It is my intention to keep this brief, something that I have, perhaps, failed to do in the past. And I would very much like to return to Chris’s attic for a little while…bearing in mind that the lights do not work…
…something that seemed to puzzle Chris. That necessitated recourse to other means of lighting…
Candles are great because they don’t require electricity, but they are a fire hazard. In the book, the sounds in the attic are called…rappings, scratching, and knocking. In the case of the movie, these sounds are heard on three occasions. The first two occur at the beginning, and the sounds seem to move through the attic toward Regan’s room. The third time, although it can be hard to hear, occurs after the homicide detective has left…just after he left. Then the crucifix, which Chris had removed from Regan’s room and set on a little table in the entrance way, suddenly reappeared, with a little help of course, in Regan’s room. It seems clear that someone was in Regan’s room, watching through the window, so as to start the show after the cop was gone. How many demons are afraid of cops? I also pointed out that in two instances, lights in the house suddenly flickered. The first instance follows the Up There prophecy, after the guests, except at least one, were already gone. Regan made a threat, and that person at whom it was directed got the message. The second time was upon Chris’s return from her last visit to the doctor who did so little, shortly after Burke’s murder. While in the kitchen, the phone rings…well it had been ringing for quite some time, and the caller hung up just as Chris picked up the receiver. Sharon suddenly appears, carrying with her not just Regan’s Thorazine, but a pretty good alibi as well. It seems clear that someone moving around in the attic also disturbed the wiring, knocking out the light Up There, and causing lights elsewhere in the house to flicker. The following scene is certainly not surprising…
…although some commentators have found it to be puzzling indeed. I suppose someone could have thrown gasoline on the candle, but it is clearly the case that this flare was caused by a sudden, powerful gust of air, such as the unexpected opening of a window, or the hatch leading from the attic into one of the bedroom closets. The same Air-Movement Phenomenon appears often in the movie, always in the context of Regan’s Diabolical Bedroom, and the window overlooking the Stone Steps is frequently open when it shouldn’t be. I almost forgot…in the scene in the book, the light in the attic works just fine.
The Noises in the Attic, and in fact any focus on the attic whatsoever, is dropped after Chris’s near Candle Disaster. But the attic is given much more prime-time in the book. And I will not bore anyone with my judgement of the book, which is very unfavorable, whereas the movie is pure genius. However, one of the descriptions of the sounds falls a bit flat…
Alien code tapped out by a dead man
Wait! Stop right there! I get it! Turn me on dead man! What the author is saying is…Paul is Dead! Sorry, wrong essay series. I have no idea what an animated corpse tapping out some extraterrestrial Morse code sounds like. Still…Chris reports the sounds to Karl because…she wants no rats! Then, the rats become squirrels, not as the result of a bizarre and vulgar display of power of some demon who has mastered the strange art of Species Transformation, but because Rags doesn’t like rats…who does? I don’t care much for the nick-name…Rags. Still, nobody asked me. So, Chris works a little magic and rats become squirrels. And actually, squirrels get into homeowners’ attics all the time. It's easy to hear them scratching away, and they’re difficult to get rid of. I don’t envy Karl in his de-squirrelification efforts.
The movie never names Regan’s orange bird sculpture, whereas it is called Dumbbird in the book. And it is clearly the case that Dumbbird and Captain Howdy, which perhaps should be written…Captain Howdie, are not the same. I think they are in the movie, seeing how Orange Bird Guy is associated with the Ouija board, as is the Dear Captain…so, thankfully, there is no Dumbbird. In the book, Chris comments on the connection between Howdy and Howard. Although I would note that a diminutive form of the name Howard is…Howie. So just add a “D” and you get…Howdie. Now in both the book and the movie, we get Regan’s Ouija question for Captain Howdy, and although this is noted in the book, it’s easy to miss in the movie…
We soon learn that Captain Howdy isn’t really attracted to Regan’s mother, but if you watch, you see something strange happen. Actually, it’s what you don’t see that is strange. Regan poses her question to Captain Howdy...do you think my mom is pretty? And the answer is...no. But!
If Regan were using the Ouija board in the proper way, she would have moved the planchette to the upper right corner of the board for….no! She doesn’t do that, which suggests that Regan doesn’t really know how to use it. And neither, apparently, does Captain Howdy, since, if he were the spirit-entity involved, he should have moved it, particularly given the ridiculous claim that demons enter our world via board-games. Maybe he should have read the instruction booklet!
In the book, Chris’s visit to the attic went rather smoothly, with working lights always being a big help in the great UP THERE. Yet the rats that became squirrels then became tree branches. And in the movie, there is no connection between Regan and the attic, although I proposed, and still propose, that there is one indeed. The book relates a silly story that Chris, in her bedroom, used her bionic hearing to hear a rat-trap snap shut. Karl went into the attic, and returned with a large stuffed mouse that had unfortunately been caught in the loudest Stuffed-Mouse Trap in the world. Clearly, Regan had gone up into the attic and had a little fun.
The stuffed mouse that appears in the book and then appears in the attic is interesting in another respect. Chris thought she heard the rat-trap, placed in the attic by Karl, snap shut sometime during the night. And after Karl returned from the attic with Regan’s stuffed mouse, we know that Chris did in fact hear the trap. Think about that for a moment. This suggests the idea that Noises in the Attic are very easily heard. The main entrance into the attic is a hatch in the hallway just outside of Chris’s room. How did Regan get into the attic? If she used the hatch with the folding ladder in the hallway, and Chris heard the snapping of the rat-trap, it seems impossible to believe that she wouldn’t have easily heard Regan unfastening the hatch with the extender-pole, pulling the hatch down, unfolding the ladder, climbing up the ladder, and getting up into the attic. This supports the idea that there was another way of accessing the attic, one that Regan could use without being heard. I can see only one explanation…there was a ceiling hatch in the closet of Regan’s bedroom. She would have to have a flashlight, seeing how the switch for the attic light was in the hallway. Of course, I could be wrong.
The differences between the book and the movie are, excuse the expression, Legion. In the book, Captain Howdy speaks to Regan…
"Yesterday morning," said Chris, "I could hear her talking to Howdy in her bedroom. I mean, she'd talk, and then seem to wait, as if she were playing with the Ouija board. When I peeked inside the room, though, there wasn't any Ouija board there; just Rags; and she was nodding her head, doc, just like she was agreeing with what he was saying."
But unlike the Howdy in the movie, Book Howdy is a terrible bully…
She'd been sitting in the kitchen, Chris told the doctors, when Regan ran screaming down the stairs and to her mother, cowering defensively behind her chair as she clutched Chris's arms and explained in a terrified voice that Captain Howdy was chasing her; had been pinching her; punching her; shoving her; mouthing obscenities; threatening to kill her. "There he is!" she had shrieked at last, pointing to the kitchen door. Then she'd fallen to the floor, her body jerking in spasms as she gasped and wept that Howdy was kicking her.
But even though Chris hadn’t heard Howdy speaking, everyone heard him speaking through Regan during a repulsive version of the Sow Is Mine scene…nowonmai…nowonmai. This is met with again during a bad version of the hypnosis scene, when we find out…
Are you the person in Regan?" the psychiatrist asked.
She nodded.
Who are you?
Nowonmai, she answered gutturally.
That's your name?
She nodded.
You're a man?
He said, "Sey."
Did you answer?
Sey.
If that's 'yes,' nod your head.
She nodded.
Here we have a strange man possessing Regan speaking…backwards English. Sey is yes, yes is Sey..and I am the Walrus, coo coo ca choo!
In the book, this backwards English appears more than once. I think that… Nowonmai…should be written Enoonmai, since the word is the back-masked version of…I am no one. In the movie, Karras records Regan speaking and hollering unintelligibly. He later is told at the sound lab that what is on the tape is English spoken backwards. But we know that Karras wants the exorcism, yet he was unable to show that Regan spoke languages she didn’t know. So he opted for another option. Karras was in possession of two tapes, and suddenly Regan was able to speak backwards English. She didn’t do it before, and she didn’t do it again. In the movie. Odd. And it is clear that what Karras recorded on his tape was not backwards English. Why? Apparently, the sudden backwards English was the result of great pain caused by Karras sprinkling holy water on Regan. This is will also happen several times during the exorcism, and Regan refrains from any more renditions of Stairway to Heaven, Revolution #9, or The Day Electricity Came to Arkansas…Natas! Natas! Natas! Of all the false claims about backward messages in Rock songs, which, of course, followed in the wake, by a few years, of the Exorcist, only Black Oak Arkansas was accused of actually singing backwards…and for some reason, on a live album, performing a song with no vocal parts. So, they become a bizarre reflection of the man named I am no one. Where was I? Oh, yes…Karras warned Regan that he was about to dump holy water on her…then she threw fits and made terrible sounds…
…not unlike Black Oak…well..I guess I should say that the water was NOT holy water, and the demon, if there was one, should have been able to tell the difference. In other words, Regan should have laughed it off, and not suddenly fly into gut-wrenching sounds brought about by a little tap water. The circumstances that elicited the fits were fake…showing that there was nobody in the room other than Regan and Karras. When Karras is listening to his manufactured tape, we hear several utterances in strange voices…and the words…I am no one…seem to come from the tape. I have written extensively on this website about the fact that if you play rock vocals backward, you will swear you hear things…things that are not there. This is a phenomenon called…pareidolia. The rational part of the human mind expects things to be rational…to make sense. If you hear what is clearly a human voice, and it sounds like gibberish, your rational mind instinctively asserts that human voices utter, or sing, something palpable, and so the mind begins to hear sensical things. Even though the supposed lyrics that result are anything but sensical. Contrast that with the irrational part of the mind that has no problem with chaos. The rational mind fears chaos and will always attempt to relieve that fear by utilizing the process of pareidolia, transforming gibberish into intelligible vocalizations. Take Chris for instance…
No, Chris…it’s…Pazuzu! But that name didn’t make any sense to her, so a Little Pareidolia and abracadabra…you get…pizza! And although Chris likes pizza, she wouldn’t marry one. Pazuzu either, I bet.
I would also make an observation about this being called I Am No One. It kinda sounds cool, but I find it impossible to believe that a demon would identify itself by this moniker. Why? It’s a terribly depressive, self-deprecating way of referring to oneself. It is psychological and mental cowardice…one who says such a thing has no regard whatsoever for oneself. I’m sure it’s just me, and since I’m so stupid and worthless and Am No One that…sorry, bad joke…I’ve always been under the impression that demons, guys who supposedly work for Satan himself, are pretty bold and brash…overly self-confident. Not only am I not No One, I’m the baddest demon you’ve ever seen! Get a little closer priest and see what happens! And I’ll break out of these worthless straps before you know it! Want to see a vulgar display of power? You came to right the guy! Go online and check out how people typically portray demons…what they look like…how they speak…the things they do…you will have a hard time finding such weak and wimpy demons who would, even for an instant, describe themselves as anything other than the baddest spirit-entity in the cosmos. So, we are supposed to believe that demons are so intent on entering our world that they do it through Ouija boards simply because there aren’t any decent psychological therapists in the Devil’s employ that they must come among us to find a couch to cry on? Oh, poor me…nobody loves me! Enoonmai! You poor dear! Tell me all about it. The self-deprecation found in the book and on Karras’s forged tape is also inconsistent with anything that Regan says anywhere else in the movie. Karras created three personalities for what he believed was Regan’s case of Dissociative Personality Disorder, wrongly called Multiple Personality Disorder, and he created this in different voices on the tape. And while one might maintain that I Am No One is actually Regan speaking, not a demon, I would assert that it is impossible for human beings to speak backwards…something more powerful than a human being would have to do it…and this leaves a demon, who wouldn’t utter any such thing. After all, the other demons would tease him! And I’ll bet Satan would get so angry about this that he might declare…
Hey wimp! You’re fired!
The backwards English in the movie is rather clever, if it is understood as a brilliant move by Karras. In the book, it only gets worse:
Are you speaking in a foreign language?
Say.
Where do you come from?
Dog.
You say that you come from a dog?
Dogmorfmocion, Regan replied.
I have just formed a new Diabolical Heavy Metal band called…Dogmorfemocion! Correcting the spelling of his name to make it more Backwards-Englishy. Oh, yes…No I Come From God. More backwards masking. And that is a strange claim for I Am No One to make, assuming that Dogmorfemocion isn’t a different bizarre spirit-entity, given how it behaves throughout the story, not to mention that Satan would probably bring Dogmorfemocion up on charges of treason! Or at the very least, I would think that this spirit-entity could have come up with a shorter name! After all, just think how long it will take to spell out…D-o-g-m-o-r-f-e-m-o-c-i-o-n on the Oujia board with the planchette! And he makes another strange claim…
Were you ever a part of Regan? No.
Do you like her? No.
Dislike her? Yes.
Do you hate her? Yes.
Over something she's done? Yes.
Do you blame her for her parents' divorce? No.
Has it something to do with her parents? No.
With a friend? No.
But you hate her? Yes.
Are you punishing Regan? Yes.
You wish to harm her? Yes.
To kill her? Yes.
If she died; wouldn't you die too?" No.
I must say that I hate inconsistent demons! If you are going to be clever and say…sey! Instead of…yes, why then start saying…yes, instead of…sey? And wouldn’t the correct response, when responding in the negative, be an equally clever…oN! And hatred I get…but punishment? People are punished to keep them from doing bad things…but I would think that Dogmorfemocion would be thrilled if Regan did naughty things. And while it makes sense that Regan’s death would in no way mean the death of the demon, or demons, how hard would it be to simply hurl Regan out the window and kill her…if that’s what Dogmorfemocion and Enoonmai really wanted? The former is too busy trying to reform Regan and the latter is too busy pouting and crying to do the sensible thing.
And now I get to something from the book that took me by surprise. I know that in the movie there is no connection between Regan and the attic, and after two scenes at the very beginning, the movie promptly drops the rappings, and the attic. There is a good reason for that…the source of the Noises in the Attic is transformed into something else. But shortly before Regan goes up into the attic to stick her stuffed mouse into one of the traps, the following is said…
She went down to Regan’s bedroom, picked something up, brought it back to the attic, and then after a minute went back to the bedroom. Regan was sleeping. Chris returned her to her room, tucked her into her bed, then went back to her own bedroom, where she turned off the television and went to sleep.
How strange! We learn something extraordinary! Regan has been in the attic and returned with something…something…something that Chris knew enough about to know that it belonged in the attic. And we are not told what this something is, and the fact that it is simply “something” from the attic, something that Regan wasn’t supposed to have, and something that belonged in the attic, screams volumes at the reader who, in my case, doesn’t like unanswered questions…at least not in the immediate context…unless the story is an Agatha Christie-type mystery. Or maybe it’s just my short attention span that leads me…leads me…wait! What was I saying? Whatever. Now I will say that, in the book, the source of the Noises in the Attic is apparently a demon. But why is he stuck Up There? Or better yet…if the noises weren’t heard, and then suddenly were heard…then did he suddenly arrive? Or had he been freed from something that was already Up There? I feel confident that what this “something” is must be some kind of artifact. The Ouija board? We already know about it…why not name it? And if the Ouija board belongs in the attic, then…I’m right about where Regan found it in the movie! Well, probably not. Still, it’s like seeing a movie where some evil spirit from the ancient world suddenly turns up in, let’s say, the American Midwest. Let’s also say that this maniacal spirit is from ancient Babylonia…how did he end up in Arkansas? And why? He certainly wouldn’t be there to build an Electrical Grid on behalf of Jim Dandy. If you made a movie like this, and all you did was sey, sorry, say…hey! This is cool! Let’s put some evil spirit-being from ancient Babylonia in Arkansas! And that works for a teenage guy thinking that if he gets his date scared enough then he’ll get laid. The story doesn’t have to hold together at all. But the more discerning viewer should ask the question…how did Evil Spirit Guy from 1,000 BC Babylonia end up in Arkansas? I know only one way to answer that question in a way that offers any glimmering chance of being considered cogent…he was brought to Arkansas…accidentally…and then unleashed...accidentally. And the best way to make that hold together is to introduce a storyline like…an archaeologist working at an ancient dig-site dug up some trinket or doo-dad that was sacred to Evil Spirit Guy…something that Dogmorfemocion is inseparable from. You innocently bring it back to put in your university museum…and then all Hell breaks loose. Now we know why he is in Arkansas, and we can let the teenage guys get back to their nefarious pursuits. And it seems to me that whatever was sitting in Regan’s room, something from the attic, and something that Chris returned to the attic, is the totem associated with the demon in the book. And I’m very glad that Regan, Movie Regan that is, doesn’t have some ancient artifact sitting in her room…and I did search for it. I came up empty-handed? Not completely. I did find something that I found before. What? The origin of Big Orange Bird…not the dumb Dumbbird…No! Captain Howdy...he appeared on the following…
Yes, this shot is in the movie. It is in this scene that Chris goes Up There looking for rats, squirrels, and branches…oh, my! This box is shown for a split second, and the only way to make out anything on this box is to take a screenshot, which you couldn’t do in 1973, and then stare at it. Lower left…Orange Bird Guy. The box is a John Dewar & Sons box…they are a famous whiskey distiller. The lower right…the word is FIFTHS..the plural of a FIFTH of whiskey. Was the box itself important? No, the box was just an old box used to mail something. The origin of Orange Bird Guy shows clearly that Regan had been in the attic…more to the point, she had been in the box…it’s open and something has been removed. I have already discussed this in another essay. In the book, the Ouija board is actually Chris’s. But in the movie, Chris knew nothing about the Ouija board in the basement…until she meets Orange Bird Guy. Regan tells her that she found the Ouija board in the closet. I believe that the Ouija board came from the Attic Box, and thus Orange Bird Guy’s connection with the board. But! I also think that there is something else just as fascinating about this box…and the significance of it, in my humble opinion, is that this is a very subliminal transition point by which the story of the book changes dramatically into the totally different story of the movie. The clue?
Well I have added a new skill to those I already have…Languagologist. Ok, I made that word up. But I found all kinds of foreign languages in the movie! I found Karras’s plea in Japanese that someone help him. I found Swedish, and I found Russian! And I did it without being in a hurry. If you look at the box…the top left corner, you will see what looks like scrawls, gibberish, maybe even stains. There’s nothing there…right? Wrong…it’s actually a word…two syllables. But! It was written in haste, poorly, and…WITH A MARKER THAT BLED! I could be dead wrong, but I came to believe that there are dots beneath some of the characters that have bled together. And the final character…it looks like the flourish kicks outward…and that was a problem. It was a problem before I realized that it only looks like the flourish kicks outward because the tip is really…a dot. What does this mean? Oh…there’s a mem on the front of the word. These considerations bring only one language to mind. I think the word is...
But, as I said, this was written in haste with the wrong type of marker, creating the APPARENT gibberish seen on the box. And so I found another language…but one that was present early on…
This scene is from the vision…this is the Iraqi archaeologist writing in his journal. This shot occurs shortly before…
Arabic…Arabic…and…Arabic! As we all know, Arabic is written from right to left, and that means that the two syllables, when read in the right direction…says...
Merrin. Yes! And the idea is clear…after Merrin returned to the United States, the Iraqi archaeologist mailed something to him. And although the demon isn’t named in the movie, he is named in the book…
It was a green stone head of the demon Pazuzu, personification of the southwest wind. Its dominion was sickness and disease. The head was pierced. The amulet’s owner had worn it on a shield.
The head was pierced because it was worn around the neck. And Pazuzu was not a demon…he protected pregnant women, women in childbirth, infants, babies, children…in short, I stand by everything I’ve said about Pazuzu, and this blurb in the book is basically…wrong…wrong…wrong. It’s odd, since Pazuzu was obscure, despite the sheer number of Pazuzu heads that have been found. And no reference to Lamashtu! Yet, in the movie, he isn’t named, and a clear manifestation of a Lamashtu plaque is to be seen in Merrin’s vision, as is Lamashtu herself. I clearly have no idea what I’m talking about, but it seems as though the book suggests the creation of a literary character resulting from the search for some bad guy in ancient religion, with little real knowledge about him. He looks scary! But in a couple of short years, somebody learned a whole lot more about Pazuzu! And then…he just didn’t fit the bill, as I have made painfully clear. And so the transition point? The archaeologist mailed the Pazuzu head to Merrin, but it was delivered to the wrong address…it was supposed to be delivered to Georgetown University. Regan was home when the package arrived. She signed for it. And! It is clear that in both the book and the movie, Regan’s disintegration stands in direct relation to her birthday, and the disappointment about her father’s failure to call. But! The package arrives…and Regan thinks it’s a present from her father! Captain Howie becomes Captain Howdie…Howdy. But it wasn’t for her…and it wasn't from her father…it was the Pazuzu head. The item that Chris retrieves from Regan’s room in the book, and then takes up to the attic, was the box with the Pazuzu head in it. Regan had been hiding it in the attic, and at some point, Chris saw the box up there. And! When Regan opened the box, and handled the Pazuzu head, he was set free from his totem. But the box was kept in the attic…and so the demon began scratching and rapping…looking for his new host…the one who set him free…and he slowly made his way to Regan’s room. He then began the takeover, the possession of Regan MacNeil. So now we know not only how Pazuzu got to Washington D.C., but also how he got into Chris’s attic…and how he came to possess Regan…and! How Merrin’s old foe came to be one that he would fight again!
So! The box with Merrin’s name was put into this shot in the movie…no one would ever see it…since it’s there for a split second, and not close up enough to notice that it is anything other than an old box in the attic. It is…or was…but not now! Subliminal…the explanation for how the Pazuzu Possession Nonsense of the book happened…in retrospect. So it is a planted clue, but also a shift. Orange Bird Guy…Dumbbird…originally separate from Captain Howdy, now becomes one with him…the logo on the box seen by Regan when she was poking around in the attic and opened the box. Pazuzu was in it? Right? Wrong…now, the Ouija board was in it, and it was certain that the transformation of the Ouija board into a false clue in the movie would keep the audience following the book, hurtling headlong into misunderstanding that the story in the movie was not the story in the book. Of course, no one would ever see the box…right? Wrong! I saw the box. So, the Ouija board was sent to Merrin? Wrong! The Arabic on the box is intentionally masked and obscured…the intention was that only the guys making the movie would know about it. The box does, shall we say, double-duty! It explains the old story, but then pivots to the new story…an old box and a new box…all in one. The Ouija board was just some harmless old game that some previous owner put in an old box and stuck in the attic. And then they moved, leaving it behind. It was a rental house, and I’ll bet that previous residents left all kinds of junk in the attic. Junk, perhaps…but I like junk! Curiosity may have killed the cat…but I’m still alive…and so is Regan. Perhaps we both owe that fact to Pazuzu. I would not have been able to resist poking around in the attic myself. The Ouija board was cool…ok…but a Pazuzu head? Actually, you can go on online and look at Pazuzu heads, or you can look at the collage I posted in the Father Time essays! The Pazuzu trinkets are found all over the region that was once ancient Assyria. Of course, if the movie is a commentary about sexual abuse of children by priests…well that is a different story. I’m sure I’m wrong about that. But something certainly happened between 1971 and 1973 to turn a dreadful story into one of movie-history’s best stories. And there is no doubt that the cover of the novel’s first edition…
....is a dreadfully bad image, though good for some horror movie…I guess. I find it hard to believe that this image…
…wasn’t always the iconic image for a terrific story. I suppose that no one remembers the previous one. First edition collectors, perhaps. But I doubt anyone will forget Father Merrin standing in the cold, shrouded in an eerie blue light, staring up at the window of the second story bedroom of Chris MacNeil’s rental house. It’s like a moment of time that suddenly freezes, not unlike a strange clock that hung on the wall of an archaeologist’s office in Iraq. Then the pendulum starts moving again. Now it’s time to do that one last thing that the Good Father must do before he can move on to better things. And as I said before…he will be missed. Still, there can be no doubt that attics can be dangerous places…and not because of rats or squirrels. Next time you brave a trip to the strange Up There place of your own home, and you find a strange box with even stranger writing on it…think twice before you open it.
