Review: The Exorcist

I’ve watched The Exorcist a number of times in the eight or so years since I first saw it, it’s become a firm favourite and a constant addition to my Halloween viewings. I actually already have a review for it that I wrote in my early days of reviewing, but for 2020 I got the opportunity to see The Exorcist in the cinemas so I figured I’d give the review another shot to fully explain why I love the film even 40 years after its initial release.

Set in Georgetown near Washington D.C., the film follows single mother and semi-famous actress Chris MacNeil who is living in the area with her 12 year old daughter Regan while she shoots a movie on one of the university campuses. While there Regan begins to exhibit unusual mood swings and volatile behaviour, at first Chris and the doctors believe it’s adolescent mood swings brought about by the change of scenery and the separation of her parents, but Chris becomes concerned when Regan’s behaviour become impossible and partially demonic.

At the same time, priest and psychiatrist Damian Karras is struggling to hold onto his faith after facing one too many problems, an issue not helped by the recent death of his mother. After several doctors and psychiatrists can’t help her, Chris visits Karras in the hopes that he can put her on the track towards an exorcism since she’s out of options for what’s wrong with her daughter. Karras is initially sceptical but upon seeing Regan he realises that he needs to find his faith again in order to save this little girl.

This is a very slow burning film, slower than I remembered actually, but it works for this type of film, you can tell that Friedkin is working hard to fit an exorcism into a modern day society which is why so much of the film is about Chris going to see doctors and psychiatrists, putting Regan through several uncomfortable procedures trying to work out what’s wrong with her and the frustration she feels when they can’t tell her. Had they just gone immediately to exorcism the film would miss out on it’s key themes, namely Chris’ motherly love for her daughter and her attempts to help her anyway she can and Karras’ crisis of faith which puts him at odds with the impossible situation Regan is being tormented with.

The slow burn also allows for a mysterious element to be put into play, we know due to the history of the film that there is a demonic presence but the film paints it a little more ambiguously at first, there’s points at the start where Regan’s aberrations could be psychological, her foul language and personality change little more than her just being a goddamn teenager. But it’s as the film goes, even including a murder investigation of Chris’ director friend Burke Dennings who was in Regan’s room before he died on the steps outside, that it becomes harder to ignore, we’re on Chris side wanting Regan to be healed but not knowing how that can even happen.

Acting is strong throughout the film with even smaller roles making their mark, people like Karras’ friend and fellow priest Joseph Dyer bringing some much needed kindness into the film and investigating detective Lt. Kinderman having his own strange murder mystery movie going on in the background. This is definitely a movie with no small parts and you can feel the presence of everyone after they’ve done their scenes and left the film for good, hell even drunken director Burke comes back from beyond the grave at one point.

Max Von Sydow – in his permanently old stature – plays the titular Exorcist as Father Merrin despite only coming in at the beginning and the end of the film. But Merrin still makes an impact in his time, especially once he arrives to perform the exorcism, we can clearly see that Merrin is too old for this shit, he’s got a bad heart and he can’t move without shaking, but in his element with the Lord on his side, Merrin is the shit. Sydow mixes the Holy Fury of a Baptist preacher with the unwavering stillness of a buddist monk to make us believe that Merrin is the best man for this job and he can deliver, it’s a small role but one that stands out for good reason.

The other priest at the heart of this story is Damian Karras, played by Jason Miller, for the longest time Karras isn’t part of Chris and Regan’s story, instead suffering his own trauma, his crisis of faith is preventing him from doing his job and he wishes to be reassigned so he can be closer to his elderly mother. After she dies, the guilt Karras feels over not being with her shakes him even more and he struggles to find meaning in his career anymore. Miller has this great tortured expression about him, he doesn’t self-destruct as Karras, instead making his fall more subtle than that, the way he’ll pause during a sermon or how he’ll turn away from what’s expected of him. You can tell Karras is a troubled man even before the film starts and it just gets worse for him from there on out, in fact when Chris approaches him he only offers a psychiatrist and not a priest because he doesn’t believe anymore. Miller’s soft-spoken way with Karras and his subtle acting might not sound like much but he does a whole lot with very little and it translates well across the screen.

Far and away though, this film belongs to Chris and Regan MacNeil as the mother and daughter caught in something they don’t understand. 12 year old Linda Blair as Regan is just so instantly adorable that you can hardly believe it’s the teenaged actress being possessed later on. This is a brave role for anyone to pull off, let alone a 12 year old, but Blair manages to showcase Regan’s slow decay extremely well and handles the adult themes better than anyone would’ve thought, being able to go from terrified little girl to foul-mouthed demonic creature without any hesitation. There’s a reason why Regan has been remembered all these years and Blair’s performance is a big reason why.

Her mother Chris, played by Ellen Burstyn, is just as important since she’s arguably the main character of the film, we’re with her for longer than anyone, she’s as confused by her daughters actions as we are and she’s the easiest to sympathise with since she’s being jerked around by the doctors who can’t give her a straight answer. What Burstyn does well is that she shows Chris to be a good but not a perfect mother, she’s raising Regan alone – with help from her in-house staff – and they clearly have a loving relationship but Chris does have moments of anger, particularly when it comes to her ex-husband. She plays Chris realistically, not perfect but doing her best and when her best isn’t helping Regan recover she goes on desperate warpath to find anything and everything that can help her. Honestly, Burstyn’s cries of horror are just as iconic to this film as its soundtrack, she wails with the best of them and you can just feel the anguish in her voice, part of me wishes she had a bigger part to play in the final act given how important she was to the rest of the film.

Coming off his Oscar win for The French Connection, William Friedkin touch on horror set the stage for the next 40 years, I’ll admit that time and technology has taken away from the scare factor and it doesn’t have the same effect as it did back then but that doesn’t take away from the legacy this film left behind. For one thing it’s still quite unsettling to witness, Regan’s decaying face is iconic in its own right and still a sight to behold, thanks to Blair’s acting and Friedkins’ unfaltering direction we watch her writhe and twist in pain whenever Karras or Merrin try to help her. There’s also the infamous crucifix scene which still gets a reaction even now, the sound design which has about three of four impossible voices screaming out of Regan at any one time to really disorient you, and for as much as its been parodied, the actual exorcism with the head twisting, bed shaking and Christ power compelling is still an incredible piece of cinema to witness where you can feel Karras and Merrin giving their all to save Regan’s soul and how much it takes out of them.

Ironically the most disturbing scene of the film isn’t anything demonic, it’s actually the medical exams Regan goes through to find out what’s wrong with her with a lot of needles, blood and loud noises to really make you feel how uncomfortable she is in this situation. It hits harder because you can recognise these are real procedures and it’s easier to put yourself in Regan’s shoes.

Friedkin also uses the slow burn of the story to his advantage to create a creeping atmosphere that drapes itself over the film and refuses to let go, this is particularly true about the murder of Burke, we as the audience can figure out what happened between him and Regan but it’s that slowly realising horror for Chris to realise the truth that makes it so effective. The film might be lacking in scares but it has this amazing combination of chills and shock, Friedkin builds up the unease, letting Regan’s possession put you on edge before hitting you with something violent and often disgusting, i.e., the pea soup vomit scene. It might not sound like much – hell reading it back it sounds like a Scary Movie sketch – but it’s honestly very effective at putting the audience into the right state of horror, so much of the film is this slow burning destruction of a teenage girls soul that when Friedkin hits you with the violence it shocks you and leaves you thinking that it can’t get any worse, but it can, and it does.

To completely go against what I said at the start, it’s difficult to really explain why The Exorcist works so well, on paper the slow burn, character driven, ambiguous plot where they spend most of the time trying to convince Chris that there’s nothing demonic going on might sound like an exercise in futility. But in practise it works, clearly given the legacy of the film, it uses its time wisely to put you into the hearts of these characters, a desperate mother, a terrified daughter, a struggling priest, and it covers every avenue of medical and psychology to make you understand just how desperate Chris is to turn to religion after science fails her. Burstyn, Blair and Miller do some career best work all around as the three souls bound by this event and Friedkin’s methodical, chilling and shocking direction all brings it together in the best way possible.

9/10