[granville1]

I agree with you, Captain. The online video documentary is useful in showing the striking contrast between the times when The Exorcist came out, and our times.

While our times would suspect abuse, the late ’60s and early ’70s were more “innocent” in that regard. Unfortunately such “innocence” shielded molestation and other forms of abuse. This trend was unfortunately started by Freud and Jung, who tended to detect “incest fantasy” in all too many cases in which actual abuse was probably the actual cause of symptoms.

Pertinently, Blatty’s demon is itself a child abuser and (“the bone-white crucifix”) an actual rapist. Regan is Pazuzu’s “honey piglet” and his “pearl”, whom he claims has a “succulent c–t”. With _this_ nasty, evil figure, the novel and film don’t need poor Burke Dennings to fill in as a child-abusing character.

Moreover, in reference to the difference between The Exorcist’s time and ours: I wonder if Blatty could write that crucifix-rape scene today. Disregarding the pain, blood, and sadism, the scene is a blatant example of explicit child sexual activity. Blatty’s demon speaks with “a throaty eroticism” as the crucifix is sensually stroked in and out of the twelve-year-old’s private parts.

Such a scene today even if discovered in the worst sado-masochistic schlock horror pulp porn would evoke howls from the watchdogs of public morality. It’s amazing that a book with such a scene has survived without censorship and is available in bookstores and libraries for folks of all ages to read.

But coming as it did from a public figure whose reputation in film and literature was already well-established, would provoke a firestorm of outrage today. Can you imagine the headlines and headers for talk shows… “Has Bill Blatty lost his mind?… Is he trying to ruin his own career?… No, Mr. Blatty, we will NOT allow your book in our community, and consider your lectures and guest appearances cancelled… Explicit Child Rape Adorns Blatty’s Newest Novel (read all about it on page six!)!!!”…

Or, perhaps not. After all, the full cut of Leon does have Portman bedding Reno, if only for companionship. And Dakota Fanning’s latest flick has her (the plucky little trouper) endure a molestation scene, albeit acted-out in her safely semi-explicit body vinyl.

Anyway, maybe times have changed. Or maybe not all that much.

[granville1]

Thanks to Michael Blatty and to Blizzi for posting. Great stuff.

[granville1]

This seems to be the source that those imdb flakes of recent discussion here have been using to trash Burke Dennings…

[granville1]

Great find, Blizzi!! Thank you for sharing it.

[granville1]

Ok, then thanks to our Sofi too!!!

[granville1]

lunuso, thanks for the compliment… we might be a wee bit sentimental, but I for one might get teary-eyed when the three graves show up on screen…

[granville1]

Speaking of funerals – off topic sort of – I would have liked to see Legion end in the cemetary with:

Long shot of cemetary;

Shot moving left to right thru headstones,
PAUSING

At Merrin’s grave (assuming he was buried in Georgetown);

At Paul Morning’s grave;
FINALLY

At Karras’s grave.

It might make a touching tribute to those three martyrs – all killed while combatting the demonic.

[granville1]

Hey, Blizzi and Ryan, thanks for your input. What with CGI’s current state, presumably this final shot would not be too difficult to achieve… wouldn’t need to actually go back to the cemetary and re-shoot. Although that would be very cool as well.

[granville1]

imdb says “Karen Knapp” as “Pazuzu” (uncredited).

[granville1]

Good for you, Ryan – congratulations.

[granville1]

If Dennings was the real bad guy, the film would have spelled it out in undeniable terms. So would have Blatty in the novel.

Blatty says of Dennings something like, “he was a kind and considerate man when sober”. He was a close friend of Chris and showed his thoughtfulness to Regan, e.g., on her birthday he lighted her on-scene and filmed her blowing out her birthday cake candles.

Flakes such as those at imdb might insist, “Yeah, okay, he was nice when sober, but when drunk – which was frequently – he could have turned into a molester.”

Unfortunately for that view, Blatty (and Friedkin) _do_ show us what Dennings is like when he is drunk. In fact the uncut version of the film shows that Regan and Dennings are both present together at the party at Chris’s house, the same party where the plastered Dennings makes his “alien pubic hair” remark, trashes Karl’s dignity, and smashes a glass.

At no point does the drunk Dennings exhibit anything like off-color sexual behavior, much less ephebophilia. There is no hint of this in the book or the film.

Still, some imdb pinheads will further insist, “Yeah, okay, but Dennings was up in Regan’s room and she broke his neck and pushed him out her window, so maybe she was provoked by his unwanted intentions.”

This is really too ludicrous to be entertained, but for the sake of truthfulness, let’s entertain _and_ refute it:

Dennings may in fact have had some quite legitimate reason to have gone upstairs to Regan’s room. Blatty, though it takes some time for him to arrive here, lets us know that Regan is no longer her normal self.

We know this because 1) she twisted Dennings’ head completely around facing backward, a demonic method of murder; and 2) supernormal strength is required for this, strength far beyond that of little Regan. It is thus established that the “thing” in the upstairs room is no longer the normal Regan.

This “Regan replacement” – which we later observe to be incredibly strong and violent – could easily have lured Dennings upstairs. Perhaps she manifested some of her weird poltergeist noises; perhaps she just screamed in her normal voice and/or cried out for help. Either way, as a decent human being and a family friend, Dennings probably would have probably bounded up the stairs in aid of Chris’s daughter. That, or something like it, is the most likely scenario for Dennings being in Regan’s room.

Finally, although in the novel and film Regan is said not to remember the actual possession, nothing is mentioned about the “overture” or “infestation” phase. We are free to imagine that Regan’s memory was unimpaired about the things leading up to the possession.

Therefore, it is probable that if Dennings had been molesting Regan in the weeks leading up the possession, she certainly would have mentioned it – then or later – to Chris. Granted, some molestation victims are unable to talk about their abuse, but it defies _literary_ logic that Regan would be one of them. Here we return to the point that if Dennings was really the bad guy, Blatty and/or Friedkin would have pointed it out, and the best way to do so would have been from Regan’s own testimony post-possession. Or somehow establish it from some other source. But, in fact, nothing of the kind takes place.

Pre-possession, Regan does exhibit anxiety about Dennings, but it is nothing that resembles a personal conflict. She is only worried that her mother will decide to marry Dennings. Her concern is thus not really about Dennings, but about her mother’s good judgment. Moreover, it is not really Regan who initiates this mistrust – in this early scene in the film, it is insinuated that Regan’s doubts are already being suggested by Captain Howdy’s influence.

I suppose we really can’t expect exacting and nuanced judgments from people like those on imbd. That’s why I for one am grateful for the forum that our own Captain Howdy gives us here, where we can delineate the fine points of the Exorcist saga.

[granville1]

Thanks, Blizzi.

[granville1]

No, haven’t seen it. FATE used to have some good articles way back when I was a kid…

[granville1]

Thanks for the nice words, lunuso. Yep, I think those who look to Burke Dennings as a villain or even the cause of the possession are superficial readers who substitute insinuation for evidence.

[granville1]

You may be right re: Regan needing intravenous feeding until she was able to eat normally. However, I doubt that Chris was only starting to lean more to agnostic.

If memory serves, Chris tells Dyer something like, “I’m still not sure about God, but I believe in the devil – he keeps doing commercials”. Then Dyer scores a point by saying something like, “But if all the evil in the world convinces you that there is a devil, how do you account for all the good?” Chris says something like, “Yeah, that’s a point.”

So it looks like Chris is keeping God on the horizon as a possibility, but is definitely inclined to accept the devil’s nearby existence.

The question of course remains whether or not her first glimmerings of belief would have impacted the length of time she (and perhaps Regan) continued to live in the house.

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