CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Yes. And please do what Friedkin did – cast it with relative unknowns. Anchor it with maybe a couple of knowns (e.g., like Cobb and Von Sydow). But make it fresh and disruptive of expectations.
Oh, so sorry to hear of this. Take heart, Mike. Your Howdy family cares for you and anticipates your return when you are able.
Blizzi, thank you for passing this along to all of us.
Love it! Great find, Ryan! How nice that Morning was actually scripted, esp. in the beginning. Can you imagine that, plus the morgue scene with dead Karras and Kinderman… May the Fates grant that sometime, somehow, the Legion story can be fulfilled and repaired and filmed… and brought to us.
Great finds, Blizzi! Spooky house… I suppose we’ll never really know what happened, but at least this story – urban myth or not – is anchored in physically surviving artifacts… makes one ponder…
Nice you’re back, Mike. Your faith is seeing you through some troubled times.
It’s delightful that you got accepted officially into the book. Congratulations – I’m sure the text is richer for your contribution.
The “air” sound abounds in The Exorcist novel. Merrin “M-air-in”…. Karras. Perrin. And wasn’t Chris’s agent’s name “Jerris” or something like that?
Thanks Mike for letting me know there is still room for an essay. I’m not up for it right now, but thanks as always for thinking of me.
Yeah, that script seems gangbusters… Morning/Merrin parallels, etc. A true sequel, fully of Blatty atmospherics. Oh, that somehow it could be fleshed out into celluloid… or maybe it could be made into an alternative Legion novel… I don’t know how copyright works, if that’s even possible. Mouth-watering prospects indeed…
You say all things well. So does Ryan. You said it, “the aftershock”… and as the articles indicate, it kept exploding with new issues of the film, and new people reading the book, and audience hunger for (if I may say so, mostly inferior) supernatural horror films, which, for better or worse ultimately spawned more “Exorcist” movies – at least we got “Legion” out of it…
You’re welcome, Blizzi, and thank you for reading and commenting. You said it again – it’s a… _love_ story!
So many audiences lost sight of this and missed the point. I knew at least one person who insisted it was a downer cuz Karras “killed himself – committed suicide”. I can reluctantly grant that opinion – maybe after one viewing, with all the confusion and shock. But not with more than one viewing – as it’s been pointed out here and elsewhere, the attentive viewer just can’t miss Karras’ conscious invitation/challenge to the demon: “Come into me, goddam you, take me!”
Then – as photography, make-up, and Miller’s acting show – the demon _does_ enter him. And then – again, as photography, make-up, and Miller’s acting show – Karras momentarily “returns to himself,” crying out, “NO!”, and takes the demon with him out the window.
To confirm this, as soon as Karras jumps, Regan is restored finally “to herself”, with Chris and Kinderman as witnesses. Dyer becomes a witness to Karras’s renewed faith as the dying priest makes “a good confession”. It is again confirmed by Regan’s implicit acknowledgment of Karras’ (and Merrin’s) help when she kisses Dyer after gazing at his “round Roman collar.”
Only brickheads could fail to see this interpretation, even if they disagree with it.
Moreover, love raises its noble head in other parts of the film: Karras’ friendship with Dyer; Dyer’s concern for the MacNeils; the emerging friendship of Karras and Kinderman; the easy friendship between Dyer and lay people (e.g. at Chris’s party); Chris’s fierce love for Regan; Karl’s obvious concern for Regan (“she is going to be vell?”); Denning’s sly, teasing familiarity with Chris; Karras’s heart-breaking love for his mother; Merrin’s solicitude for the tormented Karras.
You’re right: it’s a love story, plus many other things.
