Subliminal Messages in The Exorcist

By: Bex Ford

Although released on December 26, 1973, The Exorcist is still often referred to as one of the scariest movies of all time. The film is notorious for the fear it incited, but also for its subliminal messages that stick in a viewer’s consciousness. As the Halloween season is approaching, it is interesting to look back at this (in)famous classic.

The Exorcist focuses on a young girl and who lives with her mother after her parents’ divorce. The twelve-year-old girl, Regan, suddenly begins to act out for reasons that are unclear at first. Her behavior becomes so disturbing and offensive that her mother takes her to multiple doctors and psychiatrists, but they find nothing wrong. As the movie progresses, her behavior becomes more aggressive and troubling. Eventually, someone suggests the impossible: possession. This of course turns out to be the case, and the movie gets more and more disturbing.

This movie is still regarded as so scary partially due to the subliminal messages included in the film. The most well-known and noticeable is the pale face of Captain Howdy, a demon that Regan keeps seeing and conversing with. Multiple times throughout the film, a white demonic face appears on the screen for about an eighth of a second each time. Captain Howdy’s face was never actually meant to be perceptible to the audience, which made the original release much scarier. The face was undetectable on VHS, meaning that the audience quickly became terrified without understanding why. Now, on DVD, the face is clearly visible, and some argue that it is even scarier than the VHS version. When interviewed about it later, the director stated that; “You couldn’t catch it before VHS, and now you can stop the DVD and stare at it.” Captain Howdy’s face is one ingrained in every horror movie fan’s brain, just as the creators intended.

The film also includes some smaller subliminal messages to disturb the audience, such as loud sounds and music. The one that seemed to have the most effect was the sound of bees buzzing at the beginning of the movie. This sound is known to cause panic in most individuals and triggered the “fight or flight” reflex in many of the viewers. There are other loud sounds in the background of the film that helped successfully jump-scare the audience.  

These subliminal messages also led to some complications in the theaters. The press was drawn to the story and reported on the horrible things that happened in the theaters. However, this only encouraged horror fans to go see the movie. When the film was first released, the subliminal messages apparently caused members of the audience to vomit, faint, or simply run out in terror. There are some upsetting scenes involving Regan, as the directors were going partially for the shock factor. Because of this, The Exorcist is still banned in various places around the world because people find it to be too traumatizing.  It has also been banned due to people claiming its demonic themes are blasphemous and religiously offensive. While horror movies have since changed and possibly improved with time, The Exorcist will never cease to give you chills.