The film that caused a US moral panic

The Exorcist and why demonic possession taps into our darkest fears Alamy Fifty years ago, the horror about a young girl invaded by a malevolent spirit caused pandemonium in the US. Alamy The possession of young girl Regan in The Exorcist chimed with 1970s anxieties about the generational divide However, when it comes to demonic possession in modern pop culture, there is one ur-text: the late, great William Friedkin's film The Exorcist, which turns 50 in December. Universal The Exorcist: Believer is an attempt to reboot the franchise by director David Gordon Green – this time focusing on two young victims The release of the film also led to a spate of reports of demonic possession amongst the film's audience, which Warner Bros cleverly used to drum up publicity for the film. Alamy The Conjuring films are part of the latest boom in possession stories Mary Wild, Freudian horror critic and host of the psychoanalysis and film podcast Projections, points out how few and far between young boys are the victims of possession because "teenage boys and young men are not expected to resist and combat bodily instincts; the prospect of possession in the male context is rendered structurally irrelevant".