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There's trouble in Washington! Father Damien Karras has lost his faith in God; a film director’s body--with its head twisted backwards--is found outside of a girl’s bedroom window; at an archeological site in Northern Iraq, Priest Lankester Merrin digs up an ancient relic called Pazuzu.
The Exorcist is a 1973 supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin based on William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel. The novel and film were inspired by a 1949 exorcism involving a 12 year old boy named Roland Doe that took place at Alexian Brothers Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair.
In the film, the 12-year old daughter of film actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) struggles with depression following her parents’ separation. Her depression deepens when her father--who is living in Rome--forgets to call and wish her happy birthday. Regan invents an imaginary friend named Captain Howdy that she communicates with by Ouija board. One night while Regan’s asleep, a draft enters the open window of her room. After this, strange noises begin coming from the attic. Regan begins to act out of character by mutilating her face and using profanity. Her mother takes her to doctors and psychiatrists who find nothing wrong. A doctor suggests a priest to perform an exorcism on Regan. Chris is defiant and even insulted by the suggestion but concedes to it after the body of a film director is found outside the girl’s bedroom window. A local parish refers Chris to Father Damien Karras who is losing his faith and dealing with his aging mother who is suffering from dementia. Having studied psychiatry at the best colleges, Karras sees Regan’s behavioral problems as a clinical issue and not a spiritual one. He agrees to see Regan but only as a psychiatrist, not as a priest.
The Exorcist is more than a simple horror movie about a 12 year old girl possessed by the Devil. The Exorcist is also a metaphor of how science replaced God to become a world religion. In the film, doctors have become priests and hospitals have become temples. Spiritual issues like Regan’s depression over her parents’ separation are treated like physical problems.
For example, notice how hostile Chris becomes upon discovering a cross that someone put under Regan’s pillow. When Regan tells Chris that she doesn’t feel good, notice Chris’s response when she tells Regan to just take some pills and everything will be all right like the doctor said. Father Karras resorts to alcoholism to address spiritual anguish and guilt over his mother’s death.
There are Biblical parallels in The Exorcist as well. There’s a scene where Chris is entertaining guests, one of whom happens to be an astronaut. Regan crashes the party, pisses on herself, and says to this astronaut “You’re all gonna die up there.” I always thought that this was just a random scene until I put it in the overall context of the Devil using science to cut man off from God. I then saw the metaphor of the astronaut as that of a high-tech version of Satan rebelling against God in chapter 14 of the book of Isaiah:
“I’ll go up to the cloud tops; I'll be like the Most High!"
Regan’s self-inflicted wounds are also understood in a Biblical context. As she has made herself ugly, we have perverted nature, ourselves and the world through greed, vanity, wars, and lust. Karras asks Merrin why the Devil would disfigure Regan and Merrin tells him that it is because the Devil wants to separate us from God by making us so ugly that God could not possibly forgive us. In other words, Merrin is telling Karras that the Devil wants us to feel too ashamed to face God because of our sins. This not only applies to Regan but also to Karras who feels ashamed for not taking better care of his dead mother. Now, compare this to the book of Genesis after God tells Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. After eating the fruit of this forbidden tree and disobeying God, what does Adam do? He hides himself from God to hide his shame. Ultimately, I saw the film as God using the girl to reconcile Himself with man through Karras who abandons his faith because of his education and his shame over his mother’s death.
Before directing this film, William Friedkin had done, in my opinion, 1 of the greatest crime thrillers in 1971s The French Connection. The Exorcist is the 1st horror film to be nominated for a Best Picture award at the Oscars, nominated for 10 Oscars in all and winning 2 for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. When I think of the best horror films, my top 3 are James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein, Brian DePalma’s Carrie and this film. The Exorcist was filmed on location in Mosul, Iraq and Georgetown, Washington. Real priests were brought in as technical advisers on the exorcism scenes. Even after 45 years this film still holds up pretty well. There are 2 versions of the film but I recommend the Director’s cut.
The film opens showing the outside of the MacNeil home in an affluent section of Georgetown; then, a statue of the Virgin Mary inside of a chapel.
Prologue
An army of workers dig away at an archeological site in Northern Iraq. Boy delivers message to Father Merlin, a senior Catholic priest. Diggers have found small artifacts at the base of the mountain: lamps, arrowheads, and a coin. Merlin goes to the site and there he reaches into a small hole and pulls out the head of a demon called Pazuzu.
Merrin stops to sit a moment at a market to take his heart medicine. Walking through the market, he sees 3 blacksmiths beating metal on an anvil; of them has 1 eye. Later, Merrin and an assistant go over their finding that include a coin and the head of Pazuzu. “Evil against evil,” his assistant says regarding Pazuzu. Then, the clock on the wall stops. Merlin says goodbye to his assistant. Walking through the village, he barely avoids being ran over by a carriage; its rider laughs as she goes by.
He stops at a ruin where there is a life-sized statue of the demon Pazuzu on a mound overlooking 2 dogs fighting each other. Merlin stands on the opposite mound to face Pazuzu.
Georgetown
Actress Chris MacNeil is in bed annotating her lines in a script. She hears a loud noise in the attic and checks her daughter’s room. Reagan is asleep but her window is wide open.
Chris greets a female servant in the kitchen. She tells the male servant, Karl, to put rat traps in attic.
Movie set of “Crash Course”
Chris argues with director Burke Dennings about something in the script. He says something funny and they hug. She makes brief eye contact with priest Damien Karras who’s among the spectators. Cameras roll and she grabs a bullhorn, enters the scene, and does her part. Karras leaves. Later, Chris walks home. Kids are out in Halloween costumes. The gate of Saint MIke's parish is open and she catches a glimpse of Karras (psychiatric counselor) as she walks by.
At home, her daughter Regan tells her about a horse she’d seen earlier. She asks Chris to get her a horse for her birthday. They play and Chris wrestles Regan to the floor.
Karras in subway waiting for a train. A homeless man asks him for some money claiming to have once been an altar boy. Karras walks down the street in rundown New York City neighborhood and enters one of the apartment buildings to see his mother who is happy to see him. He wraps fresh gauze around her injured leg and asks her if she wants to be put in a home. An adamant no is her answer. He lights a cigarette and she asks him what’s the matter and he says “nothing,” but she can tell that something is bothering him.
The MacNeil home
In the basement, Regan shows Chris her Ouija board. Chris wants to play but Captain Howdy, Regan’s imaginary friend, doesn’t want to play with Chris. Later, Chris puts Regan to bed and asks her what she wants for her birthday. Regan tells Chris that she can invite Burke Dennings to her part. She asks Chris if she feels the same way about Burke as she feels about her father whom Chris is separated from. Chris says that she and Burke are only friends.
Karras and Tom, a fellow priest, are in a bar having a drink. Karras feels bad about leaving his mom alone in New York. Tom suggests a transfer to a New York Parish but Karras has lost faith in God and simply wants out.
The MacNeil home
It’s Regan’s birthday and Chris is on phone and yelling at the operator who is unable to reach Regan’s father who is in Rome and has not called to wish his daughter happy birthday.
Chris in bed and receives a call from someone on the movie set. Regan is in bed with her claiming that she can’t get any sleep in her own room because her bed is shaking. Chris hears a noise in attic and goes there to find Karl who tells her that there are no rats.
Saint Michael’s Parish
Priest carries 2 flower pots to the chapel and finds the statue of virgin Mary defiled by vandals.
Regan is at the hospital being put through a series of tests. A demon’s face flashes through her mind. Her behavior towards the staff is violent and bizarre. Afterwards, the Dr. tells Chris that Regan has a nervous disorder and writes her a prescription for Ritalin. She might be depressed over her parent’s separation. Doctor says that Regan told him to keep his hand off her goddamn cunt. Chris is stunned; Regan never cursed.
Karras and his mother’s brother visit her at the hospital where she is being treated for dementia.
His uncle condemns him for joining the priesthood instead of becoming a lawyer where he could put his mother in a decent home instead of a dump. Ill patients clutch Karras’ robe but he tears himself loose and takes off his collar. His mother looks up from her bed and asks him why he put her in the hospital.
In a gym, Karras works off his frustration on a heavy bag.
The MacNeil home
Chris hosts a party and Burke is sloppy drunk and making vulgar comments. He spots Chris’ servant Karl and follows him around berating him for the Holocaust (Karl is German).
Chris asks Father Dyer about Karras who discovered yesterday that his mother had passed away. Burke call Karl a Nazi and Karl chokes him. Sharon and Chris intervene and Burke asks her what’s for dessert. Chris checks in on Regan who is in bed pretending to be asleep. Burke leaves.
Everybody gathers around Father Dyer who is singing and playing the piano. Regan interrupts the party. “You’re all gonna die up there,” she says and pisses on herself.
Chris gives Regan a bath. Regan tells her that she doesn’t know why she said that at the party.
Chris puts Regan to bed and tells her that it’s just nerves and to take the pills like the doctor said. Chris is going downstairs and hears a loud noise from Regan’s room. She rushes back to the room to witness Regan’s bed shaking off the floor.
Saint Michael’s Parish
Dyer visits Karras who’s in his room at the parish wallowing in guilt over his mother. He should have been there for her. Dyer pours him a drink and puts him to bed.
Karras’ dream: montage
A falling coin
A rabid dog foaming at the mouth
The stopped pendulum of a clock
His mother going down the subway
The face of a demon
Hospital
Chris and hospital staff struggle with Regan to give her a shot.
Church
Karras in chapel leading a prayer
At the hospital, Doctor tells Chris he believes that Regan has a disturbance in chemical electrical activity of her brain. Chris tells him about shaking bed and he scoffs, telling her that the problem is Regan’s head and not the bed. He believes she has a scar (lesion) on the temporal lobe.
Regan undergoes an EEG, an arteriogram, and an x-ray procedure of her spinal cord. The x-rays, however, are negative showing no obvious abnormalities.
The MacNeil home
Chris calls the doctors to her home. There, the doctors are stunned when they see Regan rising and falling on bed. She strikes one of the doctors hard, knocking him to the floor, then raises up her gown and says to him, “fuck me.”
They give her a shot to put her to sleep.
The doctors talk to Chris outside the room. She wants to know how Regan could fly off the bed and the doctors gives her their scientific interpretation, calling it “abnormal strength accelerated motor performance induced by abnormal mental states.” They tell her that they need to do a pneumoencephalogram to pin down the lesion which will involve another spinal.
The x-rays turn up negative. The doctor asks Chris if she keeps drugs in the house and she tells him that she doesn’t even smoke grass. He wants her to start looking for a psychiatrist.
Chris arrives home from seeing the doctor. The telephone rings but no one answers her. Regan’s bedroom window is wide open. When Sharon walks in the house, Chris shouts at her for leaving Regan by herself. Sharon left Burt to watch her while she ran out to get the thorazine. They are interrupted by a friend named Chuck who tells them that Burke had fallen down the steps outside and had broken his neck.
A psychiatrist hypnotizes Regan and asks her who is inside of her. She says it’s Captain Howdy sometimes. He, then, speaks to the person inside of Regan. She growls and attacks him.
Karras is at the school track running laps. Lieutenant Kinderman is sitting in the stands reading a newspaper. When Karras finishes, Kinderman questions him about Burke Dennings’ death and what he knows about witchcraft; he’d read a psychiatric paper Karras wrote on the subject. Kinderman shares the details of Burke’s death with Karras—Burke was found at the bottom of the steps with his head turned around facing backwards. Kinderman believes the desecration of the Virgin Mary in the parish was done by the same person who killed Burke Dennings. Karras is tight-lipped and Kinderman tells Karras that a priest was once locked up for not cooperating with the police in an investigation. Karras isn’t rattled. Kinderman asks if any priests fit the description of Burke Dennings’ killer but Karras walks away.
Hospital
Chris and a team of doctors meet in a conference room. They are baffled by Regan’s behavior and recommend that she contact a priest to perform an exorcism on her daughter. Their reasoning is that Regan’s belief that she is possessed would also make her believe in the exorcism’s power to cure her.
Chris takes Regan home. Kinderman is at the bottom of the steps outside Regan’s bedroom window looking for clues to Burke Denning’s death. He finds a small clay figure of Pazuzu’s head that Regan made.
Chris finds a crucifix under Regan’s pillow and asks Sharon and the servants, Willie and her husband Karl who put it there but no one takes responsibility for it. Chris answers the front door and it is Kinderman wanting to interview her about Burke Denning’s death. He believes that a very powerful man Killed Dennings and threw him out of Regan’s window.
She makes him a cup of coffee and he asks her for an autograph. Then, she shows him to the door. He will come back to interview Regan when she is feeling better.
Chris hears a loud noise and rushes up the steps to Regan’s room where the girl is on the bed stabbing the crucifix into her private parts. She strikes Chris with a hard blow knocking her to the floor. Regan’s head twists around facing backwards and she says to Chris in Dennings’ voice: “Do you know what your daughter did?”
Chris and Karras meet in a park and she asks him how to go about getting an exorcism.
He tells her that it doesn’t happen anymore since they learned about mental illnesses like paranoia and schizophrenia—all the things Harvard taught him. Chris breaks down and tells him that her daughter is possessed. He agrees to see Regan but only as a psychiatrist.
The MacNeil home
Chris and Karras enter Regan’s room. Her wrists are tied to the bedposts to keep her from doing further harm to her face. He introduces himself and she introduces herself as the Devil. Then she asks him to undo the straps but Karras asks her to prove she’s the Devil and make them disappear. She refuses on the grounds that doing so would be too vulgar. She mimics the homeless man Karras saw in the subway, asking if he could help an old altar boy.
She tells Karras that his deceased mother is with them. Karras smiles and asks her to tell him his mother’s maiden name. She frowns and throws up in his face.
Karras and Chris are in basement. She washed his shirt and is ironing it. He tells her that he can’t do exorcism and urges her to put Regan in a good hospital. She walks him out but before leaving he asks her if Regan knew his mother died; she didn’t. Kinderman is in his car across the street and sees Karras leaving the MacNeil home. He also sees someone’s shadow in the window of Reagan’s room.
Kara in chapel performing Holy Sacrament
The MacNeil home
Karras visits Regan. While his back is turned, the drawer pops out of the table by the bed.
He asks her to do it again but she refuses to do so. He brings out a small bottle of Holy water and sprinkles it on her. She starts squirming and hissing. Different voices issue out of her including that of his dead mother. He turns on his tape recorder.
Later, he tells Chris that he sprinkled fake Holy water on Regan and she reacted as though it were real. Chris tells him that Regan killed Burke Dennings.
Karras takes tapes of Regan to a sound lab. The gibberish on the tape is English in reverse. Karras gets a call from Sharon to come by the house quickly. There, Sharon raises Reagans’ nightgown to expose the words “help me” written on her stomach.
The bishop gives permission to do the exorcism and assign the elder priest Lancaster Merrin to assist him. Merrin performed an exorcism a decade earlier that almost killed him.
A cab drops Merrin off at the MacNeil home and Chris lets him inside. He and Karras greet each other and Merlin sends him to the local parish to get some things for him.
The priests prepare for the ritual and Merlin warns Karras not to listen to the Demon who will attack them by mixing lies with truth. Karras describes the many personalities the girl has manifested but Merrin cuts him off: “There’s only 1.”
They go to Regan’s room and the demon hits the old man in his eye with a lump of vomit. He remains calm and they begin the exorcism. Demon curses them, then begins growling like a dog. The bed shakes pounds the floor. Merlin flings Holy water at the Demon.
Karras looks stunned when the bed starts rocking like a boat. Then, all 4 legs of the bed rise 4 feet off the floor and hovers a few minutes before dropping back down. The face of the demon appears and then vanishes. A serpent tongue flickers out at Karras. He goes into shock and Merrin sends him to clean her vomit off his stole. The Devil is aware of Merrin’s bad heart and attacks him, slamming the shutters and pounding the walls. Merrin recovers and the Demon recoils, spinning its head completely around, then turns its attention on Karras, accusing him of leaving his mother. Karras withers.
Suddenly, the Devil falls back, rolls its eyes, and rises off the bed. Merlin sprinkles Holy water on it. After a few minutes, it lowers back onto the mattress. The room shakes and for a moment, Pazuzu appears.
The priests climb to their feet and pick up and continue the exorcism. Regan falls silent and the priests take a breather so that Merrin can go to the bathroom to take his heart medicine. Karras reenters the room and sees his mother sitting on the bed. Then she vanishes and the Demon moos like a cow.
Karras checks its heart as it speaks to him as his mother asking him why he abandoned her. He breaks down and Merrin sends him out of the room. Merlin sprinkles Holy water on the demon. Then he kneels by the bed and holds the creature’s.
Downstairs, Karras rests on a small couch. Chris asks him if Regan will live. He looks at her, says yes, and returns to Regans’ room. The doorbell rings and Chris answers it. It’s Lieutenant Kinderman.
Karras finds Merrin dead on the floor beside Regan’s bed. Karras throws the demon to the floor and the demon leaves Regan and goes into him. He jumps out of the window and lands at bottom of the stairs.
Father Dyer prays over Karras’ body.
Chris moves out of house. Regan kisses Father Dyer goodbye. Chris gives him Karras’ necklace but he gives it back to her. They drive away. The window of Regan’s room is boarded up.
Lieutenant Kinderman comes by and asks about Regan. He takes Dyer to Lunch. The end.
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—"Rememberthe sabbathday,to keepit 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.
