Horror movies, particularly those that deal with ghosts or evil spirits are in some sense more difficult to make than other genres. As soon the viewer realizes what this movie is about, his expectations are fixed. He waits for the sudden attack of the evil on the movie characters. From left or right? Or maybe behind that door? Now there are two options here. One is you bombard the viewers with false alarms mixed with real attacks right from the start. Every gesture, every object begins to look suspicious. And they react. They have to. It’s the flight response inbred by millions of years of evolution. This approach works well, if done right as in The Conjuring.
Other extreme of this approach is minimalist. You know you have a story with supernatural characters and they can do anything. But you use them so sparingly that when these effects do occur they are much more powerful. One movie that adopts this approach is The Exorcist.
I am always biased towards movies that have good visuals, movies that age well. The Exorcist is excellent in this aspect. I don’t mean the special effects part here. (I read that the special effects were retouched in the newly released version). In any case, the movie relies very little on special effects for inducing fear and that’s what makes it special (pun unintended). I think movies that make use of the age old techniques of photography look good after any number of years. This is where the cinematographer plays a crucial role. So when I see names like Gordon Willis or Janusz Kaminski, I know the visuals are going to be a special treat. In contrast, take the example of Lord of the Rings trilogy. Its special effects won Oscars at the time but just after a decade the CGI looks so artificial. You can see better special effects in any number of ads today. In case of The Exorcist, cinematographer Owen Roizman’s image of the dark silhouette of the Catholic priest visiting the haunted house has become iconic.
The characters in this movie are unusual and hence very well defined for which credit goes to William Peter Blatty. He wrote the original novel and the screenplay for the movie. Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) who is the mother of the child who gets possessed, is a well-known film actress. How often you see such an unusual occupation in a horror movie? The younger priest, Damien Karras (Jason Miller) is also unusual. He is a boxer and also a psychiatrist. The image of this priest boxing in the gym shatters all the conventional ideas about a priest. The older priest, Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) who performs the exorcism is more conventional. The movie starts with an archaeological digging in Iraq. Even here there are so many original details that make the ensemble authentic. The workers don’t speak English, the archaeologist writes his notes in Arabic. This is so much better than all those war movies where all foreigners speak English even when talking among themselves.
The Exorcist starts very slowly, like a normal movie. There is no hurry to introduce the supernatural. The first unusual occurrence comes after about 30 minutes when the girl starts behaving abnormally. Even then the movie goes the skeptic’s way, resisting the supernatural explanation all the way. One by one all rational explanations are ruled out. Doctors and psychiatrists are unable to find anything. Then a psychiatrist suggests exorcism as possible remedy. If the patient thinks that she is possessed, then a ritual like exorcism might work in her favour.
After such a slow start, when the effect of the supernatural are shown, they hit the viewer much more effectively. It’s not just the special effects that contribute here although they are quite stunning – the girl getting suspended in mid-air or her head turning by 360 degrees. Even more shocking is the way her demeanor changes from a sweet child to a male who is vulgar, both in words and actions.
Oscar awards are often criticized – there is too much lobbying, many times the deserving ones do not get the award and so on. There is some truth here. But as the years go by and you look at every year’s nominations, barring exceptions like Crash or Shakespeare In Love, most of these movies are worth watching. There have been many movies and actors who have been overlooked, but the ones that got chosen are often above a certain class. The Exorcist was the first horror movie to get ten Academy Award nominations and it won two – for adapted screenplay and sound mixing.
I don’t believe in ghosts but I don’t mind watching a good ghost movie once in a while.
