So when I was a kid, I was always
scared of scary movies. And the big bad motherfucker of a scary movie
was The Exorcist. I was terrified of this movie. It had some
kind of cult legacy that followed it for decades after its release,
so even kids like me, born decades after it released, had some kind
of unholy fascination towards it. This was scarier then Freddy or
Jason. Scarier then Saw or The Ring. This was a scarier motherfucking
movie.
Of course, as an adult I went back and
watched it. It was great. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate these
movies for other factors beyond the horror- directing, acting,
cinematography. It's a little laughable nowadays. The scariest part of The Exorcist were the medical scenes! But needless to say, I enjoyed the movie immensely.
Now at the time, I didn't even really
know the Exorcist has sequels. At the time, the general consensus was
the Exorcist 2 and the remakes were bad. Then I heard about the
Exorcist 3. I watched about halfway through the Red Letter Media
review of it, stopped to avoid spoilers, got the movie, and watched
it myself. It was pretty great.
But between Exorcist 1 and 3, there's
this really interesting implied cosmology. Note- if there is more
Exorcist deep lore I am unaware of, or if any of this has been proven
or disproved by the second film, I don't really care. This isn't
about the actual “lore” of the Exorcist films, this is just my
headcanon from one and three. I thought this would be a fun, unusual
blogpost for here. So feel free to skip if it's not your normal
thing. Also will obviously contain spoilers.
The
first Exorcist film is pretty simple. There's this lonely girl who
gets an “imaginary friend” and starts acting weird. Turns out
she's possessed by a demon. The only solution is to call in an
Exorcist.
Most
of the supernatural events in the movie are about in line what you
consider for what a “demon” could do. Objects fly around the
room. Strange, impossible biological stuff (like the head spinning
around thing- endlessly parodied) as well as superhuman strength,
especially for a young sick girl. Levitation and demonic voices.
Knowledge that a little girl shouldn't have. All of it fits well with
a general “haunted house” vibe. But notice the general theme-
most of the stuff is “plausible”. Or rather, while clearly
supernatural, there is no instant transformation into demonic forms,
no creation of matter, or no totally overpowered magical demonic
stuff.
There's
this great line in the movie. When the younger of the two priests
(Karras) sits down, a drawer opens on its own. He tells the possessed
girl to do it again, and the entity speaking through her says “in
due time”. It's a great conversation, which seems almost cordial
despite how clearly evil and inhuman this being is. When asked if the
entity could simply make the bonds tying the girl down disappear, it
replies with “that would be too vulgar a display of power, Karras.”
This line is great because it implies that these entities, spirits,
whatever else have to follow some kind of rules. It never implies it
can't
do it, but it chooses
not to.
There's
another element here I want to add- the good guy priests here believe
in God, but God never directly manifests in this film. God never
directly acts. The end of the movie is even a bit ambivalent of who
“wins” in the end; any victory that happens is a human victory.
The Exorcist 3
The
third Exorcist film has a great atmosphere to it. The film is mostly
set in a hospital, next to/in an old folks home. The entire movie is
dotted with gruesome murders, which are in line with a famous serial
killer called the Gemini. The Gemini killer has been dead for fifteen
years- executed.
This
movie also has a great police detective story feel to it. The murders
here are thought to be a copycat killer, but there are two problems.
The first is that the police released the details of the Gemini
killer that were false intentionally, to weed out crazy people who
might claim to be the Gemini. But this killer is not performing the
false version of events, but copying the actual Gemini killer.
Secondly, all of the murders have been done so precisely that it
seems supernatural. The exact dosage of a paralyzing drug, every
single drop of blood siphoned from the corpse without a single drop
spilled, and so on.
Now
onto the spoilers. It turns out that Karras, the exorcist priest from
the first film, is actually still alive. See, at the end of the first
Exorcist, Karras told the demon to take him instead to leave Regan's
body, and when it started to take over him he jumped out the window
and killed himself down the long flight of spooky stairs. He's not
only still alive- but his body is still possessed.
This
leads a great, almost cordial conversation again. Just like in the
first movie; these scenes between the detective character and the
entity inside of Karras were great. I loved these scenes. There was
much more madness, but this concept of being face to face, able to
ask and tell anything you wish to some entity immeasurably beyond
anything human is a great story beat. It's also fun to think about, a
kind of interaction with stakes and danger. What would I say to it in
that jail cell? Do you honestly think you could convince it to change
its ways? Probably not- it's evil is a deeper evil then any human
could understand. But perhaps you could trick it to reveal something
useful- or would you just set it off?
It's
important because these conversations between Karras and
detective Kinderman
reveal to us some of the most important details about the cosmology
about the Exorcist universe.
In
Kinderman's talks to the demon (also Gemini killer) several facts or
ideas are put forward by the being. It is important to know that this
is all we go on, but obviously a demonic entity would be prone to
lying. I've included paraphrased quotes. From this we gather;
- Learned some kind of supernatural abilities from The Master- this is directly after he does a demon roar in Karras's body, not a normal human vocalization. (the Master is implied to be the demon in control of the body, who can be cruel)
- The Gemini Killer's soul was picked up “on the outside”. “It can be cruel at there”.
- “The Master is throwing me scraps from his table, a little reward for my service.”
- When the possessed Karras goes to sleep, the body (heartbeat, temperature, breathing) slows to a crawl. But his brainwave activity accelerates.
- As with the above fact; at the end of the movie it is revealed how the murders are being done- the elderly patients are being possessed by the Gemini killer. This is despite the fact that his/the demon's body is locked up in a padded cell.
- (Gemini Killer in Karras's Body) “There I was, in the void, without a body. And then came- well you know, my friend. One of them. Those others there, the cruel ones. The Master. And he thought that my work should continue- in this body. In this body in particular.”
- The Master intentionally chose a priest's body to spread panic among the men of faith- this is directly stated by the Gemini Killer as the devil's “scheme”.
- The Master brought the Gemini Killer's soul to Karras who was dying.
- Karras's body after the end of the first movie was dying or dead. “His brain was jelly. It took maximum effort to get out of the coffin. So much damage to Karras's brain cells.” and “It took quite an effort to regenerate your friend's puny little brain cells- It took me fifteen years!”
- “It's not enough to be a spirit. There's no magic- in this artificial box you call a world. We cannot touch except through bodies, you understand? We operate through brains- neurological systems and your friends was nearly past resurrection!”
The Glass Box
This,
in combination with factors from the Exorcist 1, have given me a
rough idea of a (very interesting) cosmology for the Exorcist
universe. Once again, this is entirely my opinion and an interesting
potential secondary interpretation of the otherwise very
played-straight religious and demonic possession themes of the
Exorcist universe.
Unfortunately
for diversity of potential beliefs, both movies feature Catholicism
very heavily. As far as the series is concerned, the Catholic faith
is the correct one for our interpretation. However, if the second
movie featured say, a Baptist or Protestant priest performing the
exorcism, I think the interpretation would be the same or even
enhanced by it. The reason for this minor complaint is that it puts
too much emphasis on religion for our interpretations.
Essentially;
there is nothing supernatural in the Exorcist universe. Everything
that is “supernatural” in the movies is the result of psychic
powers. Yes really. The universe as presented in the Exorcist is a
box- a glass box. The “spirits” that exist outside of the
universe can see in, and we inside can see out. They can even
communicate through the glass, but alone they are powerless.
It is
for this reason they are powerless without a body to inhabit.
All that shit flying around the room in Regan's room in The Exorcist? That's her own psychic powers, which have been magnified by the demon. I even believe psychic powers feature heavily in the second movie, which I have not seen nor care to see, so everything I'm saying here could already be established. Now I should mention here- just because humans can develop these kinds of abilities, doesn't meant they should. Think of Humans in this universe a bit like highly built, purpose crafted sports cars that demons break down for scrap parts and repurposed to cause havoc. It causes immense strain on the bodies of those they inhabit- cuts and bruises opening as the demons play with the muscles and scratch the skin- they don't know what these pain signals mean or care.
All that shit flying around the room in Regan's room in The Exorcist? That's her own psychic powers, which have been magnified by the demon. I even believe psychic powers feature heavily in the second movie, which I have not seen nor care to see, so everything I'm saying here could already be established. Now I should mention here- just because humans can develop these kinds of abilities, doesn't meant they should. Think of Humans in this universe a bit like highly built, purpose crafted sports cars that demons break down for scrap parts and repurposed to cause havoc. It causes immense strain on the bodies of those they inhabit- cuts and bruises opening as the demons play with the muscles and scratch the skin- they don't know what these pain signals mean or care.
God,
or the Creator in the Exorcist universe, created it to be orderly and
fundamentally practical. It is a physical universe, created either
for the benefit of humans, or to allow human free will. Given the
presentation of the movies, we are pretty certain that this is the
Christian and/or Catholic God, or at very least the Judeo-Christian
God from the bible. However, I don't think this necessarily needs to
be what is actually going on. For two reasons- the first is that in
both movies, not all the main characters are Christian or at least
aren't devout. Secondly, if you go with the psychic powers
interpretation above, then God doesn't necessarily need to be the one
granting the Exorcists their powers.
God
in the Exorcist universe wanted humans to have free wills. The
spirits outside, the cruel spirits which could be literal demons cast
out of heaven OR some other fundamental and separate aspect of
reality, they take over humans and make them do “fun” things,
because they don't have bodies themselves. The souls of humans are
inextricably tied to their bodies- as long as they are alive, they
are within their own body. The demon in Exorcist 3 explicitly wants
to torture Karras, who is still trapped within his body- why would
God allow Karras to still be in his body for fifteen years, only to
be forced to do things he doesn't want to do by an evil serial
killer?
Because
God can't intervene- at least not directly.
God of the Box
The
same as the demons in these movies- God is outside of the glass box.
Perhaps God simply doesn't want to intervene, same as the “Master”
in the first movie- it would be too vulgar a display of power. I'm
not a theologian nor a Christian, but I once heard a pretty good
argument from one about why God doesn't show proof of his existence-
it would take away the human ability of free will. Now that answer is
very much an apologist answer- but I will accept it at face value. I
don't think it's out of the question. God won't do anything directly
in the Exorcist movies because he either chooses not to, or because
he is locked out of his own universe he has created. There's no
“magic” in that universe.
So
whenever an Exorcism happens in the Exorcist movies- it is not God
but it is the person performing the Exorcism. It is their own psychic
power acting through them. This is why I complained a bit about the
movies only having catholic exorcists- if we saw other faiths, we
could say it was human conviction (or God just doesn't align to only
one religion, which works too) that had the power in the scenario.
This
is somewhat cooperated by the ending of the first film, where Karras
jumps out a window as he's being possessed to kill himself. I don't
know about you but that doesn't sound like a very properly Christian
ending- it's more pragmatic. It's more human. That's why Exorcism is
a battle, it's not a one sided show where God steps through his
servant to crush the Devil. It's a battle of minds, where the priests
channel their own faith and hope against a spirit who has
puppet-mastered another human into being the opposite- an instrument
of negative emotions and evil.
Therefore
my secondary interpretation of the movies is one of a more pragmatic,
human, universal take on the Exorcist genre. I don't claim that this
is the REAL goings on behind the scenes in the movies, nor do I think
this has any basis in real religious beliefs. I just wanted to share
a weird headcanon that I hope you enjoy- or get something out of it.
Glass box is an evocative phrase. Perhaps one of the reasons the demons don't display direct powers is because they don't want to shatter their toy...
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