Starring: Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow
Director: William Friedkin
Rated: R18+
WHEN I was a priest in the parish of Kings Cross, I used to dread full moons.
Around this time the parish office would field several requests for one of the clergy to deal with a possession or to perform an exorcism.
The devil seemed to go quiet in between lunar movements. Many priests, however, go through their ministry never encountering such a request or having to deal directly with the devil.
The Exorcist was a shocking horror thriller in 1973. Thirteen year-old Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) lives in an upper middle class family in Washington DC. Regan begins to exhibit all sorts of behaviour
that becomes increasingly bizarre and violent. Convinced that her daughter is possessed, Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) asks Fr Damien to exorcise her. He refuses. Eventually, well-known exorcist Fr Merrin (Max Von Sydow) is brought in to perform the rites.
Director William Friedkin was never happy with how the studio made him cut the film in the early 1970s, so it has been recut, 11 minutes have been restored and a new, unsatisfactory, ending added.
It remains a shocking horror film which many Catholics would find distasteful in content and form. It is, however, interesting to make three observations on this film 28 years after the original.
The film takes seriously the existence of evil and the logical imperative that if one can give oneself to love and good, then because we have free will, one can also choose to embrace hate and evil. It’s the only way to explain Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. The problem with The Exorcist is that Regan is an innocent person “taken over” by the devil. We do not believe that can happen.
Evil is not glamorised in The Exorcist, it is seen as frightening and repulsive. As with all things to do with evil, approach with care.
