October 21, 2015

You know what?

Can we give it up for Father Damien Karras please?

Those of you that have been following along with this #RESPECT column know the drill by now. Each week, I take one character from a horror movie and shine the spotlight on them for their incredible cinematic feats, often accomplished with impossible odds and while staring straight down into the depths of pure evil. And if anyone deserves our respect, it’s got to be Father Karras.

William Friedkin’s THE EXORCIST, based upon the book from William Peter Blatty is arguably the scariest movie of all time. Hell, I definitely thought so as an impressionable young Catechism student with a voracious appetite for all things horror. But because of my Catholic upbringing, and perhaps because I really was a bit too young to be seeing things like THE EXORCIST, the film absolutely terrified me.

Because of its potent effect, I’d only seen it a handful of times over the years, mainly to maintain that strong initial reaction I had to it. But this last month, I decided to revisit both full length documentaries on the most recent Blu-Ray release, the theatrical version, as well as the 2000 re-release “version you’ve never seen,” which has been playing every Saturday night at midnight at the New Beverly here in Los Angeles.

The thing that struck me about the movie now watching it through adult eyes is just how much of a bad ass Father Karras is. Sure, a big part of it is in the spot on casting of Jason Miller, who fits Blatty’s description as a priest who looks like “a boxer.” But really when people think of THE EXORCIST, they often think its Regan’s story, when in actuality, it’s the story of Father Karras and his struggle with his faith.

Blatty confesses in one of the documentaries on the disc that Ray Bradbury once said to him that the reason he loves THE EXORCIST is because it’s a beautiful love story between a man of the cloth and this little girl; a girl that he’s never even met.

When it comes down to the climactic battle against evil with exorcism veteran Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Father Karras versus the evil demon Pazuzu, there’s no hesitation in what Father Karras has to do. During the majority of his screen time in front of possessed Regan, he’s taunting repeatedly by the demon over his guilt for the death of his elderly mother. When Damien sees Merrin’s lifeless body on the floor, he strikes out initially in anger. But then, he makes the ultimate sacrifice. He screams for the demon to take him. Let the girl go and take him.

It does. And he immediately throws himself out the window, taking his life and the demon with it.

It’s the ultimate sacrifice. And he does it for the safety of a little girl who is a complete stranger.

I quote Blatty, “Here’s a priest who gives his own life voluntarily to save the life of a little girl he’s never met. He never met Regan MacNeil. Only the demon.”

I mean, really. For that, we’ve got to give it up.

Father Karass, this hashtag is for you.

#RESPECT