...shocking, sometimes outrageous, and certainly profane, so be forewarned. It is not for children. It is also quite chilling.
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She swears. She levitates her bed. She spews green vomit. No, it´s not Sandra Bernhard, or even Howard Stern in drag. It´s little Regan, the twelve-year-old girl possessed by the Devil in the horror classic, "The Exorcist."
If you haven´t already bought the film on Warner´s earlier, regular-edition DVD, this new Twenty-fifth Anniversary Special Edition is so chockfull of extra goodies, it´s hard to resist. If you already own the film on the older DVD, you may want to buy the Special Edition, anyway. You can always say the Devil made you do it.
The story is a based on the bestseller by William Peter Blatty, who in turn found his inspiration from a newspaper article about a real-life exorcism. Under the direction of William Friedkin, the movie account of young Regan´s demonic possession is probably a lot scarier than the actual experience, as it should be in a work largely of imaginative fiction. But it´s that element of "what if" that makes the movie all the more plausible, and, therefore, all the more alarming.
Linda Blair plays Regan, who at the beginning of the picture is a perfectly normal, well-adjusted kid. For reasons unknown she becomes the object of possession not just by subordinate demons but by the Devil himself. At first, she merely acts strangely; then she manifests weird noises and begins making her bed shake. Before long she is disgorging green slime and rotating her head 180 degrees. Her mother, played by Ellen Burstyn, takes her to the best doctors in town, but to no avail. The doctors suggest an exorcism as a last resort. Understandably, the mother is dismayed at what she considers witchcraft, but she is willing to go to any lengths to save her daughter. The man she calls upon for help is a local Catholic priest at Georgetown University, Father Damien Karras, played by Jason Miller. He is a psychologist who frankly doesn´t believe in exorcism. The movie is as much about him as it is about the possessed girl, since Father Karras is going through his own crisis of faith at the time of the story. He is soon convinced of the Devil´s power, however, when Regan spits green goo in his face, starts speaking in tongues, and materializes words on her stomach. To help out Father Karras, the Church brings in their big guns in the person of Father Merrin, played by Max von Sydow, apparently an old hand at exorcisms. As the exorcist, Sydow brings a note of calm reassurance to the proceedings.
The movie is spooky from start to finish. Every shot is shrouded in mystery and suspense, climaxed by a terrifying final scene. This is all the more startling because of the mundane quality of the people and setting involved. I mean, the main character is a little girl. How scary can a twelve-year-old be? Here, pretty scary. And the significant action is confined mainly to a single room in a house, Regan´s bedroom. How scary can a bedroom be? Again, pretty scary.
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