I would seek to re-emerge, or re-re-emerge, or…at any rate, the Diabolical Side of Me would do so, in collaboration with Yours Truly, after dedicating much time to the creation of KFAB, which may, or may not, prove ultimately a success. We’re still trying to get the FCC to renew our broadcast license…something that our lawyers are working on. And so I have some spare time on my hands. It suddenly occurred to me that I still have several characters to go, and this will keep me busy for some time to come. I did, however, decide to bring out into the light a character from the movie that has been universally overlooked. Yet, he…or she…is very important indeed.

I thought I would briefly touch on the subject of one component of the Great Exorcism Dream. Karras’s? Perhaps a little bit. I have written on this subject before and taken the position that what appears to be a dream sequence seen by Karras, apparently in a drunken stupor following a visit from Chivas-Regal-Bearing-Father Dyer, is actually a dream within a vision, with the vision component being the only time in the movie where the scene is intended for the viewer and the viewer alone. Actually, the vision is made up of separate images that can be linked to different characters in the film. As such, this sequence stands in stark contrast to the rest of the film, where nothing is expressly intended for the Great Watchers Of The Movie…you, me, Darla, and everyone else. Close-ups can be very deceptive, particularly when they appear in expertly made films…

Karras asks Dyer where he got the Chivas Regal from and Dyer tells him that he took it from the President of the University. He stole it from Tom? This is essentially correct, although in some of my chaotic ramblings several years back I took the position that Dyer got the booze from Chris’s house. I was wrong. And Tom, or so I think, is a far more important character in the story than he has ever really been considered to be. So this close-up of the Stolen Bottle of Booze is a prelude to the Great Dream, Great Alcohol Induced Dream. Wait! It is only part dream and part vision. But after Dyer tells Karras that he can tell his fortune from the creases in his shoes, Karras passes out.

It is also interesting that Dyer, although I’m clearly wrong, appears to be drinking beer…

That does seem odd. The glass is a bit big for Chivas Regal, and it is also interesting that Karras doesn’t seem to have a glass at all. In fact, looking at the shot again…

…the bottle is capped and not even open. It would be strange if neither drank the Chivas! But the close-up is also important because of the cigarettes, a subject I will deal with in a subsequent essay.

…the beginning of the sequence. It is important that Karras is shrouded in darkness since it does not allow us to see where he is. And it is possible that there is a specific reason for this.
The dream sequence begins with Karras in a bit of a panic. He is…

…desperately motioning to someone. Initially, it looks like us, and I’m not beyond entertaining the idea that the makers of the film cleverly included the element that Karras is trying to get us to pay attention. But he is primarily motioning to…

…Mother Karras. Notice her demeanor…no crying and no fussing. And she does not have the bum leg. She has taken the subway to go shopping, has returned, had no trouble walking-up the stairs, and is ready to walk home. At this point she hasn’t noticed Karras. That changes and we see Mother Karras as we’re used to seeing her elsewhere…

Karras stops motioning to his mother, and sprints across the street to protect her. Is he afraid that she will walk into the street? Of course not…she might be cited for not crossing at a cross-walk!

But before this sequence plays out, we meet the actor, or actress, who doesn’t seem to appear in the credits…

The black dog. He has always been a puzzle to me. I’ve noted that there is an ancient ritual of getting rid of Lamashtu where an image of her is carried to a location where it is buried. And the ritual requires a black dog to carry the statuette...no other color dog will do. That was over-reaching. I also remember that Led Zeppelin recorded a song called…

…Black Dog, which appears on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. What makes this interesting is that the song appears on the same album as Stairway to Heaven. Although the album was released in 1971, the Stone Stairway Outside Regan’s Window, which is not the name of a song on the album, goes both ways…down to Hell and up to Heaven…metaphorically speaking.  Is there an invisible element in these songs? Stairway to Heaven is, of course, one of the greatest rock songs ever made, and the lyrics are brilliant. I don’t think the lyrics to Black Dog are particularly moving or cathartic…

Hey, hey mama said the way you move
Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove
Ah ah child way ya shake that thing
Gon' make you burn, gon' make you sting
Hey, hey baby when you walk that way
Watch your honey drip, I can't keep away

Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah
Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah
Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah
Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah

Etc…Etc…whatever. Darla said that she can write better lyrics about a Black Dog than Led Zeppelin could, and I will share her lyrics when she is finished.
Notice too that Karras stands in front of a sign featuring an arrow pointing up to Heaven, and says…

…prohibited. There can be no doubt, however you feel about Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, that standing under this sign is significant. It contributes to Karras’s contextualization about the ultimate outcome of his part of the story.
So what about the dog? Does he represent a guard dog…attempting to guard Mother Karras from her son? Or is he an attack dog? For him to have any meaning, and clearly he does, one must answer the question…why is he here? Guard dog? No. Attack dog? No. He is symbolic…. highly symbolic. Let’s see the sequence again…

The dog is associated with the image of Why-Dami-Why Mrs. Karras…

But interestingly, the next image of Mrs. Karras shows her…

…calm and carefree. She is, as noted earlier, very mobile at this point.

Now Karras has appeared, trying to get Mrs. Karras’s attention because she is in danger. It is clear that we don’t know what that danger is…it has nothing to do with walking out into the street, which you shouldn’t do because it’s dangerous. Mrs. Karras was just fine until she saw Karras…

The Proverbial Stuff just hit the Proverbial Fan. We know this manifestation of Mrs. Karras quite well…blaming her son for something that happened. Is she fair in foisting this blame on Karras? I say…no. But what does Karras think? To answer that question, we must return to the black dog, since the dog is the one who knows the answer. The beginning of understanding the image of the black dog is…oh, yeah, oh yeah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No, wait…that’s not right. A Wise Person pointed out the key element…

…it’s the backdrop…the background if you will. Now, watching the film, the split-second shots of the dog do not allow the viewer to see this key element. So here it is…

How odd is that? And how disappointed I was to find that I didn’t notice this! But I did notice something else. And I will get to that shortly. So why water? Clearly the makers of the film chose a watery background. Is he a bizarre reflection of a…

…a dogfish? A Black Dogfish? Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah! Surely not. But what then can be said about the black dog of Karras’s dream? I will show a sequence of shots as the dogs runs toward the camera…

You get the picture. All of this happens in a split second. Now there are 3 relevant things here. The first is that our Black Dog is a…

…German Shepherd. My…what big ears you have! All the better to hear Led Zeppelin perform Black Dog… Oh yeah, oh yeah ah, ah, ah ah! And that leads to the second key element…German Shepherds are fiercely protective…the owner and owner’s family is part of the pack which is to be defended at all costs. So there you have it…he is defending Mother Karras…the leader of the pack? No, that clearly is not the case. So we see three key elements:

1. German Shepherd
2.  Fiercely protective
3.  Water

Water? How does that fit? Well, it can be said that the dog appears to be running as fast as his four legs will go. And! What about the expression on this face?

Don’t mess with the pack’s puppies…in this case, a human puppy! But this dog doesn’t seem very worried. Now for a black dog that is little less laid back…

Now that is an angry German Shepherd who will protect his owner to the very end. But this is not the look on the face of our black dog. His demeanor is not fearsome…it is fearful. Our black dog is terrified, and is running as fast as he can. Why? That can be answered by the next key element, or, more precisely, two elements. As the dog desperately runs from the water, we see…

…a very large wave coming in. It is probably growing in height by the moment. We are clearly on the seashore…and the dog is running from the shore as a very large wave is coming in. But notice this feature…

Although it is needless to say, I will say it anyway! The viewer cannot see the strange dark object indicated by the yellow arrow while watching the film. Only by going frame-by-frame will one notice this. And it is not accidental. I think it’s meant to represent a…

…a waterspout. And there are some very cool illustrations of waterspouts…

Ok, we’re not exactly talking about the hapless Itsy Bitsy Spider. No, this is more like it…

Here is an awesome picture of a waterspout…

The old-time mariners were rather fearful when they saw a waterspout forming, as indicated by the following illustration…

A waterspout is a funnel cloud that develops on the surface of the sea, and can result from stormy skies. But there are fair-weather waterspouts as well. There are different ways they form; one is rapid descent from up above. The tornadic version of the waterspout starts as either a tornado that began on land and moved onto the surface of the sea, or a funnel cloud that develops over the sea, and moves inland. If it is generated over the surface of the sea, it is usually formed by mesocyclones that produce the funnel cloud. They can appear very suddenly. Sailors be warned!

I feel that there is no other explanation for what is seen momentarily in the sequence of shots of the dog than a sudden, tornadic waterspout that has generated at least one, very large wave.

There are many things that can cause large waves, although the tsunami tops the list, with a 100 foot run-up height at Banda Ache during the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.  And it is amazing that with such a large earthquake like the one that generated the 2004 tsunami, giving everyone a clear warning, most people nonetheless got caught by the waves close to shore. The first island hit by the tsunami was Simeulue, which was 60 kilometers from the epicenter, whereas Banda Aceh was 250 kilometers from the epicenter. At the time, the population of Simeulue was 70,000. The tsunami hit only 15 minutes after the earthquake. The death toll must have been horrific! Well, no…5 people died, despite being closest to the epicenter, and with only 15 minutes warning. Of the 5 people killed, none died in the tsunami…they all perished in the earthquake. Smong! Smong! That was what the people of Simeulue screamed as they headed for higher ground minutes after the earthquake ended. Smong simply means…tsunami, and the people of the island had an oral tradition going back generations whereby children were taught that when an earthquake hits, Smong was coming, and you immediately run for higher ground.

In this case, the waterspout appeared and sent a giant wave racing toward shore. And our black dog barked out…Smong! Smong! Not really, but it is clear that when he saw the wave coming, he ran as fast as he could in abject terror. Fight or flight? In this case…flight. So what is the problem in the series of shots involving Mr. Black Dog? Well, when answering the question…fight or flight? our black dog answered it incorrectly…he failed his test. For a human being…flight. But if, as I assume, that the dog was down at the beach with his owner, and being a German Shepherd, his answer should have been…I don’t flee, I stay with my owner…to the death. But in order to save his own hide, he abandoned his owner, leaving him to die, when any other German Shepherd would have told him…you never abandon your owner…you fight for him, or you die with him. And thus what he symbolizes is an act of abject cowardice, a total rejection of the most basic responsibility that there is if you are a German Shepherd…never abandon your owner when there is danger. And so it is that our black dog has a name…Smong. No, wait that’s not it. His name is…Karras.  He knew of a danger facing his mother, but he did not protect her. But it may have been, in his mind, that the fact he didn’t protect her was due to cowardice. I will say that it was not…but that is not how Karras saw it.

When Mrs. Karras emerges from the subway, she seems perfectly normal. There’s no sign that she’s in anything more than a normal state of mind…she’s not upset in the least. And equally, if not more important, she is walking just fine…there is nothing wrong with her leg. I will discuss Karras’s uncle John in a later essay. But I would say that what Mother Karras’s leg is directly related to, or a consequence of, is the real danger that she faced…a danger Karras believes he knew about and against which he should have protected his mother, but failed to do so. At least in his mind. What’s more important than the truth? Answer…what people think is the truth. Thus there is a direct link between the image of the dog and Mrs. Karras’s leg. Remember that a psychiatrist is also a medical doctor. So it is rather strange that Karras does not seem to notice that what Uncle John tells him about Mrs. Karras’s leg would seem to be nonsense.

The edema affected her brain. Do you understand, Dami? She don’t let no doctor come near here. She was all the time screaming and even talking to the radio.

You should have called me the minute it happened.

Listen, regular hospital is not going to put up with that…you understand? So we give her a shot and bring her here until the doctors fix up her leg. Then we take her right out…Dami. Two or three months and she’s out…good as new.

It doesn’t take a doctor, or a black dog who plays one on TV, to realize that what John has said is a bunch of baloney. The edema didn’t go to her head…in fact, I don’t think she ever had edema…certainly not in Karras’s image of her walking out of the subway, to then walk all the way back to her apartment building and up the stairs to her apartment.  We are to believe that Mrs. Karras was screaming and talking to the radio? In both apartment scenes, she shows no sign of mental disorder. And to say that she will be kept in a mental hospital/ward for 2 or 3 months for the sole purpose of “fixing” her leg? Two or three months in a mental hospital because of her leg, with the only other symptoms being that of screaming and talking to the radio, to fix up her leg? Who is “we” in “we gave her a shot”? One might understand being put on the psyche ward of a “normal hospital” because of some acute mental disorder, but that’s not where she was placed…

This certainly is no regular psychiatric ward. The sign on the door says…Neuro Psychiatric Ward. The patients on this ward seem to be psychotic, or at least, very mentally ill. Upon entering, some of the patients are drawn to Karras.

Including a woman who appears to be in a manic state…

I’m sure it’s probably nothing, but I find this patient rather interesting…

She is a young girl who, of all the patients, remains visible in more shots of Karras walking to his mother’s bed than anyone else, intently watching him as he makes his way through the ward.

Finally, he reaches his mother.

Karras…

…proves that he was telling the truth when he implied that he had no idea that anything had happened to his mother. And yet…

…Mrs. Karras is blaming him for having done something to her. Yet we know that Karras had no idea that anything had happened. We do know that Mrs. Karras’s brother John had been directly involved in putting her where she is. Now I think that it is more than just being put in this place that lies at the heart of Mrs. Karras’s blaming her son…if John made up a bunch of gobbledygook about her leg causing a serious, acute, psychotic mental disorder, then it was John who should be blamed. But did John act alone? Earlier, speaking about how Mrs. Karras ended up in this ward, he used the first person plural (we), not the singular (I). If one were in a speculative mood, one might conclude that John and someone else were responsible for what has happened to Mrs. Karras. Another highly suspicious thing is…

…Mrs. Karras is strapped to the bed, yet we’ve seen patients wandering around the ward. This does, of course, parallel Regan, who is seen with wrist restraints on three occasions…during her medical tests, during her time at the Berringer clinic, and then at home. The only reasons to be in restraints are…she is a threat to herself, i.e. has tried, or threatened, to harm herself; has, or threatened to, hurt someone else; or has or may make an attempt to escape. The latter is ridiculous. But so are the other two. Karras will take his mother home shortly after this scene, which wouldn’t be possible in the case of self-harm /suicide. It’s hard to see how this old woman could be a threat to anyone else. John does not tell Karras that she has attempted to harm herself or anyone else…only that she was screaming, talking to the radio, and was uncooperative with the doctors about her leg. It should also be noted that John tells the nurse manning the nurse’s station…

Miss
Yes?
We want to see Mrs. Karras.
Do you have an appointment?
Yes.
Are you a relative?
Yes, I am her brother and he is her son.

It may just be me, but I find it rather strange that John said…we want to see Mrs. Karras…but only Damien entered the ward. John remained outside. Why didn’t he go in as well? One might be led to a strange interpretation. There was screaming in Mrs. Karras’s apartment…there was one hell of an argument going on. It also seemed as though, probably more than once, neighbors heard what they thought was Mother Karras talking to the radio. They knew that Mrs. Karras lived alone, and they had never seen anyone visit. Remember that when Karras visits her, he enters through the back way into the apartment. Why would it sound like she was talking to the radio? Mrs. Karras listened to a Greek radio station, and the neighbors heard conversations in her apartment that involved two voices speaking Greek…her own, and that of a male. The male was a native Greek speaker, suggesting…John. During an animated argument, Mrs. Karras was injured. The opportunity then presented itself to get her out of her apartment for, hopefully, 2 or 3 months. That would leave her apartment empty, yet accessible to someone who had a spare key…like her brother John. The only way to achieve this would be tell the doctors some whopping big lies…such as Mrs. Karras was a danger to herself. Oh, and she had a history of severe mental illness. Maybe…back home in Greece…she was in a mental hospital for a long time. Mrs. Karras, although I don’t doubt that she could be very uncooperative, could not speak English well enough to counter these assertions that John made when he was talking to the doctors. So they took John and someone else at face value…with no real option otherwise, they put her in this ward. Now for something amazing…Damien Karras was a psychiatrist, yet he did not stop, look at John, and tell him that he was full of skata…to use a Greek word. Anyone with medical training would laugh at John’s story…. well, it’s not really funny, but it’s hard to believe that a psychiatrist wouldn’t do a double-take on this. The only reason I can see this would be the case is that Karras actually had no such training, and wasn’t a psychiatrist. A similarly strange situation exists when Karras is speaking to Kindermann who, like John, in his description of the death of Burke Denning as a “witchcraft-type murder” because Burke Denning’s head was turned all the way around on his shoulders, is speaking nonsense. Karras responds by essentially granting Kindermann his assertions. This is highly suggestive of the idea that the person Kindermann was speaking to had absolutely no knowledge about such weird religious cult stuff, and I believe that it would take only a smattering of knowledge about the occult, demons, witches, or Devil worship to step back and tell Kindermann that what he is saying is a bunch of skata. Practitioners of witch-craft commit murders, and when they do, they do it by cranking your head all the way around on your shoulders? That’s ridiculous. And! Karras tells Kindermann that he wrote a paper on the subject of the occult, indicating that, if true, he had an interest in such things. So Karras should have ripped apart Kindermann’s statements. And! Kindermann tells Karras he read the paper he wrote. I think that is true, and having done so, decided to test Karras to see how Karrasish he really was, throwing out a bunch of skata, waiting to see if Karras The Occult-Paper-Writer would throw it back in his face. He did not. What I think that John did not expect was for a non-psychiatrist to convince the doctors that something went wrong in the communication involving the doctors, John, a third-party, and Mrs. Karras. Not knowing the full extent of what John, whose English, though better than Mrs. Karras, may not have been all that good, told the doctors, Damien was able to convince the doctors that there wasn’t anything wrong with the mental state of his mother, and that the leg problem was something new and this was the first time he heard about it. His desire was not to dispute everything that John told them, but to convince them that a misunderstanding led to the present situation. Mrs. Karras went home almost immediately after he visited her in the hospital…

…notice the bandage still on her wrist. If they still believed that Mrs. Karras wasn’t wrongly put in restraints and was a danger to herself, they wouldn’t have let her leave. So he must have been able to tell them enough to demonstrate that a mistake had been made. Of course, she blames him for something…something he didn’t do…but she thinks he did. However, in the apartment scene…really two scenes…she never makes this accusation…they get along fine, until in the one shot when Karras makes the mistake of lighting a cigarette. That lead to the second visit, the visit that ended with Mrs. Karras’s murder. Once she was dead, Karras came to suspect what really happened. And in his pain and guilt, saw his mother in his dream making the unheard-by-us accusation that he had done something to her that led to her being hospitalized…not the hospitalization…but what happened in her apartment that led to it. Mrs. Karras, in both apartment scenes, seems to have realized that it was not Damien who did what happened that night, and hence the mood in the apartment scenes. He internalized having failed to protect his mother from something that he should have protected her from, like a Priestly Black Dog at the beach. But the dog saved itself from a threat that endangered him personally, or dogly, to coin a term…indicating that Karras not only blamed himself for not protecting his mother…he saw it as an act of cowardice. Of course, people in the throes of overwhelming guilt will distort and misinterpret their situation, leading to self-accusations of things that simply are not true, failing to recognize a psychological and theological waterspout.