Summary:
A teenage girl is possessed by a demon and two priests try to save her.
My Thoughts:
It’s been called the ‘Scariest Movie of All Time’ for more than forty-five years now, so I suppose the question we first must ask is: Does the film live up to its reputation? In my opinion, the answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. Horror has evolved over the years, and I’m sure most audiences today would find this film pretty tame compared to films like “Hereditary” or “The Witch”; I would be more keen to argue that “The Exorcist” is one of the best scary movies, not ‘the scariest movie of all time.’ What scares you might not scare me and vice versa, so in a sense, the Scariest Movie of All Time will probably be different for everyone (for me, it’s “The Shining”), but what most people can agree upon is the craft with which this film was made produced a film that is not only scary, but emotionally compelling (draining, even), thematically rich, and still disturbing to this day. “The Exorcist” might not be the scariest movie in the world anymore (if it ever was), but it’s certainly still a Five Star film.
“What an excellent day for an exorcism.”
After Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair, “Exorcist II: The Heretic”) starts behaving strangely, her mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn, “Requiem For A Dream”) takes her for testing at a clinic. As Regan’s behavior worsens and doctors are unable to discover a reason for her illness, they suggest that the disease might be psychosomatic and that she might require an exorcism to cure Regan of the belief that she is possessed. Chris contacts Father Karras, (Jason Miller, “Exorcist III”) a young priest wrestling with his own faith, and Father Merrin (Max von Sydow, “Hour of the Wolf”), a priest whom has formerly had dealings with exorcisms.
“The Exorcist” is a horror film that was pretty much tailor-made for me, but I still don’t love it as much as some of the other films in the genre. I’m a fan of slow building horror films, and I love horror films that deal with the grim supernatural and unexplained darkness that lurks beneath the thin veneer of reality; “The Exorcist” is both a slow descent into madness and a film that deals with the ethereal. In terms of craft “The Exorcist” is great, but in terms of enjoyable watching experiences, this film is not that. Watching Regan descend into hell is, frankly, uncomfortable, disturbing, and even revolting, but that’s the point; this is not a fun horror flick where you snack on popcorn and giggle when people get their heads chopped off and gallons of orange goo spurts out at the screen. This is a horror movie that begs to be taken seriously- it feels more like a drama at the beginning- it’s not until almost forty minutes in when things really start to ramp up get truly terrifying, up until then the viewer is just left with a feeling of knowing something bad is on its way.
There’s a scene in the film where Chris, convinced that there are rats in the attic, goes up to check the traps, taking with her only a candle for light. As she walks around, the viewer has a sense that something is there with her in the dark, and suddenly the candle’s flame erupts and startles her. I feel like that scene could be a kind of metaphor for the horror of the film in general: the characters start by stumbling around in the dark, knowing only that something is wrong, and when they finally stumble across what it is that’s been waiting for them, it takes them so by surprise that they find they aren’t at all ready for it. When the unusual things start at the beginning of the film, they start slowly; Regan urinates on a rug, tells a guest he’s going to die, and swears at doctors when they try to perform tests. A lot of the terror in the beginning of this film comes from the total helplessness Chris and the doctors feel in the face of Regan’s unexplained illness, but after Chris witnesses Regan’s bed bucking like a bronco, the terror takes a turn for the worst.
In the second half of this film, the horror manifests itself into something that could only be explained through means of the supernatural; Regan knows things she shouldn’t possibly have any business knowing; she speaks English backwards; the words ‘Help me’ appear on her stomach; her head spins completely around. Despite the fact that many of the things happening seem to be fantastical, there’s something very grounded in the way this film portrays all of the supernatural elements, and that’s why I think the film works so well: it doesn’t go completely off the rails (like “Exorcist II: The Heretic”). This film pushes on the fantastical edges of reality but it never quite breaks through to the other side; we only get glimpses of that darkness that dwells beneath, but we know that the darkness is powerful enough to do these horrid things to someone so innocent.
There’s a wonderful scene in the extended cut of the film where Karras and Merrin are sitting outside Regan’s room (right after the power of Christ compels you scene), where Karas asks Merrin why; why this little girl? Merrin responds: “I think the point is to make us despair; to see ourselves as animal and ugly; to make us reject the possibility that God could love us.” As a Christian, I believe that thought is one of the scariest thought of all; the idea that an all-powerful, all-knowing deity could create us but not care for us.; that he would abandon us to the unknown evils of the universe… Yet, as a Christian, that is also something we have to wrestle with; why does God allow evil, and can evil truly be overcome by good? You just have to have faith, I suppose. The alternative is even more frightening.
Verdict:
“The Exorcist” is one heck of a horror movie, but I honestly think it’s more than that. The title of “Scariest Movie Ever Made” almost feels cheap when applied to this film, because it’s not just a scary movie; it’s also a film that deals with profound and disturbing questions in a way that few other films ever have. The story of Karras, Merrin and Regan is one that has haunted audiences for almost fifty years, and it’s doubtful it will be forgotten anytime soon.
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