The People Who Stay

Introduction

The Exorcist is usually remembered for the possession, but that isn’t what kept drawing me back to the film.

I kept noticing how often William Friedkin leaves the horror behind to spend time with ordinary interactions between people. Those scenes don’t explain the possession, and they rarely move the story forward. Even so, he returns to them throughout the film.

After a while, I started wondering why.

The Ouija Board

I kept coming back to the scene where Chris finds Regan playing with the Ouija board.

Knowing where the story is headed, I expected Friedkin to make the board the center of the scene. Instead, he keeps returning to Chris. She smiles when Regan tells her she doesn’t want her to play. She doesn’t react as though something frightening has happened. Her attention stays with her daughter.

Watching it again, I realized the scene tells me more about their relationship than it does about Captain Howdy.

That became more noticeable later in the film.

Chris spends the next part of the story looking for someone who can help Regan. She meets with doctors, specialists, and psychiatrists. The explanations change from one visit to the next, but Friedkin keeps showing the same thing. Chris is still trying to help her daughter.

Looking back, the Ouija board scene feels less like the beginning of the possession than the beginning of Chris’s response to it.

Father Karras

Karras first drew my attention during the conversation with his superior.

He asks to be relieved of his duties because he thinks he has lost his faith. Friedkin doesn’t stage the conversation as a dramatic turning point. Karras speaks quietly. He sounds worn down more than conflicted.

Later, after his mother’s death, Father Dyer comes to see him.

The two men spend time together until Karras falls asleep in the chair.

Before leaving, Dyer removes the cigarette from Karras’ hand, takes off his shoes, and covers him with a blanket.

I stopped on that scene because almost nothing happens.

Regan isn’t there.

The investigation doesn’t move forward.

The possession isn’t even mentioned.

Friedkin simply spends a few moments watching one friend care for another.

After that, I started noticing how often he interrupts the horror with scenes like this.

Chris and Karras

Another scene kept pulling me back.

Chris asks Karras if Regan is going to die.

There isn’t much dialogue. Friedkin leaves a lot of space between their lines, and neither of them seems eager to fill the silence.

Chris isn’t asking him to explain what is happening.

She’s asking whether her daughter is going to live.

Karras answers,

“No.”

Watching the scene again, I realized Friedkin isn’t interested in resolving Karras’ doubts here. He doesn’t suddenly become confident, and he doesn’t suddenly understand Regan’s condition.

The conversation stays with the two people standing in the hallway.

Chris has reached the point where medicine has stopped giving her answers.

Karras has already admitted to his superior that he thinks he has lost his faith.

Neither of them has much certainty left.

I kept wondering why Friedkin spent so much time on conversations like this.

He could have moved directly back to Regan’s room.

Instead, he waits.

The film keeps returning to people who don’t know what to do but continue responding to the person standing in front of them.

That pattern was becoming harder for me to ignore.

Father Merrin

When Father Merrin arrives, Friedkin doesn’t introduce him through the exorcism.

He spends time watching him before he enters Regan’s room.

We first see him in Iraq. He walks slowly. His age is obvious long before anyone mentions it. Standing before the statue of Pazuzu, he looks small beside it. Friedkin doesn’t explain what Merrin is thinking, and he doesn’t need to. The scene simply lets us watch him.

Later, after Merrin reaches the MacNeil house, Chris offers him a drink.

He smiles and says,

“I know that I shouldn’t… but my will is weak.”

I stopped on that line because it doesn’t fit the kind of character I expected.

Friedkin doesn’t introduce Merrin as someone who is fearless or physically strong. Before the exorcism begins, he lets us see an older man who knows his own limitations.

That changed the way I watched the rest of the film.

When Merrin enters Regan’s room, I wasn’t watching someone who seemed certain of the outcome. I was watching someone who had already acknowledged his own weakness.

Looking back, I realized Friedkin had done something similar with Chris and Karras.

Before asking us to watch them respond to extraordinary circumstances, he spends time showing us ordinary things about them.

Chris is introduced as a mother.

Karras is introduced as a grieving son and a priest who no longer believes he is fit for his work.

Merrin is introduced as an aging man whose body is beginning to fail him.

Those details don’t explain the possession.

They explain the people who will have to respond to it.

Reflection

As I looked back over my notes, I realized I wasn’t writing very much about the possession.

I kept writing about the moments Friedkin placed around it.

Chris listening to Regan before anything seems wrong.

Father Dyer sitting with Karras after his mother’s death.

The conversation between Chris and Karras in the hallway.

Merrin admitting that his will is weak before the exorcism begins.

None of those scenes explains the supernatural events.

None of them increases the suspense.

If they were removed, the plot would still make sense.

That made me wonder why Friedkin gave them so much attention.

I don’t think they are interruptions at all.

I think they are the film.

The possession gives The Exorcist its story, but Friedkin keeps returning to ordinary moments between people. Those scenes gave me a reason to care about Chris, Karras, Merrin, and Dyer long before the exorcism reached its conclusion.

Watching the film again, I found myself waiting for those moments more than the special effects.

The horror still works.

But it wasn’t what stayed with me.