Catholic propaganda goes for the jugular

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2014)

Despite its thinly veiled misogyny and blatant stance as Catholic propaganda, few films can match the pop-culture clout of William Friedkin's 1973 tales of demonic possession, 'The Exorcist'. This especially holds true for horror movies which are usually seen by critics and the public as puerile and adolescent fantasies which are beneath them, so the level of cultural hysteria 'The Exorcist' was able to achieve – with paramedics and priests waiting in the aisles as people fainted, vomited, and claimed to be possessed as a result of watching the film – seems absurdly ridiculous in retrospect and deserves all the more respect for it.
Based on Jesuit-schooled William Peter Blatty's best-selling 1971 novel, 'The Exorcist' tells the story of Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) as she is possessed by the malevolent Babylonian demon Pazuzu and the subsequent attempt to exorcise the demon by seasoned exorcist Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Father Damien Karras, a young priest struggling to retain his faith in the face of his mother's illness and death. Scene set and seatbelts buckled, we then go on a visceral roller-coaster ride of profanity and blasphemy the likes of which only the truly religious (i.e. repressed) can create as the demon has Regan openly urinate on the carpet during a shindig held by her mother, violently stab her vagina with a metal crucifix while shouting "let Jesus f**k you", projectile vomit onto Father Karras, as well as turn her head 180 degrees and run down the stairs bent over backwards – all of which have entered the pop-culture lexicon and are known by many people who have not actually seen the movie.
Yes, that's all very well and goodbut, is it scary? Short answer: at the time, "yes", now "no", but neither is the point.
Long answer: prior to 'The Exorcist (apart from the other horror-movie cultural phenomenon 'Rosemary's Baby' from 1968) the majority of horror movies had been Gothic inspired pieces set in far-away places or at some unspecified time in the past. However, in locating the action in modern-day Georgetown and the victim being possessed through a Ouija board (still then a common board-game available from toy shops) 'The Exorcist' brought horror home in a manner as alarming as it was domestic. Furthermore, at the time, America was still in the midst of the unprecedented social instability of the civil rights movement which challenged all forms of authority and repression, including male domination and the church, and the demon's brutal habitation of a young girl could be seen to represent the effects of such an upheaval of unbelief and taps into the collective reserves of atheist as well as Catholic guilt.
As such, the film's conservative bias is visible; what's more, the misogyny of the film is seen in its suggestion that Regan's mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), is implicated in the fate of her daughter by being a divorcée with no religious belief and its assertion that grandiose metaphysical evil manifests through pubescent girls on the cusp of developing a libido. In retrospect, this medieval Judeo-Christian demonization of female sexuality is far more disturbing than the film itself. Still, there's no denying it struck a chord and the film was refused a video release in the UK by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) until 1999.
Which brings us to today; where society has become even more secular and in cinema Video-Nasties have come and gone and even torture porn is passéand the "horror" of "the scariest film of all time" just doesn't hold up. As a result, while it still has the power to slightly chill, people coming to the movie having with the hype ringing in their ears are almost guaranteed to be disappointedas was I when I saw it in 1999. However, despite the reduced fear factor and the religious, moral, and sexual conservatism, it's a film I have found rewarding in re-watching; mainly due to the performance of Jason Millar as Karras. In keeping with director William Friedkin's desire to have the movie be more "docu-drama" than fiction and only cast actors who had had a Catholic education, Millar had studied to be a Jesuit priest and lends a poignant authenticity to the character as he struggles with his own religious doubt.
All told, while I find the film morally objectionable on several fronts and not actually that scary, the conviction the cast bring to the film (Burstyn got a Best Supporting Actress nomination), the palpable sense of transgression, and the core of the film coming from the pen of a man wrestling with his own religious doubts, contribute to the film's rightful position as a classic of the genre.