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THE EXORCIST
William Friedkin’s 1973 film of the William Peter Blatty best-seller may not be the best demon movie ever made, but it’s the one everybody remembers. It defined the satanic in movies and spawned decades of klutzy imitations.
No surprise that it should be re-released (with 11 original minutes restored, plus remixed sound) in this time of spooky popular tastes (from The Sixth Sense to the morbid hero worship of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs). Devils are not especially cutting-edge topics in theological circles but they thrive in the popular imagination. They always make anti-photogenic villains and sell a lot of tickets to horror movies.
The fictional Blatty story was inspired by a real case that occurred in a Washington, D.C., suburb. The film stars 12 year old Linda Blair as the horribly brutalized victim who cannot be cured by science. She is ultimately saved by the heroics of several Jesuits including doubt and guilt-ridden Father Karras (Jason Miller). As critic Pauline Kael wrote grumpily at the time, it was “the biggest recruiting poster the Catholic Church has had since the sunnier days of Going My Way….”
The movie made my 10 Best list in 1973 primarily as a horror show, the over the top parts made convincing by subtle and intelligent characters and atmosphere. It had the religious impact of a well-told retreat tale.
Blatty’s demon is out of the deep past, a perverted villain of physical debaucheries, four-letter words and bad personal hygiene. He is socially unacceptable. A thriller with minimal religious substance, for the emotionally hardy.
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