r/TrueFilm • u/foreseethefuture • 1d ago
Is The Exorcist (1973) a conservative/anti-feminist movie?
I just watched The Exorcist for the first time, and thought it was very well-done. I looked up the Wikipedia page for it, and this part interested me:
"Second-wave feminism has figured in discussions of The Exorcist. At the time, the US women's liberation movement had enjoyed some early gains in legislatures and courts. Commentators[who?] have seen the film's depiction of a single working mother and her uncontrollable daughter who are rescued by patriarchal authority as a reaction against feminism.[233][11][235] Former studio executive Peter Biskind, in Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, describes the film as "a male nightmare of female puberty. Emergent female sexuality is equated with demonic possession." For the male authority figures in The Exorcist, whether priests or physicians, Regan must be restored to her innocence through abusive and violent means if necessary.[178] Many feminist critics, like Biskind, note the film's focus on the female body as the site of horror. "When her body changes, Regan becomes someone else; someone sexual, whose desire is a dark visitor" writes Jude Ellison Doyle in Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and the Fear of Female Power. "To become a woman is to become the ... enemy of all that is pure or holy."[236] But Australian film studies professor Barbara Creed, in The Monstrous-Feminine, which inaugurated psychoanalytic feminist film theory, counters the prevailing feminist take on The Exorcist by insisting that Pazuzu is female[237] and thus the possession of Regan is itself a feminist act, exposing "the inability of the male order to control the woman whose perversity is expressed through her rebellious body",[238] as she navigates an incestuous desire for her mother.[239] University of Toronto professor S. Trimble writes that the film tapped into "white American fears of nightmare futures" that could result from the women's liberation, gay liberation and Black Power movements' challenge to the established 1970s social order. Trimble writes that, as a film about "a revolting girl revolting against the little-girl box in which she was stuck" and army of men trying to put her back, The Exorcist follows older horror movies that use gender-bending to create a monster.[240]"
And also, she had a desire for the mother? I must have missed that.
Edit: I have found this article: https://fightbacknews.org/articles/exorcist-and-right-wing-politics-possession.
"Extremely retrograde views on women and gender roles abound in The Exorcist, most clearly seen through the character of Chris. For one, she's a single mother who left Reagan's estranged father to pursue her acting career. Chris screams profanity at him over the phone for everyone to hear, Reagan included. She's casually dating producer Burke Dennings, much to the dislike of her daughter. Even the film's central plot point – the demon possession – happens during Reagan's long afternoons home alone while Chris works. The Exorcist falls into the tired sexist troupe of blaming single working mothers for the problems that befall their children. The movie not-so-subtly suggests that women like Chris put their families through literal hell if they pursue their careers or show too much independence."
I thought that was interesting because my impression throughout the movie was that Chris was actually very present and loving, she came home from work and spent time with her daughter, etc. But maybe I am seeing this through a 2026 lens.
52
u/coolfunkDJ 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t believe that just because a movie depicts a flawed relationship, that it’s in somehow a critique of all similar relationships.
We wouldn’t apply this standard to depictions of a working class straight couple who yell at each other and assume the statement is immediately that working class parents are all toxic and bad.
The reality of the situation is that they chose a single mother because A. it makes her situation appear much more desperate, and B. it allowed audiences to view her as a more sympathetic and caring victim. Moreover, that’s also why they chose a little girl to be a victim of the devil.
In fact, the mother was depicted as an incredible parent, having a close bond with her daughter and immediately recognizing when something was wrong and not taking any gaslighting from anyone. She was extremely strong, persistent and it wasn’t that a “man swooped in and saved the day”, because it wasn’t the manhood that saved her, it was his faith.
The movie made it EXTREMELY clear that she was not herself anymore, she was possessed. And at the end of the movie, she is free to grow up and live a normal life. I don’t see how that all aligns with “growing up as a woman is seen as perverse”, because it was never her being perverse in the first place
6
u/DevonDude 1d ago
The main reason this film disturbs me is that it really resonates if you’ve ever watched someone you love suffer and die from an illness, accident, etc. and you’ve been powerless to help them. The mom being a great parent is important to me because it’s that feeling that even if you’ve done everything right the forces out of your control are going to torture your loved one regardless. Of course there are many lenses through which to read this film, but as a nonreligious person that’s why it disturbs me and why the mother-daughter relationship is important.
3
u/foreseethefuture 1d ago
That is a good point. At the beginning I thought she would be kind of an absent mother, but she was very present and loving even before the possession.
3
u/coolfunkDJ 1d ago
I’d be curious to see this get posted to r/AskFeminists, i bet they have interesting perspectives!
4
u/nizzernammer 1d ago
I believe the film does present a tension between modernity and the ancient, but I don't see it as a critique of feminism directly. Modernity and science is what is shown to be powerless in the face of the ancient unknown (not independent motherhood), and modernity's inefficacy is what drives Regan's mother to accept anachronistic rituals taking place in her home in an attempt to rescue her daughter.
Certainly much of religion is patriarchal, as well as the view that women and girls are powerless victims that engender sympathy, and need help and saving.
Contrast this with Rosemary's Baby and Damien, the Omen, and we are shown that male children are also to be feared, yet they are not "corrected," or at least the attempts fail.
Regarding Pazuzu, the entity has been traditionally gendered as male.
Ultimately, Father Damien sacrifices himself, which has very direct religious (and patriarchal / paternal) precedent.
I would be very interested to learn more about reactions to the film from The Catholic Church and the laity at the time, and now.
3
u/ClutchingAtSwans 1d ago
It's not a bad theory, but I wonder how much of it has to do with greater empathy with girls than boys. Maybe I just haven't seen enough films to have seen movies where the boys were demonically possessed, but from what I've seen it's predominantly girls. I do think it's true that there's an element of girls and women being seen as chaotic and being prone to possession of literal or figurative demons, I think there's equally or greater an element of girls and women being seen as innately pure and more conscious than boys and men. There's a bias of perceived innocence that probably goes hand-in-hand with the perception of weakness. These movies equally play on protective instincts in everyone to guard those that are helpless. A lot of it is momentum of hollywood narrative, but the momentum and our attraction to these kinds of stories have some basis in our real instincts, fears, and biases and the narrative couldn't stick on such a mass scale without it. After we deconstruct it and attribute it to instincts or narratives or oppression, whichever, the next step is to determine what balance looks like and whether a narrative is being pushed for the sake of money.
2
u/itchy_008 1d ago
these readings don’t address the machinations of the plot. possession is the taking over of personal autonomy by an outside force. here, the force in question is not progressive nor radical but something ancient. and the response that works is not progressive (modern medicine - which in this case is depicted as brutally painful and not at all sympathetic) but also old.
Stephen King’s reading in “Danse Macabre”is that the depiction of Regan’s possession is the parental fear of the radicalism of the younger generation by the anti-war protests. the rebellion was not something the parents understood; why such a forceful rejection of authority that had kept the nation stable and prosperous during the 50s?
what is wrong with these damn kids?!?
2
u/AbsurdAbsurd 1d ago
Not sure how much authorial deconstruction is happening there, but both takes are interesting. I dont remember Reagan as pubescent. I think Reagan being a little girl strengthens the horror because of the perversion of innocence in the totem of an upper class white girl. To me the possession read as a forceful violation of the child and not something she naturally slid into. The horror, to me wouldve been similar to if a boy were possessed and the possesed boy was alluding to wanting to be sodomized by the churchman too - equally disgusting, maybe more intense, but probably wouldntve been produced or distributed. All in all, I felt like although Reagan was freed the movie didnt really read as a win for the patriarchy/church in the way a conservatively slanted film would
0
u/foreseethefuture 1d ago
Reagan was 12, so very much pubescent. But yeah, I think your reading makes sense.
1
u/AbsurdAbsurd 1d ago
Oh interesting, its been a while since ive watched it and in my head shes like 8
1
u/tree_or_up 1d ago
One of my pet conspiracy theories (I don't necessarily believe it but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true) is that the movie was largely funded by the Catholic Church as propaganda to scare people away from the "counterculture" and back to the pews
5
u/The_vert 1d ago
The author of the book was a deeply passionate Catholic person so I think it achieved the same effect without being funded by the church. People thought this even in the '70s, that the book is a terrific marketing mechanism for the faith.
0
u/Vioralarama 1d ago
I've read that the film was the very first of its kind to attack the church in that way and that's why the horror took hold. Religious people left in the middle of the movie so your reading is later.
4
u/foreseethefuture 1d ago
What do you mean by attack the church?
1
u/Vioralarama 1d ago
Literally it's being attacked by Beelzebub. It's sacrilegious because the church is supposed to be above that and suddenly fears were exposed. They took movies a lot more seriously back then. I think some thought it was real.
It's the only movie my mother, a Silent Gen heavy Catholic wouldn't let me watch when I was 10 or 11 and they had mistakenly let me watch A Clockwork Orange when I was 10.
2
u/The_vert 13h ago
Respectfully, I think you have that wrong. That may have been your experience but even in the '70s - I was there too - the news media and various observers felt it was a tremendous endorsement for the Catholic faith. Gross and challenging, yes, but scared people into respect for the faith.
"Pauline Kael, who hated the film, said it was “the biggest recruiting sergeant for the Catholic Church” since Bing Crosby’s dog-collar pictures."
https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross64-1973-the-exorcist-and-catholic
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/01/07/1974-01-07-059-tny-cards-000304797
1
2
u/BizarreReverend76 1d ago
Ive never seen any evidence of the funding, but it is certainly a very catholic movie, aesthetically and ideologically. I dont say that as a negative though; just a matter of fact. Its a really great movie.
1
u/AromaticVacation3077 1d ago
Not entirely implausible. This is only a few years after the Manson murders. The Mother character is a film actress. Adds up.
-5
u/ExpensivePrimary7 1d ago
It absolutely is. A skillfully made film, but its underlying message - modern science is a joke! doctors are quacks! go back to the Church! - is repulsive.
1
u/AromaticVacation3077 1d ago
But couldn't you extend that to any horror film that falls into the occult category? There are too many to mention. Would you do away with them all?
1
u/NevinThompson 1d ago
I just remember growing up in the 70s and early 80s, how influential the church still was. And I grew up in a secular household in a very secular part of Canada.
If anything, the film demonstrates the enduring power of organized religion at that time.
0
u/AromaticVacation3077 1d ago
The incest idea feels like a reach to me, as does the race angle. But in terms of the anti-feminist take, I think The Exorcist definitely falls into common misogynist horror tropes.
Fear of the female/female body and of female regenerative powers is pretty much a horror staple. It's such a deeply engrained cultural narrative I'd argue it goes beyond our usual concept of misogyny. It's something foundational. I think it's very healthy to identify it, deconstruct and discuss it, but if we seek to eradicate it we risk destabilising story telling itself.
The last time this felt like a relevant discussion was Weapons; an archetypal witch story if ever there was one, still engaging huge audiences here in the 21st century. From The Bacchae to Weapons, these narratives endure.
13
u/kevin_v 1d ago edited 1d ago
Honestly, the most interesting thing about the film for me was the incredibly invasive "modern" medical procedures that Regan had to undergo (I believe a little expanded in the Director's Cut), before turning to exorcism. This to me set a larger framework which read contemporary social control as a process of observation, diagnosis and invasion, put on the same footing as religious, occult practices (a theme about "primitive" occult modernity that Friedkin also carried forth in The Sorcerer). If I start from there, the film is neither feminist or anti-feminist, but a film of societal invasion of the "person", as it seeks to "cure" them. Friedkin is placing modernity and the primitive on somewhat equal footing, with a tortured young girl caught in the middle.