CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Actually, just to follow up sarcastically, perhaps Blatty should have burned the house to the ground, thus making it difficult for E2 Heretic to film its climactic scenes with Blair and Burton in the studio lot’s reconstructed house.
I would presume Regan would have spent a fair period of time in the hospital. After all, she was at death’s door when Karras saved her. She was dehydrated, starving, probably had infections – she had been sick for a long time. I can imagine Chris staying in the house just out of convenience until Regan made a full recovery. The house had been a happy home for Chris and Regan. The possession was not the house’s “fault”, although it’s true that the demonic forces manipulated the house environment (the poltergeist effects, etc.). But the house itself was not “evil”.
So it’s possible, if not plausible, that Chris may have stayed in the house until Regan had recovered. She may have used that time staying with Regan at the hospital, striking up a friendship with Dyer (and maybe even Kinderman), and overseeing the repair of Regan’s bedroom before the house, which she was renting, reverted to its owners.
Maybe Blatty could have kept them in Georgetown… have Chris move into an apartment while Regan recuperates. I do acknowledge that six weeks does seem a long time to be hanging around the house “where it all happened” – especially after the emphasis Blatty put on the house description in the novel’s first pages. Seems like he should have resolved the house issue.
Anybody know if this classic identifying shot was actually taken in front of the real house, or is it a studio lot reconstruction?
Blizzi, thanks! There they are in the same scene. Nice to notice details like the ray of light transversing Morning’s right hand…
I don’t think of those things you listed as paranormal activity…
The demons telling her to eat is just delusion, and her delusional response was… not to eat. Or, to fast – which again puts her in a similar condition to shamans going thru an ordeal of fasting. Her delusions caused her to stop eating, to practice anorexea. That’s not paranormal, it’s just sick. You ask why she was doing it – well, probably because her mental illness drove her to it. She could have had an unconscious need to punish herself, or in her dissociated state, felt that the “demonic” compulsions were too strong to resist.
Not touching sacred objects – again, that’s not paranormal, it’s just acting out the kind of behavior that is expected when one is – or thinks one is – “possessed”.
Superhuman strength _might_ sometimes indicate paranormality, but does crushing an apple require superhuman strength? I doubt it. Even greater feats of strength do not require a paranormal explanation, e.g., the famous example in the Friedkin film, given by Dr Tanney, of the mother who lifts a car off her child. Enhanced strength, sure, but not “superhuman”.
You’re entitled to think that the Michel case was genuine, but I just don’t see in it any evidence of the supernatural, based on Goodman’s book. Her story is weird and chilling, but not due to any supernatural intervention, just to the wild, bleak landscape of insanity.
Karl Malden might have come close in portraying Kinderman believably – except wasn’t he at that time already in Streets of San Francisco playing a detective…? I believe that Malden, like Kinderman, also wore a hat. If it was pre-“Streets”, he may have been able to pull it off. Post-“Streets” audiences would expect Michael Douglas to be lurking in the wings…
Blizzi, yes, the “details” would have been interesting if fleshed out…
MIKE, I agree… Scott’s Kinderman was not the warm figure that Cobb’s was. Some say that Scott’s Kinderman, hardened by 12 more years’ exposure to savage crimes, became a grouch. However, he was not such in the Legion novel – sometimes gruff, yes, but more in an affectionately teasing manner. Scott’s Kinderman was too much… Patton. I wonder if this was really the interpretation that Blatty wanted for Legion’s Kinderman…
Geez, Blizzi and MIKE, thanks so much for the very kind compliments.
MIKE I would like to consider your kind offer re: the Szumskyj’s essay book. Could you please tell me exactly how that would work? I.e., are the essays just random contributions or are topics assigned or suggested to avoid duplicate treatments? How does copyright work – are the essays individually copyrighted or does this happen as a group deal when they get incorporated into the book? I’m really quite flattered that you think there may be an audience for my meanderings.
MIKE, thanks for taking the time to explain the essay book to me and typing up all the pertinent info. Bluntly, the time constraint is probably too pressing – my summer is turning out to be far busier than I had thought it would be – but I’ll keep your idea in mind. Also I have a concern about quality. For example, having seen Ryan’s url, with all of its depth and literary knowledgability, makes me quite humble and doubting if I am up to the task. Not to mention all the other good posters with great ideas at CapnHowdy. But, again, thank you for your kind words… I am very flattered.
Ryan, thanks for the encouraging words – and for the important correction that the motto was on a card in Merrin’s, not Karras’s wallet. That fact makes the Morning scene work even better as a “Merrin-reflection”.
Blizzi, geez, thanks for the complimentary words. My head needs to go on a diet cuz it’s getting fat from all the nice things folks around here are saying…
