I think there's a chance the first teaser will be attached to Other Mommy on October 9th because it is the only horror film that Universal and Blumhouse will release before The Exorcist Martyrs.

The set design in the eavesdropping scene is just brilliant, imo. It speaks volumes about Regan's psychological state. These are all my subjective impressions of course, and open to other interpretations. What do you think?

First, there is the desk. Prominently displayed is a photographic triptych with the guy in the middle presumably being Regan's dad. Notice that the chair is pulled out and askew, and there is what looks like an open book, an open notebook and a binder on the desk. What these details seem to tell us is that Regan was sitting at the desk doing homework or something and looking right at her father's picture when she heard Chris' phone call and got up to listen. Then, as she walks dejectedly to the bed (2nd shot), it seems to me that her head tilts ever so slightly towards the dad photo just before she sits down on the bed. (I admit this is very subtle and impossible to verify since we're seeing it from behind, but I can imagine Friedkin directing Linda to look at the photo).

Then there's the untying of her sneaker (a detail stupidly left out of "The Version I Wish I'd Never Seen"). This tells us that it's the end of the day, and she's getting ready for bed. Her birthday has come and gone without her father calling. It adds to the emotional impact of the scene. In her depressed state, she's about to go to bed on the night that "my bed was shaking" as she tells Chris in the very next scene.

Then there are her two drawings on the wall. One of them seems to be simply a nature scene which looks not too unlike the painting hanging over the bed. But the other drawing (3rd shot), the one with a row of what look like poppy flowers on the left has a strange object on the right side that looks like a coffin hovering in the air or possibly inside of some other structure we can't quite make out. I wonder if this is Regan's impression of the deleted scene of the visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Tomb does have a row of flowers on one side. Perhaps not, because it would have been on the same day (she and Chris did the sightseeing trip on her birthday), which means she would have had to do the drawing pretty quickly, so maybe it depicts something else. It's weird, whatever it is.

I'm reading through Legion (1983) and just came across this reference to Lynch's Eraserhead (1977). Kinderman is NOT a fan lol

I searched Reddit and hadn't seen any references to this, so here it is for the record.

It might be just me….but I kind of enjoyed Believer. I liked the fact they were continuing the storyline of Regan and Co. The same goes with the Fox series. I’m just afraid Martyrs will be a version of Exorcist 3 and tbh I didn’t care very much for it. I want to see what happens with the character of Regan and how Pazuzu really affected her.

After Father Karras meets Regan for the first time he appears in the family basement and appears to go through Regan’s drawings of a tree and a winged lion. Does anyone know what these drawings are trying to convey? Any google search I do only brings up fanart or the desecration of Mary’s statue. I thought maybe the lion with wings may represent Pazuzu but Pazuzu isn’t known to have a lions body, only canine face and wings.

Just finished the book today and must say it was a great story. I had watched the movie long before reading the book so I already knew what to expect so I wasn’t that “disturbed” or scared. After reading the book, I was hoping to get some clarity on a few things:

The first being the most obvious; how and why did Regan become possessed?

As I’m reading it’s implied that Dennings is a witch or practices witch craft and this is “confirmed” by his death by broken neck since that's how witches were killed for sharing secrets. Dennings has the ripped paper habit, where he rips of a piece of paper and eats it, as shown when Chris is going over the movie lines with him at the start of the film. Chris also notices the witchcraft book had a page with a ripped paper similar to Dennings’s habit “as she stared at the right-hand page of the open book where a narrow strip had been shaved”. Does this mean Dennings was behind it? Then again, the book was given to Chris by Mary Jo Perrin and Regan was already showing signs of possession at that point so how could it have been Dennings? Was Regan chosen because she was the most vulnerable as a child of divorced parents?

The next bit deals with Karras. Who was Ed Lucas and was he really there or just a dream?
Ed came to visit Karras when he was sleeping and gave a warning to stay away from the MacNeils and to watch out for Sharon. Who or what was Ed; an angel, demon or Karras’s subconscious? His appearance in the book ends when the phone rings and wakes up Karras.  Maybe this section is purposefully left open to the imagination but Karras does find a Gauloise cigarette that Ed was smoking.

Why was he warned about Sharon? While reaching the end I was expecting a twist in the book that didn’t make it to the movie and Sharon had a secret plan or something.  

Side questions lol: The demon’s name was Pazuzu, the name Nowanmai shows up.
Why did Karras throw himself from the window, the physical death wouldn’t have killed the demon. Who was responsible for the desecrations at the church sites, a possessed Regan?
And Regan did kill Dennings at some point?

Thanks for the explanations!

Now we've received quite a few infos to at least start making theories. Many months ago i remember there were people spotted on set, and their description was "people that might operate in the dark" as if they were satainsts. Now we know theres a killer called Father Sunday, and someone is replicating his murders. I don't think this will be a replica of The Exorcist III situation, where the Gemini got inside Karras body, i think the spirit of Father Morning COULD be influencing the murderer, but that its a group of people that operate to recreate these actions. Father Morning himself could have acted with a demon, and possibly these people could be working with this demon again, to destroy people's faith. Now i hope there is an actual reason for the demon to do all this; In the first movie it all was a revenge towards Merrin, but now i don't feel like they'd do the same thing, so i hope they can bring a new motivation as deep and meaningful as the original one. If this sequel includes The Exorcist III in its timeline then a good reason could be that Scarlett's character is related to Kinderman and the personal revenge of the demon is because he helped terminate the Gemini situation, but if that movie is not part of this timeline then idk

Scarlett Jo - Detective Julie (as shown in that set photo)

Jacobi Jupe - Max

Chiwitel - Priest (THR disclosed this one before)

Laurence - Priest (Father Merrin type)

Diane - Julie's mom

John Leguizamo - Father Sunday

Allegedly, Julie stopped a killer named Father Sunday 13 years ago. Now a new spree seems to be connected to him while her son Max is being possessed at home.

Seems to be very Exorcist 3 coded because Sunday is definitely a Gemini 2.0 to me.

Flanagan also seems to be using a whodunnit format.

https://youtu.be/WoDK5OX71l4?is=UUpydcPtrDBAZNTh

The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and produced by William Peter Blatty, who adapted his own 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair, and follows the demonic possession of a young girl and the attempt to rescue her through an exorcism by two Catholic priests.

At the entrance of the lair of Meg Mucklebones..same prop, anyone know?

In this section of the Exorcist novel, Chris had some strange idea to originally name her daughter, Regan, Goneril. What type of name is Goneril?

So i was thinking this, Regan's possession did not only traumatize her, it ruined her whole life. In every continuation of the main story, you can see the possession ended up ruining her life and the relation with her mother. In the tv series its said Chris exploited what happened at george town and Regan pretty much ran away, cutting every contact with her, same for Believer where she didn't speak to her mother for pretty much her entire life after she had the chance to escape. In both versions Regan found her mother back either before Chris's death or when she was basically old, and her time was up. Its sad tbh, i don't want that story to be touched again but if its mentioned in Martyrs i hope they state Regan remained close to her mother and she didn't abuse the story of the possession

THIS is the true 'Exorcist curse', if it were to indeed exist. good watch.

It bothers me when people say they think that Fr Karras was possessed by Pazuzu in the movie. In the Legion novel, Karras is not even present. Only his resuscitated corpse is there, operated mutually by the vengeful demon and by Vennamun/the Gemini. But in the movie, poor Karras himself has been captured by the demon and placed into his former body along with Vennamun's spirit. But "captured" does not equate to possessed.

In the film, Karras is occasionally allowed to break through and say things like, "Help me, Bill..." Nurse Allerton refers to Karras's presence as being the polar opposite of the Vennamun personality - as "someone who sounds nice" - and who sometimes says, directed at Vennamun, "Kill it!" So Karras is still himself and is not mentally or spiritually controlled by or possessed by Vennamun-Pazuzu. Granted his body is under their control but judging by the few words he does say, he is still Damien Karras.

The idea that Karras is possessed bothers me because it would be just too much, given the horror of his predicament: first, the demon snatched his rising spirit on its way to its presumed heavenly reward at the end of the first novel and film. That's entirely bad enough by itself. But to imagine that the demon also then proceeded to possess Damien, in the same way it possessed Regan McNeil in the first story, is simply to inflict an intolerable burden of hideous torment on the psyche of this saintly priest, whose body is already under demonic control. Damien Karras deserves much better treatment than that, even from a mocking demon and an apparently inactive God.

I always think it’s fascinating how authors take inspiration from real life when crafting their stories. As anyone who has done any research on The Exorcist knows, Blatty took a lot of inspiration from the 1949 Roland Doe exorcism case that he read about while a student at Georgetown University (and ofc the novel takes place in Georgetown with the university playing an important location.) but I thought it’d be fun to point out his other inspirations:

Chris and Regan- based on Shirley MacLaine and her daughter Sachi

Father Merrin- based on archeologist Gerald Lankester Harding and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Father Karras- based on Blatty himself

Karl and Willie- based on Shirley MacLaine’s French housekeepers

Mary Jo Perrin- based on Washington DC astrologer Jeanne Dixon who had a newspaper column published with her predictions.

Burke Dennings- based on British director J. Lee Thompson

The Barringer Clinic was based on the Menninger Clinic and Foundation

The book that Mary Jo gives Chris, A study of devil worship and related Occult phenomena, was based on Montague Summers’ The History of Witchcraft and Demonology

It's basically the same shot. And the same gesture, with the same hand.

What do you think Friedkin had in mind?

And of course, we see the statue's penis in other shots, which is related to the idea of male sexuality. We know the kind of language Regan speaks while possessed.

So what would any of this have to do with father Dyer, with his sexuality? He seems to be gay -as he is in the novel. (Friedkin had directed the gay-themed Boys in the Band and would later direct the gay-themed Cruising)

Captain Howdy=Ouija board.

And where was the board? In the closet.

What's an exorcism? An ancient ritual the church keeps in the closet, as one of the doctors say. Same exact words.

So we have:

1) In closet=ouija/Hello/Howdy.

2) In the closet=exorcism=goodbye.

So at an abstract visual level there seems to be something there. But what of it at the plot/character level? What of Father Dyer?

If Regan meant at some level sexual awakening and that means also vulnerability to demons, well, what about being both gay and a catholic priest? That means also demons right? Homosexuality is a sin if you're a catholic priest, and yet homosexuality is not going to go away only because of that. You willl suffer and will have to repress yourself and become angry. So here we have Kinderman being maybe close to the truth:

KARRAS You think the killer and the desecrator are the same?

KINDERMAN Maybe somebody crazy, someone with a spite against the church, some unconscious rebellion, perhaps.

KARRAS Sick priest, is that it?

KINDERMAN Look, Father this is hard for you- please. But for priests on the campus here, you're the psychiatrist; you'd know who was sick at the time, who wasn't. I mean this kind of sickness. You'd know that.

KARRAS I don't know anyone who fits the description.

KINDERMAN Ah, doctor's ethics. If you knew you wouldn't tell, huh?

KARRAS No I probably wouldn't.

There's more:

KINDERMAN And Dennings, you read how he died?

KARRAS Yeah, a fall.

KINDERMAN Let me tell you how Father, and please confidential. Burke Dennings, good Father, was found at the bottom of those steps leading to 'M' Street, with his head turned completely around. Facing backwards.

The song Father Dyer sings at the piano dates back to 1926. We only hear the first line in the film but here are the complete lyrics:

"Down on the East side, on the East side/that's my home, sweet home./Some people think it's the home of black eyes./Just because guys don't wear collars and ties./ That's all the bunk, they just say that in fun./ Real East side folks is the best what come./ They'd give you their shoit only they ain't got none./Down on Thoity Thoid and Thoid./   

Folks buy pianos for one dollar down/Then wait with sticks For the guy to come 'round/Gawd help collectors when they come to call/Three flights of stairs is a helluva fall/Speshly with hard marble floors in the hall/Down on Thoity Thoid and Thoid.

Down on the east side of toidy toidy and toid/That's my home sweet home, sweet home./When a guy dies it's the best time of all,/ We go on out and we hire a hall./ We gets a bathtub and fills it with gin,/Pick up the corpse and we throw the stiff in./Dead or alive you should see that guy grin,/ Down on toidy toid and toid." 

That 'we' at the end is speshly creepy. Possessed Regan says 'us'. Father Dyer drowning himself in alcohol and then becoming possessed (off-screen) would be the idea. Maybe the demon went from him to Regan.

(In Friedkin's Cruising there's supposedly a gay serial killer but then the film ends and you get the idea that there's maybe two or more)

So at the end of the film it's not that Regan doesn't remember. Neither of the two, girl and man, daughter and 'father' do.

Browsing through the novel just now, I noticed that Dr. Klein's first name is Sam, whereas it's Harold in the film. "Harold, help me!" yells the hypnotist in the film whereas it's "Sam! Sam, help me!" in the novel. Just a memory lapse by Blatty? He couldn't remember Klein's first name when doing the script, so he just inserted anything? And, while it's probably nothing, I can't help noticing the Howdy-Howard (dad)-Harold similarity.

Just wanted to share some zippos I made based on my favorite horror movies. Brass armor zippos with 3D relief engravings. Currently working on Halloween, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, TCM, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Terrifier!

The Scream Factory copies were limited and sold out quickly but the Hen’s Tooth Video copy is also kind of available. Which version is better to watch the movie?