14 January 2017

RIP WILLIAM PETER BLATTY: THE EXORCIST. (1973) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.




THE EXORCIST. (1973) DIRECTED BY WILLIAM FRIEDKIN. BASED ON THE NOVEL BY WILLIAM PETER BLATTY. SCREENPLAY/PRODUCED BY WILLIAM PETER BLATTY.
MUSIC BY MIKE OLDFIELD AND JACK NITZSCHE. SPECIAL EFFECTS BY MAKEUP ARTIST DICK SMITH.
STARRING LINDA BLAIR, ELLEN BURSTYN, JASON MILLER, MAX VON SYDOW, KITTY WINN, LEE J. COBB, JACK MACGOWRAN, FATHER WILLIAM O'MALLEY AND THE VOICE OF MERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

'THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU...'

I was terrified of this supernatural horror movie long before I ever saw it. We all know the familiar iconography of the film so well by now, whether we've seen it or not. We know the haunting notes of Mike Oldfield's theme tune, TUBULAR BELLS, which is still a hugely popular horror tune to this day.

We know the movie poster, in which Father Lankester Merrin, a tall black silhouette reflected clearly in the street lights, stands outside the MacNeil residence at night, hat firmly clamped on head and bag of tricks in hand, mentally preparing to do battle with an old enemy.

Two days ago, on January the twelfth to be precise, William Peter Blatty, the writer of THE EXORCIST, passed away from blood cancer at the age of eighty-nine. His book launched possibly the biggest horror franchise of all time, and I personally consider it to be one of the four greatest modern horror novels ever written. The other three being, of course, Peter Benchley's JAWS, Ira Levin's ROSEMARY'S BABY and Robert Bloch's PSYCHO, all three of which were made into legendary and hugely commercially successful movies as well.

With the sad passing of William Peter Blatty, whose other famous book 'LEGION' was made into another fantastic horror film, THE EXORCIST 3, it seems like a good time to revisit this magnificent piece of groundbreaking horror cinema.

Ironically, I'd been personally revisiting all five films in the franchise in the days leading up to Mr. Blatty's death thanks to my acquisition of my EXORCIST ANTHOLOGY DVD, a handy little purchase which means that I now have all the films in the one place, the first time that's ever happened for me.

So much truly sickening evil on one neat little box-set! It makes me very happy to think about it, haha. Anyway, now I want to look back on the first time I ever saw this film, the film that sheer anticipatory terror had kept me away from for so long. Believe it or not, it was only a couple of years ago that I first made the acquaintance of a certain Pazuzu...

I initially had no notion in the world of making THE EXORCIST the subject of my Halloween viewing way back in 2015. I'd been keeping an unwatched copy of the film in my DVD collection for months, though it was purely on the understanding that I was too chicken to watch it and probably always would be.

Then a visit to a charity shop on a gloriously sunny Halloween afternoon unexpectedly turned up a copy of the special 25th anniversary version of the film for a euro. One euro! Glory be to God. I wouldn't be much of a collector of horror stuff if I left it behind.

I took it home and watched it straightaway, on Halloween afternoon with the curtains open and the sunlight streaming through the windows. Not, perhaps, the way it should be watched but hey, if it got me in front of that screen, what did that matter...?

It was as good as everyone said it was, and about a million times more scary. I know that some film critics consider THE EXORCIST to be the best film ever made, full stop, never mind best horror film. Certainly in 2010, it was chosen by the Library Of Congress to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant,' which is a pretty big deal for a movie, I can tell you. But of course you probably already know that.

Anyway, I don't know what motivated me to watch it so suddenly like that after years of shying
away from it. Maybe I was emboldened (is that still a word in these modern times?) by the broad daylight and the sounds of hundreds of happy Halloween shoppers tramping up and down the streets outside my house in search of booze or monkey nuts or the perfect pumpkin. Also, it wouldn't be nightfall for hours. I was as safe as houses, heh-heh-heh.

Whatever the reason, I did it. Now I can't get enough of the film. I think about it constantly. Isn't that strange? I'm like the virgin or the teetotaller who suddenly discovers the joys of sex or booze (or both!) and now can't get enough. Oddly enough, I'm always fatally drawn to the things that scare me the most. Maybe that's not odd at all. Maybe it's just the human condition, folks.

Director William Friedkin was up first with a nice informal chat about the film. Look at you, I thought disbelievingly, wearing your nice non-threatening cardigan, talking in your nice calm friendly voice about the film to come as if it WASN'T considered the scariest, most disturbing horror film ever made! I've heard how terrifying it is. I know, Mr. William Friedkin, I know...!

Mind you, he never tried to deny it was scary, I'll give him that. He was just hoping that I, the viewer, would get out of the film what he and the film-makers had tried so sincerely to put into it all those years ago. In all honesty, I think I did, if pants-wetting terror was the aim of Friedkin and his devil minions. Snigger.

Based on true events but changed around a bit, it's the story of Regan MacNeil, a normal little American girl who becomes possessed by the demon Pazuzu, a nasty piece of work who makes the sweet, affectionate pretty twelve-year-old do and say the most unspeakably disgusting and inappropriate things. We, the viewers, already know by the time the horror starts kicking off that Regan is a lovely child who loves her mum. This makes the demon's possession of her all the more outrageously unfair.

Her devoted but understandably terrified mother Chris, an actress and single parent, albeit a comfortably-off one, eventually decides to have the child exorcised, after first going down the medical route and finding no help there. Well, you know what doctors are like. Every one you go to gives you a different bloody diagnosis.

The steps leading up to this fateful decision are handled so well. The terror mounts slowly but inexorably. What starts as a few unexplained scraping sounds coming from the attic in the MacNeil residence escalates into a horror so all-encompassing that I'm only going to touch on little bits of it in this review. I honestly don't think mere words can do it justice, that's how frighteningly evil it all is.

I can't believe now that, when I watched the film first, I actually hated Father Damien Karras, the priest from the nearby church to whom Chris turns for help. I initially found him to be a wishy-washy, crisis-of-faith-having mope who allowed his elderly and infirm mother to live in a rat-hole of a slum. He's a bad son, I thought. A terrible son, in fact. I sure-as-heck wouldn't want to be dependent on him in my twilight years.

The elderly Father Lankester Merrin, the priest who leads the actual exorcism and whom we first see in Iraq encountering a demon with whom he's successfully done battle before, seems much more kick-ass. (His earlier grapplings with Pazuzu are the subject of two of the films in the franchise, EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING and DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST.) And I was sure he'd be a better son to his Mammy than Father Damo. Let's face it, pretty much anyone would be. This, however, was only what I thought after my first viewing of the film.

Subsequent viewings caused me to change my mind about Father Karras. In fact, I became quite attracted to him (he's so sexy and dark-haired, I bet his chest-hair would be jet-black and curly!) the more times I watched the film and I began to feel more sympathetic towards him regarding his treatment of his poor old Mum. As a priest who'd taken a vow of poverty, he probably hadn't had the dosh to send his Mum to a nice retirement home, and anyway, she was adamant that she wasn't leaving her home.

Of course he was gutted about her death and the place and manner in which she died. You can tell by the way in which he reacts to the demon's horrible taunting that he loved his mother dearly and would feel guilty about her death till the day he died. I was sorry I'd been so quick to judge him. I'm so sorry, Father Sexy, can you ever forgive me...? Maybe a nice apology blowjob? Ooops, sorry...!
That just slipped out, haha. I swear. Honest to God.

Over the years, I'd heard so much about this iconic horror film and seen so many clips and stills online that I was pretty much able to tick off the key scenes in my mind as the movie progressed.
Here's the projectile-vomiting scene. Here's the grotesque head-spinning scene. Here's the (ahem) crucifix-being-used-for-a-naughty-purpose scene. Here's the levitation scene. Here's the giggling scene. Here's the terrifying spider-walking scene.There they all were, one after the other in all their grisly glory, each scene more frightening than the last.

Needless to say, THE EXORCIST garnered all kinds of awards and plaudits and critical acclaim and you guys know all about these by now. There's not much I can add to what's been said about this fantastically ground-breaking piece of cinematic art except to say that I wish I'd thought of the idea first, haha. I'd be set for life.

The film is famous for being devilishly handsome critic Mark Kermode's favourite film of all time. He's seen it over two hundred times. Can you imagine that? I've only seen it a handful of times and I'm already afraid to go to the bathroom in my own house in case Pazuzu's lurking behind the shower curtain or underneath the loo seat...!

A special shout-out to the Make-Up Artist Dick Smith and the Special Effects people who were in charge of creating Regan's face in the various stages of possession and the disgusting pea-soup projectile vomit and all the blood and stuff. I don't know if their work has ever been surpassed but, in all honesty, I wouldn't think it likely. This is surely the special effects job to end all special effects jobs!

And a shout-out also to Georgetown's most evil set of stairs. God, those are some really bloody evil stairs...! Talk about cursed. The Burke Dennings thing too is so horribly creepy. Eugh...!

I also loved the character of Lieutenant Kinderman. A shrewd cop, he has a human side too. A bit like Columbo. Remember Peter Falk as Columbo? 'Just one more thing...!' Anyway, I loved the way the Lieutenant tried to get both priests to go to the cinema with him because he gets 'free passes' and he hates going to the flicks alone.

Aw, bless his buttons. I'd love to have a friend who got free movie passes. I'd go with him anytime to see a free film. The friendship between Lt. Kinderman and Father Dyer continues into THE EXORCIST 3, my second favourite film in the franchise. Although sometimes I think it's my favourite. I think it all depends on what mood I'm in when I watch 'em, haha.

Anyway, I just want to say a very respectful 'rest in peace' to William Peter Blatty, whose book enriched the lives of us horror fans in ways we couldn't even have imagined were possible. Thank you, dear Mr. B. Sleep well and sweet dreams.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

 You can contact Sandra at:


http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
















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