The Exorcist
in Context

“Texts & Contexts...
• ...in contemporary media” is the full title of your
GCE Med 4 module
• This means that we do need to focus on
contemporary texts...
• ...though we also have to understand the
historical development of our chosen genre

Contemporary Texts
• In order to be bang up-to-date with
contemporary horror, we’ve looked at (or will
have looked at) the following:
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Ringu/The Ring
• [•Rec]
• Supernatural (TV)
• The Devil’s Backbone

Historical Texts
• In considering the development of the horror
genre, we’ve looked at or discussed:
• The Birds
• Sleepy Hollow
• The Texas Chainsaw
• The Corpse Bride
Massacre
• Buffy The Vampire • Horror games
Slayer
• Horror comics
• Various scary bits in
• The Exorcist...
children’s films

What happened?
• One question that springs to mind when considering the
list of historical and contemporary texts is...
• Whatever happened to American horror?
• The glib answer is that it ended up on TV (Buffy,
Supernatural)
• Also, many of the best American horrors of recent years
have been remakes of foreign films.
• Another factor to consider has been the rise of the 15-
certificate (so-called) horror film.

Just how abject or uncanny can
something be if 15-year-olds are allowed
to go to see it?

To be properly horrifying, you’ve got to
have an 18 certificate.

The Exorcist
• Though released in 1973, The Exorcist remains a
highly influential text...
• Not least because Mark Kermode barely lets a
week go by without mentioning it on the Simon
Mayo film review slot!
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/
kermode.shtml

Intertextuality
• The Exorcist is still a reference point for
contemporary horror texts.
• Fairly recent parodies like Scary Movie play with
its imagery
• Popular TV shows like Supernatural are FULL of
Exorcist references
• The BBC’s new (Nov 2008) show Apparitions is
about an exorcist (played by Martin Shaw)

Apparitions
• “Supernatural drama series
about a priest, working to
promote candidates for
sainthood, who becomes
drawn in to exorcism as he
discovers a dark battle
between good and evil.”
• (Just don’t tell Martin Shaw
he looks like Matthew
Kelly!)

Gadfly
• In October 1998, the now-defunct magazine
Gadfly published an article by John W.
Whitehead called “Who’s Afraid of the Exorcist?”
• It places the film in its historical/cultural context
• http://www.gadflyonline.com/archive/
October98/archive-exorcist.html

Publication
• William Peter Blatty’s book The Exorcist was first
published in 1971.
• Blatty based it on a 1949 case involving a 13-year-
old boy – which featured an exorcism lasting 6
weeks.
• Blatty then acted as Producer on the film, which
was released on December 26 1973

1973
• This was the year of the Watergate scandal -
when America realised its president was “a
crook”.
• 1973 was also the year of the OPEC oil crisis,
when Arab oil producers announced an embargo
against countries supporting Israel.
• The early 1970s was a transition point - a cultural
hangover from the 1960s.

Hangover
• The social fractures created in the 1960s have
never really healed.
• Questions were asked then about the nature of
authority; about Western values; about religion;
that have never been answered.
• Our society is more secular now, but in the
1960s, questions about the authority of religion
were revolutionary.

Quotes
“ Christianity will go. It will
vanish and shrink. I needn't
argue with that; I'm right and I
will be proved right. We're
more popular than Jesus now; I
don't know which will go first -
rock and roll or Christianity.
Jesus was all right, but his
disciples were thick and
ordinary. It’s them twisting it
that ruins it for me.”
–John Lennon, March 4 1966

Quotes
“ Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith
I was around when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate.
Pleased to meet you – hope you guessed my name
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game...”
–Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” 1968

Quotes
“ Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No Angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan’s spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died...”
–Don McLean, “American Pie” 1971

From Peace and Love to War and Hate
• The 1960s went from peace and
love to blood on the streets in the
blink of an eye.
• While some heeded Timothy
Leary’s call to “Turn on, tune in,
drop out”, others took to the
streets to protest against the Viet
Nam war and for Civil Rights

Dabbling in the Occult
• While dabbling in the occult wasn’t new to the
1960s, there was a short-lived revival in the
craze for divination using the Ouija Board
• Ouija is a current trademark of Parker Brothers
• The craze is always accompanied by warnings
against the use of the board – that it could lead
to mental disturbance, for example.

Quotes
“ Quite often the Ouija turns
vulgar, abusive or threatening. It
grows demanding and hostile,
and sitters may find themselves
using the board compulsively, as
if 'possessed' by a spirit, or
hearing voices that control or
command them.”
–Martin Ebon, The Satan Trap
(1965)

Debates and Debacles
• While TV pundits and newspaper
editorials debated religious
questions and drug laws, violence
erupted on the streets.
• In 1968, student protests in Paris
and a general strike brought down
the French government.
• Also in 1968, anti-war protesters
outside the US Embassy in London
were charged by mounted police

Kent State Massacre
• In 1970, students protesting at
Kent State University in Ohio
were shot by National
Guardsmen.
• Four were killed, nine others
injured.
• Protests against the shootings
erupted all over the USA

The Angels of Altamont
• On December 6, 1969, the
Rolling Stones gave a free
concert at the Altamont
Speedway in northern
California
• The motorcycle gang Hell’s
Angels were asked to act as
“security”
• Trouble between the Angels
and the music fans built up
throughout the day

Altamont
• A black youth, Meredith Hunter,
pulled a gun as the Stones were
finishing “Under My Thumb” –
Hell’s Angels stabbed him five
times and kicked him to death.
• Three others died accidental
deaths on the same day
• The events were captured in the
film “Gimme Shelter”, which was
released in December 1970

Hidden Messages
• As a follow-up to the previous year’s Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The
Beatles released a double album in 1968
• It featured tracks with titles such as
“Happiness is a Warm Gun”,
“Revolution”, “Piggies”, “Blackbird” and
“Helter Skelter”.
• The Beatles were renowned for
supposed “satanic messages” on their
records, such as the reversed speech on
the runoff grooves of Sgt. Pepper.

Manson
• Also in 1968, aspiring songwriter
Charles Manson was recording
demos with Phil Kaufman (who
was a general minder for the
Rolling Stones during this era).
• Manson was a drifter and ex-con,
who attached himself to the music
industry after meeting one of the
Beach Boys

The Family
• Manson had studied Scientology
and guitar whilst in prison and
attached himself to the hippy
community on his release.
• He built up a (mainly female)
following, and eventually moved
into the Spahn Movie Ranch outside
Los Angeles with this group, which
called itself The Family.

1960s Horror Films
• Meanwhile, the horror genre
was evolving.
• The 1960s saw the release of
such Hammer classics as The
Devil Rides Out and Dracula
Has Risen from the Grave (both
1968)

Polanski
• 1968 also saw the release of
Rosemary’s Baby, Roman
Polanski’s classic film about a
woman who comes to believe
she has been impregnated by
Satan
• The high-quality cast (including
Mia Farrow and John
Cassavetes) set the film apart
from the usual genre fare

Sharon Tate
• In 1969, Polanski was renting a
house in Los Angeles with his wife,
actress Sharon Tate: 10050 Cielo
Drive.
• This house had previously been
rented by an acquaintance of
Charles Manson: Terry Melcher.
• Manson visited the property several
times, claiming to be looking for
Melcher

Reject
• Rejected by the music industry,
Manson was now convinced that
society was about to collapse due to
a war between the races.
• He called this the “Helter Skelter”
– he had interpreted The Beatles’
White Album as being “about” this
forthcoming race war.

Tate–LaBianca Murders
• In the early hours of August 9, 1969, Manson Family
members invaded 10050 Cielo Drive and murdered
Sharon Tate and four others. Graffiti found written in
blood at the murder scene said, Death to Pigs, Rise, and
Healter Skelter (sic).
• Polanski was in Europe at the time.
• The following night, another home invasion: a wealthy
couple, Rosemary and Leno LaBianca, were stabbed to
death by Manson Family members

White Album?
• Death to Pigs probably refers to George
Harrison’s song, “Piggies”, from the White
Album
• Rise probably refers to “Blackbird”: You were only
waiting for this moment to arise...
• Manson’s intention had been to make police
think that black activists were attacking wealthy
white people.

Exorcist Intertextuality
• The film of The Exorcist refers back to 60s
protests and events like the Tate-LaBianca
murders.
• It contains references to student protests, ouija
boards, and even the Tate-LaBianca slayings.

The “film within the film” is directed by a Polanski-
like director

The scene we see being filmed features a student
protest.

Regan and her mother play briefly with an Ouija
Board.

Father Karras’ loss of faith is set against the backdrop
of the 1960s - during which people turned away from
or against religious beliefs.

The interpretation of voices on tape - and playing
things backwards - refers to the obsession with
hidden messages on Beatles’ records

“FIGHT PIGS” – painted in blood-matching red at
the top of those steps – is a reference to the Manson
murders.