CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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First, I’d get rid of that terrible score. Maybe use existing pieces like Friedkin did in the original.
Second, get someone that actually sounds like the Pazuzu voice.
Third, I would completely remove the entire ending.
Other than that, for me anyway, the rest of the film is watchable.
I do really like the african boy’s exorcism scenes… powerful. The scenes are more accurate with the original than the two prequels. You know the whole “almost killed him/lasted a month” sort of thing.Was that the one with the “green” border?
I saw it at a local Blockbuster a few years back.
Damn, I should’ve nicked it!I wouldn’t mind the inclusion of the isolated audio track of the “real” exorcism of the boy that the Vatican sent Friedkin.
Also, maybe we could get the DVD company The Criterion Collection involved. They have exhaustive versions of “Brazil”, “Naked Lunch”, among others.
I wish Dave would consider rivising his treatment. It is truly original and is certainly ambitious. And it would be a shame to totally abandon certain elements of his story.
I think he’s now beyond reasoning with, poor guy.
The demons may also be in a state of agony and ecstasy, much like some Catholic paintings of the martyrs.
It’s fun to note that the bigwigs at Warner Bros. were puzzeled by this sequence. They wondered about its real importance and inclusion in the final film!
Something to consider…
When demons encounter children, they obviously have to appeal to that child (think of Jodie the pig in The Amityville Horror). It had to appeal to the little girl.
In the 1949 case the demons appeared to Robbie as his recently deceased Aunt Harriet.
Friedkin himself says in the audio commentary that Howdy appears as sort of a “clown-like” figure to Reagan.
In many of the documented cases of possession the victim, before being full blown possessed, is often visited by a mysterious new person that they cannot seem to resist.
They have to decieve to be accepted into the child’s world in order to fully possess them. Much like their master Lucifer who is an angel of “light” not darkness.
Right Ben,
As an interesting side note to futher support the multiple demon problem; one of the phases of diabolical possession is what the Vatican calls “infestation.”
Webster’s defines infest or infestation as:
“1. to overrun in large numbers, usually so as to be harmful 2. to be parasitic in or on.”Why demons choose to usually possess in large numbers is unknown.
Perhaps Pazuzu is the head or mouthpiece of this legion of demons.
There are many demons in Reagan. Who knows? It may be one of ’em taking a stroll!
Ever notice there’s no commentery on this particular scene? Friedkin, Blatty, and Kermode have said nothing.If you consider “Legion: Exorcist III” official Exorcist cannon, the Gemini Killer explains to Kinderman how his soul entered Karras at the moment of Karras’s death.
“…(sic) certain parties were expelled…certain parties were not pleased…”
In the Exorcist, after Karras sprinkles the unblessed holy water onto Reagan, the demons cry out:
“GIVE US TIME…let her die!”
And before:
“…in here, with us…”
As for Merrin’s comment, he may be referring to the group of demons as one whole, a one minded operating unit if you will.
Also, I’ve always considered Merrin’s statement to be his response to the young, doubting, faith losing, Harvard grad, psychiatric priest’s view and scientific approach to Reagan’s multiple personality disorder.
Also, the very concept of “Legion: for we are many” is so prevalent within the films, novels, the Bible, and Blatty himself.
