The possessed Regan (Linda Blair) presses her mother’s head against her bleeding vagina, into which the twelve-year-old had previously rammed a crucifix. There are said to have been horrified moviegoers in 1973 who suffered miscarriages because of this scene. Perhaps a myth, like the one that director William Friedkin, who died in August at the age of 87, slapped on the set or fired around with a revolver to elicit agitated performances from his actors.
But like Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” or Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” before it, “The Exorcist” also felt the parents’ fear of their children striving for (sexual) liberation. “You look so grown up!” Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) says to her daughter – as criticism. But the adults also struggled with the pressure of expectations, because Chris cannot cope with the double burden of being a Hollywood star and a mother.
Demon Pazuzu knows how to take advantage of such fragile relationships, especially in times of change – people are generally too cocky for him – and he has a sense of humor. After he has taken control of Regan, the girl has to say to an astronaut who wants to fly to Mars despite the end of the Apollo program: “You’re going to die up there.” Even better are the puns from Pazuzu, who kids call himself “Captain Howdy “ introduces: “All of this is mirabile dictu – hard to believe!”.
Because “The Exorcist” is about crises of faith, but not just crises of technical progress or female emancipation. It also deals with the loss of religious faith. Father Karras (Jason Miller), trusting psychiatry more than the Bible, advocates medical treatment for Regan’s alleged “temporal lobe damage.” Karras is the actual main character, representative of all those who have fallen away from the faith. “If you weren’t a priest, you’d be a psychiatrist,” says his brother – psychoanalysis is the new religion. When Chris MacNeil asks Karras for an exorcism, he first has to remember what it is: “A… what?!” It’s less about the actual exorcist, Father Merrin (Max von Sydow, who at 44 embodies a 79-year-old and would look like an older man in every film from then on), the work is as unfortunateally titled as William Peter Blatty’s novel.
Change of host with courageous punches in the face of the impressed Pazuzu
In the end, exorcist assistant Karras is back. Consolidation of faith arises through the ritualized repetition of commandments, and the two priests work on Beelzebub by shouting “The power of Jesus Christ conquers you!” fifteen times. Nevertheless, in the end, the demon’s change of host is not based on Karras’ faith, but rather on the man of God’s unchristian methodology: obscenity (“filthy beast!”) and courageous punches in the impressed Pazuzu’s face.
Sound engineer Robert Knudson produced the film’s sound, next to Ben Burtt’s from “Star Wars” the most brilliant of the decade. Merrin’s whirring excavations in hot Iraq are as frightening as the MRI noises terrorizing the girl, which make medical devices seem like the real tools of the devil. A nasty punchline could be that William Friedkin synchronizes the title card “The Exorcist” with the use of muezzin singing.
As a scene of murderous activities, the stairs in Georgetown, renamed “Exorcist Steps,” are unrivaled – the Odessa steps from “Battleship Potemkin” and the Bronx stairs in “Joker” have no chance. And Pazuzu’s makeup? It’s hard to bear, every still image is a jump scare. However, Friedkin did not receive the directing Oscar again two years after “Brennpunkt Brooklyn”. He knew why: “It was a quasi-documentary about corrupt cops. No cleaners. Hollywood resented me for that.”
The “50th Anniversary” edition contains a BFI book and two film versions, including the inferior director’s cut. Pazuzu can be seen too often in it, as well as one of Regan’s two infamous “spiderwalks”, running on all fours in a gymnastic bridge position. Friedkin originally cut the scene because he didn’t want to show that the demon, who was tied to the bed, could actually leave the room. And has fun torturing us while lying down.
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