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Some people on imdb keep thinking that Burke was molesting Regan!

 

Well, if he was, he certainly paid for it.

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Because crass marketing works better than subtle marketing, I should think.

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Bad Locust, right there with you!  I just finished the novel for the first time.

 

Yes, I share your annoyance that ideas like tele/psychokinesis and telepathy were considered to be part of the “rational, proven, scientific fact” side of Blatty's calculus while all the occult stuff was on the other side.  But this was indeed a product of its time.  During this time you had a lot of pseudoscience posing as real science in popular culture— “In Search Of” hosted by Leonard Nimoy (lending his logical veneer to the charade) comes to mind.  A children's show called “The Tomorrow People” became popular in the 1970s, which posited that the next stage of human evolution would weild powers like telepathy and telekinesis.  It was definitely something in the air around that time.

 

Of course, by now we know that all these paranormal “scientific” claims had no validity at all.

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This is something that occurred to me too.  I just finished the novel for the first time.

 

Remember
that Blatty intentionally alerts us to anagrams in the novel.  I think
there are a few at work regarding people's names.

 

Regan:
it's an exact anagram of 'anger'.  It also contains “rage,” and that's a
word that Blatty uses often in conjunction with the demon.

 

Lankester—
a caster-out of devils.  Also, the first syllables of Lankester Merran
form “La Mer,” French for “the sea.”  Also a famous piece of classical
music by Debussy.  I have no idea if that's relevant.

 

Karras— a phonetic anagram of sacre, the French word for rite or ritual.  D. Karras, a phonetic anagram of “sacred.”

 

Chris MacNeil— kneel (before) Christ.

 

Blatty also likes to play games with words I noticed, which is a delight. For instance, when Father Merrin first arrives at the house:

 

“As she turned around to face him, she saw him standing with his head angled sideways, glancing upward, as if he were listening— no, more like feeling; she thought— for some presence out of sight… some distant vibration that was known and familiar.  Puzzled, she watched him.”

 

The first time I read this, the word “Puzzled” just leapt out at me because it's not what I thought it said at first.  With the capital “P,” a “u” and two “z”s, I thought it said something else entirely.  Now that is a master stroke of subtlety.  I notice that he employs this technique quite a lot— substituting a more ordinary word for a contextually loaded word.  I can't think of other examples off the top of my head but I noticed it a lot as I was reading it.

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I dunno.  I kind of like my idea.  Regan's already had her spirit invaded and the spirit is plotting, influencing her to ask her mother to bring Dennings around.

 

I think Captain Howdy is around as early as Sharon's trip to the park.  I think Captain Howdy might have had something to do with the man with the horse, using something little girls universally love to seduce and gain access to Regan.  My reading, then, would mean there is no point in the movie from her first appearance where Regan is not under the spell of the demon; it just becomes gradually less subtle. 

 

I realize this is debatable, but that's half the fun.  This one movie has so many things worth talking about.

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drexul said:

 Also, as a Chatholic, being scared of demonic possession is not the same as being scared of a were wolf. One is an integral part of your religious upbringing, and the other is a fictional creature.

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They're both fictional creatures, and I hope someday you'll see that.

 

(I apologize for the double post.)

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drexul said:

Hi everyone ,

My theory on why the Exorcist doesn't seem to have the same effect on younger generations today comes from my own limited experiences at work. I am 42 and most of the staff I work with are in their early to mid 20s. The majority of them consider themselves atheists or agnostics. Most of them don't believe in anything spiritual or paranormal. I won't even go into how troubling I find this…I grew up Catholic, which of course made the Exorcist far more frightening for me. My personal opinion is that if you don't believe in God or the Devil, this movie will have little effect in you.

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You find it troubling that people don't believe in things for which there is no evidence?  I think it's wonderful when people abandon superstition and turn to reason.  Go read Carl Sagan's “Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.”  His manifesto says it better than I ever could, as to why belief in new age crap, junk science, alternative (viz., junk) medicine, alien abductions and all other sorts of woo-woo nonsense threatens to plunge us back into the dark ages.  I don't know if you noticed, but The Exorcist is actually a work of fiction.  The effect the movie has on one is contingent on one's willing suspension of disbelief, and nothing else.
 

I am one of those atheists or agnostics about whom you complain.  The find The Exorcist very affecting.  But the reason I do (as I explained in another rather lengthy thread) is because it does what all good sci fi/horror/fantasy/speculative fiction/genre fiction is supposed to do: it only uses the supernatural/implausible as a frame to disorient us so that we can look at familiar, real-life issues in unfamiliar ways.

 

The Exorcist ultimately is not about the supernatural per se.  It's about immutable aspects of the human condition in real life.  It's about poverty, faith (which is to say, whether or not people have it and to what degree), parent-child relationships (not being there for your child, not being there for your elderly parent), child abuse, elder abuse, sexual repression, sexual taboos, self-doubt, courage, hope, innocence and the inevitable loss of innocence.  None of these things require a belief in the supernatural to be of interest.

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So the scene in the movie in Regan's bedroom where Regan is matchmaking and encouraging her mother to bring Dennings around is only because she's already planning to kill him?

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Does Regan resent Burke in the story?  I hadn't sensed that.

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epicwin123 said:

I was thinking about this again today, and thought of the Willowbrook State School on Staten Isalnd, NY. I just remembered seeing a program about the building, and history. But to the point, there was this one part that showed Geraldo Rivera doing some investigation on the place, and it was terrifying. (It was a clip from '72) It was all these mental people in horrid conditions. It really is just awful to think about.

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Once upon a time Geraldo Rivera was a respectable hard-hitting investigative journalist.  Where does the time go?

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By the way, has anybody here ever seen Titicut Follies?  Like The Exorcist it's a classic piece of film; like The Exorcist it's really disturbing; like The Exorcist it features scenes of really demented people and really indifferent mental health practitioners; and like The Exorcist, it's been banned in a lot of places.  Unlike The Exorcist, though, it's a real-life documentary, which, on the whole, makes it actually more disturbing than The Exorcist.  And that's no small feat for a film.

 

Significantly, I saw it while studying in England— it was still banned in the U.S.— and only saw it once, and once was enough.  Long after it was made, the ban on it here in the U.S. was lifted and it was finally shown on PBS.  But it's hardly a mainstay.  It's not on youtube, either.  The filmmaker, understandably, wants to get paid, and he goes after copyright infringers.  You can order it expensively as an educational film; otherwise, forget it.

 

Here's an interview with the director:

http://www.viceland.com/int/v1…..cs/doc.php

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Well, thanks for saying so.  I'm a bit of a smart a$$ too.  Captain Howdy brings it out in me.

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Oh, I completely agree with that.  Would that there could be a Phantom Edit of TVYNS— we keep the stuff that actually enhances the storytelling, and throw out the silly crap.

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