The Exorcist

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“When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.”

With the rise of evangelical fear after the summer of 1969, a satanic panic emerged as Anton LaVey formalized the church of Satan and the Manson Family murders left the country clinging to worsening paranoia. In 1971, the publication of the Exorcist novel quickly led to this 1973 film adaptation. It also caused its own form of panic.

One of the things that fascinated me about this movie is that it is a Mesopotamian demon not frequently associated with Catholicism in any way. The beginning of the movie is actually opening to Iraq and people of Muslim faith around the priest.

Another thing that I found interesting was that with most possession style stories, they happen to poor, lower class families to establish that they would be weaker people. But here, it is the daughter of a movie actress who becomes afflicted, showing that the demonic doesn’t care if a soul has material wealth.

This movie also didn’t show some Satanist becoming possessed but rather a child. And that notion, especially in the 1970’s, terrified people.

Those things that go bump in the night can often be explained with rational investigation and I appreciated that this story shows a mother trying all logical routes first. But when that runs out, where do you go?

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT

When you watch the ending, you actually have to wonder whether the priest or the demon actually won. Yes, he got the demon out of the little girl, but his swan dive out the window gave the demon a life.

Or maybe it then went into someone else?