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“In the novel, Kinderman sees Karl’s silhouette. By changing it to _Regan’s_ silhouette, Friedkin introduced an unexpected, eerie and difficult to explain factor.”
Hi gran 🙂
Unfortunately I’m not able to post on imdb so I’m going to comment on this here.
In the novel, Kinderman visited Chris twice and Regan’s silhouette appeared the first time he visited her. Karl had been in the kitchen throughout Chris & Kinderman’s conversation, pretending to polish the oven. It doesn’t really make sense that he would go up to Regan’s bedroom and stand at the window just to take another look at Kinderman as he was leaving.
And the way that Blatty describes this excerpt suggests that it is indeed Regan’s figure that Kinderman sees. Regan is small and lithe whereas Karl is tall and thickly muscled.
 “When he had entered the passenger side of the squad car, Kinderman turned and looked back at the house. He thought he saw movement at Regan’s window, a quick, lithe figure flashing to the side and out of view. He wasn’t sure. He’d seen it peripherally as he’d turned. But he noted that the shutters were open. Odd. For a moment he waited. No one appeared. “
The second time Kinderman visited Chris he questioned her about seeing Regan at her bedroom window that day.
I think it has to be Karl, since Karl is the only character whom Blatty himself consistently describes as “quick and lithe”:
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“a quick, lithe figure” …
per your citation.
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The novel: Karl enters:
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“Catting in lithe through a door off the pantry.”
(Bantam paperback, 1974, 35th printing, p. 16)
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And I do think that Karl would instinctively want to watch the cop from upstairs, to make sure he was really leaving and not sticking around to entrap Karl. Karl is acting suspiciously because he does have something to hide from Kinderman 🙂
That's true, Blatty also described him as being lithe.. hmm..
Still, it makes more sense to me that it is Regan at the window rather than Karl. Would Kinderman really mistake a child for a grown, thickly muscled man?Â
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lithe/līT͟H/
Adjective: (esp. of a person’s body) Thin, supple, and graceful. Â
I always thought that lithe meant thin so I never for second believed it was Karl at the window. I guess this is open for interpretation then. You just can’t be sure either whether or not it is Karl. 😉 After all, Regan is lithe too.Â
“Would Kinderman really mistake a child for a grown, thickly muscled man? “
In the movie, it's clearly Regan.
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But in the novel, no mention is made of the size of the silhouette. Mention is only made of its motion, which is quick and lithe. In the novel, Blatty merely notes that Kinderman catches a glimpse of the silhouette. Blatty does not impute an interpretation to Kinderman, i.e., him thinking, “That must be Regan”. In fact, Chris has refused to let Kinderman see Regan because she is sedated and bed-ridden. So if Kinderman put an interpretation on the silhouette's identity, presumably his first thought would be of someone other than Regan.
“Blatty does not impute an interpretation to Kinderman, i.e., him thinking, “That must be Regan”
Yes he does. Kinderman tells Chris in his second visit that he thought he saw Regan at the window, not Karl. Also, a lithe figure, to me means that it's a physical description of the person's body. In the 40th anniversary edition of the novel the phrasing of that excerpt changed a bit and it actually sounds as if Kinderman sees something unhuman at the window. You can interpret it in any way you want, that's why the figure in the movie is Regan, Friedkin interpreted it like that. The idea of it being Karl never crossed my mind so I'm sorry to say that it isn't fair of you to state that for a fact. Perhaps we should ask Blatty about it? :)Â
“EDIT: (We know it's Karl because Karl is the only character that Blatty consistently describes as “lithe”: he introduces Karl as “catting in lithe through a door off the pantry” … and the silhouette Kinderman sees is also “lithe”.) “
I'm not understanding you, granville. You know that Regan is described as being lithe as well. Just because Karl was described as “catting in lithe through a door off the pantry” in that first introduction of him you assume he's the lithe figure at the window? It's the only time that Blatty mentioned the word “lithe” to describe something that Karl was doing anyway! Regan is also quick and lithe!
Seriously I find it hard to believe your insistence that it is Karl at the window for sure. Clearly Blatty's intention was to leave the reader in doubt about it. You can believe whatever you want just don't expect me to agree with you on this.
My insistence that it's Karl at the window “for sure” was based on forgetting a point of information that you just now supplied, i.e.:
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Kinderman tells Chris in his second visit that he thought he saw Regan at the window, not Karl
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That piece of crucial information does seem to imply that Kinderman thought he saw a smaller person than Karl at the window. Good catch. So now I am inclined to agree with you that both Karl and Regan are “lithe”, but that it was most likely that Regan's silhouette was seen, not Karl's 🙂
“My insistence that it's Karl at the window “for sure” was based on forgetting a point of information that you just now supplied, i.e.: “
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Uh-uh. I pointed out on my first post that Kinderman questioned Chris about having seen Regan at the window. You must have missed that!
Well, anyways, I agree with practically everything you write about The Exorcist and love to read your texts. It was just this particular subject that I couldn't agree with you.
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