Excerpt from 1973 film The Exorcist in which Fathers Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Karras (Jason Miller) are attempting to exorcise the demon Pazuzu from the body of Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). Her body begins to levitate as the two priests chant "The power of Christ compels you!", whereupon it begins to lower itself back to the bed.
The levitation scene was performed live before the camera and was one of the visual highlights of the film. The article contains extensive sourced discussion of how the special effect was achieved.
Director William Friedkin had the bedroom set refrigerated to −20 °F (−29 °C) so that the actors' breath would be visible on camera, per a description in the source novel, even though that often meant scenes could only be filmed for a few minutes at a time before the camera equipment and lights warmed the air too much. This is discussed at some length in the article with citations to reliable sources. The resulting effect is particularly noticeable in this scene.
Owen Roizman, the cinematographer, discussed in a lengthy interview around the film's release the challenges lighting it posed, since Friedman wanted to use as much natural or practical light as possible, an interview which several paragraphs in the article are sourced to. This scene was particularly challenging, but Roizman believed he produced the effect he wanted whereby the scene feels like black and white save for the fleshtones of the priests' faces.
In the half-century since the film's release, "The power of Christ compels you!" has become a popular catchphrase, and the scene has been referenced in other popular culture.
It also includes the possessed Regan addressing the priests with foul language, another aspect of the film that was much commented on at the time of its release.
Not replaceable with free media because (WP:NFCC#1)
The software or website from which the screenshot is taken is copyrighted and not released under a free license, so creation of a free image is not possible.
This excerpt, approximately 2 minutes from a movie slightly over 2 hours in length, is limited to just this scene and those elements relevant to the aspects of the movie listed above as discussed in the article
This is a sample from a copyrighted video recording. The person who uploaded this work and first used it in an article, and subsequent people who use it in articles, assert that this qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law when used on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, where:
The sample is being used for commentary on the video recording in question, and contributes significantly to the encyclopedia articles it is used in (listed under the heading "File links" below) in a way that cannot be duplicated by other forms of media.
The sample is short in relation to the duration of the recorded track and is of an inferior quality to the original recording.
No other samples from the same recording are currently used in Wikipedia;
A more detailed fair use rationale may be provided by the user who uploaded this recording.
Any other uses of this recording, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement. If you are the copyright holder of this recording and you feel that its use here does not fall under "fair use" please see Wikipedia:Copyright problems for information on how to proceed. Fair use//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Exorcist_levitation_scene.webm
true
Fair use
true
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
