CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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I would like to see a collage of views of Blatty’s work. Included might be an examination of his “Angel” theory (which he got from a friend) in Legion. In some ways it resembles a kind of Gnostic creation myth and it resonates with some of the Merrin stuff from the first novel…
I think the novel supports Howdy’s attractiveness – initially, that is. After all, he is a surrogate Dad for Regan. He wins her trust before he torments her. Regan is shocked when the attractive, friendly Howdy changes into her nemesis. If he had first appeared to her as ugly and evil, his initial “seduction” (or invasion, or infestation) would have failed. Blatty shows the demon as insidiously insinuating himself into Regan’s consciousness, the first stage of which is via his ouija board communications. Regan perceived these as interesting and friendly.
The movie could be seen to support Howdy’s demonic hideousness, but this is based on a huge “IF”: namely, is the white-faced figure really Howdy? Or is it just a manifestation of Pazuzu’s living character (as opposed to his humanly-interpreted statue as seen in Iraq)?
The film never tags Captain Howdy with any explicit visual identifiers. TVYNS does show Regan seeing the white-faced demon in the doctor’s office, but again, this is never explicitly identified with Howdy or any other specific character, demonic or otherwise. The audience is left to put Howdy together with the white-faced demon – or not.
Yeah, that there is only one holds true for the original novel. But then Blatty modified that concept in Legion: the demon was controlling Venamun’s spirit, inserting him into Karras’s re-animated body. And there’s also the good twin “backstage” with whom the Gemini is in sporadic spiritual contact. Therefore, viewing Blatty’s demonology as a whole, it seems that he thinks that there can, after all, be more than one possessing entity within, or at least manipulating, a single victim.
Keep ’em coming! You are an endless source of great horror stuff and you help to keep this group informed and entertained.
Of course we’re interested! Thanks for sharing your blog, Blizzi. And I was impressed that you included a Lovecraft-archive site – he’s always been one of my very favorite horror writers.
(Sorry for taking up the bandwidth… now the first post has reappeared, along with two others that were meant to remedy that… I don’t know what’s going on here…)
