Part 2…The Conclusion

This is from the “Let J**** F*** You" scene. The crucifix, which the mother had removed from the room, was back, and Regan was using it to harm herself. Some might say that this is the most objectionable scene in the whole movie. And that may be true, but it is also an extremely important one when the cause of Regan’s problems is understood. So why is there an Enigmatic Crucifix that materializes and de-materializes as if Jenny Likens had fixed the Tardis and it could come and go throughout the universe at will? This part is interesting. We know that Regan’s mother shows a notable dislike for religion. She claims to have no religious beliefs, and likewise claims that Regan has none. She is displeased that the crucifix is present. The other people in the house claim not have put it in the room. I can say that in certain hospitals associated with the Catholic church, you might just find a crucifix on a wall in the rooms. So Regan gets her hands on the crucifix hanging on the wall and uses it to harm herself? Hmmm. Let's look closer at this Magic Crucifix.

Regan’s mother attempting to find out where the crucifix came from:

For what it’s worth, it seems as though there would be a lot of crucifixes laying around a Catholic hospital. Now I must say that the crucifix, when Regan’s mother found it, may have ended up in Regan’s room as a result of something else. Or…someone else. Ah, yes! And who would leave a crucifix behind? At any rate, this scene is immediately before the Intrepid Detective arrives. Note this:

The detective has been shown into the house. Notice Chris...she is putting the crucifix on the little table to her right. Now, immediately following her conversation with the detective, we get...well, I fancy myself to be somewhat of detective too! Now watch!

Moments before, the detective left. Now look at the little table to Chris's right. What do you see? What don't you see? That's right! The crucifix, the one that no more than 30 minutes ago Chris found in Regan's room, and then quizzed Sharon, Carl and Willie about, and then set on the very table that is in the shot above, is now gone. Gone! And now:

Yes! This immediately after the Enigmatic Crucifix appeared in Regan's room, was then removed and placed on the table, and then disappeared from the table...Regan is using to harm herself...i.e. the Let J**** F*** You scene. And how is it that in Regan's two conversations with Karras, 3..2..1 Show Time!...Regan knows things that she shouldn't know? Karras's mom just died; Karras has come looking for the Enigmatic Language Gimmick that will convince Karras's boss to allow the exorcism...an extremely rare thing that it would take a lot of selling to actually get to take place? Demons know all, surely! So we need no other explanation. And how easy it would be for a powerful demon to cause the crucifix, the one that is now sitting on the little table downstairs, to magically re-appear in Regan's bedroom just in time for the show put on just for Chris..and just for Chris...the door slammed shut and a chair was magically shoved in front of the door. Why? To ensure that the only one in the audience for the Let J**** F*** You scene was mom. Yet we know that this supposed demon was unable to do something that would be so easy for a demon to do...break the restraints holding her to the bed. So! If I'm right about the crucifix, and maybe I'm just blind like everyone tells me, although blindness, willful or otherwise, doesn't change the fact that Regan knows things about Karras, but when pressed, resorts to clever acts of deflection, is a fact. If I put these things together, then I arrived at an impossible possibility:

Someone in the house is involved in manipulating what's happening in the story. In other words, Carl (the butler), Willie (the maid), or Sharon (the assistant) is involved in the events that are happening in the movie.

Wouldn't that be interesting? A topic certainly worth further exploration. Who is the manipulator? Perhaps...manipulators? In the scene above, the one where Chris sets the crucifix on the little table...who is standing right behind her? Yes, Carl. Who is found holding a chair that doesn't look like one in Regan's room, standing next to the pull-down ladder that leads into the attic? Yes, Carl. When Chris hears the noises in the attic the second time, and bravely ascends the Ladder to the Attic, and soon after looking around and finding Carl's rat traps with uneaten cheese on them, who is it that suddenly appears with a flashlight? Yes, Carl. And...this is a good one! If Carl can hear Chris in the attic, then why can't he hear the Noises in the Attic that have so entranced Chris? Yes, Carl. Of course, it was Carl who told Chris that there weren't any rats in the attic...that the attic was clean...so we know he had been up there before Regan's Manipulated Mom began hearing the noises. Who was it that, at the party, physically attacked Burke after the latter had continually accused him of being a "Nazi Bastard" who went bowling with Goebbels? Yes, Carl. That's a lot of Carls. But who is it that left Burke alone in the house on the evening that Burke, attacked by a strong man, had his neck broken, his head turned all the way around, and then shoved out Regan's window? No, not Carl. That was Sharon. And Sharon did something odd, well in my mind, once Father Merrin arrived. She had been listening to the radio:

So...exorcisms can be noisy. And Regan is already howling, growling, and behaving like someone from a primitive culture! But the best way to not be bothered by a pesky exorcism is to not let it interfere with your radio time. So she picks up some earbuds and plugs them in. It sure seems that she is plugging them into a jack located on the left side of the radio. But then she does this:

Wow! I thought the headphones were intended to drown out the bothersome exorcism upstairs. But she puts only one of the earbuds in her ear. So is she multi-tasking? Maybe...listen to the exorcism with her right ear, and listen to the radio with her left ear? What could be on the radio that's so important that you would risk missing the exorcism? I'm sure it's not the last time that they'll play the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. It's odd that this radio doesn't seem to have an antenna. It is 1973, after all. And what is she doing with her right hand? Is she turning the volume up? Perhaps. It would be very strange if she were actually fiddling with the tuning knob, as if there were something particularly interesting that suddenly started happening. Oh, wait...there was! The exorcism. I suppose you might actually want to hear this unique event, well that is until you get to hear the next exorcism on the block, since if we believe in demons, then we believe that there are bunches of them...and if we believe in demon-possession, then there should be demon-possession cases everywhere. Millions of Regans! But being downstairs is a problem. Why? You'll miss most of it! And if you're listing to the radio and you turn up of the volume, you'll basically miss all of it. Wow! Conflicted Sharon! I respect a gal with an open mind...but the approach she is taking will ruin both her radio-listening experience, as well as her exorcism-listening experience. Of course, if you could actually tune in the exorcism, then you won't miss a single action-packed moment! But to tune in the exorcism, you'd have to have some type of listening device in Regan's room that is broadcasting. That's crazy, you say. You're right! Still, it's interesting, I think. And who found the St. Joseph medal in Regan's room after the exorcism was over? Yes, Sharon. And who cleaned the carpet after Regan urinated on it. Yes, Willie. Is that relevant? No...I just wanted to be thorough. If my wrong interpretation of the story were hypothetically right, then someone in the house was aiding and abetting someone else. Maybe that person bugged Regan's bedroom! But surely that can't be the case!

Sharon’s role in all of this…what exactly is it? Eavesdropping devices…that’s it? Of course, she arranges that Burke be left in the house…apparently alone, but then he ends up being killed in Regan’s bedroom. There is a scene right before Karras petitions the Bishop for the exorcism that is interesting. Karras has received a call from Sharon, who apparently has his phone number. She arranges for him to come to the house. And then things get a bit cloak-and-dagger. She takes him up to Regan’s room. The lights are kept off, and they must speak in hushed tones.

Why all this secrecy?

“I don’t want Chris to see this.”

Why? Chris saw the Fuck me, Fuck me! Scene. She saw Regan’s head turn around on her shoulders. She saw Regan mutilating her genitals with a crucifix, and then had her face shoved into Regan’s bloody crotch. Chris is well aware of the condition of The Thing That Is Not Her Daughter in the upstairs bedroom. So why doesn’t Sharon want Chris to see what I would say is a…little trick, and not an impressive one? There are different ways to make temporary swellings on the skin that would enable to spell out “Help me!” or anything else, for that matter. This gimmick is even less impressive than a demon who begs to have the restraints loosened, yet can cause the drawer of the nightstand to open. I think that Sharon made the swellings on Regan’s stomach. And Sharon doesn’t want Chris to know about her little ploy because she doesn’t want Chris to know that she is also attempting to manipulate Karras. Sharon wants the exorcism too. Chris wants it…and Karras wants it, despite the fact that he won’t stop saying that Regan’s problem is psychological. And even more astounding…Regan wants it. Of course, they all may want the exorcism for different reasons. Maybe.

Now I'm going to say a few things about Chris MacNeill...Regan's wonderful Mom. We get the impression at the beginning of the film that Regan and Chris have a particularly good relationship. True. But I think that is a fraud. I would note a few things. First, Chris continues to believe that Regan killed Burke. In obtaining the help of Father Karras, by which I mean she was seeking something other than what she knew full well Regan needed...she wanted an exorcism, rather than hospitalizing her for psychiatric care, her deal clincher was her belief that Regan killed Burke. Now on the surface alone, that is patently absurd. Burke may have been drunk, and he was a small guy, but I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would actually believe that the 12 year old girl pushed Burke out the window. Was he simply standing in front of the window, which is open in so many scenes that we should be noting the fact that is open so much, looking out perhaps...enjoying the view or getting a breath of fresh air, and a demon-possessed girl suddenly pounced and shoved the grown man out the window? And! Despite the fact that the detective told Chris that there was another man in Regan's bedroom that evening, that he was a strong man, that he broke Burke's neck, and then shoved him out the window, Chris seems to keep up her belief that Regan simply murdered Burke. In other words, she knows better, but keeps up her insistence of the clearly stupid assertion that Regan killed Burke; she is doing this intentionally. But I would point out something else...killing someone is not a sign of demon-possession...murders happen all the time. Killings happen all the time. So why does Regan want a priest to perform an exorcism, rather than getting a good lawyer? Even so...it is clear that the detective working the case DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT REGAN KILLED BURKE. And as a protective ploy...please! If she had killed him, a court is far more likely to respond positively to a psychiatric diagnosis than getting up in front of a judge and jury and saying that...the Devil made her do it!

Elsewhere in the Noises in the Attic essay, reference is made to the “dehumanization” of Regan. This is seen most readily in the description of her as a “sow” belonging to…well, it’s not exactly clear. Still, Regan’s Not-Such-a-Good-Impression that she made on Father Karras, getting sick all over him, leads to a conversation between Regan’s Mom and the Conflicted Priest. It takes place in the basement, which only makes sense seeing how Chris had to wash and iron the poor padre’s clothing. Karras does what he does for the most part…try to convince Chris that what Regan needs is psychiatric care. Chris dismisses it out of hand. I will touch on that aspect futher in a moment. But what does Chris tell Karras?

“That thing upstairs isn’t my daughter.”
 

I must admit the significance of this statement blew right past me for several viewings of the movie. And yes! That is Captain Howdy on the table! Now I would deconstruct Chris’s statement along these lines. If we really believe that Regan is possessed by a demon, then it is exactly that…a supernatural being has taken control of a 12 year old girl. But! Regan hasn’t become the demon. She is, in fact, still Regan. In a very serious way, even following the whole demon-possession thing, Regan is “sick” and needs to be healed. In this case, that will be accomplished via an exorcism. But that is not a ritual that turns a demon back into the little girl who was there before it found its way into Regan’s house…and then into her. Metaphorically, it’s like religious surgery, where a Malignant Growth will be removed. Father Karras the Spiritual Surgeon! So if I were in Chris’s position, I would never have said:

“That thing upstairs isn’t my daughter.”

I would have said…

"That thing in Regan isn’t my daughter."

Yes! I would have distinguished between the Infernal Entity, who is not my daughter, and Regan, who is my daughter. Semantics, you say? I’m being too picky or too over-analyzy? That’s not a word. I suggest that it is not semantics that underlies the way Chris is responding to the situation, or the way in which she is contextualizing it for the Young Priest. It’s just my interpretation, which is no doubt wrong, but I think that Chris’s subconscious mind has told us a great deal about her attitude toward THE THING CALLED REGAN THAT ISN’T HER DAUGHTER.

Chris isn’t the only one who did this. Another member of the household consisting of people...at least one of whom, if not more than one, is clearly guilty of something horrible...made the same Diabolical Freudian Slip. The immediate setting is the same, except, unlike the scene described above that takes place after Karras meets Regan for the first time, the instance to which I refer took place just before Karras met Regan for the first time.

Yes Carl…the keeper of all things Attic! No rats...not rats! I know, because go up there! As Chris and Karras approach Regan’s room, Carl says:

“It wants no straps.”

He is, of course, speaking of…The Thing That is Not Chris’s Daughter! So who doesn’t want the straps? Well…The Thing. Wait…I’m sure about that? Of course, The Thing in Regan would prefer not to be restrained to the bed. But as I’ve indicated, following the demon-possession idea, Regan still exists, or there would be no point in an exorcism. So I’ll bet that the still-existing Regan MacNeill would probably also like a bit more mobility. Carl has turned Regan into an…It, while Regan’s own mother has turned her into a Thing. And yet another person has turned Regan into a Sow. So what I see here, looking at the bigger context, is that Regan has been dehumanized at least three times by three different people.

Actually…is it only three people who have dehumanized Regan? I suppose that depends upon how you would define the word…dehumanize. Certainly turning a 12 year old girl into a Sow, or a Thing, or an It…these are acts of dehumanization in a very literal sense. But, and its only my opinion, another act of dehumanization is victim-blaming. In particular, the suggestion that an abuse victim is to blame for what’s happened to them, or for something that has happened in relation to their personal situation, is also dehumanization. And if so, then there is another scene where the idea of dehumanization possibly occurs. It comes at roughly 1 hour/8 minutes into the movie. The scene is the discussion at the Barringer Clinic and Foundation, when the idea of an exorcism is discussed. I will discuss this in the following paragraph in more detail. But when describing the ridiculous diagnosis that he has hit upon, Barringer indicates the beginning point…the cause…for this manifestation of mental illness. What is it? Guilt. So what then would Regan have been guilty of that merits the breakdown she undergoes? If the implication is that this “guilt” is a valid response to some precursor, then Barringer’s declaration is an act of dehumanization. One might even get the feeling that Barringer and his Clown Show never made an effort to find out why Regan felt guilt to such a degree that she was lead to the whole Primitive Culture Show in the first place. Six months of psychiatric observation may have uncovered the cause of this guilt. I suspect that there were those in the story who did not want the issues centered around Regan’s Undeserved Guilt to come to light. If so…then an exorcism…a lethal exorcism…might just be the thing.

It is, of course, possible to suffer from guilt about something for which you shouldn’t feel guilty. And I think that is present in the movie, well, in my incorrect interpretation of it. In the Let J**** F*** You! Scene, Chris, hysterical, believes she sees Regan’s head turn around on her shoulders. Then hysterical Chris hears Regan speak in Burke Dennings’ voice. Neither of these things actually happened. Regan says the following:

“Do you know what she did? Your cunting daughter?”

As I’ve noted many times in this essay, I believe that different characters in the movie hear Regan speaking in the voices of different people. This is also true of Chris. And! Chris, as discussed above, will not believe anything other than that Regan murdered Burke. And Regan didn’t know that her mother believed this? Of course it’s quite possible that Regan did, wrongly to be sure, believe that she was responsible for the death of Burke. After all, she does seem at one point to have reached a point where she didn’t want to be Regan anymore. During Karras’s first visit, before declaring that this is actually the devil, at which point she begins speaking in the low, distorted and intimidating voice, she says in a much different voice...

"I’m not Regan"

Contrary to what her mother believed, and contrary to Regan’s own pronouncement, the 12 year old girl was still very much Regan. But one can understand why she might feel the need to no longer be Regan.

I think the question about the psychiatric route is a difficult one and an interesting one at the same time. There is the scene that takes place in the Barringer Clinic and Foundation. There is a whole room full of doctors. Dr. Barringer is the one who speaks with Chris. Are they psychologists? Are they psychiatrists? Are they a combination of the two? Or are they medical doctors? Chris angrily declares that she will not put her daughter away or put her in an insane asylum. And she will tell Karras that she had “already seen every fucking psychiatrist in the world,” and that they had sent her to find a priest.

So why then does Karras, having been told this, visit Regan, and despite the fact that there are demonic trappings present when he meets Regan, insist that Chris have Regan hospitalized for six months of observation? Hasn’t she already told him that she has spoken with millions and millions of psychiatrists, managing to traverse the globe in pursuit of every mental health professional she could find?

And so the problem. Chris’s angry declaration about not putting her daughter away, or putting her in an asylum, though she is content to strap her to the bed and call her a Thing, makes the Barringer Clinic and Foundation scene particularly strange. The strangest thing is the most impossible thing…a whole army of psychiatrists and psychologists throw-up their hands and recommend a priest? Not just one doctor…but all of them? Karras’s point is a good one…there is something else to do before throwing The Thing away…six months of psychiatric observation. These doctors do not say that Regan is possessed…it is clear that they don't believe that she is. That means…Regan is mentally ill. She is also clearly showing signs of self-harming behavior. Would a group of premier psychiatrists, psychologists, or idiots, suggest sending home a girl whose condition mandates hospitalization, with the exorcism idea being a…cure? Do the ritual, and a delusional little girl will be fine because she will apparently believe that an exorcism will work? This is a totally preposterous situation, and wouldn’t happen in a million years. So if these doctors are who we think they are, then each one is a million dollar malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen. Not to mention that all of them should lose their license to practice. And if a little girl who is inflicting scratches on her face and gnawing her lips to the point that they look like they are about to fall off, is sent home and then commits suicide or becomes seriously injured in the attempt, they will have criminal liability as well. And I would make one more comment, even if this group of Medical Morons are mental health experts, then Chris has still not gone the psychiatric route. Anyone should have listened to what this group of dunderheads had to say and realize that there is something ridiculously wrong with all of it. This group of doctors believes the bizarre behavior of Regan is something that is only seen in primitive cultures? Apparently, these fools have never been on a psychiatric ward, or done rounds in a psychiatric hospital. They seem to be unfamiliar with the complex and varied mechanisms of psychosis, although they may never have heard that word before, and know nothing about Schizophrenia…why would a psychiatrist know about whatever that is? One Karras is worth much more than a room of Psychological Dolts any day! Belief that one is the devil? Belief that one is possessed? That is called, and this is another word that Chris’s Collection of Jack-asses have probably never heard…delusional. Yes! And delusions are common in cases of acute psychosis. As Karras will tell Chris…saying you’re the devil is like saying you’re Napoleon. And he is absolutely right. What do these morons call Regan’s Only-in-Primitive Cultures-is-Acute-Psychotic-Behavior-To-Be-Found disorder?
 

Somnambular-Form Possession

Don’t go look it up. It’s gibberish. Somnambulism is…sleep-walking, often without any memory of what the person had been doing while sleep-walking. Sleep-walking can be linked to stress, particularly in children. But what does it mean to be someone who sleep-walks under the delusion…sorry, I can’t use a big Psychological word since the World’s Best Psychiatric Minds wouldn’t know what that word means…that she is demon-possessed? There are no scenes with Regan sleep-walking, or doing anything in her sleep. More substantial is Fugue State, but this is actually amnesia related to things done during a wakeful state, whereas sleep-walking takes place during REM Sleep. So the name of the disorder is nonsense. The role of these doctors is other-worldly; perhaps even non-worldly; it gives one the impression almost of a chaotic dream…which one may be having if wandering around Chris MacNeill’s home while in REM sleep believing that you are possessed by a demon only during a nocturnal sleep-walking journey. No…Regan declares that she is the devil when Karras first meets her. She is clearly awake, and it is clearly daytime. My conclusion is that if the doctor scene is not a dream, which some of the scenes in the movie seem to me to be, although that is only when I’m sleep-walking around my house declaring myself to be Pazuzu…but when I’m awake…I’m just fine! Then Chris MacNeill should have found another mental health professional…wait…aren’t we at Georgetown University? They might have a few competent first semester psychiatry students who could do a better job than a whole Clinic and Foundation full of bunglers. Share that diagnosis! See what happens. You’re told nonsense by these guys and so now you’ll follow their suggestion and look for a witch-doctor? Perhaps the doctors are the witch-doctors, having danced around their sacred fire chanting spells, calling upon tribal gods to cure a 12 year old girl suffering from Sleep-Walking Type Possession. And why does your mind go to throwing Regan away…sorry…The Thing That Is Not Chris’s Daughter…away in an asylum when Karras is right, and why doesn’t Chris argue with him about his suggestion by referring to the Strange Clinic and Foundation? We’ve heard…I’ve already seen every fucking psychiatrist in the world…why not…

"Listen Father Karras, she has already been hospitalized for six months in a clinic full of medical clowns who couldn’t come up with a real-sounding diagnosis and know nothing about psychosis, and when it came time to observe Thing Regan, they would all pop-out of their clown-car and wow me with their brilliance? "

Everything about this experience should have indicated to Chris that something was wrong with the whole thing. That is, of course, if these Medical Buffoons were actually psychiatrists and psychologists. How many Medical Buffoons does it take to make a Barringer Clinic and Foundation? According to Chris…88. Wait a minute! We are supposed to believe that 88 psychiatrists and psychologists, yes…88…could not come up with anything other than sleep-walking and a suggestion to go find a priest? There were 88 Buffoons who observed Regan? 88 Buffoons threw-up their hands and suggested that Chris go off and try to find a shaman? Perhaps a sorcerer? The most important people in the world don’t get 88 doctors. And 88 stupid doctors? Why does Karras cast serious doubt on Chris’s claim that she had gone the psychological route? Well, besides the guy who hypnotized Regan….hypnotized! Methinks that this involves inducing a strange, albeit fictional, sleeping-but-awake state, and all he got was a testicular ouchie....but no demon! Now I talked this over with my tribal shaman…who charges $100.00 per hour! And seeing how he brought in 87 other tribal shamans for a consultation…I’m a little strapped for cash right now! My 88 shamans said that they couldn’t help me, and suggested that I get 6 months of psychiatric observation in a premier psychiatric hospital if I wanted to stop believing that I am possessed by Pazuzu while I am sleep-walking around my house at night. One of them gave me Father Karras's business card. Sorry. I feel compelled to believe 1 of 2 things:

1.  The 88 doctor scene is a delusion, or dream, of Chris MacNeill, or

2.  She is lying to Karras about seeing every psychiatrist in the world…she missed the 89th! Or she’s lying about the whole thing to begin with

You know, doctor, unless I’m mistaken, she’s growling! You’re right! I’ll write that down in this thing where we write doctor stuff. Good idea! Why ever would she growl? I’m not sure…but that sounds like something that someone in a primitive culture would do! Sure, it’s got to be that weird primitive culture sleep-walking demon-possession thing. I’ll tell the other 85 guys about our diagnosis. What’s that nurse? She could be experiencing an acute psychotic breakdown that includes self-harming and a delusional state? Hey! We’re the doctors…not you! Go find a witch doctor! Sorry…I temporarily stumbled into Chris MacNeill’s dream.

As far Chris and her hatred of Regan goes...the most important observation to be made is that she shows herself to be completely uninterested in the obvious question that is so obvious that it is obviously a sign of Chris's obvious hatred for Regan...a grown man is left in the house while Sharon goes to get the twelve year old girl's medication, and he quickly makes his way up to her bedroom. I can't believe that any parent of a young girl would find this of no interest. There is no indication that she asked her daughter about this. Why would he be up there? Molestation...idiot! So if Regan did shove Burke out of the window, then a good argument could be made that it was...self-defense. We know that Chris liked Burke, but denied being interested in him personally. Possibly Mommie Dearest was...lying. And oh, my! Burke likes Regan better? Blame the victim...mom now hates her daughter out of jealousy? Burke was not in Regan's room to molest her, or harm her in any way. And yet Chris offers no motive for Regan's act of murder. And she persists in her belief that Regan committed this murder even when the detective clearly indicates that this isn't the case. It is not insignificant that in one major incident, Regan inflicts sexual violence on her mother.

The importance of this scene can't be over-estimated. Regan has been mutilating her genitals with the crucifix. Her mother runs upstairs and takes it away from her. Then Regan grabs her mother's head, and shoves Chris's face into her bloody crotch, screaming "Lick me!" Then Regan hits her mother across the face. I think that Regan is lashing out at a mother who may well have known what had been happening to her, but didn't care one bit. How do you like it...mom?

I will point out one more scene involving the mother. It is at the very end. Merrin has returned to Regan's room to finish the exorcism. Karras is still caught up in his psychotic breakdown precipitated by either the fate of his mother, or some mortal sin he has committed, or both, assuming of course, that they weren't one and the same. Regan has manipulated him yet again by hurling accusations against Karras in the name of his mother. Karras can't control himself, and Merrin orders him to leave. Going downstairs, Chris asks Karras if it's over. It's obviously not! And Karras tells her it isn't. Chris naturally has a second question!

Will she die?

And I find that to be an interesting question indeed. So exorcisms can kill you! And rather than go the psychiatric route first, you demand a ritual from pre-scientific, pre-rational, pre-reasonable time…the Dark Ages…and one which can kill you; well, not Chris! She intends to come out of this just fine. So is she concerned? And if so, about what? That Regan might die? Or that Regan won’t die? Wait! I wonder if Karras didn't take the hint! Returning to Regan's bedroom...what does Karras do? It'll come to me...oh yes! Throws Regan on the floor, pounds on her, and then attempts to choke her to death!

A Clerical Hit-man? A strange coincidence indeed! I think it’s worth stepping back a moment. When Karras brought his request to perform the exorcism to his boss, he was asked if he wanted to perform the ritual himself. Despite all of Karras’ assertions that what Regan needed was psychiatric care, and it must be remembered that upon Merrin’s arrival, Karras was still taking the possession…sorry…position that Regan was actually suffering from Dissociative Personality Disorder, with three personalities observable, Karras declared that he did indeed wish to perform the ritual. He could have received permission and gone off and performed the exorcism. But! It was decided that another priest would be present. That priest would be Merrin. So:

 Karras presumably wishes to perform the exorcism by himself…alone. The big guys nixed that. The guy on the right suggestions that Karras assist, and comments that it would be good for a psychiatrist to be present. In my opinion, it would be best if no exorcism be conducted all, and that Karras listen to his own advice. What these guys make no mention of, is that it would be good to have a doctor present; they say nothing about any danger of DEATH. If there was any inkling of a suspicion of that, they wouldn’t have approved the exorcism. At the least, they would be showing an extreme disregard for Regan’s safety, if they didn't discuss the idea that a doctor be present in case a health crisis should present itself. They show no signs that the physical welfare of Regan is an issue, beyond the observation that the presence of a psychiatrist would be useful. But it would seem that Karras saw his role not as an observing psychiatrist and assistant exorcist; no, he seems to believe that, contrary to the scenario just described, his role would be one of physician:

Yes, in addition to the Holy Trinkets that were brought to the exorcism, Karras brought his doctor bag. And he had what one would expect someone to have in a doctor bag…a stethoscope. It also looks like Karras brought his blood pressure monitor.

I guess Karras’s superiors approved a ritual that they didn’t understand. They didn’t know that a physician should be in attendance. They didn’t know about the serious risk to a demon-possessed person when said demon was being exorcised.

Merrin enters:
 

“What is it?”

“Her heart.”

“Can you give her something?”

“She’ll go into coma.”
 

Nowhere in the movie is anything said about Regan having a heart condition. The strange thing is…Merrin has a terminal health condition, and while he asks his question, we can almost hear the nitroglycerin pills rattling in his pocket. And! We are not told what is wrong with Regan’s heart. Notice something very significant. Merrin has just been told that there is a serious problem with Regan’s heart…and he is a person who would clearly understand heart problems! Yet, Merrin says nothing about doing something absurd…call an ambulance! If her heart, like his is about to do, stops…that’s called…death! A dead twelve year old girl who died during a religious ritual of a heart attack, which one priest specifically knew about, and the other priest was told about. Explain that to the police! And! Karras, despite noting a developing heart problem, sees no need to get an ambulance either. No! Instead, they decide, after a break, to continue with the ritual despite the apparent impending death of Regan. “Can you give her something?” I’m shocked at Merrin’s stupid question. It’s not a headache…give her an aspirin? So Merrin assumes that included in Karras’s doctor bag is heart medication and that Karras can administer it to save Regan’s life. Hey, Merrin! You got some heart medication…you administer it! Sorry. And Regan’s condition is so bad, that if Karras actually had EMERGENCY HEART MEDICATION that went along with the stethoscope he happened to bring with him, he couldn’t give it to her anyway. Why? She’d lapse into a coma. What? Seriously? She’s in such danger of dying that we can’t even give her life-saving medication before we fail to call an ambulance and resume chanting ancient spells at her? Excellent! Notice this too…Karras didn’t say that he didn’t have something he could give her; he said that he couldn’t give it to her because she would lapse into a coma. And the reason he didn't tell Merrin that he hadn't brought such medication with him is because...he did bring medication with him:

There it is...between the doctor's bag and the Blood Pressure Monitor. It obviously something you inject with a hypodermic needle. Of course, we don't know what medication that is, and we don't know whether he brought any other medications with him.

1.  Karras brings his stethoscope to monitor Regan’s heart

2.  Karras brings heart medication with him

This is very different than the basic reason why the two big guys decided to let Karras be there at all. So Karras’s response to Chris when she asks if Regan will die, is an annoyed…No. It seems to me that Karras has just told us that Regan is in imminent danger of dying, and has no intention of calling for medical help. Given that, Chris’s question shouldn’t be annoying at all. Of course, and I’m just thinking out loud, there are other people in the house…we certainly know that Sharon and her listening device are present. So the idea was going to be, although it wasn’t, that the whole point of the exorcism was that Regan would die of a heart attack, being given an overdose of some medication that Karras had in his bag. Of course you would have to call for emergency services at some point to make it seem believable that there was no foul play. But if you were actually killing her, you could use a stethoscope to know that her heart stopped, then call for an ambulance. And you’re a physician too, so you administered something to get her heart started, and that’s perfectly legal. That way Regan would be dead, but it would look like you tried to save her by calling 911. Still, Merrin is there…so if there was a plot to kill Regan, Merrin might be in the way. Actually…not. They both keep entering and leaving the room. Karras has now placed the suggestion in Merrin’s mind…her heart is in trouble. So, hypothetically of course, if Merrin were to leave Karras alone in the room with Regan at some point going forward, Regan could be given an overdose. Merrin wouldn’t know it, but would be able to corroborate Karras’s statement about the girl’s heart. If that is the case, and you are waiting anxiously, yet calmly enough to do your giraffe-oriented needlework while you wait, you might break protocol and ask…Will she die? Karras can’t say…yes! Even if that were the plan. There are witnesses around. He must say…no, and perhaps sound annoyed because that question shouldn’t have been asked aloud. And then! Karras enters the room and finds Merrin dead. So he springs into action, beats on Regan, throws her to the floor, and attempts to strangle her. But then…he can’t go through with it. He suddenly stops, and throws himself through the window.

So why did Merrin die? Yes, I know…his heart. But he had his heart pills. And we know that he actually went into the bathroom and took his pill. Was it the stress that killed him? Of course, we might have a Cosmic Coincidence take place, and that, despite Merrin having his pills with him, and despite Merrin taking his pill as he had so often before, it was simply his time to meet his Maker. So the pill he took did no good. And so, St. Peter beckoned to him. That is quite a coincidence. If I were to play Devil’s Advocate, or better yet…Pazuzu’s Advocate, I could cover all the bases I can think of by simply noting a hypothetical possibility:

So was it only brandy that Regan’s Mom put in Merrin’s drink? Give it time! Then you find Mirren dead. Of course, you’ll have to call emergency services about Merrin, but if you act fast…

The film leaves a big question that touches on the crazy comments just made. Karras spends so much time stating that Regan’s problem is psychiatric. We get this from him over and over again. And! As late as the arrival of Merrin, Karras is stilling giving a psychiatric diagnosis…Dissociative Personality Disorder…Regan has three personalities. Yet he seeks what he needs for approval of the exorcism, getting help from Sharon and the making of a tape that will be used as evidence that Regan speaks English backwards. This scene is significant:

This is Karras getting permission for the exorcism. So what is said?
 

“Your’e convinced it’s genuine?”

“No, not really, I suppose.”

I have to admit that I played this over and over again. Karras still doesn’t believe that Regan’s problem is demon-possession. At no point will he ever take the position that it is. And what about his boss? Karras asks for permission to conduct an exorcism…a very rare event. And despite Karras stating that he still doesn’t believe it, Karras’s boss approves the exorcism. What? You want an exorcism for a case of something that isn’t demon-possession? That’s right. Ok, I’ll sign off on it. This is absurd. But we are left having to conclude that although Karrass does not believe that Regan is possessed by a demon, he nonetheless is adamant about performing an exorcism. So what motive will explain this? An interesting question, I would think. And as for the power of coincidence…look at the previous picture again. Karras gets permission for an exorcism while at the same time saying that he doesn’t believe that demon-possession is involved. Now look at the statue on the bishop’s desk. That is a statue of St. Louis. And the supposed real exorcism case that inspired the book, which then inspired the movie, was something that happened in…St. Louis. Odd.

Still, if Chris had hospitalized her daughter, and she were in the psychiatric ward under observation, with the proper medication regimen, and speaking with a psychologist who would actually make at least a half-assed attempt to find out what was wrong with the girl and maybe even…why two men were in Regan’s room on the evening that, as the detective said, A STRONG MAN KILLED BURKE DENNINGS AND THREW HIS BODY OUT OF REGAN’S WINDOW…I’ll bet that question, one which doesn’t phase Chris or apparently require an answer as far as she's concerned…will interest the psychologist intensely. And! While she's hospitalized, she won’t die! I promise. But if, and I’m sure it will break Chris’s heart, Regan does somehow manage to die during a ritual that hasn’t been performed in America since, well, possibly since Psychopathic Little Puritan Ladies graced the town of Salem…a ritual performed by men she previously called witch-doctors until she decided that they were really saviors...a ritual that is patently archaic and completely meaningless not to mention having no recognized detrimental effect to the one who has ancient spells and magic water thrown at him...Hey! Merrin spent a whole month exorcising a demon from a boy in Africa, and as far as we know, it almost killed Merrin, but apparently didn’t phase the boy! So perhaps Chris should be asking…are you going to die, Father Karras? Merrin will die, but he had such a lousy heart that he should have been retired and living the rest of his, apparently short, life with a bucket of nitroglycerin pills beside him. And sleep! Perchance to dream. Of course, if Regan does die…there will be Hell to pay! Sorry. The authorities will not like the sick twelve year old lying dead in the upstairs bedroom. I was misguided! I was led to believe that she had a demon…so I did the best a mother could do! I will cry and sob…but it’s not my fault! Not really, a demon killed her. Where is he, ma’am? I suppose he left her body just before she died. And that’s too bad. But what’s a mother to do? Well, I let her be hypnotized once, but angry little Regan…little Regan with a damn good reason to be angry…grabbed the psychologist by the balls and squeezed real hard. Good Heavens, ma’am, that wasn’t nice! No it wasn’t. So after that, I naturally gave up on the psychiatric idea…it obviously didn’t work! And some specialists, who I will soon be suing for malpractice for planting the demon-possession crap in my mind, made it seem to me like an exorcism was actually a sound, psychiatric approach! I’m sure I’ll make out like a bandit. So you see, I was tricked! And my daughter died. The one who I wouldn’t shut up about how she committed cold-blooded murder of a grown man; the one who…well…I’m sure that two grown men in Regan's bedroom after Sharon left to get her medication, or to pick up a new bug for Regan’s room that would allow Sharon to tune-in this Ritualistic-Blast-From-The-Past, there being too many people around at the time to let her sneak upstairs, give the little girl another crucifix-shaped weapon, and maybe even suggest what to do with it..stick it up your...yes! Two grown men in her bedroom is certainly something that no self-respecting mother would find troubling! Isn’t she dead yet? I mean…is she gonna die? If she does, then it’s all a misunderstanding…and after all…I was tricked. Hey! It killed the Old Priest! That proves it killed Little Regan! And the other priest followed Burke Dennings through the same bizarre portal that allows, in addition to a stupid Ouija board, demons to go back and forth between their Infernal Abode and my daughter’s bedroom. So two down! The demon was two for three before it finally left. Didn’t I get lucky! Wait! Which got away? 

Wait...who said that? Tektonikus...why you do this to me! It is difficult to sound like Karras’ mother when I’m writing. You left her alone to die! I didn’t say that…Regan did. If Karras didn’t, he could have said…look, you’re wrong! I did the best I could for my mother. I asked her to let me find her somewhere else to live…somewhere where I could keep a better eye on her. She was stubborn and refused. And it’s been a very painful thing…but I’m a Man of God…and you’re just a demon! So attempt to manipulate me all you like! It won’t change the fact that you’ll soon need a new home. Wait…that would be a Strong Man’s response. I have one better! You’re not my mother! You’re not my mother! You did look like her a few minutes ago when I was having another psychotic hallucination…but I feel better now! So where was I? Oh, yes…you’re not my mother! You’re not my mother! Hey, take it easy, all’s fair in love and religious war. Besides, you guys started it! No, that wasn’t the next topic I had in mind. I know! Artwork! That's right, Regan was an artist! Notice the thing Regan is so proudly displaying. That little piece of sculpture figures elsewhere in the movie:

This is when Regan unveils her latest sculpturial masterpiece. And in what context do we meet Big Orange Bird-Thing?

Yes, the Ouija board:

As Regan asks Captain Howdy whether he thinks that her mother is pretty…oh, there’s the Orange Bird-Thing, to the left of the Regan’s mother. So here we meet two entities…Big Orange Bird-Thing…and Captain Howdy. It would be crazy if they were one and same! Here's an interesting thing to notice:

This scene follows the one where Regan's tummy-ache ends ups all over Father Karras. Look to the right of the scene...yes it's moved from where it was earlier in the movie! And doesn't it look like it's watching Karras?

But notice in the previous picture that Big Orange Bird-Thing looks rather similar to a crucifix:

Though I admit there are a few differences. So Big Orange Crucifix-like Bird-Thing, perhaps Captain Howdy, is rather cute and lovable, and appears to be a very harmless thing. But! It’s flip-side…a cold metal crucifix with the image of a dead person on it, which is supposed to be a very powerful symbol of God, is used by Regan to harm herself in a meaning-laden way. And! Just as Big Orange Bird-Thing is found with Regan, so too the crucifix. Regan’s mother knows how The Orange One arrived in her house. She has no idea how the crucifix did. It is a strange contrast, though I may be over-reaching…something I never do.

One last observation about Sick Regan. We find her having seizures and convulsions rather often. These have been represented in the movie as very violent, and happen while in bed. The actual bed-shaking scenes in the movie may be due to seeing the events through the eyes of Regan’s mother, who is susceptible to suggestion, and as such, may be given to hysterics. If Regan were having a serious seizure in bed, and her mother were to get onto the bed, it could seem as if the whole bed continued to shake despite the fact that she was also on the bed. And there is:

And in the climax to the film:

It is well-known that seizures can cause the eyes to roll back into the head.

Regan’s mother was susceptible to suggestion? Only two people witnessed one of the events that most people associate with the movie. Regan’s mother was the first. Disturbing picture alert!

So Regan’s mother sees the head turning around on Regan’s shoulders first. Surely a supernatural act! Surely this proves the existence of the demon and demon-possession. Well it would, if it really happened. What I mean to say, is that within the Artificial Reality of the movie, this didn’t happen. Immediately proceeding this scene, the detective had stopped by. He had coffee with Chris, and he asked about the night that Burke Dennings died after falling, or being pushed, out of Regan’s window. He clearly alluded to one of the defining characteristics of Dennings’ death. He was found at the bottom of the stone stairs with his head turned completely around on his shoulders. Chris would have known that, and the detective, immediately preceding the scene pictured above, reminded her of that. And one more thing! In this scene, Regan speaks in Dennings’ voice saying

Do you know what she did…your cunting daughter?

It is made clear later on that Chris was absolutely convinced that Regan killed Dennings, and these two key elements appear in the immediate wake of the conversation with the detective. So under the stress of finding Regan caught up in the Let J**** F*** You scene, Chris imagines that she sees what the detective had just reminded her about. The other person to see this was, apparently, Merrin and Karras. Yes, I know! That’s two people! But here is part of the shot:

Father Merrin is on the right. Yet he continues reading out of the ritual book without a moment’s hesitation. In fact, he gives no indication that Regan’s head is turning around on her shoulders at all. You might have carried out an exorcism decades ago, but one might expect that this sight would cause you to pause a moment. However, it is made explicitly clear by the next shot that Karras is seeing it:

The explanation? Karras is hallucinating. And! The same detective that talked with Chris MacNeill about what befell Dennings is the same detective who told Karras what had happened. Merrin, on the other hand, had no knowledge of it. So! The head-spinning gimmick, despite it’s fame, or infame, though that’s not a word, never really happened in the Artificial Reality of the movie.

Karras had, as noted earlier, indicated that he was no longer fit to be a priest. He drinks heavily, and is completely consumed by a sense of guilt that his mother’s fate was his fault. However, while we do find out about the mental hospital she was placed in, we do not find out about her death until…well, it’s very, very strange. What? We find out from a character who ultimately, in my incorrect opinion, stands at the very center of what befell Regan MacNeill. Check this out:

This is Karras visiting his mother in the mental hospital. She blames him for her being there, although it is really his uncle’s fault. Look at the bottom left of the picture. Yes, Mother Karras is in restraints. Mentally ill and strapped to the bed? Sounds a lot like Regan. So here are some similarities:

1.  Karras is mentally disturbed and susceptible to suggestion

2.  His mother was mentally disturbed and restrained to a hospital bed

3. The subtle trappings of Regan’s “changed room” give all the appearances of a room in a psychiatric hospital

Karras is alone twice with Demon-possessed Regan. And what of these conversations? Well, there are numerous instances of Regan speaking to Karras in his mother’s voice, accusing him of being to blame for her fate. As we saw earlier, when alone in the room during the exorcism, he sees Regan transformed into his mother. In short, Karras is in the middle of a psychotic breakdown. Regan never speaks in the voice of Karras’ mother. The various things that we hear Regan say to Karras are being heard, not within the context of the Artificial Reality, but rather through the ears of Karras. And Regan never said any of them. For Karras, demon-possessed Regan and his own mother become one and the same.

And so now I would point out one last thing along the lines just described. Remember the cannula in Regan’s nose? Remember the IV drip? The IV’s in her arm If she is in her room…who is responsible for that? Chris is an actress, not a doctor, nor a nurse. So where is the Enigmatic Medical Personnel who have responsibility for the trappings of a hospital room? The movie gives no indication of any health care professionals being at Regan’s house. And! In some of the scenes, her face is in such a terrible condition that if she were being cared for by doctors or nurses, and she were at home, given her condition, Regan would have to have been taken to the hospital. Although it is interesting that the condition of her face in the first scene where Karras meets her is dramatically worse than in the second scene, where the condition of her face looks like it improved. Good nursing…no doubt. Have you seen the Invisible Doctor? Have you seen the Invisible Nurse? No? Neither have I. But I have seen something else that's interesting on the question as to where Regan really was during the build-up to, and the explosion of, the great climax. I noticed this:

Regan is getting medical tests. This is the Waiting Room. Karras isn't the only who is hallucinating! I am too! The mother in the foreground of the picture doesn't seem to be the best mother in the world. Look at those 2 badly behaved boys, rolling around on each other. And mom is to busy reading her magazine to take time out and discipline her children. Take it outside! No rough-housing at the doctor's office! Wait 'til your father gets home! Time to see something that's not there! Mom number 1 is oblivious to her children. Ok, but Mom number 2 is Chris MacNeill. And in the end...well, the end of my thoroughly discreditable interpretation of the movie, Mom number 2 was indeed oblivious to her child...that is...what was really wrong with Regan and what caused it. But I stress again that this is the Waiting Room at the doctor's office. Observe what Chris is doing instead of reading a magazine. Sitting and Stitching? Fiddling while Rome Burns? Do we have shades of the Make-Believe Version of Gertie Wright? Randy tells us that the Beast of East New York Street was crocheting while a dying girl is being dragged around the house, being resuscitated several times as Enigmatic Doctor Ricky, School-Crazy Stephanie, and the Queen of Sock and Smack dump her in the bathtub, and they lay her on a mattress...the wrong mattress if the Canonical Story is correct. Of course, that didn't happen in a Waiting Room. So Chris passes the time. Close-up time:

Now I've come to believe that there a very few flaws in the movie. In fact, I haven't found any individual thing that I would consider to be a flaw. And! When we get a close-up, it must needs be important...me thinks. So we are shown the giraffe. It appears that what Chris is making is intended for a child. And that works out well, seeing how that's exactly what, despite what's going on, Regan is. A giraffe?  How about this:

That’s a very interesting giraffe!

I had no idea that there so many giraffes in Georgetown! Well, there were only two as far as we know. But what do you do to pass the time while your daughter is undergoing an exorcism? Sorry! Everyone knows the answer to that. Whenever my daughter is having a demon driven out of her by two priests reading magic words from a magic book that hasn't been used since "the 15th century," as Karras put it, I do this... Yes, work on my needlepoint giraffe, just like you were sitting in the Waiting Room of the hospital, or the doctor's office.

One conversation is particularly interesting as far as Karras's mental and emotional state is concerned. Karras and the Entity speak Latin to each other.  Karras is surprised.

 “You speak Latin?”

 Ego te absolvo.

What an incredible thing for Regan to say.  “I release you,” “I absolve of (your sin)” “I free you from (your guilt)” The disturbed Cleric, haunted by guilt for his mother’s fate, even to the extent of hallucinations, is forgiven by the unclean demon…the one he intends to drive from Regan so as to proclaim her free…clean again. Actually, these words are part of the

Deinde, ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spiritus Sancti. Amen

Thereupon, I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now a key observation to be made is that the Absolution is spoken in order to forgive MORTAL SINS, sins that lead to damnation if they are not confessed before the sinner dies. So The Entity in Regan seems to be familiar with the Absolution, and appears to know that Karras is guilty of a mortal sin. Relevant sins include sacrilege (desecration?), rape; and murder.

So who is the one who is possessed? Regan? It seems to be that Karras is possessed by a demon he can’t shake. He is desperate to obtain forgiveness…and Regan knows this. She really said…Ego te absolvo? Absolutely. Regan spoke in the voice of Karras’ mother? I think not. The mentally disturbed Regan growled, howled, and made any number of horrible sounds…this we know. It was Karras’ own mind that heard his mother speaking; it was Karras’ own mind that saw the figure of his mother on Regan’s bed.  Ah, yes! So who needs the exorcism? Karras hears Regan say:

“What an excellent day for an exorcism!”

And that is a strange thing for Not Pazuzu to say to the disturbed Man of God. I quote Regan again:

Regan: What an excellent day for an exorcism!

Karras: You would like that?

Regan: Intensely.

Karras: But wouldn’t that drive you out of Regan?

Regan: It would bring us together.

Karras: You and Regan?

Regan: You and us.

Based on what we know of the Demon Possessed Karras…figuratively speaking…as I would also speak of Regan…she recognizes what Karras needs most…an exorcism. Possibly. In this brief exchange, the Supposed Demonic Entity, supposedly so protective of its sow, completely forgets all about Regan. Karras finally hears what he needs most to hear…his demon can be cast out. But not by the church, or other priests. It can only be cast out by Regan. Why did he decide this? Well, he knew that he was really no longer a priest. He didn’t believe the things that he once thought he did. And so they could do nothing for him. But Regan can, and so the exorcism of Regan must go forth since the only way that his exorcism can take place is if the church grants Regan her exorcism. Still the question can be asked…why can Regan provide Absolution to Karras? Again..it’s hard to be sure. But she seems to recognize that the Psychiatrist-Priest is guilty of a mortal sin. And how could she know that? Perhaps that mortal sin was something that actually needed the forgiveness of the other involved in it:

If you forgive anyone’s sins…they are forgiven. If you don’t forgive that person’s sins…they aren’t forgiven.

I’ll bet the Young Cleric knew about John 20:23. So if someone hurts you, and not on accident, but intentionally, he won’t find forgiveness from God if you won’t forgive him. That’s the best argument for living each day ever mindful of the way you treat others. The fewer people you need forgiveness from the better! So what did Karras do that might have needed Regan’s forgiveness? Why is that Regan’s life is restored only after Karras hurls himself out of the window that a sick priest earlier pushed Burt Dennings out of? And why were those two men in that room to begin with?

It is interesting to note that following the death of Merrin, and Karras’s inability to revive him, Karras physically attacks Regan. No! He’s attacking the demon, you might say. In my mind, that simply doesn’t work. A demon is a supernatural being; it has no physical body. This is the scene:

Stop! What an amazing scene. We've been here before! We're in Regan's Room...the Up There Room! We have two adult males. One is dead...and one is attacking Regan. We have the night of Burke Dennings' murder playing itself out again...with a difference. The man who attacks Regan, not the other man, will be the one who goes out the window. But! He, unlike Dennings, will throw himself out of the window rather than the other man. And then, once Regan's attacker is dead, she is free. Then!

It's hard to see what's happening here because the scene is moving so fast, but as Regan and her attacker fight, Regan tears Karras's St. Joseph medal from his neck. So there's Merrin, and there's Karras, the two men with the St. Joseph medals, and in the same room. Amazing! And then, a bit later, Sharon finds the medal. So Regan tore the religious medal from the neck of her attacker, and it was later found in the room. Could this be more significant? Of course, there's no guarantee that the medal that Sharon pulls out of her pocket is actually Karras's medal, and not the medal of someone else.

And for all Those Who Fear the Satanic Tool Shed! For those who listen intently to Led Zeppelin songs backwards…and find Diabolical Words…you too are hallucinating! Perhaps there are many a Karras who hear what is not there...who hear words that come from their own mind. Still, backward masking is not just a feature of Stairway to Heaven. Karras finds it as well. It’s interesting that Stairway to Heaven was released in 1971, and The Exorcist was released in 1973, just two years later. Karras recorded Regan after she slipped into a bizarre state where her unintelligible speech was exactly that. Strange.

When asked about exorcism by Regan’s mother, Karras seems to know of only one of the signs of demon possession that the church accepted…speaking in a language that the person had not learned or studied. So when he has a second visit with Regan, that is what comes up. As if Regan knew that Karras would test her on this point, she begins the conversation with:

“In time. But mirabile dictu, don’t you agree?”

This follows the strange self-opening drawer trick, something that doesn’t require a demon to accomplish since it seems reasonable to maintain that if Regan hadn’t figured out how to open the drawer without apparently not touching it, therefore the demon did it, why then wouldn’t the demon undo the straps? So she speaks two words of Latin, for which there are different translations, but I would follow this one:

“It’s remarkable! Don’t you agree?”

She’s obviously speaking of her little trick. Karras is surprised to hear her speak Latin. Notice that he doesn’t respond to her in Latin…he responds in English. And notice that she didn’t ask the question…don’t you agree…in Latin. She asks it in English. Karras asks:

Quod Nomen mihi est?

This is very basic Latin, and any beginning student of Latin knows that this means:

What is my name?

But how does Regan respond?

Bon Jour

What? That is French, not Latin. And it is a French phrase that most English speakers know is a greeting meaning…Hello! So what has actually happened? What has Regan actually done? Well, she has revealed that she only knows a few words of Latin, three of which are the beginning of the Prayer of Absolution that she could have heard at any time, given the fact that where she lives there are scads of Clerics. And she doesn’t even know what quod nomen mihi est means. In other words, she doesn’t speak Latin. So she responds by doing something that she did during Karras’ first visit. Regan made the following claim:

“Your mother’s in here with us Karras, would you like to leave a message? I’ll see that she gets it.”

Karras then asks what his mother’s maiden name was. She doesn’t answer. Karras leans over her and asks again:

“What is it?”

And what did Regan say? Nothing…she vomited in his face. Now…if you disregard the vomiting…something the makers of the movie don’t want you to do, then you would probably notice that Regan did not know the maiden name of Karras’s mother. She does know that if her claims are true, then she should know. So she pulls a little bit of Metaphorical Sleight of Stomach, and in a way that guarantees that we will miss the highly important fact that Regan cannot answer a question that, if she were really demon-possessed, she should be able to answer. In other words…she isn’t demon-possessed. Of course, Karras is surprised about the comment about his mother. He asks Chris if she knew that his mother had died recently. She did. We know that Father Dyer told her at the party. Karras then asked Chris if Regan knew. Chris said…no. But this is clearly not correct. Either Chris really believes that Regan didn’t know, or she’s lying. I think that someone told Regan about the priest and the death of his mother, or she overheard a conversation where the subject was Karras.  

The conclusion to be reached is that Regan knew about Karras and the death of his mother…but knew no more than that. This doesn’t support the demon-possession angle…it actually indicates otherwise. The vomiting in Karras’s face was meant to distract us…and possibly Karras…to the fact that the Supposed Demon doesn’t actually know something that it should know. This is an act of sleight of hand. The same is true about the fact that Regan only knows five words of Latin. She knows Bon Jour, which almost everyone knows.

Yet…if Karras is attempting to hone in on the most convincing sign of demonic possession accepted by the Catholic Church, the only one that Karras told Chris he was aware of…the speaking of languages, he attempts to keep an conversation in Latin going by repeating his question…quod nomen mihi est? Regan’s response?

La plume de ma tante!

This is an expression used in the learning of basic, elementary French…a phrase that any child learning French would know. And it has no real meaning…the quill of my aunt. It’s a little phrase that helps people learning French to remember the sounds of the French vowel “A”. How about these expressions:

“How now brown cow”

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain”

These phrases, which are intended to teach proper elocution and the correct pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs, are the exactly the same as La plume de ma tante.

And following Regan’s throwing out an insignificant French expression that she probably learned at school, it is still not an answer to the basic question…quod nomen mihi est? So what has Regan done? Well, she has shown clearly that she can’t speak Latin, and given that, if her Supposed Demon did actually speak French, then I would expect her to be able to answer the Latin question properly in French…which she can’t do, because she doesn’t know what the basic Latin question means. And what conclusion can be reached here? Well, contrary to what most commentators say:

Regan can’t speak any foreign languages…she knows only a couple of words…and can’t answer questions…and can’t converse in Latin or French. So! In short, Regan does NOT meet the definition of someone who speaks foreign languages they should not know how to speak. I know words in several languages, and even some short sentences and phrases. But I can’t converse in those languages…so it can not be said that I speak them. So Karras is left in a bind…he wants the exorcism, but the most stunning sign of demon possession has eluded him.

Karras: Well, Your Excellency, I think Regan qualifies for an exorcism

The Bishop: Why?

Karras: She writhes around on her bed, yells obscenities, growls and howls…and other things

The Bishop: What other things?

Karras: She threw-up on me!

The Bishop: Yuck! But really, Father Karras, you’ve got nothing better than that?

Karras: Yes!

The Bishop: What?

Karras: She speaks 5 words of Latin and knows 2 French expressions.

The Bishop: French expressions? Like what?

Karras: She said…bon jour!

The Bishop: Well! In that case…I’ll sign-off on the exorcism.

And so what is Karras to do? He shoots for something else. He’ll have to give his boss something other than a girl who has convulsions, harms herself, claims to be possessed, growls, howls, vomits…and although supernatural physical strength is one of the many signs of possession accepted by the Catholic Church…well, we were led to believe that Regan threw Burke Dennings out of the window of her room. The detective said that the fact that Dennings’ head had been turned completely around before being thrown out of Regan’s window…and Regan’s mother does all she can to convince us that it was in fact Regan who did this…then we have the sign of demon possession related to…supernatural strength. Really? Really? Supernatural strength, and she can’t undo the straps holding her to the bed? Another sign is “a cold feeling in the room.” This one is interesting. In several scenes in the movie, Regan’s room is cold. We know that because Chris, entering the room, behaves like it’s cold. And why? Because Regan’s window is open…and so her mother shuts it. Once we’re well into the demon-possession storyline, the room is at times very cold. And yet! On both instances where Karras visits Regan searching for a Demon-Possession-Deal-Clincher that will enable him to get permission for the exorcism…there’s no indication that the room is cold at all.

So what’s a priest do? He goes for another shiny object! When he throws water onto Regan, she writhes and twists…she moans, groans, and growls, though manages to not vomit. Karras records this moaning and groaning, and then heads off to listen to it in a university sound lab. It’s gibberish? No! He’s told that it’s English spoken backwards.

Give us time!

I am no one!

Let her die!

He’s a priest!

Merrin! Merrin!

Now it can be said that the first three supposed English backward phrases are problematic. As Perceivers, we hear the phrases…so they should be meaningful. In my opinion…give us time! is not meaningful. I am no one could be, since it would agree with the dehumanizing the sow is mine pronouncement. Let her die! makes no sense, since Regan is the Supposed Demon’s new home. He is a priest? Yes, we know that…Regan knows that…Chris knows that…and any demon would know that so it serves no purpose to say it. Merrin! Merrin! Would be highly important, seeing how it would seem to be very much the case that Regan doesn’t know Merrin, although she does say something to him at the end that might take one aback. However, I will make a couple of comments. First, it must be remembered that these utterances, which are really growls and howls, and the violent physical reaction which precipitate them…well, they follow Karras throwing water on Regan. So this violent reaction is understandable for a demon. Except for the fact that when the vial of water was produced, Regan didn’t know what it was, but when she was told it was holy water, she told Karras to it keep away. He throws it on her anyway, which is only fitting seeing how she threw-up on him, and then we see the violent reaction that leads to backwards English, which is, admittedly, more impressive than 5 words of Latin and 2 basic French phrases. So I find it odd that the demon has to be told that it’s holy water. But Karras tells Chris that it was not holy water…it was regular tap water. And that means that it should have had no effect at all…there should have been no violent reaction…and consequently, no backwards English. The context debunks the basic idea.

When you hear the phrases, they are not spoken normally. The annunciation and basic sound is completely not what a person speaking these phrases would sound like. This is a common flaw about backwards masking. I’ve published several essays on this website that discuss this. Play Stairway to Heaven backwards, and you think your hearing words. The best example of this came during the Judas Priest trial where the lead singer, to make a point, showed up in court with a large tape recorder. He proceeded to play him singing lyrics from the band’s songs, the tracks being played backwards. Before hitting play, he would tell the court what they were going to hear. And it was always something strange. It was amazing how clearly you heard what he said you would hear…and none of those things are actually in the vocal tracks. Play speech backwards, and you will hear things in it. But I have final thing to say about this, which will go beyond the nonsensical, short phrases in highly distorted speech that you hear when Karras’ tape is played…Karras’ tape i.e. the one he made when the Demon in Regan responded in the completely wrong manner when the Not Holy Water tap water, which shouldn’t bother a demon in any way, was thrown on her, was the only tape in the story. It should be remembered that this is actually the SECOND tape that Karras has that features Regan. Previously, he obtained a copy of a tape that Regan and Chris had made for Regan’s father. Chris gave it to him. He took it to the sound lab, played it, and took notes. Later, just before the Diabolical Rock Concert is about to begin, Karras tips his hand and reveals that he really believes that Regan is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder, which is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder. This was brought up once before, during the “Fuck me! Fuck me!” scene, when Chris says that it looks like Multiple Personality Disorder. The two doctors quickly nix this, and then go back to their Clearly Wrong Nonsense about the Temporal Lobe Lesion. And this shares something else in common with Chris’s conversation with the doctor who admits that Regan’s problem could be depression, but then, and it begs for a malpractice lawsuit, tells Chris not to go to a psychiatrist. And Karras makes it clear that he regards Regan as mentally ill, only to turn around and push for the exorcism. I’ll have more to say on that at a later time. But! Karras tells Merrin that there are three personalities in Regan. Not entities…not demons…personalities. Now when we listen to the FIRST tape, a strange thing is noticed. First, Regan speaks in an odd way…she has a tendency to speak in a normal voice, and then suddenly jump dramatically in pitch, becoming quite shrill at times. Her volume increases, then decreases; she mumbles and then speaks clearly. It can be tempting to believe that the Regan Voice is really two different voices. But they aren’t. She simply has an odd way of speaking at times, and it should be noted that it is clear from the tape that Chris is egging Regan on to say something to her father, but Regan can’t think of anything to say. So we can add a bit of nervousness and stress to Regan’s voice on the tape. But! There is also the voice of Chris. It is more hushed, and lower in tone. In effect, if one didn’t know better and if one weren’t a priest having a psychotic breakdown, you might conclude that there are three Regan Voices on the FIRST tape, and so three personalities. Still, I make one final point. Karras is looking for proof of demon- possession that his superiors will accept. The “speaking foreign languages” test failed miserably. So how about speaking a language backwards, although I can’t imagine what purpose this would serve for a demon. I am suggesting that Karras took the first tape and the second tape, both being legitimate recordings of Regan, and created a third tape. So the second tape…the one he made of Regan saying puzzling phrases backwards…was not the tape that the sound lab technician heard and said was backwards English. It was a third tape, made from the first tape, with sounds from the second tape. If he played the first tape backwards, and then, like all good…If We Play Rock Songs Backwards We All Will Hear Things…although enunciation and speech patterns will be badly off…he records these onto a third tape, manipulates the tape in such a way that when the backwards is played forwards, it seems that we are hearing sounds that make up recognizable phrases, but the phrases that we hear are not actually there. The very occurrence of the first tape is, in effect, somewhat suspicious, seemingly without any real purpose, whereas the second tape (really the third tape) is clearly meant to bridge the gap from the failure of the Foreign Language Gimmick, to getting an exorcism that you have always been against anyway. The Young Cleric, like the opponents of the Stairway to Heaven, hears things that aren’t there. But they need to be there. And so it is that we hear them, and Karras’ superiors, if they’re sufficiently interested enough to listen to the tape.

It seems as though a lot of people were hallucinating. I suspect that Regan was one of the few people who wasn’t. Of course, there were the noises in the attic. Chris thought they were rats. This was the first time she heard them:

She just happened to be up and heading out into the hallway when she hears the sounds. The next scene is vitally important:

Entering Regan’s room, she finds Regan asleep. But her window is open. Now…Regan’s window is the most important location in the movie. It is shown over and over again. It should be noted that in many of these scenes, the window is open. Often, Chris closes it. She also finds it open when it is rather cold, when you would expect it not to be open. So she closes it. In the final exorcism scenes, the room is very, very cold. Why? Demons like cold? I thought Hell was a hot place. I would suggest that the room, in those scenes, is not cold at all. The presentation of the room as cold is meant to remind the viewer of the fact that Regan’s real room was often found to be cold because the window was open when it should not have been. That is important.

As I just noted, the room is cold and Chris is moving toward the window to close it. Then she hears the noise again. It’s almost as if, as she moves, it moves…as if it were following her. And that means that whatever is making the noise is moving toward Regan's room. Once the window is closed, the noises stop. She tells her butler Carl that there are rats in the attic. He insists that there aren’t any, but he puts traps up in the attic to make her feel better.

She then hears the sound again.

Wow! Creepy Regan picture! It’s not as if there’s not plenty of those! Sorry. It’s the dead of the night. The phone rings. Chris gets up. Then she finds something very strange:

Sometime during the night, Regan has left her own bedroom, and slipped into her mother’s bed. Why? She tells her mother that her bed was shaking, and she couldn’t get to sleep. I’ll rephrase…I came in here to keep my bed from shaking. True. And I will say that there is a whole lot of bed shaking going on. I’ve always wondered why a demon would be so interested in shaking it’s victim’s bed. It doesn’t seem like it would accomplish very much. In the movie, the “shaking bed” element is very much exaggerated, as are many things. Nonetheless, I think that it is possible, though I’m sure I’m wrong, that the “shaking bed” theme may have a highly symbolic value to it…there are different ways to cause a bed to shake. A spastic demon is one way…but there are other, more suggestive ways of making a bed shake. Why is it that Regan couldn’t sleep, so she climbed into her mother’s bed? Because her own bed was shaking. In one scene, Regan’s bed is shaking so much that when Chris jumps onto the bed, it just keeps shaking. So why didn’t Chris’s bed, in the scene indicated by the picture provided above, start shaking? We will now learn the real reason why Regan was sleeping in her mother’s bed:

The first time Chris heard noises, she didn’t ascend the Stairway to the Attic, which is also the name of a song I am writing. The second time she did. But before Chris actually makes it up into the attic, Regan hears the noises. And the look on her face tells us everything we need to know:

Chris climbs up into the attic.

See the cheese? Carl was right…there were no rats. And! While she's up in the attic, we hear the sounds again. Yet she does not find the source of these sounds.

Carl has heard her up in the attic. So, if he hears the attic noises made by Chris, why hasn’t he heard the noises on other occasions? You know, the Not-Chris-Noises. There is one last, albeit bizarre, scene that implies the attic:

Carl and the attic…notice the ladder. We are well along now, and Karras is about to have his first encounter with Regan. Perhaps Carl is just putting things into the attic? I hope those sounds didn’t start again!

I fast forward now to Chris’s party. Later on, there is a smaller get-together around the piano. There is one very significant person present in this scene. There is also present an astronaut…Captain William Cutshaw. Hey! Cpt. Cutshaw and Cpt. Howdy! Sorry.

Suddenly, Regan appears from upstairs, the music stops and all eyes are on Regan. She says something interesting:

“You’re gonna die up there.”

Now it is usually said that she is looking at the astronaut, and so it is tempting to understand Regan as speaking to the astronaut, warning him of an impending death. But this interpretation, which seems to be the only one that makes sense, actually doesn’t. First, she would have to know that this guy was astronaut. Second, she would need to have had some sort of premonition of his death. Third, the whole thing is so important to Regan that she suddenly appears, intent to make this known. For me, none of this plausible. It is tempting to look for a different contextualization.  And there is one…an impossible one. What is that? Well, could this be linked to the significance of the non-existent rats in the attic? Certainly not…I guess. But what if Regan isn’t actually speaking to the astronaut? Could she be speaking to someone else in the group? Ah, yes! And it’s someone she fears. The fact that she is afraid is clear from the fact after making this pronouncement, she urinates.

This is the only scene in the movie in which Regan urinates. This is clearly a reaction to fear…and it must be fear of someone. Chris puts Regan in the bathtub, and attempts to find out why she said what she did. There is no response. An unwillingness to tell the parent about an abuser is common. Shortly after leaving Regan’s room, she begins screaming. Chris returns to find the bed shaking. Jumping onto it, it continues to shake. Regan is given more tests, and her increased aggressiveness is clear.

It is worth noting that she has shown, in the medical test scenarios, considerable aggressiveness toward the doctor.
 

1.  The doctor is performing a test where Regan is asked if she feels anything. She angrily declares that she “feels nothing.”

2.  The doctor is taking her temperature, and tells her to “put this in your mouth.” She angrily declares that she “doesn’t want it.”

3.  The doctor reveals to Chris that Regan has warned him to keep his fingers away from her “goddamn cunt.”

4.  While attempting to give Regan a shot, she angrily declares that she “doesn’t want it.” She then calls him a “fucking bastard” and spits in his face.
 

In all of these instances, Regan has lashed out at the same person…the male doctor. In all of these instances, sexual innuendo is manifest. It is as if the doctor has assumed the persona of a sexual abuser, and Regan has learned to respond aggressively in her denials. The doctor is not an abuser. But for some reason, Regan has projected this onto him. The doctor is a male authority figure…one who is supposed to be trusted…one who is beyond suspicion. One wonders whether there hasn’t been an act of projection that has taken place.

It isn’t clear how much time has passed since the latest tests, which indicated that there was no temporal lesion, and the first of Regan’s clearly vulgar sexual language. And again, the doctor is present. He arrives at the house to find that Regan is suffering severe seizures. The doctor enters, and the seizures stop. Her eyes roll back in her head and we hear a deep, guttural growl. She strikes out and hits the doctor. She then declares:

“Keep away..the sow is mine.”

She then grabs her crotch, and in a shrill voice shrieks “Fuck me! Fuck me!”

She is looking straight at the doctor when she begins screaming. All of these scenes have one key element in common…the presence of the Male Authority Figure.

This event is followed by further, and more invasive, tests. Time has now passed, and Chris has met with the doctors about the tests, and is told that she will need to find a psychiatrist. Driving home from this meeting, she passes the scene of what will be made known as Burke’s death. The lights are flickering in the house, and the face of the Entity is seen again, reflected in the exhaust hood over the stove. Going up to Regan’s room, she finds Regan asleep in the bed on her stomach, with the bedroom window open…the bedroom window is often open. It is very cold in the room, and Chris shuts the window. Significantly, the window is simply open..it is not broken. When Karras commits suicide, he hurls himself threw the window, leaving it broken. So the scene that has taken place in her bedroom took place when the window, as it often is, was open. So Burke was either pushed, or pulled, through an already open window. Chris is then told by Chuck that Burke is dead. However, the reason why Burke is at the house is unclear. Sharon was supposed to be watching Regan. She went to get Regan’s medication, and Burke was left to watch the house.

But the explanation Chris receives is confusing. Chuck states that Burke, probably drunk, fell down the stone stairs outside. We will also be told that he fell through Regan’s window, or he was pushed. That is later. At this point, the story seems to be that a drunk Burke was walking down the steps and then fell. So we have no connection between Burke and Regan’s room. It is at this moment…the moment that Chris learns that Burke, having been left at the house so Sharon could get the medication, has died in an apparent accident. And it is at this moment that Regan’s condition goes from something with natural causes, to something with apparent super-natural causes:

This is Regan coming down the stairs on all fours, but downside up. This scene has two different variations. This is the compelling one:

There was also a replacement version. The above shot is the end of the scene. The version that replaced this shows Regan suddenly flip over, then flicks her tongue almost like a snake, then chases her mother. I really don’t know what to say about the other version. The bloody mouth is gone. But turning over and running on all fours, she has become an animal. A four-legged animal, but the serpentine action with the tongue makes no sense. This scene is actually laughable. However, the bloody mouth could also be animalistic…like a predator that has just killed. And! The Male Entity, apparently feeling threatened by the Male Authority Figure, i.e. that the doctor will take his female, refers to Regan as a female animal. And so that connotation must form the background to this scene. But coming down the stairs the way she did…downside up…surely that is a demonic action…a supernatural action that Regan couldn’t possibly have done. True. Except! And I think that this is extremely important, what we are seeing in this scene (the one with the blood, the other version I disregard) is what Chris thought she saw. If Regan comes down the stairs on all fours, like an animal, with blood running from her mouth, then there is nothing supernatural about it. Nothing. We are seeing Chris’ changing of the event into something supernatural. Whose blood? Probably Regan’s. She may have been bleeding from the mouth when Chris went upstairs to check on her. Regan is lying on her stomach, and Chris does not wake her or turn her over. So if there was a violent struggle in her room, Regan may simply have been hit in the mouth. Finally hearing her mother downstairs, she crawls down the stairs on all fours and then stops and howls, blood running from her mouth. Chris sees Regan running down the stairs downside up…that is not what happened. With my description, nothing supernatural has happened at all. The act of crawling on all fours harkens back to the Male Entity referring to Regan as his sow…his female for mating purposes. This was elicited by the sudden appearance of another Dominant Male, one whom Regan had been treating as if he were an abuser, and seeking to move in on her as if he was one.

It is well-known that Regan, although only 12 years old, goes through a very visible personality change. That seems to go without saying, but I mean without reference to the demon-possession nonsense. She is a nice, pleasant girl who becomes overly aggressive, and shows a penchant for vulgar sexual language that would make a sailor run for cover. In addition to how she has behaved toward the doctor, we have the Let J**** F*** You scene were she uses a crucifix on herself. When her mother attempts to stop her, Regan grabs her mother’s head and shoves her face into her crotch and screams… “Lick me! Lick me!” With the male adult it is…Fuck me! Fuck me! With the female adult, it is “Lick me! Lick me!” During the run-ins with Karras, and during the final exorcism, she continues these extremely vulgar sexual outbursts, going so far as to tell Karras that his mother sucks c***s in Hell.

This is the second time that Regan has engaged in what is universally recognized as a sexual gesture…flicking the tongue at some one. These outbursts are actually a form of sexual violence. And she was a nice 12 year old girl until only recently? Something has happened, and it is very clear what that was. Regan unleashes sexual violence against those around her? Perhaps it would be better to say that Regan is retaliating in the only way available to her.

It is of course routine to maintain that Burke has been killed by Regan, who, now possessed by a demon, has the supernatural strength to be able to shove Burke through the window. This is not compelling. At what point did Regan pick up this demon? Was it living in the attic…making the noises? Did come through the Ouija Board? Is it Pazuzu…or Captain Howdy? The latter is associated with the Ouija Board, and helps her use it. Simply put, there is no logical chain of events that shows how, or why, Regan would become possessed by a demon, or how, or why, it found her. And! What has the demon done? This is important. Burke had no reason to be in Regan’s bedroom, well, except for one reason..actually two reasons. If suspicion is to be cast on Burke that he is a child molester, then pushing Burke through the window has actually saved Regan. So the demon-possession is as beneficial to a child as Pazuzu driving Lamashtu away. Remember that the supposed demon offers to save Karras…Ego te absolvo. This is very strange, since the act of killing Burke can not, in any way, be seen as simply a vicious demon killing someone…the fact that Burke doesn’t belong in Regan’s room would indicate that Regan was being protected. But I don’t think that Burke was a threat to Regan. I think that Burke went upstairs to Regan’s room because he heard Regan fighting with someone. Entering her room, he found an adult, a very human male, the man who had been molesting Regan, his sow, fighting with her. We have seen Regan’s aggressive behavior toward the doctor who she felt threatened by, the same man who introduced the idea of two males fighting over a female. It was therefore the other man who actually killed Burke by shoving him out of the window. Burke was trying to help Regan.

So what about Chris’s party? It is clear that the man who died “up there” was Burke. But Burke had left the party before the chummy sing-along, and was not present in when Regan suddenly appeared and made her pronouncement. This would suggest that the man Regan fears is not Burke. In fact, when discussing Burke with her mother, Regan gives no indication that she fears him at all. These are the people present at the moment that Regan made her prediction:

As I said, Burke has left. The man in the middle of the scene is Chuck…the assistant director. As such, he is connected to Burke. And it is Chuck who tells Chris that Burke was dead. Chuck now disappears from the story. Does “dying up there” refer to her room? Or perhaps higher than that? It is a confusing scenario given the fact that Burke was the one who “died up there.” Of course, it is made clear at different points in the film that Burke had no real reason to be in Regan’s room. This certainly opens up considerable suspicion, and one that I think is more than true, that Regan was being harmed by someone. Burke is the obvious suspect. But he is not present when Regan makes her, sort of prophetic but apparently in the wrong way, prophecy of someone dying “up there.” It seems difficult to believe that Regan is making a prediction about what is about to happen. In fact, Burke’s death will take place. But is Burke too obvious a suspect? Of course…he has no business being up in Regan’s bedroom, and thus he is the obvious suspect. What if things are what they seem to be? What if Burke did have a reason to be in Regan’s room? What if he is too obvious a suspect for what is too obvious not see is happening? What if Burke went up to Regan’s room because someone else was in Regan’s room? What if Burke went up to Regan’s room to stop someone else? To stop someone in the scene above. A fight ensues, but rather than the real suspect being “killed up there,” Burke was killed up there.

The strange thing is that the guy playing the piano is Father Joseph Dyer. He is Karras’ friend. And here he is present at Chris’ party. Why? I’ve watched the movie over and over again, I can’t figure out why he is there, or why is suddenly at the heart of the much smaller group. And! He is the only one who verbally acknowledges the appearance of Regan. Her sudden presence does not seem to be surprising to him at all, despite the lack of any defined relationship to Chris. In fact, Dyer first appears at Chris’ party talking with the astronaut at 40 minutes into the movie:

This is father Dyer speaking with the astronaut. Then Father Dyer is, approximately 18 seconds later, is speaking to Chris:

Notice the woman with the almost Vampire-like appearance. She too is present at the small, piano playing part of the party after Burke leaves. Chris is asking Dyer about the priest who she will find out is Karras. He tells her that not only is Karras a psychiatric counselor, he tells her that on the previous night, Karras found that his mother had died, and that she had been dead a couple of days before she was found.

This story, the one that Dyer is telling, fills in the part of Karras’s story that I noted earlier was missing. We see the scenes in the movie where Karras’s mother was committed to an insane asylum. Karras argues with his uncle, upbraiding him for putting her in such a place as the very squalid facility she was placed in. The uncle makes it clear that Karras’ mother had had a nervous breakdown. He also tells him that she would only have to be in the asylum for only a couple of months. But Karras is upset that his uncle had not told him previously about this. When Karras visits his mother in the asylum, she blames him for her being there. He tells her that he is going to take her home. Then the story transitions to Chris’ party, where it is from this priest that we learn that just yesterday, Karras found out about the death of his mother, and that she had been dead for several days before she was found.

I show this picture again:

Yes…in both scenes, Father Dyer stands closest to the astronaut. In the second scene, Father Dyer is singing and playing the piano. When Regan appears, she appears to speak to the astronaut. But is she really speaking to Father Dyer? What brought Regan downstairs? Could it be that she heard a voice she recognized? There is no explanation as to why Father Dyer is at Chris’ party. It seems strange that Dyer would be a friend of Chris when she elsewhere describes priests as “witch doctors.”

This is what is found in the next scene:

Yes…Father Joseph Dyer. On his way to meet his friend Karras. Entering his room, he produces a bottle of Chivas Regal scotch, and proceeds to get Karras very drunk. Karras seems to be somewhat confused that his friend would have a bottle of Chivas Regal. Pressing him on where he got it from, Dyer tells him that he stole it from a university official. That’s a relief! Otherwise I must suspect that he stole it from Regan’s mother’s house. Then we pick up with the tests that are going on for Regan, when she calls our good doctor a “fucking bastard” and spits on him.

The Detective in the film believed that Burke Dennings’ head being turned all the way around was not due to the fall. He believed that it was done deliberately, and hence his conviction that Dennings was murdered by a very strong man. A demon? No…he operated under the premise that it was a human being that killed Dennings. The basic idea was that there were two men in Regan’s room that night. The strong man broke Dennings neck and turned his head all the way around. I must say that if the detective believes that a regular, non-demon entity could do what the detective said Dennings’ killer did, then I don’t need a demon-possessed Regan anymore than he does. The Very Astute Detective also held another belief. Early in the film, there had been a desecration of a statue of Mary in the church (disturbing image alert!)

Why is this so important? I’m glad I asked! The detective also knew about this desecration, and he spoke with Karras about it. Actually, he spoke with Karras about this in the same conversation in which he spoke about the murder of Burke Dennings. He asked whether the desecration could have anything to do with witchcraft. That’s interesting, since this is the only time that witchcraft came up. Karras brought up the subject of Black Mass rituals. I suggest that witchcraft and Black Masses are simply more demon-stuff tossed into a Demonic Cauldron full of all manner of Demonic Things. The detective labels the murder as a witchcraft kind of murder, and the desecration as a Black Mass type of desecration. He tells Karras that the murderer and the man who carried out the desecration are the same man. And Karras gets the implication:

A sick priest? Karras asks.

Wow! Karras has turned into Columbo! Sorry. Karras denies that he knows of a sick priest who would do such a thing. “If you can think of some priest who fits the bill,” the detective says… Ah, yes! Methinks that the detective is right. And given to noticing odd details, I would point out one interesting, but meaningless, thing. This is a shot of Regan’s room:

This is the scene where the Very Wise Detective is talking to Karras:

Of course, it’s never said in the movie that Regan actually plays it. Wait! Perhaps there is an indication that she did:

Look at the picture on the right, the one sitting on the table as Chris does her needlepoint while the Great Religious Battle takes place upstairs. I’ll bet that the people in the picture are Chris, Regan, and Howard, Regan’s father. Wait! Howard? We know that Chris and Howard are separated. We know that Howard isn’t around. He even forgets to call Regan on her birthday. Captain Howdy is a replacement for Howard? That would be strange. Of course, if you played tennis, you could use the tennis court behind the detective and Karras in the earlier photo. And that might put you in a position to meet a priest.

Now I will do something annoying and show a slightly different picture of the Cozy Sing-Along at Chris’s party when Regan appears to make her threat. And why do that? We’ve already seen it twice. True, but there was someone else present who has been referred to in this essay several times.

Yes, to the right…it’s Sharon...to the right of Chris. And once That Thing Regan has been restored to religious health, Chris and Regan move. And Sharon decides not to move with them. It is Sharon who had the St. Joseph medal, and she gives it to Chris. Then someone showed up:

That's right, Father Dyer.

It sure is Father Dyer. Chris sees him, and she has a somewhat odd look on her face:

Ah, yes…a woman mystery! Chris will give the St. Joseph medal to Dyer, and he will give it back to her. This shot I found startling:

Regan, looking at Dyer’s collar, suddenly kisses him. Well, startling or not so? Who can say? But the immediately preceding scene is very important:

Regan meets Dyer for the first time. But is that necessarily true?

"She doesn't remember any of it."

"That's good."

Good, indeed, perhaps is so many ways! And for so many people! That is, no doubt, for the best. Perhaps, all round. So whose St. Joseph medal has Sharon found in Regan’s room? It wouldn’t be hard, seeing how almost everything, except the microphone, had been removed well before the exorcism ever took place. Is it Merrin’s? Is it Karras’s? or Is it Dyer’s?

Of course, our Intrepid Detective had attempted to befriend Karras. Why? Because he was sure that Karras knew who descecrated the statue of Mary in the church, and that meant he knew who was up in Regan’s room and killed Burke Dennings. He believed that Karras knew the identity of the sick priest he was seeking. And so now the movie ends, with the Intrepid Detective taking an active interest in Father Dyer:

And so our Intrepid Detective continues his search for the...

So where does all this lead? Well, we know that Burke was pushed out of Regan’s window. As the detective makes clear, only a large, strong man could have down this. Regan’s own mother believes that Regan did it. So do fans of the movie…the demon was strong enough to do so. And this view is simply taking the bait. Burke went up to Regan’s room because he heard her fighting with someone. In the melee, she was hit in the face, and later crawls downstairs with blood flowing from her mouth. The other man pushed Burke out of the window and left. Regan’s overt and over-the-top vulgar sexual language makes it clear that she was being sexually molested. Ah! But not by Burke. She reacts so intensely to the male doctor because he represents a type of Adult Male Authority Figure who is to be trusted, and whose instructions are to be followed. He was not Regan’s abuser, but as an Adult Male Authority Figure, Regan projected her rage at her real abuser unto the doctor. So her abuser was also an Adult Male Authority Figure who is to be trusted, and whose instructions are to be followed. Could it be that he left a crucifix behind in Regan’s room? Probably by accident? Could it be that Regan’s use of that crucifix to wound her genitals and her screams that Jesus should f*** her make a sort of horrible sense given the identity of the person who was abusing her? Did she have a complete mental breakdown as a result of her abuse, showing symptoms of extreme stress? To make it worse, she blamed herself for Burke’s death. Of course, she did appear suddenly during the Diabolical Sing-Along and tell her abuser that he would die up in her room. She planned to kill him. But Burke was there when the abuser appeared in her room, and the alcoholic director attempted to intervene. And of course…there’s the mother. The mother who couldn’t put any of the pieces together to form a picture that anyone should be able to see. The mother who never suspected; not at the beginning, and not at the end. The mother who realized that Burke really shouldn’t have been up in Regan’s room, but didn’t see any need to contemplate that further. And! Mommy blames Regan for the murder of Burke! Isn’t it strange how the abused are forsaken by everyone! And then blamed…by everyone. Chris made no effort to figure out what was really wrong with Regan. There is nothing in the movie to suggest that the doctor, although he was somewhat busy dodging punches and enduring verbal abuse, had Regan tested for the signs of sexual abuse…which would not have been difficult to find given the fact that she was 12 years old. Perhaps she did believe that she was possessed by a demon, maybe even the Devil. It would have been tempting to see the world as populated by her enemies, which might now include God himself. Could believing that you are possessed by a demon make sense, given such a context? Could it be the one comforting thing you could think of? You might even behave like you think a demon-possessed person would behave. You might even think that the only way of escaping the new hell that now replaced the hell you originally endured was to have that imaginary demon exorcised. And of course, if your abuser was a Supposed Man of God, well…I guess the rest need not be said, and given the horrible history of Those Who Should be Above Reproach selfishly abusing the young and vulnerable, well…perhaps the world would be far better off with a lot fewer Clerics. So much for the City of God…their City of God. A 12 year old girl desperately seeks the City of the Devil to escape the ravages of the City of God? Perhaps the things of Caesar really are better after all. Of course, there were the sounds in the attic. And we know they were not rats. And Carl knew they were not rats. And the Not-Rat sounds lead well into the very real possibility that at least one member of the household was involved in whatever one thinks was happening. Indeed! Carl could not hear Non-Chris-Sounds, but can hear Chris-Sounds? Strange for Mr. Attic himself. And Sharon! How odd it is that it is only because of the fact that she left the house to get Regan’s medication, that Burke was asked to stay and watch things until she got back. That left Burke in the right place at the right time. Or…wrong place at the wrong time…depending on your perspective. And a little game with the crucifix?

Has there ever been a more iconic image in the history of motion pictures? A horror movie? Well, yes…but not in the way many might think. Hey! If I was Regan’s mother, I would spend a few more moments thinking about those strange sounds. If I woke up, and heard those sounds, was I hearing a demon in my attic? Of course not. But where were those sounds really coming from? Why did they seem to follow me as I walked into my daughter’s room and shut the window? Why did they stop? If I stood in the hall, listening to those sounds, I could look up and know that the attic was the next thing above the ceiling. If I lived in such an iconic house as that in the iconic image of my house, I would notice the little attic window above my daughter’s room. I might even begin to entertain the notion that there just might be more than one way into the attic. Of course, that would mean that there was more than one way out of the attic. It would be strange indeed, and impossible to believe, though I am including it in the Twelve Year Old Girl Possessed by a Demon Who was Not Possessed by a Demon but Was Failed by Everybody movie that I am currently writing, if my daughter’s abuser had a way of getting into the attic, and then getting down into her room. Or getting on the roof, and then getting in through the window. The window that always seems to be open. And so I find myself offering an answer to a question that Father Karras asked...well a possible answer…an impossible answer. Shortly before he threw himself out of Regan’s window, during a final break in the exorcism-action, he asked:

“Why this girl? It doesn’t make sense.”

A great question! Why did the demon pick Regan? Is that the meaning of this question? I suppose, it it was, you could ask that question about any 12 year old girl the Supposed Demon chose. But I find myself wondering if he wasn’t asking a different question. And if so, then I know the answer…because someone had access to her. Through the attic? Across the roof? That always open window that Chris kept closing?

Perhaps it makes more sense than any of us realize…

The question of access…access to Regan. Those with the easiest access to Regan are those who live in the house, and I have suggested the possibility that at least one person in the house was involved in what was happening to Regan. But there may be others, and I still feel puzzeled by the fact that Carl could hear Chris Noises in the attic, but not the Non Chris Noises…it certainly raises, unfounded I’m sure, concerns. But the Eternally Open Window? Actually, Regan had two windows in her room…the one by her bed, and the window in the bathroom. I’ve noted that the window is open at times that it shouldn’t be. In fact, there are scenes when Chris reacts to the cold in the room, and closes the window. I’ve also commented upon how there are scenes involving Demonic Stuff where the room is very cold, and then other scenes where it isn’t cold at all. The room is not cold during Karas’s two visits with Regan. In the “Help Me” scene, it is very cold in the room. During the exorcism scenes, it is very cold as well. Of course, the scenes where the room isn’t cold seem to take place during the day. The other scenes I just referred to seem to take place at night. An inexplicable cold in a room is listed as one possible sign of demon-possession. But it does seem more likely that if the room isn’t cold during the daytime scenes, but is cold during the nighttime scenes, and we know that at least one of the two windows in Regan’s room is often open…the non-demonic scenes where the room is cold, linked to the open window, suggest that the cold scenes can be explained by maintaining that at least one of the windows is open. If it’s really cold at night by this time of the movie, then the window or windows don’t have to be open very much to cause Regan’s room to become quite cold. Still, that means someone is keeping the windows open. One might do so for health reasons, in so far as Regan constantly vomiting bile, something discussed earlier, would cause the room to have an unbearable odor. At the same time, someone could be opening the windows in order to manipulate the environment so as to play on the “strange cold in the room” phenomenon that appears on lists of the signs of demonic possession.

The window certainly beckons to the viewer, well…to me at any rate…as a possible portal through which one may have access to Regan. When Chris first hears the Up There Sounds, they seem to follow her through the hall and into Regan’s room. Chris then shuts the window. But how would one enter, or exit, through the window? And it would seem clear, on the basis of the scene when Chris first hears the Up There Sounds, that someone is moving through the attic, or across the roof. In other words, at that time, someone was moving toward Regan. One may take a second look at the iconic picture, this time as it appears on the movie poster:

The actual lay-out of the house in the movie is confusing. The real house, 3600 Prospect Street Northwest, was not exactly like it is in the movie. Only the right wing of the house existed. When looking at the house from the vantage point of the Iconic Priest, the whole left wing of the house is actually a façade. Why? This was done to get Regan’s room close enough to the Stairway to Certain Death to make the deaths of Burke Dennings and Father Karras iconic. I show again the final scene from the movie:

The boarded up window is the Great Portal in the movie. Notice that is perpendicular to the front of the house. A similar shot of the window is shown at the very beginning of the film:

Look again at the Iconic Photo, and the window through which the light is streaming down onto Merrin is parallel to the front of the house. In other words, Regan’s two windows are not the two windows shown in the Iconic Photo. But as I just noted, the window on the side of the façade is the Great Portal, and it is that shot that also shows us the tree. Of course, there would have been no way to shoot the Iconic Photo with the two “real” Regan windows, since these are, in the story-line, beside the Iconic Stairway. And since the filming in the house couldn’t take place in a façade, there could easily be a disconnect between the symbolic value of the window, and possibly the tree along with it, and the dynamics of applying the symbolic value to the situation should the left wing of the house have been real and actually where filming occurred. I bring this up only in so far as Regan’s artwork is concerned. We are allowed to see much of this artwork in the movie, especially Captain Howdy. In the scene where Regan vomits on Karras, we get to see more artwork as he waits for Chris to finish ironing his shirt. As he waits, he looks at Regan’s artwork. Two drawings are filmed by the camera, and the pause is long enough to not able us to see the drawings, but also long enough to indicate that they are significant. So I show the second drawing:

So it is an odd drawing to say the least. We clearly have a tree, which features the typical hole in the front, usually associated with the idea that a squirrel lives in the tree. There are two eyes gazing out from the hole. The eyes are wide-open, indicating surprise, or, and I think it more likely, fear. Then it seems as though there are upside birds hanging from branches in the tree. Would that suggest that the birds are really bats? No. Actually, the picture looks more interesting in this view:

Now the birds are actually little men. Men wearing hats. And they all seem to be moving upwards…going Up There..to the hole with the frightened eyes. Is the hole Regan’s window? If so, then the frightened eyes are those of Regan. Eight men? No way. But one man…eight times? As for me, I don’t know. But it is certainly interesting.

Nonetheless, if the windows in the Iconic Photo are not Regan’s windows, which certainly would seem to be the case, then the little attic windows are not directly above her windows. However, given the dynamics discussed above, I would not be too insistent on absolute consistency on this point. Still…there’s no doubt that we have the noises in the attic, or the noises on the roof, the central role of Regan’s Window, and the strange drawing of the tree…in short, we are given glimpses of different of possible means of gaining access to Regan. And this idea of “access to Regan” touches on something that is universally overlooked…at the heart of the story is a…unsolved murder mystery. How easy it is to see what is too obvious and miss what is manifest. And how is that relevant to the question of access? I would contextualize it in the following way. Chris is away from the house. Sharon leaves to get Regan’s medication…Thorazine, one that is best used with hospitalized patients. I’m sure the 88 Geniuses would disagree…if they even know what Thorazine is. To avoid Regan being left alone, Burke is asked to stay at the house until Sharon returns. This naturally indicates that neither Carl nor Willie were at home. Otherwise, there would be no need to have Burke stay at the house. We know that the murder took place upstairs in Regan’s bedroom. There was no one else in the house at the time that Sharon left…just Burke. Yet he went upstairs and got in a lethal fight with the Strong Sick Priest. So how did the Strong Sick Priest get into the house, and then make it upstairs to Regan’s room? He couldn’t have come through the front door, since he would have to have gotten past Burke to do so. That clearly indicates that the Strong Sick Priest arrived after Burke, but entered the house and then Regan’s room by a way other than the usual way. And so it seems clear that Attic Noises, or Roof Noises, were made by the Strong Sick Priest as he made his way toward his victim.

Ridiculous and impossible. Unfortunately, I am afflicted with the curse of refusing to be afraid of the impossible and willing to take a second look at the ridiculous. And I don’t like details that are ignored. And the mysterious sounds in the attic? I suppose that if I were suddenly drowned in a sea of demon-possession nonsense and convinced that my twelve year-old daughter was actually a murderer, those sounds would quickly be drowned out as well. But, to my chagrin, I just can’t let go of the inexplicable. Wait, a wise man once said that nothing is inexplicable…only explained. And so I am not alone. Those strange noises up above…up there…the ones that were there at the very beginning of an amazing and forever misunderstood story, perhaps they aren’t so inexplicable after all. But this story is a long one, and there is much distance to be traversed. Perhaps things will get a lot less clear further on. And there are so many details left to examine. Perhaps I will, yet again, prove to be wrong. Still, even if that’s true, it will prove interesting to find out.