The René Magritte painting that inspired an iconic ‘The Exorcist’ scene
René Magritte’s art seems an odd source of inspiration for The Exorcist, which is more closely associated with projectile green vomit than high art. That said, the surrealist element of his work went hand in hand with horror, and while Magritte stirred that uneasy gut feeling by painting things in strange contexts, the 1973 horror flick did the same, only with demonic possession.
Based on the William Peter Blatty novel, the film did rely on visual shock elements – the masturbation scene with a bloodied crucifix comes to mind – but was also made with incredible visual intention. Sharing some of his aesthetically driven decisions, director William Friedkin explained that one Magritte painting in particular guided them.
“In the novel, William Peter Blatty’s description of Father Merrin arriving outside the home of the child’s mother says he was standing under a streetlight in a misty glow ‘like a melancholy traveller frozen in time,'” he explained to the Directors Guild.
“I had to find a way to visualise that, and I allowed a full day to light the scene. We used arc lights and troopers to light the street, in addition to boosting the practical lighting like the street lamps. After a great deal of trial and error, we filmed on the second night. The painting that inspired me was René Magritte’s ‘The Empire of Light’,” he said. “It’s an amazing surrealistic image.”
Inspired by John Atkinson Grimshaw and William Degouve de Nuncques, Magritte’s painting showed a dimly lit house at night, which was strangely illuminated by a clear blue sky. Nocturnal landscapes under bright skies were so boundless as a subject he created 27 paintings where light sources are jarred against each other.
The running motif was not only surreal but incredibly difficult to paint accurately. Where more traditional artists use one light source, his series introduced two separate ones. In one letter to fellow artist Suzi Gablik, he lamented: “I’d like to tell you I’ve brought off a very difficult picture, but which is probably too difficult to be successful. It involves a painting of a daylit landscape with a nocturnal sky (stars and crescent moon). I’ve painted and repainted this picture, and I’m at the disenchanted stage; it’s a total failure!”
Luckily for both Magritte and Freidkin, he eventually mastered the opposing forces of light and dark in his paintings. The scene in The Exorcist that drew from the paintings was so evocative it became a poster for the film, where you can see the priest on his way to save the possessed girl, his hat and briefcase lit only by the dim streetlamp.
The physicality of the shot and the way the light bounces all to what Friedkin calls audience expectancy: “the belief in the possibility we created that prepares the audience for what happens.”