At the time of filming, Nicola was the assistant director of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. He’s regarded one of the country's leading authorities on exorcism. Nicola’s review of the book attracted the attention of the movie’s Director William Friedkin and author William Blatty.
The Movie
Chris MacNeal, an actress, is temporarily living in Washington D.C. when poltergeist activity begins. This is the second stage of possession, infestation. The first stage is invitation which can be subconscious. Next, her daughter Regan’s behavior changes. She has violent outbursts towards people and bed bucks, throwing her up and down. This is obsession which precedes final stage, possession. Chris contacts a priest who believes the girl’s possessed. Exorcists Fathers Merrin and Karras, also a psychiatrist, are called to exorcise her. At the end of the movie, Karras taunts the demon and asks it to come into his body. The demon possesses the priest who throws himself out of the window.
The story is based on a true case. In documented accounts, the boy has various pseudonyms to protect his identity. The possession happened in Cottage City, Maryland, not Mount Rainier, in 1949; the exorcisms, Missouri. Father William Bowden conducted the exorcism with Father Walter Halloran as his assistant. None of the exorcists asked the demon to possess them. Sheer Hollywood fiction!
Blatty was a student at Georgetown when the newspapers carried articles about the possessed boy. He kept the articles and published the book in 1971.
Nicola’s Role as Advisor
The priest made about six trips to New York where the movie was filed from late 1972 to early 1973. He taught Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller who played the exorcists about the Catholic doctrine of angels and demons. He trained the actors in The Roman Ritual, the rite of exorcism and in using of gestures and the treatment of the vestments and religious objects. Ellen Burstyn portrayed Chris and Linda Blair, Regan. Eileen Dietz, Blair’s double, was very interested in the paranormal.
Nicola found these actors pleasant to work with. People have wondered about the psychological effects on Blair, who was thirteen years old when the movie was filmed. He thought her to be a normal teen who saw her acting as fu, a horror movie that had no connections with reality.
The priest was amazed at the money that was spent. During the exorcism scene, there was a chill in the room. Air conditioning equipment that cost forty thousand dollars was used. The scene was shot and temperatures between zero and ten degrees.
In April, a reporter from Newsweek said she wanted to write an article about bad luck connected with the filming. What happened was that a man who worked on the set died from cancer. Friedkin’s response to this was that to think the devil caused the death was an insult to the man’s memory and that this form of sensationalism could on add to superstition and anxiety. Miller’s son was lying on a beach in France when a motorcyclist ran over him, breaking his back. Burstyn strained her back. A fire had started on the set, delaying the filming. All can be contributed to mere coincidences. Fr. Tom Birmingham, who had a small role, blessed the set more than once. This isn’t anything paranormal. The reporter decided not to write the story.
How did the director, writer and exorcist view the movie’s purpose? Friedkin saw the movie only as a commercial endeavor to profit by. Nicola saw it for its religious impact. Blatty viewed it as both.
Related articles:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/117393 Demonic Possession and Exorcism
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/117398 The Documented Case The Exorcist was Based On
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118382 The Exorcism of Emily Rose/Anneliese Michel: Demonic Possession or Psychosis
Source:
Diabolical Possession and Exorcism, Rev. John J. Nicola, (Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. 1974)
 |
