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I’ve been reading the book “The Exorcist” since 1973 and my last read was a couple of months ago. Now I’m really confused about who killed Burke Dennings. Was it Father Karras or Reagan possessed by the demon Pazuzzi? I noticed the book kept making references to Father Karras’s hands as being “strong and powerful” and the autopsy reports on Burke Dennings suggested that a strong powerful man killed him so I want to know who did it. A psychologist guy told the elderly sacristan who discovered doo doo on the altar in the church that a sick priest could have did it but after many re-reads of the book all evidence still points to Reagan because there were times when desecrations happened at the church when Father Karras was attending his mother’s funeral. So I ask again is Reagan the murderer of Burke Dennings.
Read this thread. 🙂
http://captainhowdy.com/forum/the-exorcist-original/if-burke-dennings-death-had-been-seen/
Thanks for the link to the thread explaining who killed director Burke Dennings. The Exorcist is one of my favorite books and it’s a book I never get tired of reading. So the demon Pazzuzi acting through Regan’s body jumped out of that bed and put the snatch on Burke Dennings before he could even say “boo”? I remember in the book how Detective Kinderman had linked Burke Denning’s death to someone in the McNeil household. His first suspect was Karl Engstrom who had had some heated run-ins with Dennings but after Karl didn’t pan out Detective Kinderman focused his attention on Regan and especially when he found out that she had been admitted to the Beringer Clinic a known psychiatric facility in Ohio. The clinic told Detective Kinderman that Regan was indeed a patient at the clinic and even though the clinic couldn’t give Kinderman details on Regan’s illness the detective concluded that it was a serious mental disorder. Beforehand when Chris mentioned that Regan was sick Detective Kinderman thought that Regan had a physical illness but after he called the Beringer which was a psychiatric facility he started putting the pieces together. Also Regan was the only one in the house he hadn’t seen and the second set of fingerprints on the desecrated altar card were small like those of a child’s. I think Father Karras’ death got Regan off the hook because Detective Kinderman was thinking of going to Chris’ house and pound on the door demanding to see Regan. Father Karras’ death closed the case for Kinderman but Father Dyer still had his doubts about the murderer of Burke Dennings beingFather Karras.
Watch the movie and you will hear Burke’s voice coming from Regan’s mouth at the end of the masturbation scene. Burke (through Regan) asks Chris: “Do you know what she did, your cunting daughter?” Just prior to the voice emanating from Regan, her head turns “completely backwards.” Hint, hint, (obvious hint) to tidy away all the last and upcoming clues to Burke’s murderer provided by Kinderman to only be reinforced by Chris when she tells Karras that, “She killed Burke Dennings.” The “she” would “that thing upstairs” that is not her daughter.
From the book angle, look to Sofia’s comments … she can give quotes and paragraphs without even turning a page.
Father Bowdern
You know what Father Bowdern I finally realized the significance of Regan’s head turning backward. Regan’s head turning backward is to emulate Burke Denning’s after he died especially since she was speaking in Burke Denning’s voice at the end of the masturbation scene. I guess Chris knew eventually that Detective Kinderman would discover that Regan was Burke Denning’s murderer. Also Father Bowdern when Regan was admitted to the clinic in Ohio after seeing the condition she was in what were the recommendations the doctors at the clinic gave to Chris as to what Regan’s prognosis was and what could be done for her? I remember reading in the book that Chris was screaming that she wasn’t going to put Regan in a goddamn asylum.
Hi AllBahanianGirl,
Yes to all your points. In fact, it really wasn’t until Detective Kinderman and Chris had their “tea time” conversation that Chris gets the “aha” moment about Regan killing Burke. Friedkin uses the camera in this entire scene to the best benefit by guiding the viewer closer to the who the killer really is … Regan. Chris’ expressions are the best indicators (and, of course, Burstyn is a superior actress who can pull off anything). Chris isn’t upset because of the interview conducted by Kinderman. We know when Kinderman leaves, and Chris closes the front door and chains it, that she is upset because Kinderman’s hypothesis is on target:
“KINDERMAN
Strange…strange…so baffling. The deceased comes to visit,
stays only twenty minutes, and leaves all alone a very sick girl.
And speaking plainly Mrs. MacNeil, as you say, it’s not likely he
would fall from a window. Besides that, a fall wouldn’t do to his
neck what we found except maybe a chance in a thousand. My hunch?
My opinion? I believe he was killed by a very powerful man: point
one. And the fracturing of the skull – point two – plus the
various things I have mentioned, would make it very probable –
probable, not certain – that the deceased was killed and then
pushed from your daughter’s window. But no-one was here except
your daughter. So how could this be? It could be one way: if
someone came calling between the time Miss Spencer left and the
time you returned. The servants, they have visitors?”The script is below regarding the Barringer Clinic:
EXTERIOR- BARRINGER CLINIC- DAY
The leaves blow as the camera zooms in on the Barringer Clinic.
INTERIOR- BARRINGER CLINIC- WARD- DAY
CLINIC DIRECTOR
It looks like a type of disorder that you rarely ever see
anymore, except in primitive cultures.We see Regan on a monitor screen. She’s in another fit, in bed
and restrained by straps.CLINIC DIRECTOR
We call it a somnambuliform possession.We cut to another angle of Regan who has slightly visible welts
on her face. She’s still screaming. We then cut to Regan, now
flat on her back, mumbling to herself.INTERIOR- BARRINGER CLINIC- DIRECTOR’S OFFICE- DAY
CLINIC DIRECTOR
Quite frankly, we don’t know much about it except that it’s
starts with some conflict or guilt that eventually leads to the
patient’s delusion that his body’s been invaded by an alien
intellegence; a spirit if you will.CHRIS
Look, I’m telling you again and you’d better believe it, I’m not
about to put her in a goddamn asylum!CLINIC DIRECTOR
It’s-CHRIS
And I don’t care what you call it! I’m not putting her away!CLINIC DIRECTOR
I’m sorry.CHRIS
You’re sorry. Christ, eighty-eight doctors and all you can tell
me is all of your bullshit…CLINIC DIRECTOR- There is one outside chance of a cure. I think
of it as shock treatment. As I say, there is an outside chance…CHRIS
Will you just name it, for God’s sake? What is it?MALE DOCTOR
Do you have any religious beliefs?CHRIS
No.FEMALE DOCTOR
What about your daughter?CHRIS
No, why?CLINIC DIRECTOR
Have you ever heard of exorcism?Chris looks at him baffled.
CLINIC DIRECTOR
It’s a stylized ritual in which rabbis or priests try to drive
out the so-called invading spirit. It’s pretty much discarded
these days, except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as
a sort of embarrassment. It has worked, in fact, although not for
the reason they think, of course. It was purely the force of
suggestion. The victim’s belief in possession helped cause it;
and just in the same way this belief in the power of exorcism can
make it disappear.CHRIS
You’re telling me that, I should take my daughter to a witch
doctor? Is that it?The Clinic Director nods and looks at Chris.
Father Bowdern
Regan must have been in really bad shape if she had to see eighty-eight doctors at the Barringer Clinic. I bet she gave those doctors a run for their money too. If I were a doctor and had to treat a patient like Regan I would immediately retire not to mention that a doctor puts his life in danger if she gets out of those restraining straps and kills him/her like she killed Burke Dennings. Personally I don’t see how Chris and the staff stayed in the house with her cursing and raging all of the time. I bet none of them got a good night’s sleep.
I remember watching a comedy show some years back and a comedian was talking about the movie “The Exorcist”. He was saying that he don’t see why people living in the McNeil household kept trying to hold an intellection discussion with the demon Pazuzu because once he came into that bedroom and found someone with their head on backwards they can have the house. Father Bowdern are you a Jesuit priest like Father Karras and do you believe in demonic possession. I am Catholic and have witnessed a couple of instances of demonic possession in the Church but nowhere near dramatic as in the Exorcist.
AllBahianGirl, nice to meet you. I’m always trying to find people who know about The Exorcist novel. Do you have a myspace account? I’ve created a channel dedicated to the novel. If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link: http://www.myspace.com/theexorcistnovel
You know, I never thought that Dyer had doubts about the murderer of Dennings being Karras. The first time I read the novel , I even had failed to pick up on the suggestion that the killer and desecrator might be Karras. It’s just too subtle. Blatty insinuates it in the sequence with Karras on a platform at the top of the steps from which Dennings was pushed to his death (at that point in the story that was the assumption) Karras tells his Jesuit friend that he always tries to make it to the platform around 7 p.m. to watch the sunset, and Dennings was killed at 7:05 p.m.
BTW, The first chapter of the novel begins on April 1st.
Happy Easter, Fatherb and everyone!
Nice to meet you too Sofia a fellow Exorcist book lover. I don’t have a MYSPACE account but I’ll check out yours. The Exorcist is a book that I never tire of reading but you brought out a point in the book that I never considered about Father Karras stating that he always tries to make it to the platform every evening about 7 p.m. to watch the sunset. Now as for the desecrations Father Karras was attending his mother’s funeral when one of the desecrations occurred according to the elderly sacristan of the church. I know this is a weird question but I was thinking about the desecrations to the statues in the church and was wondering when Regan found the time to sculpt phalluses and breasts to stick on the statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. I know she spent a lot of time alone in the playroom working on sculptures but I was wondering how she could sculpt phallus and breasts and where did she hide them until it was time for her to sneak out at night and stick them on the statues of Mary and Jesus. I remember when Chris was stating that the servant Willie told her that she heard Regan in the kitchen in the wee morning hours and Chris was feeling glad because that meant that Regan was getting her appetite back. I think Regan was either on her way to or coming back from a church desecration. What are your thoughts on that?
One of the scariest things about The Exorcist is you figure out that Regan has been up to all kinds of things. The scene where Kinderman goes to his car and looks up at Regan’s window and she’s supposed to be strapped to the bed but someone moves by the window creeps me the hell out!
I know I remember that part in the book when Detective Kinderman was in his car outside of Regan’s window and he thought that he saw a slim,lithe figure dart into his view and then out of sight. I wonder what she was up to. He also noticed that her bedroom window was wide open after Chris told him that her bedroom window was locked. Oh Regan possessed by Pazuzzi was a few steps ahead of them all of the time. She was desecrating the church and doing God knows what else and nobody not even Chris had a clue.
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