CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Thanks, cappy. It is interesting to hear this scene played in reverse.
“Fear the priest” and “He is a priest” are very different indeed. Below are pages from my script. While “Fear the priest” is the typed, it doesn’t mean script changes can’t occur in real time. For instance, on Page 98A., REGAN-DEMON’s scripted words are: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! It burns me! It burns! Ah, cease, priest, bastard! Cease! Ahhhhhhh! Obviously that was changed to: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, it’s burns! Ahhhhhhh, It burns! Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhhh …
The point: it could really be “Fear the priest” or “He is a priest” or “He’s a priest.” I have seen this written two ways and I think it’s up for interpretation, although Page 98A (below) gives us a clue that it is more than likely, “Fear the priest,” as written backward in line three in the second REGAN-DEMON scripted words: “Tseerpet reef.”
Enjoy the script pages I scanned below. I intentionally left out Page 100 because it serves no purpose in this thread. Click to enlarge:
From the video, The Exorcist: Speaking in Tongues:
01:02 – “I am no one.”
01:05 – “I am no one.”
01:07 – “Fear the priest.”
01:10 – “Merrin!”
01:12 – “Merrin …”
01:15 – “Give us time.”
01:17 – “Fear the priest.”
01:18 – “I see you!”
01:20 – “It is warm in the body.”
01:23 – “Let her die!”
01:25 – “Give us time.”Wonderful news to hear, grindhouse! Would you post the paper here so we all can have a look? I’m glad it worked out.
FB
Very interesting paper to write about, grindhouse! Would you be willing to share it with us once it’s completed?
Father Bowdern
Drexel, that scene certainly proves the power of excellent screen writing, directing, acting, and editing.
Again, I enjoy the film because Friedkin did not leave us guessing nor did he create an illusion of the never-ending horror film as so many others did and continue to do. Friedkin delivered a one-film tribute to the novel without the word “sequel” in mind. The other films stemming from the original are simply ripoffs desperately trying to make a tie to the masterpiece. Personally, I would never try to connect the other films back to the original and fulfilled concept.
It’s always interesting to read the interpretations of both the book and film by each individual … just as both Blatty and Friedkin intended.
To me this is one the greatest climactic scenes, kokumo. It is the climax to end all climaxes for a horror/drama film of it’s type. Of course, I can’t compare any other film to The Exorcist simply because of its uniqueness.
I enjoy the fact that Friedkin leaves us at this particular scene to think about how Kinderman was going to handle the explanation of the supernatural to his precinct. Would he choose a concrete-thinking approach or choose to be abstract in his paperwork? We don’t know, and I enjoy this ending.
It is for this particular reason that I believe TVYN is most faulty by connecting Fr. Dyer and Lt. Kinderman together to end the film. The intention may have been to play up a very vague continuity of the past relationship between Karras and Kinderman. However, Friedkin was insightful to end the film as he did in the original with Fr. Dyer looking down the steps leading to M Street where his colleague/friend plummeted to his death in order to save the child he just bid a farewell to seconds earlier.
Also, at 00:30, when played the intended way, I can hear the word “padre” and the words, “I am no one.”
Hey Cap,
Yep, twas me. I created it, so please feel free to use the material on the main page. Cap, I also have a link to my main page on Webshots in my name “fatherbowdern” for this and other The Exorcist film finds. They other ones are posted somewhere on your site as well.
Other:
Has anyone noticed at 00:57 that Karras seems to be saying, “The Omen,” when played in reverse? I was stuck on “The Old One” for a while, but both phrases make sense: “The Omen” of things to come; “The Old One” for the anticipation of the elderly Father Merrin.Other:
Can anyone else recall Mercedes McCambridge on The Mike Douglas Show when she did a “script reading” as the voice of the demon from The Exorcist? That particular reading included McCambridge speaking English in reverse, and this may may account for the fact that some of the reversed English, when reversed to forward, sounds backward.Have you ever wondered what the damned souls inside of Regan are saying in reversed English during the holy water scene? We only get partial playbacks in the university’s language lab as Karras reviews the tape.
Below is the full scene’s audio in two parts. Part 1 is the scene as it appears in the film; Part 2 is that same scene played in reverse. The backward audio, when played forward, often sounds like lines intentionally spoken in backward English. Lots of interesting finds in the masterpiece’s holy water scene.
Enjoy!
FB
