Exorcist (1973)

A professional actress named Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) can't explain her 12 year old daughter Regan's (Linda Blair) unusual behavior ever since she showed her Mom a Ouija board she found in her recroom.
Regan has been using crude language when she had a check up at the doctor's office, also Chris hears strange sounds in the attic and whenever she goes into Regan's room while she is asleep her window is left wide open.
Not only that, Regan tells people at a cast party hosted by Chris that people were all going to die and then urinates on the floor. Then Chris sees Regan's bed shaking but the doctors keep telling Chris that it's all nerves.

Regan acts even crazier as she threw Chris' director Burke out of a window and kills him, Regan runs on arms and legs upside down going down the house stairs, masturbates with a crucifix and then sees her head turn.

Eventually she seeks an exorcisim named Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) as the doctor's find out that Regan is possessed by a demon. Will Regan be saved?

This was a great film and truly disturbing.
It is one of the most shocking films in history and based on a real event.
There's lots of dark moments of watching the child slowly being posessed which will make you cringe.
I can't say more about this movie but to check it out.

The acting is superb. Ellen Burstyn was good in her role as the caring mother, Jason Miller and Reverend William O'Malley (Who is a real priest) were believable as a priest and of course Linda Blair does a fine job too especially her intensity when she was slowly being possessed.
She never saw the film after it's completion and took some counselling afterwards as she was distrubed by her role in it.
She starred in the 1990 spoof Repossessed to shake off her feeling in this film.
However, this was a start to her fame in movies of the week and B-films (Especially horror flicks which made her a top scream queen in the same lines as Jamie Lee Curtis).

There was some intense horror violence such as Linda Blair's character masturbating with a crucifix and there is blood cause of it.

The directing is terrific as Freidkin knows how to direct a solid story like this one and makes it look realisitic.
The scenes in Iraq looked great and the going on's around it makes the film very mysterious of why this is happening.
There's a good moment with Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn when they have their dialogue together for the first time acting like a realistic mother and daughter discussing something.
There is a real intense moment with Burstyn trying to contact someone and going in a rage about it and a nice shot on Blair looking sad near a corner eavesdropping.
Blair and Burstyn do nicely together when they talk to one another in a recroom scene when Blair introduces her to a Ouija board and talking to the Ouija board which leaves off a good impression for the story.
Blair showed nice expressionless actions in front of a party with her words acting like she's mentally ill.
He worked wonderfully on Burstyn with her intense emotions when she sees her daughter behaving like a raging maniac.
The direction on Linda Blair is believably intense when you see her screaming and freaking out when the demon slowly posesses her as well as her obnoxious behavior in the doctor's office.
A real great disturbing scene with Eileen Dietz as Blair's body double smacking Burstyn and putting her head to her crotch.
Burstyn does well crying towards Jason Miller to try and help her daughter.
There's a good dialogue between Eileen Dietz and Miller when he enters the room with holy water and Dietz shows great suffering expressions.
Of course we can't forget the good special effects scene with the head spinning.
Max von Sydow showed great aggression entering the bedroom to perofrm the exorcism.
Miller really knew how to act emotionally intense when Pazuzu tries to fool him that his mother is talking to him and Dietz of course who played Pazuzu showed nice sad expressions lying in bed.
A nice job on Miller when he is nearly possessed about to attack Blair and does a great job when he prepares to jump out of a window.

The soundtrack was done by Jack Nitzsche who composed music for many other flicks and does a fine job in this one.
It's very suspenseful along with the scenes and his composing for this film remains a classic.

Father Dyer: My idea of Heaven is a solid white nightclub with me as a headliner for all eternity, and they LOVE me.

Burke Dennings: Tell me, was it public relations you did for the Gestapo or community relations?
Karl: I'm Swiss!
Burke Dennings: Oh, of course. And you never went bowling with Goebels before either, I suppose? Nazi bastard.

Burke Dennings: Shall we summon the writer? He's in Paris.
Chris MacNeil: Hiding?
Burke Dennings: Fucking.

Regan MacNeil: Hi, Mom.
Chris MacNeil: What did you do today?
Regan MacNeil: Um... stuff.
Chris MacNeil: What kind of stuff?
Regan MacNeil: Well, me and Sharon played a game in the backyard, and we had a picnic down by the river. Mom, you should have seen this man came along on this beautiful grey horse. Wasn't it pretty?
Chris MacNeil: Really, what kind was it a mare or gelding?
Regan MacNeil: Think it was a gelding. It was grey. Oh, it was so beautiful, the guy let me ride it all around. It was so nice. Oh, I loved it. Oh, Mom can't we get a horse?
Chris MacNeil: Well, not while we're in Washington.

Regan MacNeil: You can bring Mr. Dennings if you like... Well, you like him... You're gonna marry him, aren't you?
Chris MacNeil: Oh God, are you kidding me? Marry Burke Dennings. Don't be silly. Of course not. Where'd you ever get an idea like that?
Regan MacNeil: But ya like him.
Chris MacNeil: Of course I like him. I like pizzas too, but I'm not gonna marry one.
Regan MacNeil: You don't like him like Daddy?
Chris MacNeil: Regan. I love your Daddy. I'll always love your Daddy, honey. OK? Burke just comes around here a lot, 'cause, well, he's lonely. Don't got nuttin' to do.
Regan MacNeil: [Coy] Well, I heard differently.
Chris MacNeil: Oh you did. What did you hear? Huh?
Regan MacNeil: I don't know. I just thought.
Chris MacNeil: Well, you didn't think so good.
Regan MacNeil: How do you know?
Chris MacNeil: 'Cause Burke and I are just friends. OK? Really. OK.

Lt. Kinderman: You know who you look like? John Garfield. Exactly, John Garfield, "Body and Soul." Do people ever tell you that, Father?
Father Damien Karras: Do people tell you that you look like Paul Newman?
Lt. Kinderman: Always.

Father Damien Karras: It's my mother, Tom. She's alone. I never should have left her. At least in New York, I'd be near, I'd be closer.
Tom: Could see about a transfer, Damien.
Father Damien Karras: I need re-assignment, Tom. I want out of this job. It's wrong. It's no good.
Tom: You're the best we've got.
Father Damien Karras: Yeah, not really. It's more than psychiatry, and you know that Tom. Some of their problems come down to faith, their vocation and meaning of their lives, and I can't cut it anymore. I need out. I'm unfit. I think I've lost my faith, Tom.

Chris MacNeil: Operator, I have been on this line for twenty minutes... What did you do, take the literacy test to get that job for Christ's sake?... No DONT TELL ME TO BE CALM, GODDAMIT! I'VE BEEN ON THIS FUCKING LINE FOR TWENTY MINUTES!

Dr. Klein: Put this in your mouth. Keep it there. This tells your temperature. When the red light goes on, that's your Temperature.
Regan MacNeil: I don't want it.

Bellevue Nurse: Unroll your fist. Arm up. Good. That wasn't so bad, was it?

Dr. Klein: Tell me if you feel a Vibration. Can you feel anything?Regan?Can you feel this?
Regan MacNeil: I don't feel anything!

[to a prominent senator at Chris' party]
Burke Dennings: There seems to be an alien pubic hair in my gin. Never seen it before in my life! Have you?

[after fighting with Karl]
Burke Dennings: So, what's for dessert?

Regan MacNeil: Mother, what's wrong with me?

Dr. Klein: Do you keep any drugs in your house?
Chris MacNeil: No, of course not, nothing like that.
Dr. Klein: Are you sure?
Chris MacNeil: Well, of course I'm sure. I'd tell you. Christ, I don't even smoke grass.

Karras' Mother: [to Karras] Why you do this to me, Dimmy?

Dr. Klein: Pathological states can induce abnormal strength. Accelerated motor performance. Now, for example, say a 90 pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck. Runs out and lifts the wheels a half a foot up off the ground - you've heard the story - same thing here. Same principle, I mean.
Chris MacNeil: So what's wrong with her?
Dr. Klein: We still think the temporal lobe.
Chris MacNeil: Oh what are you talking about, for Chrissakes? Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's fucking out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or...
Dr. Klein: There haven't been more than a hundred authentic cases of so-called split personality, Mrs. MacNeil. Now I know the temptation is to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first.
Chris MacNeil: So, what's next?
Dr. Klein: A pneumoencephalogram, I would think. Pin down that lesion. It will involve another spinal.
Chris MacNeil: Oh, Christ.
Dr. Klein: What we missed in the EEG and the arteriograms could conceivably turn up there. At least, it would eliminate certain other possibilities.

Regan MacNeil: Keep away. The sow is mine.

Regan MacNeil: FUCK ME.

Psychiatrist: Is there someone inside you?
Regan MacNeil: Sometimes.
Psychiatrist: Who is it?
Regan MacNeil: I don't know.
Psychiatrist: Is it Captain Howdy?
Regan MacNeil: I don't know.
Psychiatrist: If I ask him to tell me, will you let him answer?
Regan MacNeil: No.
Psychiatrist: Why not?
Regan MacNeil: I'm afraid.

[Regan, possessed, is masturbating herself with a crucifix]
Regan MacNeil: Let Jesus fuck you, let Jesus fuck you. Let him fuck you.

Regan MacNeil: Lick me, Lick me.

Regan MacNeil: Do you know what she did, your cunting daughter?

Dr. Klein: There is one outside chance for a cure. I think of it as shock treatment - as I said, it's a very outside chance... Have you ever heard of exorcism? Well, it's a stylized ritual in which the rabbi or the priest try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It's been pretty much discarded these days except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of an embarrassment, but uh, it has worked. In fact, although not for the reasons they think, of course. It's purely a force of suggestion. The victim's belief in possession is what helped cause it, so in that same way, a belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear.
Chris MacNeil: You're telling me that I should take my daughter to a witch doctor? Is that it?

Father Damien Karras: There isn't a day in my life when I haven't felt like a fraud. I mean priests, doctors, I've talked to them all. I don't know anyone who hasn't felt that.

Regan MacNeil: I'm not Regan.
Father Damien Karras: Well, then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.
Regan MacNeil: And I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.
Father Damien Karras: If you're the Devil, why don't you make the straps disappear?
Regan MacNeil: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.

Regan MacNeil: What an excellent day for an exorcism.
Father Damien Karras: You would like that?
Regan MacNeil: Intensely.
Father Damien Karras: But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan?
Regan MacNeil: It would bring us together.
Father Damien Karras: You and Regan?
Regan MacNeil: You and us.

Father Damien Karras: Where is Regan?
Regan MacNeil: [She's possessed] In here. With Us.

Regan MacNeil: Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it.

Father Damien Karras: There are no experts. You probably know more about possession then most priests. Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon, she says he's the devil himself. Now, if you've seen as many psychotics as I have, you'd say it's the same thing as saying you're Napoleon Bonaparte. You asked me, what I think is best for your daughter. Six months... under observation... at the best hospital you can find.

Chris MacNeil: You show me Regan's double, same face, same voice, everything. And I'd know it wasn't Regan. I'd know in my gut. Now, I want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter, except in her mind. YOU TELL ME FOR A FACT YOU KNOW AN EXORCISIM WOULDN'T DO ANY GOOD. YOU TELL ME THAT.

Regan MacNeil: Your mother sucks cocks in Hell, Karras, you faithless slime.

Regan MacNeil: [Demonic voice] Stick your cock up her ass, you motherfucking worthless cocksucker.

Chris MacNeil: Would you like some bourbon in that, father?
Father Merrin: Well, my doctor says I shouldn't but thank God my will is weak.

Father Merrin: Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psycological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that - do not listen.

Father Damien Karras: I think it might be helpful if I gave you some background on the different personalities Regan has manifested. So far, I'd say there seem to be three. She's convinced...
Father Merrin: There is only one.

Father Damien Karras: Why her? Why this girl?
Father Merrin: I think the point is to make us despair. To see ourselves as... animal and ugly. To make us reject the possibility that God could love us.

[At Regan's bedside]
Father Merrin: I cast you out! Unclean Spirt!
Regan MacNeil: Shove it up your ass!
Father Merrin: In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is he who commands you! It is he who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell!
Regan MacNeil: Fuck Him!
Father Merrin: Be gone...
Regan MacNeil: Fuck Him, Karras! Fuck Him!
Father Merrin: ...from this creature of God!
Regan MacNeil: [Moaning]
Father Merrin: Be gone! In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt!

Father Merrin, Father Damien Karras: The Power of Christ Compels You.

Regan MacNeil: You killed your mother! You left her alone to die! Bastard!
Father Damien Karras: Shut up!

Father Damien Karras: Take me. Come into me. God damn you. Take me. Take me.

Lt. Kinderman: If certain British doctors never asked "What is this fungus?" we wouldn't today have penicillin, correct?