"The Exorcist" Stunned Audiences, Conclusion

Much earlier, before any trouble started, the daughter had questioned her mother's relationship with the movie director (played by Jack MacGowran), seemingly fearful that her mother would marry him, thus quashing any chance of a reconciliation between her parents. When the mother learns that the director has been killed in a supposed fall down the long series of steps to the street right below her daughter's bedroom window, she begins to worry that her daughter had something to do with his death, especially when an old detective (played by Lee J. Cobb, a favorite of mine) comes to the house asking questions, and relating how the director's body had been found at the bottom of the steps with his head turned clear around. The detective then theorizes that the director had been killed by a powerful man and then his body had then been pushed down the stairway. By the time of the detective's visit, the mother had already learned that the director had been left alone with the child, as the caretaker that night had gone out to pick up the girl's prescription at the drug store. This all brings another question: was the girl's dislike of the director the real motive for his murder?

Further, a statue at the local Catholic church has been severely defaced, a case the detective is also investigating. This brings him into contact with the troubled priest and a possible connection between the director's death and the defacing of the religious statue. Since the priest sees other priests with mental problems, the detective wonders if there is a psychotic priest on the loose.

During the troubled priest's first visit to the little girl, she mentions his mother, and the game of playing on his guilty conscience begins. She spews a green vomit into his face (you may never eat split pea soup again). The priest still seeks to use logic and medical science to help the girl, even though he witnessed more than the girl acting a bit bizarrely, like her knowledge of things a normal person could not possibly have known beforehand, and her markedly grotesque facial features. He goes to the church authorities to get permission to perform an exorcism (a driving out of an evil spirit). He is told by the bishop that, while he can assist, he wants to find a priest with experience in exorcism. This brings the situation back to the old priest we encountered at the beginning. He has returned from the archeological dig in Iraq, and is waiting to be summoned to fight the battle with the demon he confronted years  before. The summons comes.

The exorcist arrives at the house and meets the other priest. Still the man of logic, the young priest offers to explain the background of the case, only to be asked by the exorcist, "Why?" They proceed into the girl's bedroom where they are met by bellowing and ranting by the ferocious demon. Obscenities fly from the mouth of the girl, as the two priests recite the exorcism ritual. The young priest wavers at the display of power and evil from the demon, and the old priest has to keep him focused. The girl's body breaks the security straps on her wrists and ankles, and the body levitates. Things subside and the old priest decides they should rest before continuing. He goes off and places a nitroglycerin pill under his tongue to help his ailing heart. The young priest, seemingly quite discouraged, sits down and the girl's mother asks him if her daughter will die. This is like a slap in the face to the despondent priest, and he emphatically answers, "No!"

He goes back to the girl's bedroom, where the old priest had returned minutes before. There he finds the old priest slumped over dead from a heart attack. The girl is sitting to the side of the bed and begins laughing. The priest grabs her, throws her to the floor and begins beating her with his fists. He yells, "Come into me," and we see a change in his face as the demon tries to enter his body, and we hear the real voice of the crying little girl in the background. During the fight on the floor, the girl snatches his Jesuit medal chain from around his neck. The priest summons all his power and crashes through the bedroom window, where he then plummets down the same long series of steps to the pavement far below. People come running from everywhere, including another priest, who is his best friend. He administers the last rites and the priest dies.

The scene jumps to when the mother and daughter are preparing to leave Washington and as they leave the house, the dead priest's friend is standing there. They talk a moment, and although we hear that the little girl doesn't remember anything from the possession, she focuses on the priest's collar, and she steps over and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

As I mentioned in the first part, this movie caused quite a stir. The special effects, complete with twisting head, levitating body, blood and green vomit, had never been seen in a "public" movie before. The vulgar language, the visual sexual references and the religious sacrilege were quite astonishing for those times, and people flocked to the theaters, as the public couldn't get enough. Hmm, who knows what dark demons lie within any of us?  

The DVD part of the photo is from the Warner Home Video 2012 DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Demon-This word for an "evil spirit" goes back to Indo European "da/di," which had the notion of "divide, separate into pieces." This gave Ancient Greek "daimon," with the meaning "spirit of destiny/guidance;" thus also, "god," from the notion of "parceling out guidance, destiny," but it seems the word was used in religious terms for "evil spirit." Latin borrowed the word as "daemon," with the meaning "spirit," along with the religious "evil spirit." English borrowed the word in the 1200s.