The True meaning of 'The Exorcist'

An analysis of William Friedkin's film 'The Exorcist'

This is my take on William Friedkin's 1972 Horror classic 'The Exorcist' based on the novel by William Peter Blatty. There isn't much that hasn't already been covered about this film but I think you'll find my view of it original enough to justify reading it. Thanks and please leave a comment on your thoughts on this great film. 

The new priests

In this film, the doctors are the new priests, their temples are hospitals, and God is science. At the beginning of the film, Merrin and Satan in the form of Pazuzu face off in Iraq, a prelude to their showdown in America at the MacNeil residence  

Science deals with man not as a being with a soul—a non-physical essence that is in him and yet separate from him—but as a machine made up of parts and chemicals in a system designed to perform a specific function. The soul is man’s way of corresponding with God who is a spirit but having been reduced to machines, man has no soul and no connection to God but to the physical world of his appetites and emotions. 

Power of the Air

Ephesians 2:2—1As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. We all lived among them at one time in the cravings of our flesh, indulging its desires and thoughts. 

In this film, demonic possession is analogous to getting a cold or being invaded by an airborne virus. The Devil is described as something outside the self that gains access through some kind of weakness or vulnerability on the part of its host.  Prior to Regan’s strange behavior, Chris discovers her window wide open. In another scene following the death of Burke Dennings, Regan’s window--through which she pushed in a scene not shown--is found wide open. Later in the film, Lieutenant Kinderman warning Chris to watch out for drafts is also an allusion to airborne viruses that attack those who are weak, as in those who have a cold or flu or other immune deficiencies are vulnerable to infection. These examples coincide with Satan described in the Bible as “the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2).” 

The Devil infects the spirits of those who are weak and those who have no faith. Regan is spiritually weak due to her parents’ separation; Karras is spiritually weak because of the guilt he has about leaving his mother alone in New York. Plus, he’s lost faith because of his clinical understanding of mental behaviors that were once classified as possession. 

From Wikipedia:

In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu (sometimes Fazuzu or Pazuza) was the king of the demons of the wind, brother of Humbaba and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.

Rebellion

Everything that God commands us to do is against the physical nature in which we were created. So, to make our natures and His laws agree, we use our understanding of science to outsmart God’s spiritual laws, the violations of which are death, not actual death but death in the spiritual sense that we are deprived of the joy of being connected to God and any pleasure we derive from indulging our fleshly urges is fleeting. We take pills to make us feel good and to feel better, but the euphoria doesn’t last; we seek joy through sex, but it doesn’t last; we go out and buy material things to fill the void of not having real joy in our lives but these pleasures are all short-lived. We are dead because we are cut off from God and the fullness of life. Karras is highly educated, but he is dead. 

There is an inverse relationship between scientific advancement and moral decay in our society. There’s a party scene in the film where one of the guests is an astronaut. In the context of man rebelling against God, the astronaut is a high-tech version of Satan: Isaiah 14— “I’ll go up to the cloud tops; I'll be like the Most High!” This is why Regan tells the astronaut “You’re all gonna die up there,” because Lucifer tried this and paid the price for it. 

Ultimately, Regan represents mankind’s rebellion. She has made herself ugly with self-inflicted wounds as we have perverted nature and polluted ourselves and the entire world by our greed, our vanities, our selfish wars, and our lusts. When Merrin explains to Karras when asked why the Devil would possess Regan, Merrin answers him saying that it’s because the Devil seeks to separate us from God by making us seem so ugly that God could not possibly forgive us. His answer coincides with the fall of Adam in the book of Genesis after God commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. After eating the fruit of this forbidden tree, Adam hides from God, or, as Merrin explains to Karras, Adam separates himself from God covering his nakedness, or shame, for being disobedient: 

Genesis 3:

8They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

This hiding of shame (represented as nakedness) and separating oneself from God is  Reagan’s possession and Merrin’s explanation for her possession— Satan’s attempt to separate man from God. So, what is the forbidden fruit? Arrogance! Man’s understanding of the human brain and his scientific progress has brought out the same arrogance that moved Lucifer, in all his power and supreme beauty, to challenge God as described in the book of Isaiah: 

12“How you have fallen from heaven,
            O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
            You have been cut down to the earth,
            You who have weakened the nations!
      13“But you said in your heart,
            ‘I will ascend to heaven;
            I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
            And I will sit on the mount of assembly
            In the recesses of the north.
      14‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

            I will make myself like the Most High.’

The magic pill

We use drugs—legal and illegal, literal and figurative— to address all of our problems.

In the film, Regan is depressed over her parent’s separation. But instead of addressing the real causes of her depression her doctors submit her to tests, X-rays, and give her drugs to make her better. When she asks her mother what’s wrong with her, Chris tells her that “It’s nerves, just like the doctors say; just take the pills and everything’s going to be fine.” This is the opposite of what parents told their children in the old days: "just say your prayers."

The desecration of the Sabbath

The 8th Commandment in Exodus 20:8—"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” 

More alcohol is consumed (325 millions gallons of beer alone not counting other alcohol beverages) on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year. And it’s not just the Super Bowl: there is nothing sacred about the sabbath: stores are open; clubs are open; strip clubs are open. This is why, in this film, the Virgin Mary is desecrated to symbolize the desecration of the sabbath by our society. 

Faith

In God

In this film, knowledge and faith are inversely related. Karras started out believing in God but after going to the best schools he loses faith in God because there are no longer any mysteries that can’t be explained by science. This makes him the ideal host for the Devil, his lack of faith in God. If the Devil isn’t real, then God isn’t real either. 

Doubt is the door that gives the Devil access into the mind without faith. Regan’s doubt about her father seeing her on her birthday; Karras’ doubt as to her being possessed; the doctors’ insistence that Regan’s behavior is purely physical.

In the Devil

As his disbelief in the Devil is tied to his disbelief in God, Karras regaining his belief in God is tied to him witnessing, with his own eyes, the Devil. 

Just as his extensive education in abnormal psychology  is when Regan does things outside of his scientific understanding that he comes to realize that Regan is possessed by an actual demon. When he asks permission to do the exorcism and his excellency asks him if he believes the girl is possessed, Karras’ answer is he doesn’t know but her conditions meet the requirements—even in requesting the exorcism, Karras still isn’t convinced of Regan’s possession. 

When the doctors ask Chris if she is involved with any religion she says no. 

Doubt

Matthew 16:4—An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

Doubt is a major factor in Karras losing faith in God. His education has taught him that there is a scientific reason for everything. In his 1st meeting with the Devil, she makes a drawer in a small table pop out. Her hands are bound to the bedposts and yet Karras doubts the miracle and asks it to do it again. In the book, he explains this away as telekinesis. Then, he hears the Devil mimicking the voice of the homeless man in the subway claiming to be an old altar boy and probably attributes this to his imagination. When the Demon mimics his mother’s voice, he asks Chris if Regan knew of his mother’s death planting more seeds of doubt. 

The film also describes the inverse relationship between scientific progress and evil. The more we learn and understand, the less we believe in God. If man denies the existence of the Devil, he loses his faith in God which opens the door for the Devil to enter the heart. God is ethics, principle, moral decency, obedience. 

This is why the Devil teases Karras with doubt throughout the film. Doubt is the opposite of faith.

• When the Devil, whose hands are tied to the bedposts, makes the small table’s drawer pop out, Karras seems stunned at 1st, then asks the Devil to do it a 2nd time. 
• When Karras sprinkles the fake Holy water on the Devil, his faith is further weakened by the Devil reacting as though the Holy water were real.
• When the Devil asks Karras about his mother, he dismisses it because Chris knew about his mother’s death and may have told Regan about it

Karras’ extensive education in the field of psychiatry added to his lack of faith

As a result of his lack of faith due to his scientific understanding combined with his guilt over not doing more with his life to help his mother, Karras poisons his body and spirit with cigarettes and alcohol and guilt over leaving his mother in New York by herself to pursue the priesthood and his education. The sins of cigarettes, alcohol, and guilt represent evil as a result of his lack of faith, making him the real target of the Devil and not the girl

The symbolism of Regan, her father, and her mother Chris

Why did the Devil use Regan to get access to Karras? Regan is dealing with feelings of rejection following her parents’ separation. This feeling of vulnerability is compounded when her father doesn’t call on her birthday. The vulnerability and rejection she feels reflects the vulnerability and rejection man feels in relation to God who doesn’t speak to us now like he did in ancient times. How he seems to have separated himself from Earth represented by Chris and left us vulnerable which gave the Devil access to her. The Devil enters Karras in the same way he enters Regan, through his vulnerabilities and feelings of rejection on God’s part who seems to have abandoned us and left us at the mercy of our limited knowledge (science). So, in this symbolic context, Regan is man, Chris is Earth, and Regan’s father is God who happens to be separated from her mother, but not divorced suggesting that there is a chance of them reuniting.