Regan, the human


No way could a 12 year old girl survive all that physical pain not to mention the freezing temps in the room, the head turning around and mutilating her privates.

reply

Of course she could survive. She was kept alive by a battery of medications; the physical pain was probably only felt in the beginning stages of the full possession; the room was only deep-frozen in the film, not the book, and even so, it was not enough to kill the priests, Chris, Sharon, Karl, the doctors, or anyone else - plus the film only shows deep-frozen temperatures in the relatively brief exorcism sessions. When Karras visits her room, nothing is frozen whatsoever; the crucifix-rape wounds would have been very easily treated at home, or Dr. Klein could have been brought in and would have been told - and would have agreed that - the injuries were self-inflicted as an effect of Regan's "mental illness"; the 180 degree head turn would not necessarily have killed Regan - I've seen this acrobatic trick done you You Tube - the full 360 degree turn would have killed Regan - HOWEVER, it is very likely that BOTH head turns are illusions performed by the demon on the already shocked-and-rattled Chris, and on the stunned and highly-stressed priests.

Regan was a fighter and a survivor.

reply

[deleted]

What bugs me about the "head turning is a illusion/hallucination" thing is that, in both head turns, there's a sound effect that implies bones are breaking. So now we're throwing an auditory hallucination into the mix; and it's shared among three witnesses.

I'm not arguing against the idea...perhaps it's all plausible. It's just that it's hard for me to believe that Friedkin/Blatty wanted to create a film for audiences to interpret where things merely get explained away as an avalanche of hallucinations.

The head spins.
The image of Karras' mother.
The Pazuzu Statue in the bedroom.
Kinderman seeing Regan at the window.
The levitation.
The church desecrations.

These are just a few things that people have claimed were illusions/hallucinations/magic tricks, etc...

I mean...sure, the content of the film is supernatural. Unexplainable things happen, perhaps some mind tricks are scattered here and there. But there has to be limits, unless we are to believe the whole exorcism was an acid trip, and it was shared by two priests.

reply

[deleted]

I treat the 360 degree head turning as pure illusion construct from the demon.

The 2016 Exorcist TV series has a better take on the head turning issue. In the series, a 180 degree turn is the method of execution the demon uses to kill his victims. I thought that was an interesting concept.

The other injuries to Regan are survivable.

reply

The 2016 Exorcist TV series has a better take on the head turning issue. In the series, a 180 degree turn is the method of execution the demon uses to kill his victims. I thought that was an interesting concept.

It's also a spoiler that I failed to avoid. 

reply

Sorry about that. I didn't know that you hadn't viewed the series yet. But it won't spoil much for you since you won't know the dialog context yet, which is key. The series is actually a lot deeper than many people realize. I have to consult with the fans on the 2016 board to confirm suspicions of motives.

reply

Nah, it's fine. I don't really think that was a spoiler as such. Entertainment Weekly can kiss my ass, though. Their Nov 4 issue, just 11 days after the episode in question aired, had a major spoiler in huge letters right on the front cover:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvwCuCXW8AA-LxZ.jpg

The articles usually warn about spoilers, so I'm not sure what they were thinking when they decided to put that on the cover. It wasn't very nice of them. haha

reply