It Scared Me In 1973 It Scares Me Now

~ ~ It’s my intention with this opinion to approach this movie from a slightly different angle. Instead of just purely doing a review of the film, I want to try to look at exactly WHY it was it frightened so many people at the time of its original release in 1973, and why it still has the capacity to do so today, some 28 years later.

~ ~ The possession seemingly starts as a result of Regan’s “playing” with an ouja board, something I’m sure that most of us have done at some stage of our lives. (More on this later)
The symptoms of Regan’s possession develop to the stage where her whole personality is subsumed by the demon that is possessing her, and from an innocent and loveable twelve-year-old child she becomes a creature of pure evil.
Her personality is taken over totally by the demon, and her physical appearance changes dramatically throughout the course of the film.
There are scenes of pure horror, including one where she is seen masturbating with a crucifix. This caused total public outrage at the time from various religious groups, and led to public picketing of the film outside cinemas, and calls for it to be banned, which in fact it eventually was for many years.

~ ~ Chris MacNeil calls in the Catholic Church, firstly in the form of local priest Father Karras, who to begin with is slow to accept that Regan is actually possessed.
On finally becoming convinced, he enlists the aid of Father Merrin, an acclaimed exorcist, to perform an exorcism rite to expel the demon.
The ensuing exorcism sequence is both prolonged and very harrowing, and shows the two priests doing everything in their power to save the child from the evil that is possessing her.
I won’t go into too much detail here, as it would ruin the movie for anyone who has yet to view it. But suffice to say that even after 28 years, the horror of these scenes has still not left me, and still have the power to disturb me to this day.
There is also a sensational soundtrack from Mike Oldfield, from his album "Tubular Bells", which helps to create the aura of evil in the film.

~ ~ Looking back now, from a Christian standpoint, (I became a believer in the early 80’s) I think I can begin to appreciate why.
The film upset people’s sensibilities because it struck out at two things that most people hold very dear, whether they be Christian or not.
The first is our desire to always believe that good will always ultimately triumph over evil, and the second was our belief that children in particular are always innocent.
In that this movie attacked both these beliefs at once, it struck a cord in most viewers. If the possessed person had been a 40-year-old man, I doubt whether there would have been the same outcry or ballyhoo about the movie.

~ ~ As a now practicing Christian, I have no difficulty whatsoever in believing in the concept of demonic possession. It is referred to innumerable times throughout both the New and Old Testaments, and Christ himself “cast out” demons on more than one occasion.
As a Christian I believe totally in the power of good, but I also conversely believe in the power of evil, and in the physical embodiment of that evil in the person of Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, Beezlebub, call him what you will.
I do believe that there are dark forces at work in this world about which most people have no concept, and that cause much misery and mayhem in people’s lives.