[granville1]

Sorry, I don't know the answer. The final shot is open to interpretation. I always thought that it represented the exchange of Fain's body with Karras'. After the (highly improbable) fatal shooting of Karras by Kinderman, we are seeing Karras' body finally laid to rest, as should have been done some twelve years earlier. I don't know its original order in the original, pre-studio tampering Legion film.

[granville1]

drexul said:

Granville, that was the most fascinating answer/theory I could have hoped for. Thank you!

 

==

drex, you are very welcome 🙂

[granville1]

Teddy Headspin,

 

In the novel, iirc, the Gemini kills Fain and puts him into Karras' coffin. Since everyone knew that Fane was the attendant, no one bothered to look inside the coffin, because it was simply a case of Fain disappearing, with no evidence that he had been murdered and put into Karras' coffin, i.e.,  they knew that Fain “went missing”, but they didn't know he had been murdered and put in the casket.

In the novel, Blatty explains that Fain had always been dissatisfied with life in the Order, and would frequently gripe about wanting to just walk out on the whole thing. He had family he could contact if need be. The Jesuits interpreted Fain's absence simply as his finally walking away from the Order. They had no suspicion that he had been murdered.

“…that the tragic death and subsequent resurrection of a priest would be kept on the QT for fifteen years…”

Sure, it's a stretch, but it's Blatty's stretch and I just accept it as part of the story. The Jebs thought they had buried Karras, while unknowingly burying Fain. Now all that had to happen was that Karras/Gemini/vengeful demon/Tommy Sunlight/Patient X remain incognito. “He was picked up wandering the C&O Canal.” That's all the data we are given about Karras-Vennamun's post-coffin break odyssey, other than that he was “catatonic”. An unknown face, an unknown person, catatonic, unkempt, is admitted into the hospital mental ward. Unless there were staff members on hand who would have recognized the physiognomy as Damien Karras' … then he could truly have remained incognito for all of those years. The Jesuits or parish priests would have no connection to the psych ward, except perhaps for occasional visits to fulfill the obligations of “visiting the sick” – but of course, this is not mentioned at all in Blatty's two Exorcist tales. Kinderman would not have been notified of Patient X because Kinderman is a homicide detective, not a lost-or-missing persons specialist. Fr. Dyer would not have any specific reason to sojourn to the psych ward where he could serendipitously meet Karras. So, there is a certain plausibility in Vennamun-Karras hiding out in the psych ward for a decade.

[granville1]

Good catch. Yes, it's been discussed. I can only offer my theory, which is:

During the credits, we hear Jason Miller telling us that he dreams of a rose and a fall down a long flight of stairs. But we find out that Jason Miller is playing two roles – Karras and the Gemini Killer. Therefore, the POV of the opening narration is ambiguous: it could be Karras, it could be the Gemini (why would Karras remember a rose?).

My notion is that the opening narration is a sort of febrile dream shared between the trapped Karras and the possessing Gemini. Karras would recall the stair-fall, the Gemini would certainly remember the black kid who is holding the rose, as the Gemini's first Georgetown victim.

Just as the narration may be a fever-dream, so too perhaps is the opening credits photography. In his dream, Karras is still the cassocked priest of the night of the MacNeil exorcism. This priest is not running in just any neighborhood: rather, he is running directly in front of the MacNeil house, and the landing of the Hitchcock Steps.

So perhaps this is Karras' repeated nightmare about that night. But it might also be part of the Gemini's dream.

The vengeful demon “inserts” the Gemini – along with Karras – back into Karras' body on the night of the exorcism. Therefore, the Gemini has a distinct memory of being placed inside the body of a bloody-cassocked priest. We know that, once in control of Karras' body, the Gemini broke out of the cheap coffin, scaring its attendant, Brother Fain, to death. Perhaps in his first fit of exuberant freedom from “the Void”, the Gemini, in Karras' body, ran mad through the neighborhood of the MacNeil house. If so, doubtless the trapped Karras would also be aware of this “mini-marathon” as well.

Blatty's suggestion of a running priest is very disturbing. What is a priest doing running in front of the MacNeil house/the Steps? What other priest besides Karras had a consistent connection to the house and the Steps? Thus, Blatty is insinuating that the priest has some deep connection to Karras, and may in some dark way actually be Karras. Hence my theory of a dream shared both by Karras and the Gemini, who both share the same body and who both have a profound connection to the MacNeil neighborhood.

[granville1]

Yes, if the writers and producers could keep faithful to Blatty's thematic material and atmosphere, it might work.

[granville1]

Thanks, M.I.K.E. 🙂

I'm afraid you're right, some kind of TV/cable TV enterprise might be next. Although I have to say – I'm just dreaming – that WPB might have one more Exorcist tale left in him, even if only a short story or a novella. Bring us back to Georgetown just one more time, Bill, scare us with the demon, inspire us with heroic priests…

[granville1]

Okay – thanks, Sof.

[granville1]

Thanks for the research = yeah, apparently Blatty consulted current medical knowledge when he introduced the Librium crisis.

[granville1]

After Burke badly misbehaves at Chris' dinner party, vilifies Karl and smashes a glass – rubbing his hands together:

“What's for dessert?”

[granville1]

Good question and I never quite “got” it. Maybe Sof can pitch in here – she knows the book by memory and may just have the perfect answer.

[granville1]

Thanks for the recommendation – maybe I'll obtain the book when $$ is sufficient …

[granville1]

Yeah, the email should work – let me know when you want any further info 🙂

[granville1]

MIKE, apparently I don't know how to PM. I opened your profile page, at the bottom is says send PM, but when I click I only get a cache of old items in my inbox.

 

IMDB PM seems to be working – if you are a member I can PM you using their service.

[granville1]

Hey MIKE, thanks very much for the flattering words 🙂

 

Yeah, I'm bastasch8647 of imdb infamy.

 

I would be equally flattered to have some of my ideas mentioned in your book.  I'll try (never done it before from here) to send you a PM.

 

Thanks again for all the kind words.

[granville1]

Paz –

Hate to go stupid on you, but the “Fr. Karras edition” is unknown to me. You say it's mentioned here on Howdy? If so, it got right by me. Is it a specially edited version of EX III LEGION or what? Or is it a revision novel by Blatty?

I just now poked around here and don't see a reference to it – can you direct me to where you saw it?

At any rate, it's news to me. Sorry I don't have any info for you.

[Author]

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