The Exorcist recap

While actor Chris MacNeil is working in Georgetown, her twelve-year-old daughter Regan develops alarming physical and psychological symptoms after communicating with an imaginary figure through a Ouija board. Medical testing finds no adequate cause. A director dies outside the house under impossible circumstances, and detective William Kinderman begins investigating. As Regan's behavior and apparent knowledge become increasingly inexplicable, Chris turns to Jesuit psychiatrist Damien Karras, who is grieving his mother and doubting his faith. Karras initially looks for fraud or illness, but the accumulated evidence persuades him to request an exorcism. The Church assigns experienced priest Lankester Merrin to lead it. During the rite Merrin dies, and Karras provokes the presence into leaving Regan for him. He then leaps to his death before it can control him completely. Regan recovers with little memory of the ordeal and leaves Washington with Chris, while Karras's sacrifice and Merrin's endurance leave the survivors with a renewed possibility of faith.

In northern Iraq, the elderly Jesuit archaeologist Lankester Merrin uncovers an object associated with a force he has encountered before and senses that another confrontation is coming. In Georgetown, actor Chris MacNeil is living with her twelve-year-old daughter Regan while directing a film. Strange sounds come from the attic, furniture seems to move, and Regan says she has been communicating through a Ouija board with someone she calls Captain Howdy. Elsewhere in Washington, Jesuit psychiatrist Damien Karras struggles with failing faith and guilt over leaving his impoverished mother in institutional care. Regan is initially cheerful and affectionate, but small changes in her sleep and behavior concern Chris. The disturbances still admit ordinary explanations, and Chris turns first to the household and to doctors rather than religion.

Regan's condition worsens into seizures, violent behavior, and dramatic changes in voice and personality. Doctors subject her to painful neurological tests but find no lesion that explains the symptoms. Karras's mother dies while he is away, deepening his grief and self-reproach. Film director Burke Dennings is then found dead at the bottom of the steep steps beside the MacNeil house after being left alone there with Regan. His injuries do not fit an ordinary fall. Detective William Kinderman quietly investigates the household and notices links between Dennings's death and a desecration at a nearby church. Chris is terrified by Regan's decline but still follows medical advice. The specialists increasingly discuss severe psychiatric disturbance, while the events inside the bedroom become harder to reconcile with any diagnosis they offer.

After further treatment fails, the doctors suggest that the ritual of exorcism might have psychological value if Regan believes she is possessed. Chris, who has no religious faith, seeks out Karras because he is both a priest and a psychiatrist. He approaches the case skeptically and looks for signs of suggestion, deception, or overlooked illness. The personality speaking through Regan claims several identities, displays knowledge she should not possess, and directs calculated taunts at Karras's grief. Physical manifestations in the room and Regan's altered appearance intensify Chris's conviction that an external presence is involved. Kinderman continues asking about Dennings and gradually closes in on the possibility that the fatal event began inside Regan's room. Karras refuses to call the condition possession without stronger proof, but he begins recording and testing what he witnesses.

Karras studies recordings, consults specialists, and checks the supposed languages spoken in Regan's room. Some displays prove less conclusive than they first appeared, but other evidence resists his attempts to explain it. He recognizes that the hostile personality wants attention and despair, and he becomes concerned that Regan's weakening body cannot survive much longer. Chris acknowledges the connection between Regan's condition and Dennings's death, while Kinderman's questions make clear that he suspects a killing rather than an accident. Karras finally concludes that there is enough evidence to ask Church authorities for permission to perform an exorcism, despite his own uncertainty. The request moves upward through the Jesuit order, and the Church chooses Lankester Merrin, whose past experience makes him the principal exorcist. Karras is assigned to assist him.

Merrin arrives at the MacNeil house and begins the rite with Karras. He warns his assistant not to become absorbed in the presence's different voices or claims, viewing them as tactics meant to distract and demoralize. The exorcism becomes a prolonged physical and spiritual ordeal. Regan is restrained while the presence assaults both priests with abuse, apparent private knowledge, and violent manifestations. Karras is especially vulnerable when it imitates or invokes his mother, and Merrin repeatedly steadies him. Between sessions, Merrin's poor health is evident, but he insists on continuing because Regan is failing. Chris and the others wait outside with little power to help. The conflict narrows to whether the priests can endure the attack without accepting its message that love, faith, and human effort are futile.

During a pause in the rite, Karras leaves the bedroom briefly. He returns to find Merrin dead, his weakened heart having failed beside Regan's bed. The presence exults over the death. Overcome by anger, Karras attacks it and demands that it leave Regan and enter him. The transfer occurs; Karras's face and manner change, but he resists long enough to hurl himself through the window. He falls down the steep outdoor steps and is mortally injured. Father Dyer reaches him and administers absolution before he dies. Regan soon returns to herself, physically battered but with little memory of the events. Chris prepares to leave Georgetown with her and thanks Dyer. Regan notices his priest's collar and kisses him, suggesting an emotional trace of the sacrifice made for her. Kinderman later visits Dyer and proposes that they see a film together, beginning a friendship. The manifestations have ended and Regan is free, at the cost of both exorcists' lives.

Merrin and Karras conduct the exorcism while the presence in Regan attacks their confidence and exploits Karras's guilt. During a pause Karras leaves the room, then returns to find Merrin dead after his weakened heart has failed. When the presence mocks Merrin's death, Karras strikes Regan and demands that it enter him instead. It does, and Karras regains control just long enough to throw himself through the bedroom window and down the Georgetown steps. Father Dyer reaches the dying priest and gives him absolution. Regan recovers without a clear memory of what happened. Chris takes her away from Washington, grateful but unable to explain the sacrifice that saved her. Before leaving, Regan notices Dyer's clerical collar and kisses his cheek. Kinderman later seeks out Dyer, and the two begin the friendship he had earlier tried to form with Karras. Merrin and Karras are dead, but Regan is free and the immediate manifestations have ended.