I finally watched the Exorcist

I think it's a multi-month long ordeal.

Maybe the beast vomits all excrement. She vomits a lot.

She wasn't too thirsty or hungry.

In the book, the stench is described as unbearably putrid, so she may very well have been just going in bed.

Is she supposed to be possessed by the devil or just some random demon?

She peed on the floor at the beginning.

R5, the demon Pazuzu, an ancient Mesopotamian demon.

Was Pazuzu a Top Drawer demon? Good family?

R8, I don't know about top drawer, but he had a large, demonic phallus, which probably indicates he was a Top for the Bottom demons.

She wore a diaper.

Who changed her diaper?

You are gonna die up there....

Celebrities don’t poop!

[quote]Who changed her diaper?

I’m sure it was the mom since she had to clean up the floor after Regan pissed on it during that dinner party.

This movie was a huge disappointment like "The Changeling" which wasn't scary /at all/.

“Go to the bathroom”, OP? “Relieve herself”, OP?

No need to euphemise the possessed - she pissed and shat herself wherever she was.

Horseshit. If you watched both on TV in the middle of the day or with lights of and maybe commercials it will lose effectiveness. But theywere made to be seen in the dark, uncut and no commercials. They scared millions of people.

I think Christianity / Judaism / Islam are stupid crocks of shit as well, so maybe that's why.

Please tell us more about your feelings and opinions, r15/ r18.

I saw it in a theater recently with William Friedkin speaking before hand. He said probably no one is going to go home with nightmares after this tonight because we've become so desensitized but back in the day people were really scared.

Most of the crowd had seen it before (he asked.) The one thing that got a big jump was when Father Karras is listening to the tapes in reverse and suddenly the phone rings. Cool that such a simple thing could still startle an experienced crowd.

I think it's meant to be a few days. I don't think toilet was really too high up on the list of concerns.

[quote]He said probably no one is going to go home with nightmares after this tonight because we've become so desensitized but back in the day people were really scared.

I don't see how anyone can become completely immune to Mercedes McCambridge's voice.

Geena Davis plays the adult Regan in the Exorcist TV show

I read the novel in my teens in the 80s and was terrified. I refused to see the film because of it. I did finally catch the 20th anniversary re-release in a theater and was pleasantly surprised to notice how little it scared me. Honestly, the scariest thing were the medical tests done to the poor girl, and apparently I'm not the only one thinking that. It's a good movie, though, but like Friedkin said we're desensitized at this point, and were already back in 1998. All the worst scenes had also been made fun of so much over the years that it was hard to see them with fresh eyes.

I wouldn't want to watch the film alone at night, though. When I was younger I lived in a Hindu monastery for a while and it was a bit daunting to notice that older monks and yogis there thought evil spirits are very much real and are constantly trying to cause harm to us. I was an apprentice and not a tourist so they had no reason to lie to me. That's one of the reasons I tend to stay away from entertainment that is realistic in the way The Exorcist is. I feel like if I start thinking about evil the evil also starts thinking about me.

R23 The series felt totally flat after that Angela Rance = "a clean Regan" twist was revealed. It was an interesting gamble but it didn't pay off.

Very well done video suggests Regan was being sexually abused by Burt Dennings.

I never found it particularly scary. The one scene with her “spider walking” upside down down a staircase does freak me out a little. Otherwise, it’s not very frightening to me, possibly because I was born after the original zeitgeist. All the people I know who say it’s really terrifying tend to be religious, Catholic especially.

I have taken ayahuasca a few times and while I won’t get into detail, a couple of times I found myself laughing because although I wasn’t upset by the feeling, I really did feel as if my body had been possessed by some other entity. It felt benevolent instead of evil, but between the vomiting, the crying, the automatic movements, occasional giggling and speaking gibberish because of the internal experiences that accompany ayahuasca experiences, I did laugh out loud a few times when it occurred to me that to an outside viewer with a religious upbringing, I’d probably look like I am possessed by a demon.

I took drugs and a beast violently tore me up from inside.

A tall stone cold handsome Austrian with the biblical name of Jonas and a cock as big as a whale.

Weren't the neighbors concerned about all of the demonic noise? You would think someone would have called in a noise complaint.

I don’t know how anyone today can buy into a movie in which a priest’s interactions with a child are shown to be heroic.

My take: the priest did ungodly things to Regan, including the thing with the crucifix. The pea soup she vomited was another viscous liquid. Her psyche couldn’t handle the reality and so, thanks to the priest’s violence, threats and brainwashing, Regan copes with the abuse my creating false recollections of a demon that made her do all these things to herself. The mother sees all the same things because she can’t accept that a priest is doing them and she also can’t accept responsibility for her negligence. Eventually in a desperate rage, the daughter and mother kill the priest as his friend stands witness. The mother, daughter and the living priest together publish a book recounting the possession and none of them every utters a word about what really happened, leaving the Catholic Church to look heroic. The end.

I don’t know how anyone today can buy into a movie in which a priest’s interactions with a child are shown to be heroic.

My take: the priest did ungodly things to Regan, including the thing with the crucifix. The pea soup she vomited was another viscous liquid. Her psyche couldn’t handle the reality and so, thanks to the priest’s violence, threats and brainwashing, Regan copes with the abuse my creating false recollections of a demon that made her do all these things to herself. The mother sees all the same things because she can’t accept that a priest is doing them and she also can’t accept responsibility for her negligence. Eventually in a desperate rage, the daughter and mother kill the priest as his friend stands witness. The mother, daughter and the living priest together publish a book recounting the possession and none of them every utters a word about what really happened, leaving the Catholic Church to look heroic. The end.

Did you want your crusty old cock tapping out that purple prose, you perve?

R31, not all priests are/were abusive in 'that' way, and I say that as a lapsed Cathlick who hated every moment of being an altar boy.

I did enjoy your creative alternate scenario though.

Burke wasn't the priest, he's the director of Chris's movie.

We did this last year, lots of interesting info in this thread

In the novel Regan's needs are tended to by Sharon; she had experience being a caregiver from having worked in a nursing home. After the demon entirely takes over Regan's body she is securely strapped in bed by a double set of restraining straps to prevent any more incidents like the crucifix masturbation. She's in diapers; at one point the novel mentions her "diarrhetic voiding into plastic pants." I don't really don't understand how Sharon cleans Regan up after her vomiting fits. Her arms can't be removed from the straps; how does she get into a nightgown? It's never said that she's ever unclothed in bed.

R36, that is one nursing job I would refuse.

The demon proclaims he will not leave Reagan until she 'rots and lies stinking in the Earth,' so that should give you some idea as to the stench, OP.

That line "she rots and lies stinking in the earth" really sucked. That's NOT what Pazuzu said in the novel. When Karras asks him how long he intends to stay in Regan's body he says succinctly 'until the piglet DIES!" In novel Pazuzu is witty and articulate, if vulgar and obscene. He's also a chatty demon, not like the one in the movie, who speaks little. He and Karras have several lively conversations.

I never understood the point of Father Karras dousing Regan with tap water instead of holy water and then the demon making moans of agony at the fake holy water. What was that supposed to prove?

r40, Karras used tap water to see if Regan's so-called possession was simply psychological. But the demon one-upped him by pretending that it burned.

Whatever happened to Kitty Winn?

When I saw the rerelease in a dark theater in New York it was definitely better. Everyone screamed at the spider walk scene.

R31 I don't how anyone can come to your conclusion about a 40-year-old movie based on an established book especially without acknowledging that your theory is based on current psychology.

...Unless Blatty or Friedkin admitted that the story was an allegory.

All Wiki knows, r42, is........

She retired from acting in 1978 but returned to play Cordelia in The Tragedy of King Lear for KCET in 1983. She did not return to the stage again until 2011, when she played the lead in The Last Romance at the San Jose Repertory Theatre. For this performance, she was nominated for a best actress award by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

R42 I ate her out at Sardis in 1992.

She retired right after "Exorcist 2." That explains a lot.

Little known fact: Faye Dunaway was fired from The Exorcist for calling Pazuzu, king of the demons of the wind, 'little homosexual boy'.

Bullshit she was fired for keeping Pazuzu waiting for three hours in his trailer.

The REAL story is Pazuzu told the producers he didn't need any competition on set!

OP = the Aspie Thread Copycat, deliberately trolling me for exposing his psychotic habit of repeating subjects currently under discussion in other threads he didn't originate or dominate.

PLEASE FLAME AND FREAK THIS TROLL. 73 EXORCIST THREADS IS TOO MANY EXORCIST THREADS.

Like this thread, which was already adequate for his comments:

... which was IDENTICAL to a thread Datalounge already overexplored recently:

Because this troll can't let the conversation leave THE EXORCIST or contain it to one thread:

Why weren't the OP's questions contained to a single thread, where most comments were?

Like this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or this?

R51 is completely unhinged!

R51 is completely unhinged!

R51 is completely unhinged!

Or this?

Or here? EXACT SAME SUBJECT.

Why wasn't this conversation good enough?

Or this EXACT, SAME SUBJECT for questions, Second Edition?

Don't forget this:

Or this:

And this THIRD forum for questions about the EXORCIST really deserves its own thread:

R68 Nobody cares. You come off as completely batshit crazy doing what you’re doing.

Oh, *I* come off crazy.

Yes. You were also mentioned in the biggest cunts on DL thread for doing this

The sequel, Exorcist II: Heretic, was so awful it's comedic. How did that mess get greenlit?

At one point, Karras asks the demon where is Regan, and it answers "in here, with us." In the book, the demons says "we are many inside of the piglet." Was there supposed to be a demonic party happening inside of Regan's possessed body?

r73, When Father Karras was telling Father Merrin there appears to be several demons inside Regan, Father Merrin cut him off emphatically, saying "There is only one."

Why are there so many insane people on this website?

R75 I don’t know, but I think every thread started for the next week should work in the word Exorcist for Mary at r51

OCD cunts on DL are annoying. But insane OCD reactions to said OCD cunts are even more dismal.

It’s call sarcasm

r75,+ r79 + r77 = the same Aspie Copycat talking to itself through multiple accounts, cookie sets or browsers.

Keep pretending there's nothing wrong with 73 Exorcist threads all saying the same things, or losers trying to pass your observations off as their own.

EVERYBODY ELSE, PLEASE F & F!!!!

Nobody cares. You are unhinged r79

Are the sequels worth checking out??

Part 2 is utter trash. Avoid.

Part 3 is an excellent thriller. Fantastic, underrated movie.

Is it implied that Regan somehow commited the Virgin Mary desecration?

Yes r83, if you notice, the modeling clay used on the Virgin Mary is the same modeling clay (colors et al) Regan used to create the bird-like figure in the scene where her mother asks her about the Ouija board. You can see the figure on the table right behind Ellen Burstyn in the linked scene.

R84, thanks. Well that must have been quite a scene: a fully possessed, rotten-smelling Regan walking around Georgetown, desecrating churches, pissing and vomiting pea soup all over the streets.

r85, the desecration happened when Regan still looked normal but was beginning to act out.

I think this thread is possessed by demons!

How did any of those people (Chris, Sharon, the housekeepers) sleep inside of that house while Regan was possessed? "Oh, Regan just snapped a man's head and tossed him down some stairs today, but it's getting late -- I think it's time for bedtime. See you guys tomorrow morning."

LOL R88

Chris MacNeil must have been paying Sharon a small fortune to stay on as her personal assistant after Regan's possession.

[quote]Part 2 is utter trash. Avoid.

But it had a rockin' theme song!

Exorcist II is directed by John Boorman and it is very druggy looking and feeling. I don't hate it.

I have been meaning to read the books.

The whole Exorcist saga is weirdly frightening.

In Exorcist 1, there was a serial killer literally playing a doctor in one of the scenes.

In Exorcist 3, which is a great flick and directed by the AUTHOR of the Exorcist books, was apparently the movie that Jeffrey Dahmer was obsessed with.

R93, and Exorcist II was the scariest of them all because it involved a tubby Linda Blair tapdancing on stage and James Earl Jones in a fuzzy bee costume.

Linda Blair was always such a chub. She tried to market herself as a sex symbol. What the hell was she thinking? She was porky as a pig and had stretchmarks on her ass.

R95, Rick James dug her.

I was a teenager when the original came out. They really hyped this movie. They passed out vomit bags in the theaters. There were always reports that people were leaving the theater because they couldn't handle the movie.

It was the same with Jaws. Once the movie came out, the news went into overdrive about sharks in the ocean.

The 1970s was a fear mongering decade.

[quote]Pazuzu, king of the demons of the wind

Watch out for drafts. A draft in the fall when the house is hot is a magic carpet for germs.

It was too gross for me.

R98, Lt. Kinderman was kind of incompetent, wasn't he? He certainly didn't seem to solve or piece anything together.

[quote]Linda Blair was always such a chub. She tried to market herself as a sex symbol. What the hell was she thinking? She was porky as a pig and had stretchmarks on her ass.

Those stretchmarks pulled Rick Springfield.

I don’t find it frightening in the least. I feel like I could handle being possessed. Bring it on.

(Maybe that means I already am? I do have stretch marks...)

Kinderman always acted like a dim bulb, but that was deceptive. In the novel, he knows exactly what he's doing. He pays a visit to Chris MacNeil to ask some questions (he's trying to solve Denning's murder) and behaves like a dimwitted schlub. But it's an act; he sees the bird Regan made for Chris, and while examining it, scrapes off a bit of the paint. The paint scraping is compared to the paint used to desecrate the statues in the church; it matches. Sharon is typing a letter, makes a mistake and throws the paper in the wastebasket. Kinderman takes the paper with him and compares it to the typewritten obscenities found on an altar card in the church. The obscenities came from the same typewriter. Kinderman methodically accumulates evidence and it ALL points to Regan. It's unclear what he intends to do; he reveals his findings to Father Karras who says he should leave it to a "higher authority.' Soon after that the shit hits the fan; Karras and Merrin are dead, Pazuzu is vanquished and little Regan is well again. Kinderman doesn't pursue the case any further. I guess he figured it was all over.

R102, do you ever spin around like a top on your butt in the kitchen floor?

In the book, Regan does... they should have put that in the movie.

R104 No, but I’ve felt like my body was literally possessed by another spirit while under the influence of ayahuasca before and it wasn’t upsetting at all, even though at some point I did wonder “could this be an evil spirit tricking me?” Lots of projectile vomiting was involved!

R106 I know. I fed r51 , but I couldn’t resist 😰

R103, Kinderman is one of my favorite, more subtle scenes in the film. I think he's staking out the MacNeil house from his car when he sees the shadow of Regan moving about in the room -- an indication that she could walk around, restraints or not.

I enjoyed watching this.

When Rick Springfield started fucking Linda Blair she was 15 and he was 24. What a perv.

R20 A lot of people were very disturbed and creeped out by the scene where she’s in the hospital getting a brain scan and they show the doctor sticking needles in her neck (to start a central venous venous line I guess) and blood spurts out. I read that scene was shot in a real operating room to get an ultra realistic effect.

Yes, I think today's viewers would be more disturbed by the hospital scene than by the pea soup vomit and the head turning and foul language. I went to donate blood plasma; there's a lot of waiting involved so they have movies showing on tv screens. One day "The Exorcist" was playing. And people were laughing at it.

It’s got to be age and conditioning. I work with a 55ish Catholic lady who likes horror movies but NOT “devil movies,” which terrify her, and she seems to regard The Exorcist as if it were a documentary. Meanwhile, I was born in 1978 and I’m not religious at all and it has always looked pretty silly to me. The girl looks like Chucky to me, and someone made this graphic and so I am not alone in that.

Well actually, Chucky might look like Regan since "Child's Play" was made 15 years later.

R113, I was born in '83 and it's the only film I find terrifying -- I suspect, though, that has more to do with my Catholic upbringing.

Exorcist 3 is the best exorcist movie. Weird, atmospheric, and disturbing.

Is the book worth reading after seeing the movie (and after all these years)?

R117, yes. I read the book years after seeing the sanitized version of the film playing on network TV. It offers more backstory to some of the characters and plot-holes in the film-- chilling and atmospheric.

What I liked about the sanitized TV version was that they dubbed all utterances of the invective "Jesus Christ" with "Judas Priest".