Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
The Exorcist
Blink, and you'll be glad you missed this.
This film is one of the scariest films of all time, period.- "Tubular Bells". That excerpt from Mike Oldfield's album will haunt you.
- The soundtrack for the film itself. While the music within is minimalist for the majority to give a more realistic feel, it makes the moments when it does play all the more menacing- with its fervent violins and eerie string plucks.
- Start with the idea of your 12-year-old daughter being possessed by a demon and stabbing herself in the crotch with a crucifix. And there's the several flash frames of the insanely demonic-looking face of Pazuzu. You're not gonna sleep with knowing this.
- The first undeniably supernatural moment in the film is terrifying for how small it is. Regan shows Chris her Ouija board and starts to show how it works before the planchette jumps quickly across the board. Chris playfully accuses Regan of swiping it away, but the audience knows with absolute certainty that something else moved it.
- When Chris explores the attic after hearing more noises, she stumbles around with a candle until she hears the noise again. She walks toward it before her candle sharply flares up like a torch.
- Father Karras' Nightmare Sequence where he is in the streets, trying to pursue his mother as she walks down the subway towards her upcoming death. What makes this scene even more unsettling is that there is little sound aside from the quiet ambience along with a brief flash of Pazuzu's face added for good measure.
- Regan being tossed back and forth on her bed by Pazuzu, violently flopping from lying to seated while screaming in fear and pain for her mother to stop it from happening. Chris and the doctors have no idea what to do. One moment her irises roll to the back of her head, making her appear white-eyed for a brief moment and then her throat bulges as if something inside is forcing itself to expand in her skin.
- Imagine what it was like to be Regan. Remember the words "Help Me" appearing on her skin? It's a very good thing she doesn't remember anything of what happened. Even if fully recovered, the trauma would destroy her mind.
- The animal-like growling and moans that Regan makes while she is possessed.
- Regan's change in appearance towards the film's climax. Even the screen tests
for the make-up are unnerving…- To elaborate, over the course of the film, Pazuzu makes Regan scratch herself, leaving scars on her face, but subtly her facial features gradually deteriorate with her complexion becoming unnaturally pale, her teeth becoming blackened, and her eyes gaining a vivid green. The implications is that the possession is gradually killing her and that Pazuzu’s claims of keeping her until she’s dead in the dirt are all the more disturbing as it’s accelerating the process of decay.
- The description of Burke's death where he has been found thrown outside the window with his head rotated 180 degrees.
- The Un-Reveal of whether Pazuzu was impersonating Damien's mother, or channeling her from Hell.
- Father Merrin, the exorcism expert, believes the appearances of Mary and Burke and the "three personalities" that Father Karras thinks are present are just more of Pazuzu's deceptions and "there is only one" demon.
- Besides, Mary was very devout in her faith and proud of her son being a priest. She would be in Heaven.
- The infamous scene in the altered cut where Regan goes down the staircase walking on all fours, upside down like a spider, and vomits blood. She's audibly sobbing as she does, indicating that this is the demon controlling her and making her suffer for its own amusement.
- In the original version, Regan doesn't vomit blood, but instead glides silently and purposefully, flicks her tongue out like a snake and chases after Chris' secretary Sharon, licking her ankles. Chris snaps out, "Call that doctor and get him out of bed! Get him now!" Sharon does, with Regan following her all the way.
- In the book, Pazuzu mocks Karras for injecting Regan with so much Librium. He tells him (correctly) that he's going to induce a heart attack in the girl if he continues to do so.
- You don't even need a demon for this to be Nightmare Fuel. Imagine yourself as a parent, watching your child deteriorate steadily, knowing full-well that there's nothing you can do about it, and even the doctors with their medical expertise can't seem to figure out what's wrong with her, and how to help her.
- Regan matter-of-factly telling an astronaut during a party, "You're gonna die up there." Her urinating right after is creepy, but the way the line is delivered... brrrrrrrr.
- Regan reaching her arms in the air and howling as a statue of Pazuzu appears next to her bed and vanishes.
- The way Regan's eyes glow as she levitates to the ceiling, still and silent. After all the yelling and cursing Pazuzu does before, it is quite creepy in how silent it is in this one scene.
- The tension from Detective Kinderman pursuing the Burke case qualifies as well. Kinderman shows up to the MacNeil household as the exorcism takes place. Imagine having to explain to a detective that your daughter was responsible for someone's death and their only defense is demonic possession, which might be hard to gain evidence of in a court of law.
- This rare trailer for the film was banned for being too disturbing for audiences; it would contain flashing images of the faces of the demon and the possessed girl. Watch at your own risk!
- When Merrin arrives at the MacNeil house, we see a closeup of Regan's/Pazuzu's face, as he senses his Arch-Enemy approaching. Once the priest enters the house, a demonic voice reverberates through the house:Pazuzu: MERRIN!!
- Both the book and movie can become even scarier when one finds out that the book may have been based an actual exorcism conducted in the 1940s.
- An often-overlooked scene where we follow a vicar through a cathedral doing his daily chores. He brings in a pair of flower pots, setting one down at a statue, and then turns to put the other down. He then pauses, looking horrified. Cut to the desecrated statue◊ of the Virgin Mary, covered in what looks like blood, with bloody spikes jammed through her breasts and womb area.
- During Karras' test to see if Regan is possessed, he asks Pazuzu who it is, and the demon responds by speaking backwards English. When Karras plays the recording of the test backwards, he hears it saying repeatedly, in multiple voices, "I am no one" and "Fear the priest." When Karras returns to the MacNeil home, he sees two sentences form on Regan's stomach.I AM NO ONE
The 2016 TV Series
Season 1
- You remember the creepy neck twist in the movie? It's played straight into reality, as in Episode 2, we see a boy Marcus is trying to exorcise attempt the neck twist only to die halfway! Pazuzu later tries to it on Casey and almost succeeds.
- The Friars of Ascension. They're a cult that intentionally lets themselves be possessed and murders a slew of people to start up a ritual to summon a demon, all while planning to kill the Pope.
- The third pupils they get. Brr...
- The worst part? They have a slew of connections. Paranoia Fuel at its finest..
- Episode 10: The vision of Tomas's grandmother that Pazuzu shows. Eugh...
- The hammer scene. Pazuzu decides to torment Henry, Casey, and Kat with a hammer. He almost makes Casey smash the hammer on Kat's knee, with the threat of ripping Henry's arms out of their sockets! The scene becomes so intense that Kat takes the hammer from a cowering Casey and smashes her kneecap to spare Henry! HER FUCKING SCREAM!!
- Pazuzu pleads for Regan to come back to him after he's defeated. It's nearly as though he's making himself out to be a victim after everything he's done to the poor woman, her family, and countless others.
Season 2
- When Andy hallucinates Grace and Nikki? Special mention goes to the hallucination of bees crawling out of his chest. The Grace hallucination is terrifying, especially when you remember that all the scenes she is in just featured her interacting with Andy.
- In a show full of Body Horror and Demonic Possession, one of the scariest things is Harper's mother, a normal human woman who brainwashed and poisoned her child into believing she was possessed.
- "Help Me":
- The episode features some unnerving imagery in regards to Andy's exorcism, from the demon constantly repeating Nikki's death to him and having darker versions of the kids saying they're glad their foster mother died to seeing demonic versions of Tomas and Marcus torturing him.
- The demonic versions of Tomas and Marcus are terrifying, especially when Demon!Marcus asks Demon!Tomas what they should do, and we're treated to Demon!Tomas twisting his neck in an 180 degree with red eyes and sharp teeth saying "Let's stab the bastard!", all while looking at the audience.
- In a homage to The Exorcist III, we are treated to the same Jump Scare of the nurse's decapitation but with the newly-possessed Bennett.
- The blankly-staring white-eyed possessed Tomas repeating a madness mantra of "pray for us" after the possessed Andy escapes his straps will stay with you.
