A Theological Classic

A Hoya Production
William Friedkin director/producer
Noel Marshall executive producer
William Peter Blatty screenplay (based from his novel)
Sound: Ron Neagle
Special Visual fx: Marcel Vercotere
Make Up fx: Dick Smith

(just the basic plot)

The story involved in the film is Chris MacNeil who is played by Ellen Burstein, a single mother, who works on her career as an actress – whilst trying to raise her daughter Regan, a spunky 12 year old girl, who can be adorably mischievous at times. At one point the actress got upset with Regan’s father who just can’t seem to find the time for their daughter, not even a nary little greet over the phone during Regan’s birthday.

Enter then Damien Karras, a boxer turned priest, who is now finding some great struggle in his faith, whilst his mother who resides on a small room apartment that he rents with not enough money to sustain it and provide for his mother – Karras is considering then to leave the priesthood and go back into boxing; that is, until he heard from the actress who asked for help about the ordeal of a very strange nature that is happening to her daughter . It then lead Damien to consult this matter to their clergy, that in the result, they commissioned to call for their authorized exorcist Father Merrin, who is played by veteran actor Max Von Sydow.
From the beginning of the film, we see Father Merrin on an archaeological research expedition in Egypt, who then found an ancient relic that is found amidst all the stones, and once about he sensed that there is some evil going on with regards to the discovered item, as if somewhat connected to some certain relevant thing that is already taking place or is just about to happen. And it is about during at this time that he consulted an expert in identifying these relics when he heard of the announcement that John the Baptist have been born… oops, sorry wrong movie – I mean, that he is being called for to again don his Exorcism expertise.

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SYNOPSIS =
The Exorcist is the equivalent for the stature of baring the ultimate in film for the Horror movie genre, as STAR WARS is to Science Fiction fantasy; the mother of em all so to speak. Ever since its day of release – the movie is subject to a number of controversy and intrigue , mainly that during its first days of run in the box office, reports of premature pregnancies, people fainting, vomiting, and at worst – heart attacks are said to have been the reactions present with its viewers in the cinemas where THE EXORCIST are shown.
Personally I even do quite remember an incident in my childhood that a particular cinema burned down during the film’s showing for no apparent reason.

Another source of great controversy for the film is that a number of about nineteen people involved in the movie died during in its time of production (according to actress Ellen Berstein); including the actor Jack MacGowran who died after finishing to shoot his scenes in the movie; plus the prop man who set up the deep-freeze air conditioner on the room where Linda Blair’s character Regan is being possessed; and Max Von Sydow’s relative, and just recently – less than a year after the re-issue of the movie for its 25th year, the actor Jason Miller passed away (which needlessly I say (and yet I’d speak it anyways)) making the death count for the people involved in this movie to 20 in body count.

And on another thing, Linda Blair whenever congratulated for her great performance in acting as the possessed girl Regan, Linda Blair would turn to answer after during those sets, “Oh that wasn’t me, that’s Regan!”, to which where they’d all have a kick for laughs most probably intended as only her pun perhaps. Or is it? Hm…

The movie was then again reissued for public theatrical consumption in the cinemas by the year 2000 – where some of those deleted scenes are re-included in the film. With extra features of special effects that are tweaked into the movie’s scenes – yep, kind of like so much similarly with what Lucas Production did with their tamperings for the Special Editions of the STAR WARS movie… it is to my opinion that the tampered version of the movie labelled as “the Version You’ve Never Seen Before” kind of like ruined it for me – and the demons who insert themselves within its celluloid’s that serve to infest the movie for its supernatural effects are bothered away, which only made the movie a little less to the viewers satisfaction in the process as a result.

Again I recall somewhere back in the 80’s, that I happen to have been blessed to capture the chance to see on a certain local tv network where I’m from – a run of the movie with some of the deleted scenes intact, such as the original ‘Spider-walk scene’ that is a far better cry better than the one seen on the rehashed Special Edition of the flick, and the dialogue ending between Detective Lt. Kinderman, the friendly officer who examined Regan’s demon possessions played by Lee J. Cobb, and Damien Karras’ friend Father Dyer – which lit up a start of good friendship for these two characters in the film – that I think is a print that may’ve been scored from somewhere in Europe .

The characters are tightly knit and well depicted in the way they are acted that they have the feel for those classic romps that make good fiction, which have their way of reaching out to touch the audiences.
Say, with this kind of feel for the movie – it’s close enough for what stuff that good family films are made of.

Being that as according to biblical text that in the last days scoffers would come*, that people would be lovers of pleasures rather than of God**, and many would turn away to the apostasy of the faith***, that along the lines false Christianity would make a run of abundance and deceive many in the majority of the world at large – and in that sense -
many view John the elder’s vision recorded in the bible’s text found on Revelation 17 regarding the great whore who sat on the Beast denotes to refer about the catholic church, and thus in its title IS the great whore of Babylon (ie. the Roman Empire), AND ‘the mother of Prostitutes’, being that a lot of sects have resulted to’ve come out from her since the debacle of Martin Luther’s protestation on the door of Wittenberg’s cathedral = that if you’d connect this biblical views as you watch the film-- so it goes
with what scene that is found in the movie- something that is never grasped by many (maybe even including its author and director quite ironically), that in the segment before the clock stopped and the earth shook, prior to the Father Merrin’s departure for America to help the possessed girl, the expert in analysing the ancient artifacts when he told Father Merrin the meaning within the discovered pendant is “EVIL AGAINST EVIL” – you’d find that there rings the whole idea for the film!

FATHER MERRIN: (perplexed and tired himself) Perhaps it’s God’s way to show us how ugly we are in his sight, and that we don’t deserve his love at all.