CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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I would never have caught it, either, except for magus’ sharp-eyed commentary. It’s downright spooky, like those films in which “ghosts” are said to put in momentary appearances.
That would make a shocking scene indeed, but it would also remove the shock from the Karras/Kinderman dialog where Dennings’ death is described verbally rather than shown. Before that dialog, we know from “Chuck’s” visit to Chris’s house that Dennings broke his neck. But we don’t know that it had been turned completely around, facing backward. I don’t know which is more shocking, actually showing the head-turning or allowing this fact to hit the audience via verbal description…
Yes, the decapitation photo has been posted around. I don’t know if the film is better or not for not including this shot.
That’s possible, but unlikely, since Dennings had no particular religious beliefs and thus no motivation to do it. Also, Chris would probably have discovered the crucifix much earlier in the story. It’s a mystery why Dennings went upstairs to Regan’s room, but it’s certain that she broke his neck “in the witchcraft manner” and pushed the body out the window.
Good catch, and absolutely spooky. In the black, gaping doorway, a light figure does appear, and it does look like a nun – or the Virgin. Maybe a nun had been in the church, didn’t realize they were filming, and walked into the opening. She’s there only a fraction of a second. She appears as they are rounding the church (I think it’s a church – Dahlgren Chapel?) and the “nun” appears on the extreme left, just as Karras and Kinderman walk by the entrance. She appears just when Kinderman says, “It’s Othello.”
I don’t think the film contains any answers to this question. However, concomitant with the crucifix rape scene, we are again reminded that paranormal powers are associated with demonic activity. Earlier there had been the noises in the attic and the bed-shaking. During the crucifix incident, there are now large-scale manifestations such as the “wind” that blows the curtains and throws the 45-RPM records around, plus the moving of furniture to block Chris’s exit from the room.
Perhaps we are meant to figure it out that the demon “levitated” the crucifix back upstairs to Regan’s room during Kinderman’s interview with Chris. That’s all I can come up with as an explanation of how the crucifix re-appeared in Regan’s room. The only other solution is that there were more than one crucifix in the house and one was hidden (maybe by Karl?) somewhere in Regan’s room – which is quite a stretch.
Not to invite extremism and overkill, but… why not bring Skarsgard back, this time as the older Merrin. That should really confuse casual Exorcist viewers – and maybe some of the fans!
Yes, thanks to Justy and Blizzi for sharing. What a heartbreaking mess. Superstition’s misplaced efforts to “help” replacing wise compassion. The most real horror is walking in Anneliese’s shoes – can you imagine what it was like for her – to be doubly victimized by her own brain chemistry and the incompetence of clergy and physicians…? Given her environment, she was trapped from the onset of her “demonic” symptoms. No way out… at least “our MacNeil kid” had good religious and medical treatment, even if her story was only fiction…
No way of telling if these two exhibited “genuine signs of what the Church would recognize” as possession. I’m agnostic on the subject of demonic possession (but do accept the possibility of paranormal phenomena).
But there’s one creepy question for those who do believe in demonic possession: What if a demon, aware of the Church’s vigilance for “signs”, can possess a person without manifesting paranormal actions? In that case, the possession would be dismissed as invalid, while the demon chuckles to itself, snuggly ensconced in its victim.
