Blog 2

Soundscape in The Exorcist

         The Exorcist (1973) is a horror movie directed by William Friedkin which based on the book of William Peter Blatty. The movie became famous quickly and shocked those days audience.  Even today The Exorcist has a lot to say about its genre and today it still effects the audience. Soundscape has always been crucial when we talk about the horror movies. Special sound effects, screams and creaking doors looks inseparable with this genre. These things act like enigma codes and creates horror.  The Exorcist shows the same respect to the sound in the movie.

   I want to talk about the Iraq scenes and the Merrin’s importance in narrative with the help of sound usage. The story is about the fight between good and evil which lasting since the beginning of human race. Merrin is an archeologist and a priest. He finds some materials during excavation. He is an old and experienced man. He realizes that the evil spirit will show itself soon. I think it is a perfect beginning for the movie because it gives the audience some background and try to touch some timeless issues by creating suspense. Ambient sounds in the Iraq scenes are very powerful. The voice of the azan, the sound coming from the ironmaster’s hammer, the voice of the carriage which was almost killing the Merrin. These little high pitch voices create a disturbing feeling on audience and tells them something powerful and evil will come soon.

          Another powerful scene which has a disturbing effect thanks to the usage of sound is when Merrin goes to the ancient ruins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su4s7C1bEfY We feel that this area is not safe. The men with guns are helping to create a threatening atmosphere. Then we see the dogs fighting and barking each other. These voices promote the nervous mood of the scene. The voice of the stiff breeze also contributes the idea of the scene. Then finally we see Merrin confronts with the evil and he stands up against the sculpture. The importance of the Iraq scene continues during the movie. We understand that the devil wants to see Merrin. These details made me feel like the story was always about the capturing Merrin. 

We see another important usage of sound while the devil talking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V-Ui69hDpA I think without this powerful voice of the devil, these scenes would not bee this realistic and powerful. The audience could not associate the little girls voice with the evil spirit. We see a contrapuntal usage of the sound here. This scene also suits with the ideas of Eisenstein. He says: “Only the contrapuntal use of sound vis-à-vis the visual fragment of montage will open up new possibilities for the development and perfection of montage.”(p.316) I do not agree with all of Eisenstein’s ideas about this subject. However, in these scenes, his ideas fit and contribute the movie with respect to creating the atmosphere. The contrast between the little girl’s appearance and her voice really creates a powerful effect.

The girl also can talk like another people like Father Damien’s mother. Usage of sound in these scenes has a crucial part to affect audience. Eisenstein says: “If we examine every new discovery from this standpoint it is easy to distinguish the insignificance of color and stereoscopic cinema in comparison with the great significance of sound.”(p. 316) I agree with him in this specific case. The Exorcist really uses sound affectively more than the color or the other elements. The power of the movie mostly comes from the narrative structure and the soundscape.

“Sound, treated as a new element of montage (as an independent variable combined with the visual image), cannot fail to provide new and enormously powerful means of expressing and resolving the most complex problems, which have been depressing us with their insurmountability using the imperfect methods of a cinema operating only in visual images.”(p. 316) Eisenstein says. I agree with him because I could not think how I can make audience believe that a demon possessed a girl’s body without using an evil voice or how could we create these horrified details without using the effective potentials of sound.

Bibliography

Eisenstein,S.M.& Pudovkin, V.I.Alexsandrov,G. Statement on Sound.Leo Braudy & Marshall Cohen eds. Film Theory and Criticism 7th edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.(p.315-317).