Lankester Merrin

Apart from the intro, we'll talk about the intro a bit later on because the intro is very jarring.

But what's the, such a great payback later on from the intro with the whole sequence of Father Merrin like fucking around in Iraq and you're like, what are you doing? Indiana Jones.

Yeah.

When's

I just want to point this out.

He's got a Bible with him and his bookmark is a postcard of Father Merrin.

Is it really? Yeah, yeah.

Which looks like, and it doesn't

And he says, look, I've got a case for you, Lamont.

And it's not a case of Lamont.

I want you, he goes, you should be, he says, I don't want to, he goes, I want you to investigate the Father Merrin thing.

And he says, I should be relieved of all pastoral responsibilities.

For the returning viewer, the shockingly naturalistic moments of tenderness between Regan and her mother Chris in the early parts of The Exorcist become their own source of disquiet, since we know how few such moments remain for them.

Or think of the unsettling ten-minute prologue in which Father Lankester Merrin, the titular exorcist, undergoes some ill-defined spiritual crisis while on an archeological dig in Iraq, a crisis involving the ancient wind demon Pazuzu, of all things.

The first time you watch this film, you figure that the point of this sequence will be revealed in time, but you're mistaken.

The second, third, tenth time you watch it, you find that this sequence gets more and more enigmatic, precisely because it is designed to enigmatize everything, ensuring that all that follows takes place at one remove from some unspeakable mystery.

In the film, Friedkin made it splendidly cryptic, but the demon is a specific demon.

It's the god Pazuzu of the ancient Mesopotamians.

In the novel, we learn that Lankester Merrin, the titular exorcist, actually fought this demon in Africa decades before the film takes place, and the reason the demon is coming back is specifically to get its vengeance on Merrin.

At one point in the film, Father Karras, the younger priest, who's kind of our protagonist or one of our protagonists, is trying to find evidence that this is actually possession and not some kind of psychosis, and one of the signs that the church requires, one of the, the type of evidence that they recognize is a person speaking in a language they couldn't have learnt, so Aramaic or Latin.

You know, the transformation of Reagan, like the Dick Smith makeup on Linda Blair is phenomenal.

And the makeup on Max von Sydow to make him look like an old man as Father Merrin is incredible because he was like, what, in his early 40s or something or late 30s when he made it? I've honestly never seen

Exorcist 3.

I've

Is it strange that the titular character doesn't show up until two-thirds of the way through the movie?

Are we talking about the person who performs the exorcism, one Father Merrin?

Yes, the exorcist, and he doesn't show up until...

Well, he's in the cold open.

It was, like, pancake batter and a mix of something else.

Oh, so [laughs] gross.

How come everybody dies off screen? You get, like, graphic projectile vomit, but then Burke somehow goes flying out the window, which is not broken, and then Father Merrin is just slumped over.

Yeah.

And he obviously has a really, really lengthy filmography, but you've probably seen him in...

Shutter Island, Minority Report, Robin Hood, Star Wars Episode VII, The Seventh Seal, Rush Hour 3, Dune, Awakenings, Conan the Barbarian, Judge Dredd, What Dreams May Come, Game of Thrones, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Dreamscape, Hannah and Her Sisters, and The Exorcist 2, again as Father Merrin.

I will.

I want to add Ellen Burstyn who plays.

Oh, yeah, for The Exorcist.

The, Father Merrin, the, we know who he is.

Uh, with Anthony Perkins, I heard that you guys became friends.

When was the last time that you were able to speak with him? 'Cause he died so at such at a young age.

And one doctor Chris is close to finally suggests that as a last resort, it might be worth speaking to a priest about an exorcism.

And it's at this point, a young depressed priest, Father Karras, who's on the verge of losing his faith, teams up with a more experienced exorcist, Father Merrin, and they set about trying to save Reagan from what they believe to be a demonic possession.

I should say, Chris's director, a very obnoxious man called Burke...

I forget who the actor is who plays him in the film, but he is awful.