MovieChat Forums > The Exorcist (1973) Discussion > funny?

funny?

posted 8 years ago by Tiia84
30 replies | jump to latest

Can someone explain why on earth some people find this film funny?
I admit that when I was around 15 (I'm 32 now) I laughed at it as well but I don't think it was because I actually found it funny but because every time I watched it with a specific friend we made too many jokes which caused laughter.

Now I can't see anything funny about this film, maybe because I'm an adult now and realise how scary and terrifying it is.

I was discussing this film with a friend one time and she said that she just laughs at it.
I couldn't help but think "you don't understand what the film is about".

Why do you think some people find this films funny? Is it because they don't see the seriousness and why it's so scary?

[–] bastasch8647 8 years ago

Probably because they think a chubby little bundle like Regan/Blair jerking her contorted body all around and spewing filthy language appears comical. It sure didn't when the film first came out. No one had seen anybody, much less a kid, use such language on screen. But that doesn't explain how anyone sees Regan's descent into possession as funny. The bed shaking, the floor peeing, cursing the astronaut, attacking the doctors and the hypnotist, the spider walk, the demonic voices, gibberish and personality-imitations, the crucifix rape, the various kinds of vomiting, the utter hatred conveyed by the fierce language...like you said: not funny. Chris' desperation, Karras's anguish and doubt, Merrin's courage and martyrdom, again: not funny!

Even if they DON'T think it's funny, still that's a ways from them thinking it's scary. They've been degraded by post-Exorcist horror films and slasher films. What scares them sure doesn't scare me. When even jump scares become utterly predictable, horror cinema is no longer really horror cinema...but they just don't seem to get that.

[–] Sunny_Nelson 8 years ago

The older I get, the more I find the casual dialogue in this movie to be clever and mildly humorous. Lt. Kinderman is funny, as his his banter with Fr.Karras and later Fr.Dyer. There is a humanity to this film that makes me smile.

But people loling at the nasty bits are probably just expressing an awkward shock and don't really know how to react to some of the really freaky moments with the girl.

[–] tj-94 8 years ago

As I recall - I haven't seen the whole thing since '74 - the demon was being at times, shall we say rather snarky; probably meant as some kind of comic relief. (James Whale did the same thing in the 30's) But make no mistake, this movie grabbed you by the balls.

[–] Sunny_Nelson 8 years ago

True. Also, in the book it's pretty hilarious when the Dennings persona appears several times through Regan. He/it says some very witty and crazy things.

[–] ramsplp 8 years ago

I can't help but think that at least a certain percentage of people who come on to this message board to proclaim that this film is funny and not at all scary are simply liars.

[–] bastasch8647 8 years ago

Yes, liars probably - then there are those who like to trash things for the sake of it, and those who just plain troll to provoke a response. How this film is not scary or outright "funny" in a general sense (even if some find "comical" specific points such as Regan's contortions and filthy language) is beyond my imagination...

[–] EmmaCRB 8 years ago

It is terrible and horrifying to see a child being possessed by the Devil (and the Devil not wanting to leave, killing others) but some of the things the Devil says could be funny lol ("Your mother sucks cocks in Hell" etc)

[–] antonasmodeus 8 years ago

When I first saw "The Exorcist" back in the 70s I didn't hear any laughter, only screams and gasps from the audience. But when I watched it again during the re-release in 2000, I did hear a few laughs during certain scenes - mostly coming from teenage girls. Just goes to show how times have changed!

[–] saint_sophie 8 years ago

I think a lot of it is to do with the dialogue of the demon. I will admit, ''Stick your **** up her *** you mother******* worthless ****sucker" makes me laugh each time. It's just so perfectly delivered.

People of today are desensitised to foul language so it doesn't shock them the way it did with people of the 1970s who had never seen anything like it before. They also want jump scares and tons of gore and blood for a film to be considered scary.

Its the premise of this movie which makes it truly terrifying: a young prepubescent girl being possessed by evil forces which make her do the most horrific things. People need to remember that Regan is supposed to be twelve years old yet she is using the most disgusting language in the English dictionary, butchering her genitals with a crucifix and forcing her mother's face into her crotch area. It really is a horrifying prospect. It seems people just remember the more supernatural scenes of the film like the head-spinning or spider-walk scene which they regard as humorous because, by today's standards, the effects are quite dated.

[–] meerko 8 years ago

It was the first time my girlfriend (who's really not into the horror genre/is a scared of horror flicks) had ever seen it tonight and she laughed when Regan slapped the *beep* out of the doctor and it made me laugh, too. It definitely was scary in a different era, but now, not so much. My girlfriend thought it was a good movie but not necessarily scary. I guess we are desensitized in this day and age.

[–] somesunnyday 8 years ago

Sometimes people laugh when they're nervous 

[–] Sunny_Nelson 8 years ago

^This.

And also keep in mind that Blatty had written lots of comedy before he wrote The Exorcist, so maybe there's a comedic cadence that some people pick up on? I mean, I do giggle a little when Regan squawks "FÙCK ME!" But that's just because I'm a sick bastard.

[–] LetThemEatCake01 8 years ago

I've never understood it either. The first time I saw the Exorcist was in 2001, saw it again in a theater in 2014 or so, people laughed in both times. Now the movie does not scare me, it didn't back then either, but it is so profound and shocking how can anyone find that funny?

[–] pmoon-2 8 years ago

It's easier to see the film as funny if you don't believe the premise, and some of us don't believe in the devil or demonic possession.

It's also natural to have a different reaction to a film that you've seen before. That can happen with any film, especially a good one. But when a film terrifies you (and I admit that The Exorcist can be terrifying, even if you don't believe in the devil), it's unlikely that you will have the same reaction the second time you see it.

I have to say I find some of Chris's moments funny. At times it seems that the doctors should be putting her on medication. The line "Did you take an illiteracy test to get this job?" is one of my favorites.

[–] bastasch8647 8 years ago

It's easier to see the film as funny if you don't believe the premise, and some of us don't believe in the devil or demonic possession

That might hold true for some people, but not for the majority who were terrified by this film regardless of their own metaphysics. Do you need to believe in Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, "Alien", etc., to frightened of them? Of course not. Ditto with possession-and/or-ghost-themed films. You do not need to believe that the depicted phenomena are real in order to be scared by them.

[–] kevinsg04 8 years ago

I like and respect this movie and have no issue with those who are very terrified by it. I have been scared by other movies, so it's not like I am trying to imply I am macho or something.

But I didn't see this movie until a few years ago as an adult, and even by myself with the lights off, it was simply much more humorous than it was scary or disturbing.

People all have varying tastes and reactions to various arts and entertainment, and this was mine, for better or for worse.

It probably has a lot to do with the time period, where I have seen a lot more disturbing and "extreme" movies than this, but it was hard for me to take anything in this movie seriously, or see the acting and set as anything other than "cheesy" (for lack of a better term, I honestly think this movie should be very acclaimed and I am not trying to insult it or those who love it).

[–] lrdcharlton 8 years ago

I really don't know how you can find the acting cheesy or not take the film seriously. I admit I have I high I tolerance for shock, and this film was in no way a movie that anyone could see as not serious or silly. I admit that seeing the 12' year girl swearing did get a few chuckles out of me, the overall subject was nothing to dismiss. I'd be interested to know what films your u have seen that could set a bar so high were this film you could not take seriously. The only people I know that have a similar regard are either immature, non-religious or lack an understanding of the film.

[–] bastasch8647 8 years ago

fwiw, I, too, balked at the "cheesy" description. The acting is naturalistic, authentic - the characters speak "like real people" who are confronting a radial "Unknown". I don't think there's a beat missing in any of the portrayals. Not even Fr. O'Malley's/Fr. Dyer's piano mischief, which, as it has been explained, was his imitation of Liberace (some see it not only as over the top, but as "gay" - but it's a case of a straight character imitating a gay celebrity). Everyone is just a regular person, except for Dennings, who is deliberately written, as in the novel, as an acerbic, sarcastic wit. Dr. Klein and all the physicians are right-on. I don't see anything cheesy in the characterizations. I can see some people thinking that some of the fx are dated and don't hold up, but they don't affect me that way, except for super-HD prints which permit the "levitation wires" to be visible...

[–] pa1986 8 years ago

Actually, I can't be frightened by either Dracula or Frankenstein's monster. I see them, respectively, as a fantasy drama and a sci-fi drama. I still remember the first time I've read Frankenstein... I was 12, and I found it so deeply sad. It made me think, it made me cry, it didn't scare me at all. When I finished reading the book - in tears -, I looked to the part of the cover where it was written "horror" and thought "horror? what horror? there's only human drama and human pain in here".

I've watched The Exorcist only once, probably in 2005, with my mom. I was 18, she was 43. Apparently it was her first time too, since nobody allowed her to watch it in 1973, when she was 12. Most of the time, we had a completely blasé look in our faces. Every once in a while, something made me laugh - I guess I laughed when the head spins. I just can't help but to think that's stupid, hence the laughter. An empty laughter. Then, there are those moments in which they've inserted just a few frames of the demon - I guess - in other to deliberately scare people. Honestly, I saw that part and thought "oh, they're trying to make me scared in here. It this the reason why people had nightmares with this movie?" Movie finished. My mom and I were still blasé. Besides a few laughters caused by either a somewhat funny dialog or a ridiculous special effect and the disgust in the vomiting scene, this movie did not provoke in me any kind of reaction whatsoever. I was like "people actually feel scared by this?"

I don't know... Maybe, as a person who hates horror for the sake of horror, I have a totally different view of it. I'm somewhat scared by thrillers, not by horror movies. It's the fear that something unknown is going to kill me that makes me scared. Everything else is not horrifying. Is dramatic. Maybe, if I watch it again, putting aside the horror label, I might see the drama in the story, and therefore be touched by this movie. It's the drama and the human issues that provoke me, not the fear.