Kids These Days All Need An Exorcism
Is the fear in The Exorcist still the same over fifty years later, or has it changed? (Spoilers ahead!)
When The Exorcist came out in theaters on December 26, 1973, it was a sensation. People fainted, vomited, had heart attacks, and ran out of the theater. It was the scariest thing that had come to the big screen ever, and people flocked. Until the 2017 revival of It, it was the highest grossing horror movie of all time. The hysteria was exacerbated by the campaign of misinformation that surrounded the movie. Rumors of deaths, accidents, and curses almost guaranteed the chaos in theaters before the movie was even in them.
Hysteria of this level is always going to raise questions about the media being reacted to, namely, is it really that bad? And, for the audiences of 1973 who were recovering from both the various movements of the sixties and the Motion Picture Production Code, it was.
But then another question is raised: what fear does this movie hold to modern audiences that aren’t experiencing this particular massive cultural shift?
I first watched The Exorcist on February 16, 2024. Before watching the movie, I had read, in this order, an essay about the book, the book, a book about the movie from a production standpoint, and a book about the movie from a cultural standpoint. I had high expectations going into the movie, and they were all met, but for different reasons than I thought they would be.
To talk about why and how The Exorcist is scary now, it is necessary that I talk about why and how it was scary when it came out. The book was first published in 1971, only a handful of years after the country was shocked by Rosemary’s Baby, a story in which a well-to-do woman gives birth to Satan’s child. This led to a high increase in fear surrounding femininity. Because, you see, if a woman could do that, what must young girls be capable of?
The main reason the horrible things in The Exorcist are as horrible as they are is because all of these atrocities are being committed by a twelve year old girl. A little girl murdering a man by turning his head all the way around and throwing him out a window. A little girl screaming curse words at the doctors who are trying to help her. A little girl grabbing a psychiatrist by the balls, then later projectile vomiting onto a priest. A little girl bent backward in horrible contortions, crawling down the stairs faster than should be physically possible. And - worst of all - that very same little girl not only masturbating, but doing so with a crucifix. With all of these horrific events combined, it’s no wonder that the audiences in the seventies had the reactions they did. They’d just had their lives rocked by the sixties, with their Stonewall Riots, and Civil Rights Movements, let alone events like the Manson murders, which were just enough to convince them that their children were in the most danger anyone could be in. The Exorcist, then, seemed to them almost a confirmation of all these parents’ fears: that could be your daughter, too, doing all of those horrible things. That could be your pretty little girl, and the only way to prevent it is by having a good husband, staying home, and going to church. The fear wasn’t the demon in the girl- it was the girl herself.
These fears speak to a desperation that is still in our culture today: that of keeping little girls little forever. This desperation is shown the most in Chris MacNeil, but is in other characters as well. This is most noticeable in the way Regan is constantly referred to as just that - a little girl. She is twelve, almost a teenager, and yet she is still a little girl. In many ways, she still has to be a little girl. And yet, she’s behaving like no little girl should.
Those were the sentiments that made The Exorcist scary in 1973, but what makes it scary to a young person now?
To me - and to most people, even those seventies audiences - the most disturbing scene in The Exorcist is the one where Regan is receiving a cranial arteriogram. Blood spurts from her neck as a needle is inserted into it to collect a blood sample. This, for me, greatly exceeds the various possession scenes in the disturbing category. I found the sequences of Regan being tied down, sedated, prodded at, and patronized far more difficult to watch, especially with the knowledge that none of it will do any good. There’s nothing medically wrong with her, she’s been possessed. And, to make matters worse, she is put through the worst of these procedures for nothing but rude behavior and convulsions. As we watch, this little girl is put through excruciating medical procedures only for the crime of swearing at adults and being scared that her bed was shaking. These scenes feel representative of the poking and prodding teen and preteen girls go through by the adults around them. The tugging on dresses they think sit too low, offhanded comments about the amount and type of food on their plates. The idea that girls should always, always, be nice and polite no matter what the situation is. For me, it was a kind of relief to see the demon inside of Regan breaking free at various points of the movie. Whether it was the infamous spider walk scene or the way she knocks Father Karras to the floor during the exorcism itself, or even her screams of “Fucking bastard!” At the doctors who are trying to put a needle in her arm, these scenes brought a brief respite from just seeing her tied up with nothing to do but say nasty things.
A thing that needs to be kept in mind in regard to horror movies is that they are a reflection of the fears of the society they are made in, and even more so the fears of their directors. This is a large part of what makes horror media such an important piece of culture, and is especially relevant in The Exorcist. Horror movies are based on their creator’s greatest fear, and, apparently, William Peter Blatty’s greatest fear was basically female puberty.
Throughout the movie, Regan is treated as though she is inhuman. She’s strapped down to her own bed and sedated, jabbed with needles and put through endless trials. This is not a creature that can be focused on for long periods of time, because it is nothing but an incoherent oddity. It is possessed by A Great Evil that must be stopped. But the thing about this Great Evil is that, objectively, it’s not all that scary, especially if the person watching knows a preteen girl. Admittedly, yes, her bed is shaking and that’s scary, as is any dramatic behavioral change. It seems like the fear that was meant to come through in The Exorcist was that of little girls becoming teenagers. Regan loses her respect for authority figures and begins swearing. And - worst of all - she starts talking about sex. Not just talking about it either, no. In what is arguably the most famous scene in the movie, she masturbates with a crucifix. It’s not only a sex act, it’s blasphemy.
The crucifix scene is, of course, very highly discussed. In most discussions, what Regan is doing is called masturbation, which is what she’s doing in the book. However, in one of the few changes made between the book and the movie, it was not meant to be masturbation in the movie. It was meant to be mutilation. Even in her discovery of sex, she is not allowed to take pleasure in it. Apparently, the only thing more terrifying than a girl discovering masturbation is her enjoying it.
The thing about The Exorcist I think is often misinterpreted is who it’s about. Most people say it’s about Regan. Most people are wrong. It is not called The Exorcism, or The Exorcised, or even The Possession. It’s called The Exorcist. It was never about Regan. It was always about Father Karras.
Father Karras is the perfect savior. Tortured, handsome, and questioning his faith. But, in many ways, Regan acts as his savior. Through his triumph in removing Pazuzu from her body, he finds his faith again, just in time to be blessed as he dies. He is made better through the torture Regan’s body is being put through. Pazuzu possessed a little girl that lived near priests so that he could get to the priests, make them question their beliefs. To every force in the movie, Regan is nothing but a body, something to either possess or fix, something available and vulnerable.
And that’s the fear in The Exorcist for me, is that it looks like it’s about saving a little girl from the forces of evil, but what it’s really saying is that a) said forces of evil are essentially just the process of growing up and not being a little girl anymore and b) that men are the only people who could possibly save her from this fate. It communicates that little girls must be little forever, or they are evil and bad and need to be fixed. When Regan forgets her possession, and everything that came with it, at the end of the movie, it’s meant to be a moment of relief. Look, she got her innocence back! She’ll still grow up to be the perfect housewife with a respect for authority and knowledge of sex in only the context it takes to procreate! That moment, one that is supposed to be calming, is more chilling to me than anything else in the movie, even the medical exams.
What makes The Exorcist scary in the modern day is not the sacrilege or masturbation or cursing or puking. It is the measures taken to prevent these things from happening, to prevent a girl from ever really growing up.