Watching The Exorcist made me say “what the fuck” numerous times. But so did the article I was supposed to use to write about sex and sexualities portrayed in the film. The author and I have some fundamental disagreements about what the plot and dialogue were trying to convey to the viewer. In “Knowing Children: Desire and Interpretation in The Exorcist”, Ellis Hanson makes the argument that the film is overwrought with incestuous innuendos, acts and overtones. Wait... what? You want us to believe that Regan has sexual desires towards her mother? As a movie viewer, I just have to disagree with Hanson. It’s not that I don’t think there is sexuality in Regan’s character, but the sexuality isn’t in the girl herself.
We may have two beliefs about the possession of Regan: psychiatric/medical or religious/Catholic points of view. The psychiatric side leaves us believing that the voice and horrid personality spewing from Regan’s lips are part of an “episode”, an alternate or double personality. It’s suggested she has any number of psychiatric illnesses, or perhaps there’s something physically wrong with her brain that makes her act as she has. “Temporal lobe”, “seizure” and “brain” are words often tossed around. If we accepted the premise of psychiatric illness, in our own mind as the viewer, we are likely to believe that Regan’s problem lies in repressed memories, a tortured past involving a famous mother and absent father. Of course, the psychiatric perspective is all but entirely dismissed by the end of the film as two men of god perform an exorcism on twelve year old Regan.
Then there are the religious beliefs about the possession of the child. Let’s assume that she is possessed by Satan or another evil source. Regan, then, is completely controlled by the spirit during an “episode” (which get longer and longer). The spirit has its own voice, motions and complete control over her body. We are made perfectly aware of this from the beginning when she screams “make it stop, make it stop!” over and over again. Her body is merely a host for Satan, and being the powerful guy he is, he forces her into actions Regan would not otherwise commit. I am, of course, talking about the scene which Hanson claims to be incestuous. The infamous moment when Chris’s head is pulled into her daughter’s bleeding crotch, while a voice screams “fuck me!” and “lick me!” is claimed by Hanson to represent some kind of incestuous relationship Chris and Regan possibly have when she is not possessed by Satan. This is where we run into some fundamental disagreement in terms of plot and/or representation. If we are working on the premise that Regan is being controlled and forced by something evil, and we should be, then there is no incestuous moment between mother and daughter, for multiple reasons. One, Regan is merely a shell; Satan is using her body as a medium. This isn’t Regan saying “fuck me” and stabbing herself in the crotch with a crucifix, this is the act of Satan. Two, if any act is taking place, it is rape of both Regan’s entire self, and the physical rape of Chris. Rape is not sex, Hanson! Your writing implies that there was choice and agency in a situation where there was none, and as a result you’ve incorrectly labelled the rape and abuse of a young girl as part of her sexuality. Being raped, possessed and controlled by Satan does not make twelve year old Regan sexualized in the manner you suggest.
Through the entire film, Regan has no control. “At least she doesn’t remember what’s occurred when she’s released from Satan’s grasp” is something I try to tell myself. But she must be fully conscience and aware of the persistent testing, poking and prodding that her body is put through. Her physical pain is most likely far greater in the moment when the doctors/nurses stick the needle in her flesh to perform a spinal tap than her altered state when she awakes from the possession by Satan. Both situations grant Regan no agency or freedom, but how much pain each incident brought the young girl is sort of irrelevant in the end. She’s tortured physically, psychologically, spiritually and in any other way one can imagine... but there is no “scale” or “measurement” to depict how much pain and torture she goes through. That’s just not how experience works.
I tried to start that last paragraph by expressing which I thought was worse... being invaded for medical and psychological answers or being invaded by Satan. I couldn’t come to a conclusion. And I think any conclusion I could reach would be entirely subjective. I’m in no position to say which kind of pain would be worse, and I don’t think any conclusion has to be reached. But for the purpose of this blog, I want to question the differences in the pain Regan goes through. Within one experience, she is fully aware that her body is being invaded and the next day, she most likely remembers that spinal tap and those x-rays. Those kinds of bodily invasion are somewhat imaginable, easily recalled and feared. So the experience and memory suck, but there is a kind of power in knowing what happened to your body, knowing you were conscience and somewhat consenting to the acts. And then with the other experience (being invaded and possessed by Satan), she has no memory. Not remembering a situation robs one of agency. We’re left relying on physical evidence and what other people tell us; we can never be certain that what we “know” is actually true. Our reality is altered when we (inevitably) can’t trust those who remember for us.
I guess there isn’t a conclusion for this post... it’s still a work in progress, and I’m sure there is plenty more to write about the Exorcist. There’s always more to write. But not now; now I’m going to attempt sleep without having horrible nightmares. Wish me luck, kids.
