"Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it . . . "
In an archeological dig near the ancient city of Nineveh (the demolished capitol of Assyria by the way, Monty Python and the Holy Grail fans), the elderly Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) comes across an odd find: a christian medallion depicting Mary and the baby Jesus (odd considering the pre-christian location) and a greenish stone amulet bearing the bestial head of Pazuzu, a Mesopotamian demon. Apparently taking this as a sign that something evil has been unearthed, and the power of the church is required to fight it, he takes leave of the dig and plans a trip back to the United States.
Meanwhile, the successful actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is in the process of filming in and around Georgetown University when she begins to worry about the strange behavior of her twelve-year-old daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), who complains that she can't sleep at night due to her bed shaking. Taking her to doctor after doctor to determine what is the matter with her, Regan's condition worsens considerably, and she begins to use foul language and lash out violently at others. Then there's the matter of the things science can't seem to explain: strange noises in the attic, considerable poltergeist activity, and the horrible sense that there actually is someone- or something- inside of Regan.
Scientific explanations seemingly exhausted, Chris MacNeil turns to Father Damien Karras, a young priest and psychiatrist working at Georgetown University. She believes only an exorcism will save her daughter, but Karras- his own faith shaken by the terminal illness of his mother- may not be the right man for the job . . .
The Exorcist, based on the novel by the same name by William Peter Blatty, is an exquisite film. It's expertly written, paced, and filmed, and manages to continuously up the ante- hard to do when you have an antagonist as outrageous as the demon possessing Regan MacNeil, but for all of its over-the-top moments director William Friedkin really knows when to reign back and let the mood do the work for him. Some of my favorite scares are the brief flashes you get of "Captain Howdy", Regan's no-so-nice imaginary friend, or the shadowy projections of Pazuzu staring at us from the bedroom walls . . . though I still jump every time Chris decides to investigate the attic (Would anyone in their right mind do this? Even if you think it's rats? I mean, listen to them lady!)
Speaking of Pazuzu, I think it's really interesting that most people assume that this is a film about the roman-catholic church versus the devil, especially given the fact that the film itself seems to grimly suggest the absence of both powers. Ironically, the actual Pazuzu (an Assyrian and Babylonian pseudo-deity) protected children- although mostly from his own wife, the monstrous Lamashtu, a child-killer who was very similar to the Mesopotamian demoness Lilith, except that she didn't have a gynocentric music festival named after her.
There's some great, great performances in this film- especially from Linda Blair- but if you take the time to watch some of the "making of" documentaries about The Exorcist you might start to wonder if the real villain of this film is actually its sadistic director, William Friedkin. Besides subtly changing the ending of the novel in such a way that makes you wonder if the demon got what it wanted all along, there's the endless stories of his apparent abuse of the actors: instigating back injuries suffered by Blair and Burstyn and using their actual pained screams in the audio track, filming Regan's bedchamber inside of a freezer, firing guns off to get startled reaction shots from actors, and (my favorite) striking the actor playing Father Dyer (the Reverend William O'Malley) across the face in order to shake him up for an important scene. I've heard of method actors . . . but method directors?
Now that's really scary.
Check back tomorrow for #1!
No comments:
Post a Comment