‘The Exorcist’ explained: How does Regan become possessed?
More than 50 years after its initial release, The Exorcist remains one of the most horrifying movies ever made. William Friedkin’s cinematic masterpiece on the themes of religious exorcism and satanic possession is regularly placed among the very best films the horror genre has to offer.
The film concerns Regan MacNeill, a 12-year-old girl who begins exhibiting abnormal physical traits and behaviour and is then connected with the inexplicable death of her mother’s friend. She is then visited by Catholic priest and psychiatrist Father Damien Karras, to whom she claims to be the Devil. Her behaviour only grows more violent, disturbing and demonic.
Karras concludes that an exorcism must be performed. He partakes in the exorcism himself with an older priest, which finally results in his own possession by the Devil and subsequent suicide. The result of the exorcism saves Regan, as the demon possessing her body transfers itself to Karras.
The conclusion to the film is fairly clear-cut, then. But one question is left unanswered: how is it that Regan MacNeill becomes possessed by the Devil in the first place?
Is Captain Howdy really Satan?
Any clues that we receive in The Exorcist as to the cause or means of Regan’s possession are subtle and indirect. The film doesn’t lead the audience too much, making the young girl’s transformation into a violent, diseased and physically disturbed monster all the more shocking.
However, one scene appears to give us enough information to deduce the basis for this transformation. While Regan is playing in the basement of her home, her mother, Chris, spots a board covered in letters and numbers, with the “Ouija” at the top of it.
The Ouija board was invented by the American spiritualist movement in the 19th century as a means of contacting the dead. Yet many Christian denominations, including Catholicism, associate its use directly with satanism.
When Chris tries to play with the board together with Regan, a subtle but spine-chilling split-second shot shows the Ouija board’s pointer fly out of her hand and into her daughter’s, as if by magic.
Chris reacts as if nothing strange has happened, telling Regan, “You really don’t want me to play, huh?”. In this way, the film misleads the audience expertly, making us second-guess whether we really saw what we saw.
Regan then introduces her mother to “Captain Howdy”, an apparent imaginary friend associated with the board games Regan plays. Or that’s what Chris appears to assume. “You know, I make the questions, and he does the answers,” Regan explains.
According to how the movie pans out, we must conclude that Captain Howdy was a demonic force introduced to Regan via the Ouija board. He is either involved in allowing the Devil to possess her or is himself the Devil.
For director William Friedkin, his aim was not to horrify with the film but to explore “the mystery of faith”. As horrifying as the second half of the movie proves to be, Friedkin was apparently more concerned with the act of demonic possession itself than with its terrifying manifestations. And so, for him and screenwriter William Peter Blatty, the Ouija board scene plays a crucial role in explaining the logic of Regan’s possession.
