CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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I’ll start with the list and other forum members can add to it:
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– The novel is set during the month of April, Easter vacation, and ends in late June. – The movie takes place in October and ends around December.
– Chris and Regan (based on Shirley MacLaine and daughter Sachi) are natural redheads with fair, delicate white skin, freckled faces. Both are referred to as pixie twins. Regan is a very slender 11-year-old, has braces and a missing tooth.
– Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair aren’t natural redheads nor have fair skins, Linda doesn’t look slender at all.
– In the novel, while Chris is investigating the noises, the rappings seem to be coming from Regan’s bedroom as opposed to coming from the attic in the movie. They also grow louder and faster in the novel as Chris comes closer to Regan’s bedroom. When she steps into the room they abruptly cease. In the movie, the rapping sounds don’t escalate, it stays the same
– The first scene in the movie (in Georgetown) takes place early in the morning, around 6 a.m. ? Regan is asleep, her blankets tossed off. The window of her room is opened and the outside wind causes the curtains to fly up in the air. Chris enters the bedroom and tiptoes to the opened window while looking up at the ceiling and listening to the scratching sounds. After closing the window, she moves to Regan’s bedside, looks down at her chubby round face and leans over to whisper, “Sure do love you” and kisses her cheek. Then Chris goes down to the kitchen.
IN THE NOVEL:
– In the novel, this scene takes place around midnight when the house is immersed in the silence. Regan is asleep cuddled tight to her stuffed panda and her bedroom window is closed. A dim yellow light from the hall falls pale and splinters on Regan’s large stuffed animals and paintings. (In my opinion, a dim light from the hall gives a creepier, more menacing atmosphere than the movie adaptation of this scene.) The first thing Chris does after entering Regan’s bedroom is move to her bedside and ask her if she’s awake. Regan doesn't answer and Chris thinks that her daughter was making the rapping noises with some of her toys, to play a prank on her mother. Chris asks Regan in a louder tone to please say “April Fool!” and quit fooling around. Blatty shows us that Chris and Regan can enjoy playing pranks on each other but also tells us that Regan has a shy nature and that such creepy pranks aren’t like her. So Chris is now wondering who the trickster might be, if it's not Regan, then who/what could it be? 😉 Chris remembers about having been in the mountains of Bhutan (inspired by Shirley’s travels around the world, I think that Shirley was the only American to have been in the mountains of Bhutan) and tries to find a rational explanation about an incident that happened while there and another explanation for the rappings.
The noises begin again, this time only faint scratching sounds. Chris stares up at the ceiling feeling an icy coldness. She moves to the window which is closed and then touches the radiator which is hot, therefore Chris thinks she’s coming down with a cold. She moves to the bedside again to touch Regan’s cheek and see if her daughter feels cold. Chris notices that Regan has perspiration on her brow and is not cold at all. Looking at her daughter’s freckled face Chris leans over the bed and kisses her cheek, whispering “I sure do love you.” After that, Chris returns to her bedroom.
Oh, please, but do add to the list, as well!!
Here're more things left out from Chapter 1
– Chris has a nightmare
– Regan leaves a rose on Chris' plate in the mornings, before her mother goes to work
– Chris' son, Jamie, died when he was a baby
– Regan's dad's name is Howard
– Regan's favorite subject is maths but is suddenly having a bad time with it. Chris finds it strange.
– Sharon is a pretty blonde in her late 20s and has been Regan's tutor for three years. She's interested in buddhism religion and meditates and chants
In the movie, we're introduced to Regan in the scene in which she talks about having taken a walk and seen a horse. The next scene we see her in is the Ouija Board scene. This is all that happens BEFORE Chris and Regan play with the ouija board:
– Regan tells her mother in the kitchen she's making her a sculpture of a bird; the bird with the long funny nose that Chris wanted. In the movie we have no idea that the bird was for Chris Â
– Regan asks her mother if she can wear her new dress and after that tells her it's missing
– Regan listens to the rapping sounds coming from the attic and refers to it as funny noises
– Regan is squeamish and terrified of rats so Chris comforts her daughter telling her not to get all worked up over nothing because the noises she hears are made by “squirrels” in the attic
– Chris and Regan have dinner at the Hot Shoppe. Chris is amazed that her daughter can eat so much and yet be “slender as a fleeting hope”
– Chris has a talk with Willie about Regan's missing dress and then again with Karl about setting the traps
– Chris finds Regan's missing dress in Chris's bedroom closet
– Regan's bureau begins moving by itself. When Chris goes to Regan's bedroom to put her dress in the closet she stubs her toe against the base of the bureau and sees that is out of position by about three feet.
– Burke visits Chris and spends a couple of hours with her in her study. They talk about Chris' nightmare, about priests, about the time they worked on a movie together in Lausanne. When talking about priests, Burke starts to lose his temper and Chris changes the subject to her chance of directing a movie. Burke also insults Karl that night
After he leaves, Chris goes finally down to the basement to see the bird
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– Regan doesn't really like Burke. The “tucking Regan into bed” scene in the novel is not so uncomplicated as it is in the movie and is full of unexpressed feelings. Regan when talking about Burke is not giggling or smiling, she's serious and sullen:
” Honey, why would I want to bring Mr. Dennings?” (Regan's birthday is not on Sunday. Her birthday wasn't even mentioned in that scene, she's discussing about taking Burke to the movies on Saturday night. Sunday is Chris and Regan's day together so I doubt very much she'd even consider telling Chris that Burke can spend that entire day with them)
“Well, you like him.”
“Oh, well, sure I like him, honey; don't you?”
She made no answer.
“Baby, what's going on?” Chris prodded her daughter.
“You're going to marry him, Mommy, aren't you?” It wasn't a question, but a sullen statement.
– In the movie, it seems that Linda likes him so I blame her for her acting in that scene because it makes the audience think she's fond of him. Her constant giggling doesn't let anyone think otherwise. 😉
More good points of difference between the film and novel, but as for me adding anything, I couldn't do it without reading the book along with watching the movie. I lack your encyclopedic knowledge of the novel – which is one reason that makes reading this thread so interesting 🙂
You have so much knowledge of the movie and novel!! You're just being modest. 😉 But, well, then read the book while watching the movie and do some comparison. I want to read your texts badly. Please? 😀
Sof, thanks for the flattering words 🙂
But for me, reading the novel while watching the movie would wreck the experience, i.e, I can only read the book and watch the film at certain intervals, else they become flat, stale and numbing. I’ve done this with a few books and movies until over-familiarity just kills reading-watching pleasure. So I’ll have to defer your kind invitation until next time I watch the movie and/or read the book. I can jot down items that I notice that differ between the two media and post them in this thread, if you like. But I can’t state a time-frame at this point, because I don’t know when I’ll next be reading/viewing the film or the novel…
Yes, I understand. 🙂 How often do you watch/read The Exorcist? It seems like you have the movie memorized so I'm surprised to know that you don't!
“I can jot down items that I notice that differ between the two media and post them in this thread, if you like.“
Please, do!
So as not to overkill, I watch/read it maybe once a year… any shorter span than that, then it's like being in a relationship that's gone gray and stale with over-familiarity, where you know what your partner is going to say/do before they say/do it… kind of a claustrophobic feeling, you know…Â 🙂
“kind of a claustrophobic feeling, you know… :)”
No, not really. 😉 I can watch fav. movies over and over and not feel that way at all. 🙂
So, when will you write some comparison texts about the novel and movie? 😀
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Sure, ok! 😀
Kind of off topic but which scenes from the novel do you really wish had been adapted to the movie?
Maybe the scene of Karras looking at the sunset where he used to “find God”; a scene of him counseling a younger priest (Chris observes a scene like this but we can't hear the dialogue); Karras putting money into the “urine-soaked” pants of the passed-out drunk, instead of just walking away; there could be a Karras voiceover telling us what he's reading when researching witchcraft and demonology, some of whose details would add a purely verbal chill to the film…
Wow!! Karras voiceover would be really chilly!
Btw, I do understand that watching a movie over and over is not for everybody lol, most people would feel the same way as you. 😉
Yeah, I need a lengthy break between watching favorite movies and books, so next time I can approach them “fresh”…
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