RESPECT TO OLD SCHOOL HORROR. VIDEO REVIEW FOR THE FILM: THE EXORCIST
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One Response
Kim McIntyre
I was six when the Exorcist came out, so I did not have the chance to see it until was a married woman. You are right, much of the impact of the film is lost on today’s viewers and is often seen as camp. What people forget is when the movie came out, the American audiences had been inundated with images of violence during the Vietnam war, but they had yet been confronted by images as disturbing as the ones in the Exorcist. As a religious person myself, I found the images of the possession disturbing, of course, but I found the failure of faith in Father Karras just as, if not more disturbing. He is very much an unarmed man in this fight, plauged by his doubts and his anger and guilt for his mother and her death and her poverty. Karras must face the ancient evil armed only with his logical mind. Merrin on the other hand is armed only with his faith. He doesn’t really need Karras except as a physician. And the book is the true gateway to the film. I actually read this book as a teenager and even wrote a comparative piece with an equally disturbing book Sybil about a woman who was supposedly plagued with multiple personalities, which was what Karras thought ailed Reagan. Great review, BC.
I was six when the Exorcist came out, so I did not have the chance to see it until was a married woman. You are right, much of the impact of the film is lost on today’s viewers and is often seen as camp. What people forget is when the movie came out, the American audiences had been inundated with images of violence during the Vietnam war, but they had yet been confronted by images as disturbing as the ones in the Exorcist. As a religious person myself, I found the images of the possession disturbing, of course, but I found the failure of faith in Father Karras just as, if not more disturbing. He is very much an unarmed man in this fight, plauged by his doubts and his anger and guilt for his mother and her death and her poverty. Karras must face the ancient evil armed only with his logical mind. Merrin on the other hand is armed only with his faith. He doesn’t really need Karras except as a physician. And the book is the true gateway to the film. I actually read this book as a teenager and even wrote a comparative piece with an equally disturbing book Sybil about a woman who was supposedly plagued with multiple personalities, which was what Karras thought ailed Reagan. Great review, BC.