Review #60: The Exorcist (1973)

This review was originally written in October 2019.

October Horror Movie Review #8: The Exorcist

"But Gabe," I hear you saying. "Haven't you seen the Exorcist? Everyone has seen the Exorcist."

Nope. Never saw it. I've seen about five hundred things that reference it (including an episode of Eek! The Cat that continually made "pea soup" references, which I did not understand for many years) but I've never actually seen this one. It's one of the many "classic horror" films I haven't seen, so I'm glad I was able to finally cross this one off the list.

Now, I have mixed feelings about this movie. I can understand why it was so popular (after all, there were only like two mainstream horror movies at the time, of course this one was going to make a big impression) but I'm still at a loss as to whether or not I liked it. It was an incredibly slow burn (despite being called The Exorcist the topic of exorcism doesn't even come up until like halfway through the movie, and when it IS brought up, it's brought up as a way for psychiatrists to use a delusional person's fantasy against them to make them sane) and so much of the movie seems inconsequential throughout its whole runtime. (More on that in a minute.) But once the movie actually got going- once Father Karras gets involved with the main characters- it was incredibly compelling, super creepy, and quite enjoyable even though I couldn't help but make jokes from all of the spoofs I've seen over the years.

However, there were a lot of details in this film that simply didn't add up for me. Now I'm not always the most observant viewer- I often miss a lot of the interconnecting pieces until a second or third viewing- but this time I was hyper-aware (likely because the action was so slow I found myself watching all the little details and fitting puzzle pieces together while waiting for the plot to show itself) and I did catch a lot of things, but the things I got were still missing pieces.

For example: Why was Regan possessed in the first place? In most movies this would easily be chalked up as "they don't need to explain that", but I noticed all these little clues. Father Merrin finds the demon idol at the start of the film, and then the Lieutenant finds it at the bottom of the stairs by Regan's house after Burke was killed. So obviously she came in contact with it... right? But how did she get it from Father Merrin? Isn't that kind of... important? I thought surely he was going to mention it when he performs the exorcism later, but no. The Lieutenant took the idol and that's the last we see of it. (Is he going to get possessed now?) There's also the scene where Regan shows she's been playing with the Ouija board, but was that connected to the idol? Did Father Merrin just kind of drop the idol near her house and then she happened to play with the Ouija board and contact the demon? Again, I don't understand why that wasn't explained- they could have easily left out the idol entirely and just had the nature of her possession be a mystery. But they didn't.

Also, was Father Karras wearing a necklace made out of the coin that Merrin found along with the idol? Why? How did he get it, when it's implied the two of them have never met? Was that some sort of a sacred charm, meant to ward off the demon (hence why it was found with the idol in the first place; also the demon ripped off his necklace before possessing him)? Again, that would make sense, but they haven't given enough of the steps to make that work, they've given just enough for it to be confusing. I almost feel like I was watching a version of the film that either added a couple superfluous scenes or cut out some important ones. I'm not sure which.

Now obviously I'm aware that this movie was based on a book. And I'm sure these questions are all answered in the book. But I didn't read the book (nor did so many of the people who saw this in the theater in 1973) so I can't judge it based on the book, I can only judge it based on what was in the movie.

This film was definitely well-made and intriguing (and I gotta give them some credit for releasing a movie with this much objectionable material 45 years ago) but there were too many things hinted at but not explained and the pace was way too slow for my tastes. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure if I liked it.

Overall rating: 6/10

Best spoof: The opening scene of Scary Movie 2 (James Woods was spot-on)

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