CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Technically they were both exorcists since both performed the exorcism ritual. Only one of them was successful – namely, Karras. However, he was not successful _as_ an exorcist.
The ritual plainly was not working – the demon was on the verge of killing Regan despite Merrin’s and Karras’s exorcistic efforts.
What Blatty suggests worked was Karras’s self-sacrifice via inviting the demon to “come into me!”
Therefore, although the novel and the film had two exorcists, neither of them was a success in that role. The redemption of Karras and the saving of Regan were completely unrelated to exorcists and exorcism. Perhaps Blatty should have chosen a different title.
Lunuso, my given name is Steve.
Blizzi, I presume you were asking lunuso how that name was chosen. But if you were asking me, I just lifted it from the Granville character in Dominion. The numeral 1 after Granville might be interpreted as “Granville won” if so desired.
No, I mean he intended an organ score for The Exorcist! I think that would have been hard to swallow.
Thanks for inviting us to participate… I’ll let you know if I get any ideas. Right now I’m as dry as… as… See? I’m not really much of a writer!
Just a stupid joking idea. How about re-scoring key scenes with totally inappropriate music? Blasphemy, I know, like I said, just a stupid joke…
Everybody had their share of shitty lines in this turkey. Moreover, the screenplay was designed to rape the Sharon/Kitty Winn character. A sympathetic figure in the original novel and movie, in Heretic she is a sick, twisted witch-like bitch (note her costuming when she leads Lamont into the empty MacNeil house) who can’t stand Regan. Boorman’s trashing of the character includes a gratuitous shot of her breasts, as well as her final incineration. Unlike the Sharon we knew from the original novel and film, Boorman’s surrogate character was an unpleasant, throw-away prop from the get-go.
Boorman – who is on record as despising The Exorcist – vented much of that hatred by turning Blatty’s and Friedkin’s likeable characters into grotesque caricatures. Boorman wrought his revenge on Blatty’s finely-drawn characters and themes: The dignified Merrin under Boorman’s direction gets his beating heart pulled out of his chest, and performs what can only be called a comic-opera cliff-scaling exorcism. The steadfast Karras has been replaced with the pathological, sweating, head-up-the-ass self-centered Lamont. Ellen Burstyn is replaced by mad scientist Louise Fletcher. Painful non-comic relief is supplied by Ned Beatty’s wasted part as “Ecumenical Edwards”. Vulnerable, innocent Regan becomes Queen Locust. More vomit-inducing Boorman touches could be added, but those listed are sufficient. I view this film as utterly without merit and unredeemable, regardless of ekm’s exegesis – an effort in great part justified by the film’s awful incoherence.
Good comments, MIKE. “Lord knows I try” – me, too, but every time I come to The Heretic with a fresh attitude, the ineptness of the script just collapses me into irritation and misplaced laughter.
Good point too about the difference between the two films, esp. that Dominion has so much more merit than its pale imitator The Beginning.
I agree about the locusts. There is nothing scary about grasshoppers unless you see them en masse eating your crops. But cinematically they are not frightening, not even monster ones such as those featured in The Beginning of the End(Peter Graves, Peggy Castle, early 50’s). Hyenas can sometimes at least have a canine-mammalian fright attached to them (but of course that element of fear was compromised by Dominion’s and Beginning’s bad CG).
