The Exorcist: 50 Years Later

 

 

THE EXORCIST: 50 YEARS LATER

The Exorcist” seems almost tame by today’s standards. It’s hard to believe so many people were so afraid back in 1973.

I watched The Exorcist for the first time last night.

Hard to believe, but I’d never seen it before. It appeared on TCM and I decided to fill the longtime void in my classic movies repertoire.

The 1973 film about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl was highly controversial when it was first released. I was 11 years old back then, and already in love with movies. Luckily, my parents rarely sheltered me from anything in life, especially reality. The took me to all the R-rated movies (and all the best movies of the early 1970s were R-rated). While the other kids in my school were talking about 101 Dalmatians and Snow White, I was already light-years ahead of them all having seen films like Patton, Dirty Harry, Serpico, The Getaway, The Seven-Ups, and many other adult-themed dramas. Maybe all that early exposure to cursing and violence and crime and gritty reality explains how I turned out. For some generations, movies shaped our worldview.

Anyway, The Exorcist was different from all the rest. Perhaps deliberately, it was marketed by Warner Bros. as something more than just a escapist horror film. This story was about subjects much deeper and darker. For many people, especially believers, the movie was personal. Way too real.

I remember the TV commercials for The Exorcist with that intoxicating tubular bells….da, da, dat-dat….da, da, dat-dat …da, da, dat-dat….da, da, dat-dat. Even the music gave you chills. It was stupefyingly simple, but scary as hell. But that’s that one movie my parents REFUSED take me to see (I don’t remember if they went on their own–my guess is no). I grew up in a Catholic family and even went to Catholic school for a time, so maybe that had something to do with our “boycott.” The Catholic Church called it “the devil’s work.” Rev. Billy Graham, then a major influence on millions said “the devil is in every frame of this movie.” Yeah, The Exorcist was *that* terrifying. As a typically curious kid, that’s like being told not to look inside the closet. What did I want to do? Look inside the closet. But, I never got the chance.

Five decades passed. I forgot about “The Exorcist.” It rarely appeared on TV. Even movie channels seemed to avoid showing it. Then, I watched it on Sunday night (fittingly, in a dark house on a cold night).

William Friedkin, who passed away earlier this year, was the director. He had just come off the smash success of The French Connection, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. So, Friedkin’s name on the movie poster added immensely to both the film’s credibility and its significance as an event. The disturbing subject matter and problems with production, leaked in the press, also created *more* public interest, though many cities and communities tried to ban the film from being shown locally. From Wiki:

 

“Many cast and crew were injured, some died, and unusual accidents delayed shooting. Production took twice as long as scheduled and cost almost three times the initial budget; the many mishaps have led to a belief that the film was cursed.”

 

The film certainly wasn’t cursed when it came to the box office. “The Exorcist” cost about $12 million to make. It’s since earned $429 million, about 35 times the original production budget. Most studios would love such a “curse.” [Note: See the financials on The Exorcist here]

My Impression: The Exorcist seems almost tame by today’s standards. PG-rated. It’s hard to believe so many people were so afraid back in 1973. Imagine — being scared of a movie. I realize that standards of acceptability, shock values, and audience tastes change/evolve over time. However, the many Chucky and Halloween-franchised movies released since then so seem much more violent; gratuitously so.

Why was The Exorcist such a big deal back then? I’m not sure why. I can’t explain it. Perhaps because the film was released on Christmas.

The Exorcist could probably run on primetime TV right now and certainly on Netflix without cuts or edits. I’ve seen far more incendiary films and this movie wouldn’t crack the top-100 on things to fear. Moreover, The Exorcist is a pretty dull movie. I was bored. It’s basically two hours of dimly-lit, slow-moving conversation, punctuated by the occasional 90-second horror scene of a young girl pissing, vomiting, and head-spinning.

I hereby give The Exorcist an excommunication.