The 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist, is a film that portrays the conception of the monstrous feminine and what is horrifying and abject in relation. The film uses the possession of a twelve year old girl, Regan, who is at the age of puberty, to fulfill this concept.
As Barbara Creed writes in “Horror and Abjection,” “the abject can be experienced in various ways, one of which relates to biological bodily functions” This is shown in The Exorcist primarily with the first glance at Regan showing signs of possession occurs at a house party, which she interrupts by saying a crude line and urinating on the floor. As Regan’s possession continues, she is constantly vomiting an spewing out bodily fluids when provoked by Father Karras and Lankester Merrin.
The abject also is shown with the character of Regan and the border between human and inhuman. Barbara Creed writes “In some horror films, the monstrous is produced by at the border between human and inhuman, man and beast.” Regan’s body is used as a host for the ancient demon Pazuzu, and resembles that of a corpse eventually, shown above. Regan is not completely transformed into a monster, but a rotting and grotesque version of her normal self. Along with this, she is capable of many contortions such as spider-walking, head-spinning, and levitation. This is all the more monstrous because she is still recognized as Reagan. This border is what helps her mother, Chris, remain interested in saving her daughter, as well as the priests willingness to perform an exorcism.
Another way The Exorcist illustrates the work of abjection is the construction of the mother as abject. This is also supported by Barbara Creed, “Once again we can see the abjection at work in the horror text where the child struggles to break away from the mother, representative of the archaic maternal figure, in a context in which the father is invariably absent.” Throughout the beginning of the film, Regan and her mother have a very close and nurturing relationship with no father figure present. Regan is shown playing like a prepubescent child in her mother’s eyes, shown above. Her possession can be viewed as a maturity and the breaking away from that stage their relationship, but in a crude and shocking manner. The extremity of this is shown by Regan using a crucifix as a phallic object. At the end of film, when Regan is exorcised, she is shown wearing a more mature outfit and has a visibly different relationship with her mother.
Throughout The Exorcist, the monstrous feminine is present and the abject horror of the female. The possession of Regan can be interpreted as puberty and maturity in the extreme, and her inevitable break from her mother.
Derek Stoberl CMS 353 