form and ascending perhaps to another spiritual dimension aka heaven.
Parallel Universes
In The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, we are introduced to alternate or parallel universes. Dorothy finds herself in the land of Oz, Mary Poppins takes Bert, Jane and Michael into a chalk pavement painting, the children discover Narnia at the back of a wardrobe and in The Exorcist we are also introduced to what could be interpreted as alternate realities albeit all set within this one recognizable reality.
The opening sequence in Iraq is almost like going back in time. A time of ancient knowledge whose city of Babylon was famously demonised by the Bible’s Book of Revelations which describes Babylon the Great as the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.Archaeological digs deal with the past. There is a sense that we are in the past. A past of mythology, gods and demons. It is here that Father Merrin encounters seemingly dark, ancient forces in the form of a demonic-looking statue. There is an air of magic all around as the nation appears still stuck in the dark ages or a land forgotten by time. There is little to no technology. An old lady is transported through the ancient streets by horse and cart. Metal beaters bang and beat rhythmically by hand. The stoppage of time is also reflected by a scene where a clock pendulum suddenly stops dead. The battle between good and evil is a timeless story which is also later reflected when Father Karras suggests they would have to find a time machine to take him back to the 16th century when Chris McNeil asks him how to go about getting an exorcism.
At the beginning of the film we are literally introduced to a parallel universe as we see Chris McNeil, on set of her latest film, Crash Course, set at Georgetown University. The film set lights, dazzlingly bright, large and round reminiscent of the blazing Iraqi sun. Here on set, in this parallel universe, Chris foreshadows her daughter’s later transformation as she transforms herself and becomes a completely different character taking on an entirely different persona at will.
We are also introduced to a parallel universe by way of Damien Karras’ guilt-ridden dream. In this fragmented, disjointed dream, silent save for Karras’ sonorous breathing, we see his (now dead) mother who rises up from a subway to a busy New York street as she calls out for her son. Karras is seen waving to her frantically but she doesn’t seem to see him as she turns back and descends back down to the subway and presumably hell. Quick cuts of images of black, evil-looking dogs and a St Joseph medallion falling and an almost subliminal insertion of a demonic face suggesting the tormented and hellish nature of this parallel universe.
During the course of Regan’s possession her once normal bedroom seemingly becomes a parallel universe in itself. The camera ominously focuses on the door of Regan’s bedroom as if it to suggest what lies beyond is other-worldly. Everywhere else in the house reality obeys logic and the laws of physics but once you step through the door of Regan’s bedroom you are instantly transported into another world. Logic and reason do not apply in this room. The most striking abnormality is the difference in temperature. In here the temperature is of sub-zero conditions whereas it is normal elsewhere in the house. In here strange and dark things happen that do not happen anywhere else in the house. Inanimate objects move and fly about of their own accord and dead people such as Father Karras’ mother and murdered family friend Burke Dennings are seen or heard.
A Georgetown street is transformed into a magical place populated with ghosts and ghouls in the form of children trick-or-treaters and a growling motorbike and angels in the form of nuns dressed in white gowns billowing in the wind whilst leaves dance in the air. All this taking even more of a magical appearance with the sound of Mike Oldfield’s magical Tubular Bells which has become the film’s signature tune. Although the novel was originally set in spring time, director William Friedkin changed that to autumn. A time of Halloween, dark magic, witches and spooky happenings. Nights are getting shorter and darkness is creeping in insidiously. This time period gives us the feeling that there is something magical in the air in Georgetown at that time. Something dark and foreboding in which we are about to enter. The ominous steps by the side of the house, where both Burke Dennings and Father Karras meet their deaths, reminiscent of magical children’s stories involving characters climbing or ascending from reality to some magical world like Jack andthe Beanstalk or Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood.
The scenes in New York with Father Karras visiting his mother seems to transform the city into a literal Hell’s Kitchen. Demon-like children are seen jumping and shouting in the dirty, littered streets; subway stations ominously rumble, thunder and crackle where a demon-like hobo begs for help; Karras’ mother’s dark and decrepit apartment evokes a vivid world of loneliness, pain and misery; The mental hospital where she is later sent is stark and sterile, bereft of any sign of love and care and inhabited only by babbling, demonic-like mental patients and stern, officious attendants.
Likewise, the hospitals where Regan is examined by the doctors and psychiatrists take on a hellish appearance of their own. Like the mental hospital they are stark and sterile. The machines used to examine Regan are cold and lifeless and during operation are deafeningly loud almost torturous in their application. The surgical apparatuses take on the appearance of torture implements with the surgeon resembling a torturer whilst onlookers including her mother and various doctors observe. One particularly uncomfortable-looking procedure almost suggests that Regan is merely another specimen on the conveyor belt of life to be wheeled in and examined by the cold light of science and reason.
Recurring Motif
In the Wizard Of Oz Dorothy learns that the way home is only a click of her ruby slippers away; In Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, Zuzu’s petals are given a new meaning when they signify George Bailey’s return from his nightmare of non-existence to the normality he had once tried to escape from via suicide; and in The Exorcist the recurring motif which takes on a new meaning is a silver St Joseph medal. Not included in the novel it was inserted by director William Friedkin as ‘a magical cinematic talisman.’ Originally found in Iraq by Father Merrin this is the medal that is also seen in Father Karras’s dream, is later ripped from Karras’s neck by Regan during the exorcism and finally handed to Father Dyer by Chris McNeil at the end. There is never any explanation how the medal passed from Merrin to Karras or why Karras would see it in a dream but Friedkin explains it as thus: ‘The notion occurred to me that we have a finite understanding of time and space that may not be the way it actually is, may not be organised as we made it. And so I played with that idea by having images that Father Merrin observed occur in Father Karras’ dream.’ Where in the beginning of the film this Christian symbol is inexplicably linked with something dark and sinister in Iraq, it has taken on a whole new meaning by the time we reach the end. When Chris McNeil hands the medal to Father Dyer (Karras’s friend) it now represents hope and the promise that Karras and Merrin’s deaths were not in vain. It symbolises that they died for what they believed in symbolising the ultimate meaning of the film which is that good prevailed over evil.
Wicked Witches
The wicked, evil nemesis in The Wizard of Oz was the Wicked Witch of the West, who delights in terrorizing the inhabitants of Oz, whereas in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe the White Witch delights in turning her victims into stone, had Christmas banished, had Father Christmas exiled all whilst keeping Narnia in a perpetual state of winter. In The Exorcist, the demon-possessed Regan becomes almost witch-like, not only visually (green-like in appearance resembling the Wicked Witch of the West) but aurally, her voice croaks and cackles like a witch – a strange androgynous combination of male and female voices provided by the actress Mercedes McCambridge on a diet of raw eggs, cigarettes and whisky.
Like the Wicked Witch or the White Witch, Regan’s demon has developed immense natural as well as supernatural powers demonstrated by her ability to move inanimate objects with her mind and to physically assault her mother, doctors, psychiatrists as well as committing murder (Burke Dennings). Although Regan’s appearance is that of a twelve year old she proves to be a formidable opponent to Father Merrin and Father Karras. At first she seems to enjoy sadistically toying with Karras on his initial visits. At first polite and almost respectful (she asks him to ‘kindly remove these straps’) she appears to play with Karras displaying her telekinesis by moving a bedside drawer with her mind and conversing with him in French and Latin but she later uses Karras’ weakening faith against him taking on his mother’s appearance asking ‘Why you do this to me, Dimmy. Why?’ during the exorcism.
Regan’s demon clearly possesses the power to kill Fathers Merrin and Karras and yet she never does. At one point Regan strikes Karras’s back but only with enough force to distract him than actually hurt him. It is as if she enjoys toying with these pawns of God just to see just how far she can push them. Indeed, Father Merrin suffers a fatal heart attack whilst Karras is seemingly overcome by the force of evil as he exacts revenge on Regan for the death of Merrin and begins to physically beat her.
Little Boy Lost
The Wizard of Oz is Dorothy’s story. A story about a girl who longs for ‘someplace where there isn’t any trouble’, somewhere over the rainbow only to discover that if she ever goes looking for her heart’s desire again she need look no further than her own back yard. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is Lucy’s story. The youngest of four, never taken seriously, by the end she becomes a queen and is respected and revered across all of Narnia. The Exorcist is Father Damien Karras’ story. The Jesuit priest who has lost his faith comes face to face not only with Regan’s demon but his own as he rises above and overcomes evil and his own doubts by sacrificing his own life in order to save Regan’s.
Karras is a tormented and troubled man lost in a modern world devoid of God and in search of meaning. Doom and gloom seems to follow him like a cloud. Intense and brooding, bedecked all in black, and guilty over the death of his mother, Karras is at a real cross roads in his life. During the course of the film, Karras is seen to be constantly ‘rising’ as if foreshadowing his later fate. He ‘rises’ up a set of subway stairs, he ‘rises’ up a hill at his first meeting with Chris McNeil, he ‘rises’ up the McNeil staircase on visiting Regan.
A rational and highly educated man and practising psychiatrist, Karras favours logic and reason over superstition. When faced with Regan he is determined to find a rational and logical explanation rather than resorting to exorcism. It isn’t until he witnesses a cry for help written from inside Regan’s stomach does he finally seem to accept the possibility of other-worldly or supernatural phenomena. The exorcism in which Karras plays the part of Merrin’s assistant becomes a battle of the minds as Regan taunts and guilt-trips him. It is the demon who appears stronger at first as Karras is unable to prevent himself from emotionally reacting to the demon’s taunts. It isn’t until Merrin’s death does Karras face his biggest challenge. Angry at the death of Merrin, Karras appears to lose his temper as he exacts revenge upon Regan by dragging her to the floor and physically beating her. At this moment he is totally and utterly overcome by and taken over by evil. Only by a sheer act of will does he regain control of himself and his senses at which point he throws himself out of the window and to his own death to prevent himself from murdering Regan.
In this sense The Exorcist is about Father Karras, battling against Regan’s and his own demons, a battle Karras ultimately wins by ‘rising’ above evil rather than being overcome by it and sacrificing his own life to save Regan’s. Karras has found true meaning to his life where before he had none. Meanings to life do not come much bigger or controversial than this, reflecting, as it does, the story of Christianity itself and Jesus Christ sacrificing his own life in order to save humanity from their sins. A man at the lowest ebb of his life who ultimately rises above the demons within and without and conquers evil through his own self-sacrifice. In this sense the film becomes the ultimate modern parable or fairy tale about good versus evil. Much like Dorothy’s return from Oz, Jane and Michael’s renewed relationship with their father and the children’s return from Narnia back to the real world, Regan is seen restored back to normal with only a few scars as a reminder of her ‘adventures’ as the McNeil’s pack their belongings and hastily retreat from Prospect Street and back to normality.
