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There is a large lizard in Australia… Known to the Aussies… As a… Goanna… Notwithstanding the ‘Jo Cass affair’… Breaking one’s snogging duck… Whilst ‘watching’… The Exorcist… Must have some sort of significant meaning… Over and above… The run of the mill… It is a true horror film… In the sense… That it was the first film… To cunningly expose… Paedophilia… In Hollywood… And in the Catholic Church… So cunning was it… In carrying it out this brief… That most people… To this day… Still don’t realise that’s what the film is all about… All about, though, may be… A bit… Of a stretch.
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It is all about… Possession… Demon possession… But the Demon unearthed… From the Iraqi sands… At the beginning of the film… Is Pazuzu… Statuettes of this Babylonian Demon… Were in olden times… Left in the cots of babies… To protect them against abduction… The large statue that Father Merrin… Faces off against… At the end of this long introductory sequence… Has a large… Snake-like phallus… Protruding from its nether regions… This is not present in original depictions… Or indeed… The statuettes… Of the Demon… Examples of which… Are legion… Could anything be clearer?
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This opening sequence… Is one of the finest… Cinematic pieces of suspense… In the history of film… It is clear… That something… Terrible… Is afoot… But precisely what?… We all thought the opening… Boring… Of course… And were eager to get to the gore… Kids and horror films, eh… The Demon’s signature is… A buzzing sound… Initially… swarms of… Presumably… Desert flies… Shades of Beelzebub… Which as Father Merrin… Moves out of the desert and into the town… Becomes machine or traffic noise… When we transition to the American city… We do so… Via the roar of a jet engine.
France & Vincent 