In this episode, the Bloody Mary’s of CourtCourt, Nicole, EV, and Parz are joined by none other than Doctor Payne. Fresh off his top rated appearance on the ComboBox, along with his #1 rated podcast The Doctor is…In, Payne does his best to bring the magic bus of #1 shows rolling to the Bloody Marys.
As the BM crew shower Payne with love and adoration, he does his best to bring the podcast topic back to the Exorcist while throwing in a Roddy Piper joke at the expense of Voodoo Priestess. We at HauntedMTL will remind our listeners that not only are the opinions expressed during any of our content do not reflect an official stance by the website but any discussion about the book the Exorcist is about the style and the writing in the book and not about the author personally.
If you want to grab the Exorcist book, the movies, or even the audio book (which came highly recommended by Payne) feel free to click on through. All ads may generate revenue for the site but all reviews are honest.
While I would never agree with Doctor Payne on anything, the take that the book as anything to do with demonizing female sexuality or poor motherhood is pretty out there. In my view, the book was suppose to be about whether or not things like spirituality and demon possession are purely a physiological phenomenon. If the book has one thing over the movie it’s that it’s not clear if Reagan was actually possessed by a demon, or if the telepathy and the telekinesis was something she did unconsciously under her own power. Having Chris be a somewhat self absorbed actress, having the possession occur just as Reagan is reaching puberty, and having Reagan’s parents divorced and her dad a deadbeat was all suppose to lend reasonable doubt as to the validity of the possession. I also think it was meant to be implied that the desecrations in the church were done by the young priest who went to father Karras at the beginning of the book and that Reagan kisses at the end of the book. If this was an art house film that kind of ambiguity would have been highly praised. That’s also why the book was in large part from Karras’s point of view instead of Merrin. If it had been Merrin narrating there would have been no doubt that Reagan was possessed. Instead you have a possibly gay, apostate Karras who questions everything until the very end. Did he die because he became possessed or to free Reagan from her own delusions? Therein lies the real mystery of the book.