The Exorcist (1973)
In light of my recent dissatisfaction with the box office smash hit horror movie "The Conjuring" I decided to go back to the source. The granddaddy of all exorcism movies: "The Exorcist".
Recently a number of films have tried to revisit this genre including: The Rite (seemingly promoting a rise in Catholic exorcisms under Pope Benedict), The Possession (involving a Jewish exorcist) and the tv series "Apparitions" (involving a quite liberal priest in a larger-than-life story written by an atheist who's done their research).
I considered including The Exorcist in a list of films involving a fear of children. However, I'm not sure this film fits on the list. The child is always posed very much as a victim. The religious view being that the child is subject to a demon possession. The sceptical position being that time kind of issue with the brain or psychological issue is causing her to act in a bizarre and hostile way.
The effects work to demonstrate the child's possession makes a more sceptical position seem more than a little ludicrous. I wonder whether the filmmakers didn't intend for the effects to be rather more subtle. Then again, when furniture starts sliding across the room the psychological explanation becomes especially daft.
In fact an occasion where a piece of furniture moves was one of two occasions where I laughed out loud. The other was when the words 'help me' appeared on the girl's body.
The contrast between the serious and intelligent discussion in this film and the ridiculous over-the-top possession effects is jarring and makes this feel like two different films stitched together. But of course, these ridiculous effects are original to this film and I cannot help but feel that "The Exorcist" is preferable to later films inspired by this film that manage to maintain a more consistent tone (being consistently ludicrous).
I think a lot of the character scenes and intelligent discussions are pretty good and there's a really good filing style, but I'll be honest, as much as I admire the pioneering possession effects, I do not really like those scenes. My dislike of ghost films comes in here. Once it is blatantly obvious that the girl is possessed by a demon, the question arises as to why it doesn't have anything more interesting to do with its telekinetic powers than slide furniture around, levitate the bed or open drawers. (It's like in John Dies At The End when he asks why you would use psychic powers just to scrounge beer at parties.) The demon is a character in its own right and I needed it to have a clearer motivation. When it is pretending to be a dead relative of the priest, for example, that's a very odd way to try to make him doubt his faith. I think this is why Joe Ahearne's "Apparitions" series is still my favourite portrayal of an exorcism, since it actually explores the motivations of the demons to make them more compelling villains.
One last negative point to bring up is the hysterical acting from the mother. It's clear from Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream" that Ellen Burstyn is an incredible actress, but the way she plays her character here is exasperating. Though I realise this is a rather more petty criticism, I was also rather annoyed by the possessed girl's screaming at times.
Overall the Exorcist is an interesting film and outside of the possession scenes there's a very interesting examination of faith and rationality. The possession scenes, while daft, are still pretty impressive, even now. But it should be noted that the scenes which squicked me out the most were the down-to-earth medical scenes involving some unpleasant procedures and some thoroughly terrifying machinery. "The Exorcist" is very much a product of its time with an unfortunate legacy, but it deserves special.credit that it still remains superior to its many imitators through the years.
C+