The battle resulted in an ideal film. At no level does The Exorcist itself deny the supernatural, as demonstrated by notorious scenes such because the one by which Regan turns her head 180 levels and mimics the voice of a person she killed. However Friedkin by no means permits the fabric to grow to be sensational, not to mention preachy, turning his consideration to the deep battle inside Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Regan’s mom Chris (Ellen Burstyn).
As a vital and industrial hit, now canonized as one of many nice horror films, The Exorcist has spun off sequels and a TV sequence. But, none of them have come even near replicating the facility of the primary one. Typically, the issue could be attributed to the folks behind the digicam: Inexperienced’s ecumenical method for Believer undercut its personal themes, John Boorman had a loopy method to Exorcist II, and Renny Harlin‘s shiny type meshed poorly with the fabric.
On paper, letting Blatty direct Exorcist III or giving the fourth film to Paul Schrader, who mixed religion and doubt completely in movies like The Final Temptation of Christ or First Reformed, seem to be a slam dunk, however each produced boring riffs on the 1973 movie. Solely the Fox present has actually labored, and that’s as a result of it performs extra like status tv than a continuation of The Exorcist.
All of which brings us again to Mike Flanagan. No present filmmaker has been higher than Flanagan about exploring the connection between religion and doubt. The gorgeous monologues he wrote for Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Bly Manor reveal a thoughts each delicate to the fantastic thing about perception and cognizant of the calls for of the actual. Theoretically, he may convey each Blatty’s religion and Friedkin’s doubt to his Exorcist movie.
If Flanagan can mix the 2, then his Exorcist film will lastly justify the numerous makes an attempt to construct on the 1973 movie. If not, then it can simply be the most recent sin towards a cinematic masterpiece.
