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Warning: The following contains major spoilers for The Exorcist and The Exorcist: Believer.
Before William Friedkin’s The Exorcist shook movie theaters across the country, a novel of the same name took the literary world by storm. William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist follows single mother and actress Chris MacNeil who watches in horror as her twelve-year-old daughter Regan becomes possessed by a demon called Pazuzu. After an extensive search for a medical diagnosis, Chris turns to Father Karras, a local priest caught up in his own crisis of faith. The final act sees an elder priest named Father Merrin join Karras in a dangerous exorcism that will cost both men their lives.
Blatty produced and penned the script to Friedkin’s controversial film, earning a Best Picture nomination and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Though the cinematic version is rigorously faithful to the source material, Friedkin and Blatty disagreed over several scenes left out of the theatrical cut. A 2000 rerelease, titled The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen, added extra footage including a conversation between Fathers Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Karras (Jason Miller) that clarifies the author’s tone and intention. When Karras asks why the demon is targeting the innocent girl, Merrin answers, “I think the point is to make us despair. To see ourselves as… animal and ugly. To make us reject the possibility that God could love us.” Another addition shows Chris keeping Karras’s medallion in the final scene indicating that the once atheist mother has found her own path to God.
Even without these scenes, The Exorcist is a profoundly religious tale. Blatty did not set out to write what would become one of the scariest novels of all time. Instead the devout Catholic intended to write an inspirational story about finding one’s faith. Though tragic, the conclusion can be interpreted as a victory over evil and the larger story centers on a doubting priest and a non-believing mother who both find salvation in the church. In a 1974 edition of America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture, Blatty responded to criticism of the film’s theology, clarifying that the titular clergyman is Karras, not Merrin as the film’s iconic poster might have us believe. Of the story’s conclusion Blatty notes, “In his act of love, Fr. Karras triumphs. And I believe him to be “saved.”’
David Gordon Green’s new film The Exorcist: Believer catches up with Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) as she joins forces with another parent desperate to save his daughter. After disappearing for three days, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) are found in a nearby barn with no memory of where they’ve been or what they’ve seen. Angela’s neighbor Ann (Ann Dowd) puts the pieces of her increasingly strange behavior together with insidious scratches on her torso and convinces her father Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.) that the true culprit may be demonic. Though Green’s story essentially follows the skeleton of Blatty’s novel, his story is firmly situated in a more progressive world. Rather than espouse the doctrine of the Catholic Church, The Exorcist: Believer centers on the power of community and connection in the ongoing fight between good and evil.
Blatty’s novel begins and ends with men of the cloth. An opening sequence introduces us to Merrin on an archeological dig in Northern Iraq where a series of omens alerts him to the resurgence of a demon he’s battled before. As Pazuzu establishes its presence in a Georgetown home, we also meet Karras, a Jesuit priest with a degree in psychology. The former boxer is beginning to doubt the existence of God and trying to secure reassignment to care for his ailing mother in New York City.
The novel’s final act unites these priests as they conduct an exorcism over young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). The elder Father ultimately does not survive the religious rite, succumbing to a heart attack while alone with the demon. Fearing himself outmatched, Karras invites Pazuzu into his own body then hurls himself out the window before the demon can take irreversible control. Karras’s friend and colleague comforts the dying priest in his final moments, accepting a gently squeezing hand as final confession. It’s nearly impossible to read this scene and not be overcome with emotion as the doubting priest finds his way back to God by sacrificing his life for another.
Blatty focuses exclusively on the Catholic Church, but Green widens the scope of his theological narrative. When Angela and Katherine go missing, their respective communities come together to exhaust every possible path. A non-believer, Victor focuses on action while Katherine’s parents turn to their Pastor for guidance and prayer. Victor’s friend enlists the help of a root worker named Doctor Beehibe (Okwui Okpokwasili) to harness the power of the natural world. Rather than a world-renowned exorcist like Father Merrin, Victor seeks out Chris MacNeil, a survivor who has dedicated her life to studying demonic possession in cultures throughout the world. Green’s exorcism is performed by an eclectic group of spiritual leaders who work together despite their religious differences.
Victor’s neighbor Ann proves to be a crucial cog in this spiritual wheel. The nurse observes Angela’s behavior in the hospital and connects her actions to passages in a book she read in college – Chris’s account of Regan’s possession. While Victor seeks out Chris’s guidance, Ann turns to Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla). Failing to secure support from the Catholic Church, the reluctant priest encourages Ann to perform the exorcism herself. A devout Catholic, Ann nearly became a nun years ago, but terminated a pregnancy just before taking her vows. Though Maddox does eventually step in, Green treats Ann as worthy of acting in the name of her God regardless of her past. She enters the Fielding home confident that every one of her life’s choices has led her to this critical moment.
Though priests frame the story, the heart of Blatty’s novel lies in a Georgetown home. Chris MacNeil may be an A-list star, but she’s also a single mother going through a painful and public divorce. Despite her busy filming schedule, she dotes on her daughter and tries to make her as comfortable as possible in their temporary residence. When Regan begins to show signs of illness, Chris turns down a long-awaited directing job in order to focus on her daughter’s care. After exhausting every medical treatment available, she reluctantly meets with a priest though she has no religious beliefs of her own. Chris initially dismisses the suggestion as tantamount to taking her daughter to a “witch doctor,” but soon urges Father Karras to seriously consider the idea of an exorcism. The story ends with Chris thanking a representative of the Catholic Church and we’re led to believe that she will be considering a return to mass herself.
The Chris we meet in Green’s film has studied religious rites from all over the world. Not limiting herself to Catholicism, she’s become a world-renowned expert in all forms of demonic possession. Unfortunately, surviving the hellish experience has not brought mother and daughter closer together. We learn that Regan was so horrified by Chris’s choice to publicize her story that she cut off all contact. The lonely mother now bitterly regrets publishing her book, A Mother’s Explanation: From Possession To Now and longs to reconnect with her estranged daughter. Ann’s copy of the book bears a striking resemblance to the first paperback edition of Blatty’s The Exorcist implying that Chris’s story reveals just as many shocking details as the controversial novel.
Green’s Victor feels a bit like an amalgam of Blatty’s two skeptical characters, Karras and Chris. The film begins in Port-au-Prince, Haiti as young parents-to-be find themselves trapped in the 2010 earthquake. Having received blessings for her unborn child, Sorenne (Tracey Graves) collapses in the crumbling hotel while Victor tries to save her. When asked whether doctors should prioritize the life of his wife or the safe delivery of his daughter, we’re led to believe he chose Angela. However, during the exorcism, the demon reveals that Victor asked them to save Sorenne instead. This devastating insight casts earlier interactions between father and daughter in a new light. Victor has been hesitant to share details of his late wife’s memory with his daughter, reclaiming a scarf Angela has taken from a box of her mother’s things. It seems the lingering guilt of this long ago choice has clouded his ability to help his daughter connect with the mother she never met.
A brief scene in which Victor works out at a boxing gym hints at a connection to Father Karras who also struggles with grief and guilt over the loss of a loved one. In the story’s second act, the priest’s mother passes away alone at home, her body sitting for days in the apartment before anyone notices she’s gone. Like Victor, Karras suffers tremendous grief at not being there for her at a critical moment. Both men see the faces of the lost women in their lives while trying to save the possessed girls. Pazuzu uses the voice and appearance of Karras’s mother to exert control over the investigating priest. However, Green presents Sorenne’s spirit as more of an inspirational guide. Perhaps because of the blessings she received just before her death, the late mother appears to provide Victor with strength as he faces the evil force invading their daughter. It’s only by returning the scarf to Angela’s neck, that they are able to finally make a connection that helps to cast the demons out.
Though the pain of watching a child become possessed must be excruciating, it’s nothing compared to what the girls themselves experience. Regan, Angela, and Katherine each suffer extreme physical injury while traumatizing their loved ones with vicious profanity and violence. Though their journeys end at the gates of hell, both possessions begin with attempts to contact absent parents. Regan lives an ostensibly privileged life, but her parents are divorcing and her father has run off to Europe with his latest fling. He forgets to call his daughter on her birthday and she hangs her head while overhearing Chris furiously try to reach him.
The original possession likely starts when Regan uses a Ouija board found in their rented home. She contacts a spirit she calls Captain Howdy, a name that bears eerie resemblance to that of her father Howard. Though we never see or hear from her biological dad, Regan gains two fathers in the course of her ordeal. Both Merrin and Karras sacrifice their own lives to save her, in striking contrast to her own father who can’t be bothered to give her his time. The final scene sees Regan fondly regarding another priest’s iconic collar, demonstrating a gratitude she barely understands. She has tried to contact her father through the occult and ended up finding a symbolic one through faith.
Green makes Angela’s search for her late mother more explicit. Having never met Sorenne, Angela has planned to contact her through spiritual means. Taking her mother’s scarf as a tangible connection, she and Katherine have planned to access the spirit world using a pendulum. Unfortunately, Victor has taken back his late wife’s scarf and the void this creates in their attempted spellwork leaves the door open for a demon to find them instead. Like Regan, Angela finds a symbolic parent in a member of the Catholic Church. Though Chris is the one they have called on for help, Ann steps in to perform the rite of exorcism. This unofficial nun is prepared to give up her own life to save Angela’s soul.
Friedkin’s film adapts Blatty’s novel faithfully, however one element of the story’s harrowing conclusion proved too unwieldy to film. The cinematic exorcism takes place over a couple of hours, but Blatty’s original novel describes a lengthy process. Though Father Merrin eventually dies of heart failure during the grueling sacrament, the demon threatens Regan’s heart as well. The longer the exorcism goes on, the more strain Pazuzu puts on her body and Father Karras continually monitors the young girl’s pulse, worried that she will eventually succumb to the exertion.
Green brings this element of the novel into his own climax as the group attempts to perform simultaneous exorcism on both girls. A registered nurse, Ann uses heart monitors to follow their respective pulses throughout the exorcism only to realize they are beating in unison. Though terrifying, this development could be interpreted as a summation of Green’s overall message: we are stronger when our hearts align with a single goal. Rather than a search for faith, The Exorcist: Believer could be interpreted as a search for community. Friedkin’s exorcism takes place in an icy room with only the two priests and the offending demon. Regan’s mother and support system wait outside, praying that it will somehow be okay. Green’s film gathers a collection of diverse people from many different faiths and posits that finding the connections we do share will ultimately allow us to overcome evil.