The mother (or daughter?) of all antichrist misdemeanours returns. On Oct 31 -- Halloween night -- The Exorcist will soil the Scala with its ineffaceable green puke, God-denouncing expletives and Satanic rebellion led by Linda Blair, strapped to her bed and yet still cussing, hurting, levitating.
All the sordid factoids have been repeated over the past 45 years since William Friedkin's film came out in 1973: the cursed production; how some cinemas forbade pregnant women from seeing the film; how the film was initially banned in the UK; how Blair, then 15, beat 500 other candidates to land the role of Regan, the possessed girl at the centre of this horror film that helped define the 1970s. The film, for all its pulpy pull, was nominated for 10 Oscars and won two (best adapted screenplay, by the writer of the original novel William Blatty, and for best sound mixing).
Blair plays Regan, the girl possessed. Ellen Burstyn plays her mother who, like many mothers in the 1970s, has to deal with a child in violent rebellion at a time when youths wanted to break all rules, civil or godly. Max Von Sydow is the venerable Father Merrin while Jason Miller plays Father Karras, whose faith is shaken in the presence of the powerful demon. William O'Malley, a real priest, makes an appearance as Father Dyer.
After all these years The Exorcist's demonic spectacles still provoke fright -- a kind of aggressive, disturbing fright (Friedkin said people go to the movies for three things: to laugh, cry or be frightened). For one thing, and for the fact that we've consumed horror movies in great quantity as part of our cultural upbringing, The Exorcist is still one of those rare titles (in film and literature) that rekindles our primal, savage fear of the Devil, a pre-religious instinct that warns us against an unknown, murderous force intent on destroying our body and soul. Regan's youthfulness and her transformation into a putrid, contorting banshee with projectile vomit is unnerving not just because she looks like a talking corpse, but because it signifies corruption at the deepest level. Recent horror films, in contrast, are only interested in jump-scares and optical spooks; the terror is only skin-deep and forgettable because it doesn't reconnect us with something far more unsettling inside all of us.
The Exorcist opened in Thailand back in the mid-1970s, and I've heard stories of people flocking to the cinemas in Siam Square on the opening night. The Scala screening, at 8pm next Wednesday, is a perfect Halloween date and a chance to revisit one of the most enduring horror titles in cinema history. Come in costume if you like, but please, don't bring children. Tickets are available now at Scala.
