The Exorcist

Question: What is Chris McNeal's assistant listening to on the radio when Father Merrit arrives?

Answer: When it cuts to Chris MacNeil's PA, Sharon, listening to the radio it's only for about 20 seconds, and all we hear is a voice which presumably belongs to a random radio host or guest who is in the midst of offering motivational advice. This short scene serves to show Sharon's tension with what's going on in the house.

Super Grover

Question: Was "caption howdy" the demon? Or did Regen make him up, the way some kids do?

Answer: It was indeed Pazuzu, he wanted Regan to believe he was some friendly entity to gain her trust. Thus the Captain Howdy facade.

Answer: The implication is that Captain Howdy was the name the demon gave itself while communicating with Regen prior to its possession of her.

Phixius

Question: What was the significance of the father being an absentee dad? Did that make Reagan more vulnerable to being possessed?

Answer: The demon wants everyone to lose hope for the girl and give up on her. Her father, having already flown the coop, just makes this goal that much easier.

TonyPH

Answer: It's possible it made her more vulnerable, but the mother, being a big movie star with an adolescent child would probably be divorced at this stage. It was more likely a literary choice by the author. Fewer characters make for a less complicated plot and eliminates the need to add an additional character who may not serve the story in a meaningful way.

raywest

Question: What was in the attic if there weren't any rats making the noises?

Answer: It was the demon moving objects around. This is seen later as well when object in Regan's bedroom are manipulated.

wizard_of_gore

Why doesn't the mother freak out when Regan is showing how to use the ouija board and the planchette moves into Regans hands by itself? It magically slides across the board into Regans hands by itself, and the mother isn't particularly startled by it? Doesn't make sense to me.

The movement of the planchette was so fast during Regan's insistence that it can be operated by one person that her mother thought Regan "must" have somehow done it.

Erik M.

Answer: She thought that there MUST be a thin filament or something that Regan was manipulating...why ELSE would the game act that way?!

Erik M.

Question: Who put the cross under Regan's pillow? It couldn't be the demon. (01:12:35)

????

Chosen answer: Burke Dennings, that's why he was murdered.

According to William P. Blatty, it was Karl who put the crucifix under Regan's pillow.

Question: As far as I can tell, Damian visits his mother at her apartment and says she can't stay here on her own, but she says no, she's not leaving her home. Then we see the mother in hospital. But then Damian is told that his mother died in her home and wasn't found for a couple of days. But she was in hospital, wasn't she?

kh1616

Chosen answer: She was in a hospital but that does not mean she died there. She was likely discharged and, refusing to go into any type of assisted living situation, was sent home, where she later died. A person, unless declared legally incompetent, cannot be forced to go into a facility. Due to insurance regulations, a person can only stay in a hospital as long as they are being actively treated for a medical condition. Once their condition reaches a certain level, they are discharged-either to a rehab center, a nursing facility, or to their own home.

raywest

Answer: In the novel it's clear, that the hospital scene is a memory of Karras.

Question: What happened to the movie that Chris was shooting. It just disappears from the script after Burke Dennings dies?

????

Chosen answer: It's never explained. Presumably shooting was suspended during her daughter's "illness," or they were able to continue filming around her absence.

raywest

Question: What did Pazuzu (when possessing Regan) mean when he told Damien that performing an exorcism would bring them closer together?

Answer: Pazuzu is secure in its position and does not believe it can be exorcised, so it is a taunt to Damien, who is in the midst of a deep crisis of faith, that the attempt at exorcism will fail and send Damien further down the path of darkness.

Answer: When the Exorcism failed, Father Karras asked the Demon to take him, which it did, he continued his hold on him through the Legion story line.

Question: Who puts the 3 horns sticking out of the statue of Mary in the church? And what is it supposed to resemble?

dan coakley..

Chosen answer: Regan did (as the demon). It was just meant to be a desecration.

Answer: The desecration in the church added grotesque, pointed breasts and a pointed penis to a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, smeared with red paint to resemble blood. Lieutenant William Kinde later realised that these grisly appendages were made of sculpting clay and paint of the same type that Regan used in her artwork.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: The Psychiatrist that hypnotizes Regan is wearing a tie that in the close-ups, is retied differently as the scene progresses. (01:02:05)

????

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