Those under the age of 18, please read this article with your parents
What is the thing that makes us really scared? When we watch a horror movie, we may all have lingering fears about the dangerous suspenseful moments and the scary ghost faces, and then we remind ourselves that those are just the directors trying to manage through some audiovisual skills It just causes our emotional conditioned reflex. But what we have to admit is that whenever we think of a series of nouns such as "ghost" that have been given special meanings by people, we always feel a little uncomfortable. People who don't know the cause often entrust their beliefs to the gods opposed to ghosts. In fact, both ghosts and gods are products created by people themselves.
I am an atheist, but if you want to ask me if I believe there are ghosts in the world, my answer is: I would rather believe that there are ghosts in the world. Because in almost all stories involving ghosts, there is a causal relationship between good and evil. The sentence "don’t do bad things, don’t be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door" seems to reflect a kind of "ghost" in the human social system. Positive effect. If a person is not afraid of ghosts, we can't imagine what terrible things he can do.
The real scary thing about the movie "The Exorcist" is that it goes beyond the purely frightening perspective of ordinary horror movies. On the surface, this film does not even seem to be an exorcism story with a causal relationship between punishing evil and promoting good. We can't see where the devil comes from. What the movie shows is the reality that people have been selectively ignoring and daring to face up to it in the subconscious. Think about it carefully, this may be the reason why many people are used to watching many general horror movies and then watch this movie and do not feel as horrible as expected.
The devil is a symbol of evil for us. Like ghosts and gods, the corresponding evil and good are concepts created by humans. Ordinary people usually persuade people to do good and get rid of evil when it comes to issues of good and evil, but from a philosophical point of view, what is good and what is evil. If we look at "evil" objectively from the human social system, will it just be a reasonable existence like a stone on the grass?
For the above thoughtful thinking, we might as well take a look at the "magic" and "evil" in "The Exorcist". In the movie, Regan, the daughter of a female star, is possessed by the devil, but after watching the movie, we will wonder why the devil chose her as his target. In fact, children in adolescence are undoubtedly the most dangerous group of all age groups. With sexual maturity, children gradually get rid of the control of adults physically and psychologically, which also indicates that they will never go back to the world of children like Disney. When adolescent children see that the beautiful world that was almost utopian before is shattered before their eyes, "magic" and "evil" are the best times to take the opportunity to enter.
Reagan has been able to distinguish the difference between a female and a steer, which shows her maturity in sexual consciousness. At first, her life seemed warm, but we can still feel Regan's loneliness and despair. We have never seen her with her peers in the movie, which shows that her mother's special work and living environment has separated her from the outside world or her peers. From the quiz game she played with her mother, we can learn that she has always had a fictional "Captain House" in her mind. The loneliness of adolescence in an abnormal environment is an important factor for her to be possessed by the devil, and the breakdown of the family has further catalyzed the process of her being eroded by the devil. When Reagan heard from other people's rumors that her mother had a special relationship with a director, she showed extraordinary maturity. She let her mother know that she did not refuse her mother to marry another man. This kind of emotional rationality and maturity made her unconscious feelings of rejection and rebellion be alienated and expanded. On Regan's birthday, her biological father didn't even call. The night after she heard her mother and biological father arguing on the phone, she noticed that her bed began to vibrate abnormally. And when she was possessed by the devil was the day her mother had a party at home, she almost lived in purgatory upstairs, while the priest downstairs happily playing the piano expressed his vision of heaven. . At this time Regan felt betrayed and abandoned by everyone. A 12-year-old girl came to everyone when her mother and everyone laughed and laughed. That was also the moment when the devil came.
The bad things didn't stop. Just when Regan's mother nearly collapsed due to her daughter's illness, his director friend died, and the death scene was under the window outside Regan's room. The official result of the cause of death was to fall and die after being drunk. And Reagan's mother knew that his death had an indelible relationship with her daughter. From the plot, we can know that the director's character is extremely bad when he drunk, so his death when he was in the same room with Regan, who was already possessed by the devil, was one of the worst results of the development of the event. When the police investigating this case, after questioning Regan’s mother and leaving her home, the devil attacked again. Regan began to cruel self-harm. Perhaps we can see Regan’s self-blame from the self-harm. Regarding her daughter as a cruel murderer or being at the mercy of the devil together with her daughter, it is obvious that this mother chose the latter.
The film shows the emergence of the devil and its raging process. The mother in the abyss of despair chose to save her daughter through exorcism. She asked Father Callas for help. Many viewers here think that the movie has only begun to enter the theme at this time, but what we may overlook is that the role of Father Callas may be more important than the "magic" represented by Reagan. From the beginning of the movie, Karas and Reagan are introduced almost simultaneously. Karas is a priest, but not an ordinary priest.
Callas’ friends said that if he was not a priest, he would be an excellent psychologist. Karas’s education is funded by the church, and he advocating rationality and science has an irreconcilable contradiction with his priesthood. In fact, he also represents most of our ordinary people, who wandered between scientific rationality and subjective beliefs at a loss when encountering setbacks. The death of his mother made Father Karas, who had gradually lost his faith, become even more confused, and it was time for the devil to flash again. Although Karas has a boxer-like figure, he maintains restraint and rationality when facing the devil Reagan. When Regan moved the drawer in the air, Karas would ask her to do it again in order to expose her skills, and he would use ordinary water to test whether Regan was really possessed by the devil. But man is a kind of fragile animal. From infancy to adult, the stronger the body, the more fragile the mentality becomes in the secular storm. The devil used the death of Karas's mother to attack him, and he gradually began to fall after losing his faith. Finally, when he saw the fate of Father Mo Lin, he finally fell into the trap set by the devil. Using violence to control violence and evil to control evil, is this the only way to solve the problem? Karas made his best efforts and he chose to die with the evil devil.
"Evil against evil", this sentence appeared in the beginning of the movie. Although Father Merlin only appeared at the beginning and end of the movie, he was the real exorcist referred to in this film. Yes, the real protagonist of the movie did not appear most of the time. Even after he appeared, he did not ask about the background of Regan being possessed by the devil but directly implemented the exorcism. The reason for this explanation is because Father Mo Lin knew what the devil he was facing was. Mo Lin discovered a small sculpture during archeology in Iraq. This sculpture is called Pazuzu, which is a demon god believed by the ancient Sumerians. The ancient people’s worship of the devil confused Father Mo Lin. He found the ruins of the temple and discovered the statue of the devil. When he confronted the devil, there were two dogs biting beside him. This scene corresponds to the conversation between Father Merlin and Father Callas during the exorcism at the end of the movie. Karas said exhaustedly: "Why is this girl, there is no reason at all." Mo Lin said: "I think his intention is to despair us, to see ourselves as ugly beasts, thinking that God cannot love us." As a priest, even if he was clear in his heart, it was impossible for Mo Lin to tell others that there was no God in the world. His actual task is not so much an exorcism as it is to cooperate with Regan to complete an exorcism ritual. We can see that Reagan can make the bed shake, move objects in the air, and let herself levitate, but the camera does not directly show the fatal harm she has caused to people with magic. And Reagan has been tied to the bed as if waiting for others to exorcise himself. Therefore, the object of exorcism by priests is ultimately human, an ordinary person with evil thoughts.
At this time, it is back to the question of good and evil. Fathers Merlin and Callas did not use violence as a form of exorcism, they used objects or words to exorcise the devil from Reagan through a series of ritualized actions. In other words, the priests did not use violence to control violence and evil to control evil. The real problem for them is that what they are facing is likely to be real "evil". Yes, a 12-year-old girl can also become a real devil. The movie almost indirectly tells us one of the reasons for religion and its function through the whole process of exorcism. Even if people separate themselves from all other animals, they are called advanced animals, but they always share the same ancestor with other primates. If you really want to find an idealized highly civilized species, then it can only be a robot. If a person is in hell, he will become a devil. If he is born in heaven, he will become an angel. The Stanford prison experiment and the Soviet sleep experiment and other similar experiments have proved the vulnerability of people’s subjective consciousness in an objective environment. The situation of Reagan in the movie undoubtedly turned himself into a devil, and Father Merlin, the exorcist, managed to return Regan's mind to the normal human social system in a non-violent form through the religious system established by humans. Why not choose violence to control violence? "Evil against evil", if this is done, will the world still have a place for "goodness"?
The ending of the movie is regrettable and gratifying. Father Merlin did not support the end of the exorcism ceremony because of his weak body, and Father Callas, who had lost faith in science and religion, chose to join forces with “evil” after falling into the trap of the devil. "perish together. The sacrifices of the two let Reagan see the great power of "good", and finally she returned to normal. At the end of the movie, Regan gave Dale a reverent and guilty kiss when he saw the characteristic of the priest's clothing on his body. In any case, the devil did not win after all.
Words outside of the movie: Hostile videos or incidents appear almost always on the Internet. Children are abducted and sold, infants are abused, girls are raped, the death penalty is supported by many people, and campus violence is heartbreaking... It seems that the shadow of the devil can be seen everywhere in life, and many people become abusers after being abused. If good and evil coexist relatively, perhaps evil thoughts cannot be completely eradicated. But since mankind has created the concept of good and evil, we should have the confidence to deal with the relationship between the two. Instead of ignoring the existence of evil because of cowardice and being restrained by it, it is better to face it bravely and resolve it. Good will always conquer evil, and this may be the truth given to us by God.
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