HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019: The Exorcist (1973)

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Today our sponsor is Horror Royalty Kelli Maroney!  Perhaps best known for rocking a cheerleader uniform and some automatic weaponry in 1984's Night of The Comet, she’s also been in such fondly remembered flicks as Chopping Mall, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Zero Boys.  She’s still working--Exorcism at 60,000 Feet is out now, featuring a veritable murderer’s row of Horror Celebrities as well as Kelli.  Please go to her website for news of future projects, appearances and signed merchandise!

Not surprisingly given the film she just completed, Kelli chose 1973‘s The Exorcist, the classic film that practically created an entire horror subgenre.  It’s also had a reputation as ‘the scariest movie of all time,’ even though younger fans might not understand why.

Well, let me sit down on my Old Man Porch and try to explain.

There was a sea change going on horror cinema in the late 60‘s and early 70‘s, as sensibilities moved away from the stylized gothic that dominated as far back as the 20‘s and stepped more into a modern day, realistic approach.  And The Exorcist is a prime example of why this newer approach could work so well.  William Friedkin, who I praised in the past, started out his career as a documentarian...and this film feels a lot like a documentary.  The choice he makes to emphasize not Regan (Linda Blair) but her mother (Ellen Burstyn, perhaps the biggest name in the cast circa 1973) as she struggles to figure out what the Hell is going on and what she can do to cure her child, becoming more and more frazzled and desperate as she tries literally everything before turning to Father Karras (Jason Miller, who has one of the greatest hang-dog haunted faces in movie history) and requesting an exorcism anchors the story in reality.  And it’s that reality, the way it plays out as some sort of weird procedural, that makes it particularly scary to that generation.

I’m going to be honest with you...the scariest sequence for me is the one where Regan goes through a series of medical tests.  Sure, the scenes we all know and love are still effective--this film would not be as well regarded without the exceptional make-up effects of one Dick Smith--but there’s something primal about that sequence that taps into a commonality we all have.  And I think the reason Regan’s transformed face is so effective is that its a face that you can imagine how it happened; as Jay pointed out over at Red Letter Media, the wounds covering her face could be from her using the crucifix to mutilate herself.  This is a film that makes very deliberate choices in shoring up that this happens in the real world.

I should mention that the version I saw was the ‘director’s cut’ that was released to theaters in the ‘00s, and I think the film suffers for it.  The spider walk is a great special effect, but it actually detracts from the sense of reality--as does those ham-fisted ‘subliminal’ flashes of the demon (it’s not named, so I refuse to acknowledge that ‘Pazuzu’ nonsense), which quite frankly are laughable. 

The reason I think this film doesn’t work for a certain percentage of today’s horror fan (and here’s where I stand up on my Old Man Porch and start Yelling At Clouds) is that the film language for casual horror fans has...well, I hate to say ‘evolved,’ as that implies its a natural transformation.  There’s now a faster editing style, a greater emphasis on jump scares and special effects, a tendency to equate ‘horror’ with grotesque things happening to people, a film score that holds our hand and lets us know when to be scared.   I can see casual fans of today squirming at a film like this.  After all, The Exorcist has long, leisurely cuts (in many cases, Freidkin chooses to follow a character from one scene to the next rather than just going from point A to point B instantly), almost no score (Hell, the quietness of many of the scenes makes them scarier), and no scares except for a flaming candle for about an hour.  Add into that the film’s rep as ‘the scariest film ever,’ and I can imagine them being not only let down by the film but actually resenting it.

The Exorcist is not ‘thrill ride’ scary; it’s creepy and uncomfortable, insinuating itself into your brain.  It doesn’t have a clear ending where good triumphs over ever--hell, the victory is Pyhrric at best, as it took two good men, including one we’ve grown to like and have affection for, dying to free Regan.  It challenges you and makes you come to a conclusion on your own. It doesn’t wrap its evil up in a way that protects us from thinking about it.  And it’s kind of sad that potential new fans aren’t willing to approach it in the context in which it works so. Damn. Well.

I don’t think I have to say I recommend it.  It’s a prime example of horror in the 70‘s and of a great director at his best.  I will even go so far as to say it’s required viewing.

Tomorrow’s sponsor are old friends of the Halloween Horrorfest--last year I even dubbed them the yearly festival’s Queens.  I speak of course of the writer/director team of Jen and Sylvia Soska.  The Great and Terrible Ones have chosen a more current film than we’ve seen so far on the Horrorfest, Bliss, the indie feature directed by Joe Begos about a painter with a killer case of creative block...and what she’ll do to finish her masterpiece.

If you want to join the Soskas, Kelli Maroney, Greg Lamberson, and other great Horror Luminaries in getting me to watch a movie of your own choice during the Halloween Horrorfest, please consider joining the Domicile of Dread Patreon at the $3 Tier or greater.  Each new patron gets a free slot in this Gauntlet of Ghoulishness!  There are still eight open slots, so act fast!