- Director: William Friedkin
- Writers: William Peter Blatty
- Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3vz7ddT
Synopsis
We start with an archeological dig in northern Iraq. A boy goes to find Father Merrin; they’ve found something small; lamps, arrowheads, coins, and an ugly little demon headed figurine. A little later, we see him take heart medication; he’s pretty old. He’s also leaving the dig soon. He goes out to another site and sees a much larger version of the same statue he dug up earlier.
Meanwhile, in Georgetown, Chris MacNeil hears strange noises in the attic. She checks on her sleeping daughter, Regan. Chris is an actress working on a movie, and we see that Father Karras is in the audience watching them film.
Father Damien Karras goes to visit his old mother. He wants her to go to a retirement home, but she’s old school and not having any of it. He talks to a superior, and he wants a transfer. He’s a psychiatrist, but he’s lost his faith.
Regan explains that she’s been playing with the Ouija board with her imaginary friend, Captain Howdy. That night she complains that her bed is shaking, so she sleeps in her mother’s room. Chris hears rustling in the attic again, but when she goes up there, she doesn’t see anything. The next day, Regan goes to the doctor for some tests, and she starts acting strange. The doctor calls it “a disorder of the nerves.” He prescribes Ritalin.
Father Karras’s mother has a stroke, but he can’t afford a private hospital. If he hadn’t chosen to be a priest he’d have been a highly-paid psychiatrist by now, so there’s some more regret. We heard later that his mother died alone and it took a couple of days before anyone found her.
Regan has a few more strange behavioral incidents, and then Chris sees Regan’s bed shaking. That ain’t normal! The doctor thinks it’s a lesion on her brain so they do surgery to remove it. Turns out there’s nothing on the X-rays at all. He goes to visit them at home, and things get a little carried away.
Burke, the movie’s director falls down the steps outside and dies. When Chris gets the news, she sees Regan crawl down the stairs backwards. Finally, they bring in a psychiatrist who hypnotists Regan. That goes badly. The doctors decide it’s “somnambular possession.” They suggest that just maybe they should bring in a priest for an exorcism.
Detective Kinderman, investigating Burke’s death, goes to see Father Karras. Karras once did a paper on the psychiatric aspect of witchcraft. Burke was found with his head completely turned around backwards. Kinderman thinks maybe the murder and the recent church desecrations may be connected. Kinderman goes to see Chris; the stairs he fell down were right outside Regan’s bedroom. He thinks Burke was murdered and pushed out the window to his death.
As soon as Kinderman leaves, Regan goes ballistic. She turns her head around backwards and does the infamous cross-masturbation scene. Chris contacts Father Karras and asks about an exorcism. He goes to see Regan, and she’s a nasty looking thing by this point. Karras goes all psychiatrist on her, refusing to believe an exorcism is the right thing to do. He records Regan talking backwards, and the name ‘Merrin’ is repeated several times on the tape.
He changes his mind after more evidence and asks the church to do the exorcism. They decide to bring in an experienced priest to do the ritual. Father Merrin has returned, and he might be available. Merrin’s got experience from an exorcism he did ten or twelve years ago, and it lasted months. Merrin agrees to try.
Merrin warns that the demon’s attack will be psychological and he plays dirty. The two priests go into the bedroom. They do battle as they try to cast out the demon, but it puts up a fight and beats them both up pretty badly. They stop for a break; Merrin takes more heart medication while Karras goes back inside and has guilt-induced visions of his mother. Merrin continues alone, and when Karras comes back to check on him, Merrin is dead.
Karras gets angry and starts punching on the demon. “Come into me!” He insists— and the demon does take him. Then Karras gets ahold of himself and jumps out the window and down all those steps to his death. Regan, on the other hand, seems fine now. A few days later, Chris, Regan and the servants pack up and move away. Regan doesn’t remember any of it.
Commentary
Max Von Sydow was only 44 when this was filmed, but his old age makeup is impeccable. He was actually only ten years older than Jason Miller, the actor who played Karras. The real-world settings of Iraq looked great. Linda Blair was thirteen at the time, and her performance as the demon was just amazing. Lee J. Cobb has to be the one of the most friendly detectives of all. The soundtrack alone was hugely influential.
The actual exorcism takes up about twenty minutes of the last half hour of the film, but seems like a lot longer— it is very intense.
I’d forgotten how much slow build up there is in this film. It’s definitely a well-paced slow burn to get the the good parts, but it all pays off in the end. The makeup and other special effects all hold up really well.
This is easily one of the most influential horror films of all times, and many would say the best of all time.