Abstract
The article will explore a new fatherhood archetype that emerged in 1970s American horror cinema: ‘The Faux Father’. It will investigate the reasons for the emergence of this figure by examining two case studies: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). The paper analyses the power dynamics between the faux father and ‘the unruly child’ who threatens his power, as well as examining the faux father’s connections to otherwise patriarchal institutions such as the government and the Catholic Church. It aims to show how the faux father became a monstrous father figure, reflecting broader social and cultural fears in American society at the time. The paper will also explore the evolution of the faux father archetype in contemporary horror cinema (e.g. The Pope’s Exorcist, 2023), highlighting its continued significance today.
Keywords: Fatherhood, the faux father, unruly child, horror cinema, the family, patriarchy
Introduction
It is generally accepted that horror films are a cultural medium reflecting contemporary cultural anxieties. Thus, in her seminal work, The Monstrous-Feminine (1993), Barbara Creed uses psychoanalytic theory to analyse the depiction of women as monsters in horror cinema and how these representations become closely associated with the abject. In her meticulous study, Creed introduces different archetypes of monstrosity in which women in 1970s and 1980s horror cinema can be categorised, such as the ‘archaic mother’, ‘possessed monster’, ‘monstrous womb’, and ‘witch’, to name a few. Creed’s research paved the way for considering why different genders come to be represented as monstrous in horror cinema and what it reveals about the society in which the archetypes emerge. In Hollywood horror cinema of the 1970s, however, numerous new male archetypes began to appear, questioning gender roles during heightened societal tension. Indeed, Hollywood horror cinema of the 1970s saw several interesting fatherhood archetypes emerge. I introduce the ‘ferocious father’ as a new theoretical framework for assessing fatherhood in horror cinema of this period. Under the ferocious father framework, I propose that the 1970s marks the point at which the ferocious father comes into being as a counterpoint to Creed’s monstrous-feminine. Hence, in this article, I examine the ‘faux father’ who comes to supplant the ‘absent father’ through analysis of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976), arguing that this new archetype emerged as a response to societal flux and a recharacterisation of gender roles and the nuclear family.
Upheavals and the Emergence of the Faux Father
To define the faux father archetype, I first follow Creed’s lead by positing that it is ultimately associated with the symbolic order as theorised by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. For Lacan, the symbolic order refers to images and symbols that permeate culture and are unquestioned and axiomatic (concepts such as the nuclear family or the father as the head of the household). Thus, the symbolic order refers to the social constructions that we allocate meaning to: that which we perceive and make sense of only in our cultural reality, playing a crucial role in the shaping of identity and social behaviours. It is also important to note that the symbolic order, as defined by Lacan, is ultimately the symbolic order of patriarchy. For Lacan, it is the father who assumes the symbolic functions of the law, becoming the embodied authority figure and the ‘symbolic castrator’ (Grosz 1990: 47). In contrast, Lacan posits that mothers ‘have unconscious desires for the phallus, which she lacks but embodies every time she exerts authority over her children’ (ibid.: 71). In this way, mothers (and indeed all additional signifiers) are positioned in relation to the phallic signifier. This phallus places her in the position of being rather than having ‘the phallus, the object of [her] … desire’ (ibid.). Yet, in the 1970s, with such radical changes to US society as the liberation movements for civil rights for racial minorities, women’s liberation and gay rights, the traditional and symbolic patriarchal order in the country was seen as coming under threat. Thus, in the horror films I examine, the faux father, who is always associated with the symbolic order and patriarchal establishments such as the church or the political arena, emerges to restore to the family order under the traditional symbolic order.
In the 1970s, families, gender roles, and institutions in the US were perceived as being in crisis. Divorce rates increased on the back of feminist successes, the nuclear family was far less common due to rising rates of absent fathers and single mothers, church attendance declined, and people became more mistrustful of government and institutions in response to the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal in 1972. This distrust in traditional institutions is perfectly encapsulated in a speech in the late 1970s by then president and evangelical Christian Jimmy Carter. The speech was dubbed the ‘Crisis in Confidence’ speech in which he stated:
The article will explore a new fatherhood archetype that emerged in 1970s American horror cinema: ‘The Faux Father’. It will investigate the reasons for the emergence of this figure by examining two case studies: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). The paper analyses the power dynamics between the faux father and ‘the unruly child’ who threatens his power, as well as examining the faux father’s connections to otherwise patriarchal institutions such as the government and the Catholic Church. It aims to show how the faux father became a monstrous father figure, reflecting broader social and cultural fears in American society at the time. The paper will also explore the evolution of the faux father archetype in contemporary horror cinema (e.g. The Pope’s Exorcist, 2023), highlighting its continued significance today.
Keywords: Fatherhood, the faux father, unruly child, horror cinema, the family, patriarchy
Introduction
It is generally accepted that horror films are a cultural medium reflecting contemporary cultural anxieties. Thus, in her seminal work, The Monstrous-Feminine (1993), Barbara Creed uses psychoanalytic theory to analyse the depiction of women as monsters in horror cinema and how these representations become closely associated with the abject. In her meticulous study, Creed introduces different archetypes of monstrosity in which women in 1970s and 1980s horror cinema can be categorised, such as the ‘archaic mother’, ‘possessed monster’, ‘monstrous womb’, and ‘witch’, to name a few. Creed’s research paved the way for considering why different genders come to be represented as monstrous in horror cinema and what it reveals about the society in which the archetypes emerge. In Hollywood horror cinema of the 1970s, however, numerous new male archetypes began to appear, questioning gender roles during heightened societal tension. Indeed, Hollywood horror cinema of the 1970s saw several interesting fatherhood archetypes emerge. I introduce the ‘ferocious father’ as a new theoretical framework for assessing fatherhood in horror cinema of this period. Under the ferocious father framework, I propose that the 1970s marks the point at which the ferocious father comes into being as a counterpoint to Creed’s monstrous-feminine. Hence, in this article, I examine the ‘faux father’ who comes to supplant the ‘absent father’ through analysis of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976), arguing that this new archetype emerged as a response to societal flux and a recharacterisation of gender roles and the nuclear family.
Upheavals and the Emergence of the Faux Father
To define the faux father archetype, I first follow Creed’s lead by positing that it is ultimately associated with the symbolic order as theorised by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. For Lacan, the symbolic order refers to images and symbols that permeate culture and are unquestioned and axiomatic (concepts such as the nuclear family or the father as the head of the household). Thus, the symbolic order refers to the social constructions that we allocate meaning to: that which we perceive and make sense of only in our cultural reality, playing a crucial role in the shaping of identity and social behaviours. It is also important to note that the symbolic order, as defined by Lacan, is ultimately the symbolic order of patriarchy. For Lacan, it is the father who assumes the symbolic functions of the law, becoming the embodied authority figure and the ‘symbolic castrator’ (Grosz 1990: 47). In contrast, Lacan posits that mothers ‘have unconscious desires for the phallus, which she lacks but embodies every time she exerts authority over her children’ (ibid.: 71). In this way, mothers (and indeed all additional signifiers) are positioned in relation to the phallic signifier. This phallus places her in the position of being rather than having ‘the phallus, the object of [her] … desire’ (ibid.). Yet, in the 1970s, with such radical changes to US society as the liberation movements for civil rights for racial minorities, women’s liberation and gay rights, the traditional and symbolic patriarchal order in the country was seen as coming under threat. Thus, in the horror films I examine, the faux father, who is always associated with the symbolic order and patriarchal establishments such as the church or the political arena, emerges to restore to the family order under the traditional symbolic order.
In the 1970s, families, gender roles, and institutions in the US were perceived as being in crisis. Divorce rates increased on the back of feminist successes, the nuclear family was far less common due to rising rates of absent fathers and single mothers, church attendance declined, and people became more mistrustful of government and institutions in response to the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal in 1972. This distrust in traditional institutions is perfectly encapsulated in a speech in the late 1970s by then president and evangelical Christian Jimmy Carter. The speech was dubbed the ‘Crisis in Confidence’ speech in which he stated:
As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning. (Carter 1979)
Of course, as described above, institutions such as the government and the church have always been linked to the phallocentric symbolic order. However, in the 1970s, American citizens began questioning the church’s authority and political power structures. Individuals grew weary of Protestantism and other forms of Christianity and there was a historical prejudice against Catholicism, which was further exacerbated at this time. Moreover, the Catholic Church emerged from considerable modernisation and change, exemplified by the Second Vatican Council. Allit notes that the 1960s to the 1970s was ‘especially stressful for Catholics because the rapid transformation of their church after Vatican II coincided with profound changes in American society’ (Allit 2003: 110). Thus, the Catholic church, like society at large, was in flux and more traditional Catholics even rejected the Second Vatican Council as they did not want the church to modernise. Fear became two-sided; the citizens became more mistrustful of Catholicism whilst Catholics and leaders of the Catholic church simultaneously became alarmed by the perceived ‘moral disorder’ occurring as a consequence of rapid changes within American society.
Intergenerational conflict was also rife, with numerous student protests throughout the country opposing the Vietnam War being violently oppressed by security forces. Notably, the Kent State University protest in 1970 erupted into violence, and four unarmed student protesters were killed. At the same time, young people in America advocated for civil and women’s rights, challenging the traditional rules and roles ascribed by those who came before them. As we shall see, these ‘unruly children’, representing societal transgression and hinting at generational divides, also become a significant component of The Exorcist and The Omen, allowing the faux father to reinstate traditional societal norms.
The Absent Father and the Unruly Child
It is my argument that, in response to a society in which nuclear families were diminishing, the faux father emerged in Hollywood cinema in the 1970s to fulfil the symbolic function of these newly absent fathers. Thus, the faux father is closely associated with the figure of the priest, the surrogate, or adoptive father, only assuming the patriarchal role when the actual/biological father is absent. While not having the status of biological fatherhood, each is presented as a father figure with status, prestige, and power, which is to say, as a figure closely associated with the institutions of patriarchal power. While each struggle to restore the symbolic order, the faux father is nonetheless depicted as deeply flawed, adding complexity to the cinematic representation of fatherhood in horror cinema. He is compromised by various forms of failure; failure to meet the patriarchal ideal, failure to overcome the forces of liberation and counterculture, and an inability to halt the changing world.
Father replacement features heavily in American horror films of the 1970s, which notably feature unruly, disillusioned, murderous, or demonic children or young people. The unruly child, then, has strong ties with intergenerational conflict prominent in society and the collective anxieties displayed about the changing nature of American childhood after the hippie movement and countercultural revolution. In response, the figure of the child became a figure of contention in horror cinema, which Sobchack succinctly describes, stating that:
From the early to mid-1970s and coincident with bourgeois society’s negative response to the youth movements and drug culture of the late 1960s […], the child was figured as an alien force that threatened both its immediate family and all adult authority that would keep it in its place […] The bodies and souls of such children […] are ‘possessed’ by demonic, supernatural, and ahistoric forces that play out the apocalypse in the middle-class home. (Sobchack 1996: 178)
In the 1970s and 1980s, the trope of the ‘evil’ child became prevalent in horror cinema, featuring in such classics as Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive (1974), Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976), and Fritz Kiersch’s Children of the Corn (1984). This trope has had a lasting impact, as the evil child is also a rich component of contemporary horror cinema: see, for example, Gore Verbinski’s The Ring (2002), Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan (2009), Scott Derrickson’s Sinister (2012), James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 (2012), Julius Avery’s The Pope’s Exorcist (2023), and David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer (2023), all featuring unruly, demonic children. Clearly, in the world of horror films, anxiety attaches itself to the figure of the child. The notion of the child as an emblem of futurity became inverted as these children were no longer listening to the law of the father due to the societal changes described by Sobchak above. Thus, the figure of the child in these films seeks to disrupt the symbolic order and undermine the power of the father figure. Following Sobchack’s line of argument, the unruly child brings ‘moral chaos, the disruption of the natural order (assumed to be God’s order), and the threat to the harmony of hearth and home’ (Sobchack 1980: 30). Hence why, in these films, the father attempts to regain his authority over these children who were positioned as out of (patriarchal) control. Thus, for the faux father, as Robin Wood has proposed, ‘that which bourgeois [traditional] society cannot accept but must deal with by either assimilation or annihilation’ (Wood 2018: 77).
The unruly child in these films becomes highly significant, as the faux father must face the threat of the unruly/demonic child who challenges his power, authority, and the symbolic order. In The Omen, a film about diplomat Robert Thorn swapping his biological dead son with Damien, who is positioned as the antichrist and the radical ‘other’, Damien poses a threat to his adoptive father and the symbolic order. Eventually, rather than wanting to assimilate Damien, Robert attempts to annihilate him. However, Damien’s position as antichrist and threat is nothing more than a constructed façade, as Damien himself does not actually present a threat in the film. As Duncan Cooper comments:
There is no hint of the real dangers which are beset by the apparently idyllic world of the Thorns and their class [such as wars, revolutions, and economic collapse…] presumably, […] a millionaire diplomat, a man […] like Robert Thorn, would be concerned with these problems. Instead, Thorn remains completely obsessed not with real dangers but with the amorphous menace embodied in a five-year-old. (Cooper 1977: 46-47)
Robert becomes transfixed with the idea of Damien as the antichrist because of his feelings of guilt, ambivalence, and inadequacy. Damien was perceived to have challenged Robert’s authority throughout the film due to coincidental events, so Robert’s authority, or at least how he views it, is threatened by an otherwise innocent child. Rather than Damien being the true antichrist, he is positioned as ‘other’ because his parents had already rejected him, viewing him as a hindrance. Lennard concurs, stating that the Thorns view Damien as an inconvenience ‘suggested by the spiralling affluence on which Damien intrudes […] with the patriarch recently promoted; the Thorns should be enjoying the good life much more than they are’ (Lennard 2014: 100). By extension, Damien hinders the symbolic order and the preservation of Robert’s masculine identity as ‘the disruption caused by Damien comes first through the imposition of an authority that supersedes that of secular patriarchy’ (ibid.: 101). Damien is younger than Robert and already has a band of Satanist followers. The construction of the faux father links with themes of power and status. Thus, in some ways, Robert expresses jealousy over the power Damien already holds. Damien becomes a threat to Robert’s authority and ambassadorial position, which is a reason why, by the film’s end, Robert attempts to murder him. In Robert’s mind, Damien would have superseded his masculine authority, hence why he is so encouraged to enact filicide: to save his patriarchal power and uphold the traditional/established order.
Intergenerational struggles are also prevalent in The Exorcist through the representation of Regan and her possession by the demon Pazuzu. The power imbalances between child and father are present in the scene toward the film’s end when the priest Karras punches Regan. Some have linked this assault to ‘signify the return of his faith’ (Williams 1996: 114). His attempt to restore the symbolic order becomes linked to male violence, dominance, and aggression through this act and the assault on Regan also links to Robert’s attempts to murder Damien in The Omen. When children start to threaten the symbolic and patriarchal order, excessive force is justified to get them back in line. But Regan, like Damien, is depicted as demonic to legitimise the father's patriarchal authority over them. The faux father, then, cannot exist without the threat of an unruly child, whom he must restore to the traditional/moral order. In The Exorcist, Regan also reflects an unruly and rebellious child, which Murray Leeder believes becomes a pivotal subtext of the film as it was ‘invested in [in the notion of] youthful rebellion’ (Leeder 2018: 58).
Rebellion becomes an integral part of The Exorcist through Regan’s actions. This is evidenced by her attacks on her mother, her non-cooperation with male authority, the self-inflicted scars and marks on her body, her use of cuss words, her sexual awakening (sexual language; masturbation), and projectile vomiting. Regan becomes a child who is seen as out of control but, most importantly, out of patriarchal power. The threat becomes the child who rejects the way things were: the traditionalism and conservatism within American culture at the time. Thus, through the inclusion and representation of the unruly child in these films, audiences can see how deeply entrenched these stories were with the restoration of the symbolic order (something that Ronald Reagan tried to reinstate with his presidency in the 1980s with his emphasis on restoring the nuclear family), which serves as a reaction against anxieties surrounding the changing role of the family in a society that was beginning to be marked by ‘transgressive’ women, disobedient children, and fathers with waning patriarchal power.
Regan and Damien, as unruly children, become symbolic of the countercultural forces who oppose the faux fathers’ patriarchal authority that seeks to ruin the foundations of American traditionalism and become a threat to traditional fatherhood. Damien and Regan show minor signs of resistance to their oppressor, becoming the children who fight back; as Robert attempts to murder Damien, he is fighting back against the patriarchal oppressor, and when Regan is being exorcised, she resists. To those in society who clung to the symbolic order and conservatism, the newer generation was perceived as hedonistic and self-indulgent, hence why Tom Wolfe called this era the ‘me decade’ (2008), reinforcing the notion that the newer generations were perceived as more hedonistic because of their unwillingness to conform to older and regressive ideologies. This is why, in The Omen and The Exorcist, youths pose a threat to the faux father’s authority in their rejection of the symbolic order.
The precarious position of the unruly child and the inadequate absent father in these films reflects the societal shifts at the time surrounding the traditional family. Yet, by the 1970s, this nuclear family model was already described as a ‘diminishing minority of actual living, breathing families’ (O’Brien 2004: 121-45). These films reveal the consequences of this disrupted social order by highlighting the absence of the biological father, who, therefore, cannot fulfil the prescribed role, which causes the child within the household to transgress the social order. By having absent fathers, these films emphasise the need for a symbolic substitute who could attempt to restore the symbolic order the demonic/unruly child had disrupted. This becomes a commentary on institutions attempting to reinstate traditional gender roles.
The archetype of the faux father highlights the non-biological father who is present and attempting to restore patriarchal order, which directly contrasts the absent biological father. Therefore, the faux father of the 1970s can be defined as a step/adoptive father, a religious father, or a surrogate father. However, he must adhere to the following characteristics:
- He must be a figure associated with the symbolic order (the church, the political arena) who must assert power over an unruly/demonic (non-biological) child.
- His authority must be challenged by someone outside of the symbolic order (unruly child/transgressive woman).
- He must undergo a personal transformation, turning unbelief into belief, catalysing his attempts to restore order and the family unit.
- He attempts to reinstate his patriarchal power and the symbolic order (with varying degrees of failure or success).
Thus, in horror cinema, the faux father only appears when the biological father is absent, and his authority must become challenged by someone who transgresses the symbolic order (in most cases, an unruly child). Yet, in both films discussed here, despite the faux father adhering to these conventions and entering into conflict with those who transgress the symbolic order, the way he attempts to do this is presented wholly differently. In turn, we have one film that is more sympathetic to Catholicism and one that is intolerant and displays anti-Catholicism more concretely. The films and the faux fathers within them not only reveal the shifts in attitudes towards gender and familial roles but also emphasise the conflicting attitudes held towards Catholicism despite its attempts at modernisation.
The Paradox of Catholocism
The faux father’s construction becomes linked to desperate institutional attempts to restore trust in a traditional father figure at a time when it was called into question. As Stella Bruzzi states, ‘one important image of masculinity and paternity in the 1970s, for example, was the belligerent and conservative father who steadfastly refuses to give up his old patriarchal ways’ (2005: 79). So, too, in these films, the patriarchs all attempt to cling to the traditional order and die to restore it. Yet, these characters are depicted as morally flawed or ambiguous. The Omen’s satanic faux fathers, Brennan and Spiellto, are represented as evil, which affirms and reflects a long-standing and exacerbated criticism of Catholicism. This can be seen in Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel The First Omen (2024), which can be read as a feminist response to The Omen’s Catholic patriarchy and encapsulates the fears of religion using women for their gain and to scare people back into the church. This provides an interesting parallel with the motivations of The Exorcist’s original author, William Peter Blatty. As Nick Cull has stated, Blatty intended to ‘scare a new generation of Americans back into the church’, and he felt ‘that the book was apostolic work’ (2000: 47). This perspective adds another layer of depth to the faux father, who becomes intrinsically linked to renewed faith, belief, and power over one’s subordinates. Still, while The Omen demonises Catholicism, The Exorcist sees value in the belief system. Thus, these films highlight a nuance about fatherhood, the church, and patriarchy.
The Faux Father in The Omen
In The Omen, the faux father, in this case, the adoptive father, Robert Thorn, is represented as a traditional patriarch associated with power and authority, not only through his position as the head of the household but because of his occupation. As a career diplomat, Robert represents Western patriarchy and the establishment, and it was a deliberate choice to link Robert’s job with the political realm, as politics, like the church, was a heavily patriarchal space (Bjarnegård 2013). This is emphasised when he jokes with his wife Kathy about his old university roommate, who ‘has taken up the awesome burden of the presidency’. He is a powerful man in the political realm, reinforced by his job as an ‘ambassador to Great Britain, [where he and his] family reside in a mansion outside of London’ (Schober 2022: 8). In a scene discussing their new home, Kathy states that ‘nothing is too good for a wife of a future President of the United States’, which can lead viewers to assume that one of his ambitions is to take the presidency for himself. This links to themes of power and status, as US presidents are universally accepted authority figures who, at the time of writing, have only ever been men, linking back to Lacan’s ideas about the patriarchal symbolic order and the father as an authority figure.
Thorn’s ambitions are potentially ironic given Nixon’s demise after Watergate. As we learn from the film’s beginning, Robert becomes linked with deception when he is told by Spiletto that his true son is dead and that he should secretly adopt Damien, which he does. This is Robert’s first act as the ‘bad’ father, as he purposefully deceives his wife. In part, he denies her a voice. If Robert would deceive his wife on such a personal and intimate matter, such as the death of their child, it might be assumed that he would also mislead the public about important issues if he deemed it necessary. However, intergenerational conflict becomes integral again as Damien halts Robert’s ascension to power. The patriarchy is stopped in its tracks by the younger generation, capitalising on the fears that younger generations of Americans are inherently ‘other’ and would alter the structures of the symbolic order and the landscape of America. This intergenerational conflict links to the conflicts occurring in society, such as the Kent State shootings that occurred in 1970. Thus, these films both reflect the intergenerational conflict that was rife in the country at the time while also highlighting that individuals who transgressed the symbolic order may be detrimental to the patriarchal establishment and US society. This links with The Exorcist and the demon Pazuzu, who possesses Regan, as the demon was initially unearthed in Iraq rather than America. In The Omen, positioning Robert as a traditional patriarch is directly linked to his attempts to murder Damien and restore the traditional order. By doing so, the film presents a more sympathetic view of traditional patriarchy but a less sympathetic view of Catholicism. This is because the two priests, Father Spiletto and Father Brennan, are depicted as evil Satanists, which become aligned with traditional fears of Catholicism and conspiratorial fears that Catholics would ruin US institutions.
In The Omen, the faux fathers are conflicted: both rejecting the Symbolic Order (Father Spiletto and Brennan) and attempting to restore it (Father Brennan and Robert Thorn). Spiletto is the first religious father we see in the film and, in essence, aids Robert’s path into deception by informing Robert of his baby's death, ‘[which in turn leads to] Robert agreeing to Spiletto’s plan of substituting another child in place of his own’ (Williams 1996: 116). Thus, Spiletto becomes a monstrous father who rejects traditional norms as he is, in fact, a Satanist in the guise of a Catholic priest. The same can be said of his accomplice, Father Brennan, ‘the Irish priest who later repents and tries to warn Robert of the true identity of the “son” he brought into his home—[they both] are, in fact, renegade priests, apostates of Satan’ (Schober 2022: 28). This representation of the satanic priests reaffirms the long-standing tradition of anti-Catholicism in US culture by positioning them in media as evil and demonic. The satanic priests also link to collective anxieties about the ‘Satanic Panic’ that was prevalent within society, a fallout from the 1960s. For example, in 1969, members of Charles Manson’s satanic cult, who were notably considerably younger than Manson himself and described as ‘mostly lonely teenagers from broken homes’ (Laycock 2023), murdered five people. The image of the crazed religious father that is presented in The Omen through the figures of Brennan and Spiletto is a play on the fears sparked by Manson’s crimes, which became a catalyst for heightened feelings of paranoia.
The framing of Brennan and Spiletto as Satanists highlights a rejection of the traditional symbolic order as people knew it. In the 1970s, some citizens were no longer yielding to the constraints of traditional societal norms, instead breaking free of them. However, in both the novelization and film of The Omen, Brennan is seen regretting his choices and undergoing a restoration of faith. The book describes Brennan as:
[having] renounced Christ and the Church and turned to the worshipping of Satan; becoming a part of a global network of Satanists bent in creating fear and turmoil [….] he was responsible for the murder of Robert’s son, bashing his head in with a stone […]. But after receiving his malignant tumour diagnosis, he is driven by a need for repentance and forgiveness. (Seltzer 1976: 93-98)
Brennan regrets his acts and asks God for forgiveness. He also informs Robert about Damien, but whether he was forgiven and saved remains ambiguous. In these films, then, Brennan from The Omen and Karras in The Exorcist become synonymous because of their guilt and regret, Brennan for being a Satanist and Karras over his career choice and mother’s death. The films act as a paradox: they portray characters who are supposed to be perceived as morally righteous, yet every faux father is depicted as flawed. These films highlight the regret of men who have transgressed the traditional symbolic order while affirming this order as something precarious and old-fashioned, which is reaffirmed by the problematic and ambiguous endings of both films.
The Faux Father in The Exorcist
The representation of the faux father in The Exorcist offers a much more nuanced account of the Catholic church in flux than The Omen and, in turn, presents us with more sympathetic versions of the faux father. The story starts with Merrin as the faux father who unearths the demon Pazuzu in Northern Iraq. This scene helps to construct Merrin’s ambiguity as a father figure in horror cinema as, even though he is linked to traditional patriarchy, he is also the person who brings back to the US this evil which infiltrates the MacNeil home. The threat positioned as something ‘external’ brought into American society by the Catholic priest becomes integral to faux fatherhood films. As Semmerling argues, the positioning of the threat as something external to America aided people in coming to terms with societal changes that were poorly received, including:
The scandal of Watergate; the terror, guilt and shame of Vietnam; the moral disintegration associated with ever-increasing divorce rates; a generation of rebellious and disrespectful youths; the attack on male dominance by the women’s rights movement; the seeming loss of religious faith. (2006: 31)
It was preferable for Americans to blame the perceived woes of society on an external threat—a supernatural threat from the East—than to admit that society was changing (Semmerling 2006: 30-59). In the two films discussed here, the threats do not directly come from America but from the ancient world: Damien is born in Rome—notably, the site of the Vatican—and Pazuzu unearthed in Iraq. By applying Wood’s framework of ‘otherness’, which ‘functions not simply as something external to the culture of the self, but also what is repressed in the self and projected outward to be hated and disowned’ (2018: 77), the ‘other’ in this instance both frightens and reveals: it frightened American citizens that evil could be so easily ‘infiltrated’ into US society, while also raising awareness and revealing that seemingly ‘normal’ US citizens (or, in this case, children) could be corrupted, go against the father, and destabilise the traditional order which the faux father needed to rectify.
In The Exorcist, this threat is best showcased in the figure of the unruly child Regan MacNeil, who the faux father must get back under patriarchal submission and reminds viewers of the perceived horrors brought about by those who transgress the symbolic/patriarchal order. 1973, the year of the film’s release, was the year of the landmark legal case of Roe v. Wade, which ruled in favour of the constitutional right to abortion for the first time. This angered many, and staunch evangelical Jerry Falwell began urging Christians to engage and enter the political arena, believing the nation's downfall would be brought by all the countercultural and societal changes, such as ‘homosexuality, women’s liberation, the Equal Rights Amendment and pornography’ (West 2021: 17). Falwell’s anger and comments became emblematic of the views held by traditionalists who believed that the symbolic order and US values were in crisis. This anger and anxiety are reflected in these films as the faux father attempts to regain dominance in a world where patriarchal power has become increasingly precarious. The rage held towards women’s sexual agency, for example, is reflected in Karras’ violent actions towards Regan during her exorcism when he punches her. Often, the desire to assert patriarchal control over women manifests itself in violence. As Edley notes, ‘violence between men and women […] is the product of a patriarchal system […], and patriarchal societies give men significant power and control over women’s lives—including “rights” to punish them’ (2017: 148). Karras, like Merrin, becomes an upholder of the patriarchal order, tasked to restore the unruly child to normalcy and curb her outlandish behaviour. Therefore, the faux father in The Exorcist is presented as someone with psychological complexity as the archaic beliefs that he holds, such as exorcism and male violence, are depicted as problematic.
Yet this version of fatherhood is presented as a more sympathetic representation of Catholicism than in The Omen. The Exorcist is nuanced about how the church is attempting to modernise as Karras and Merrin, despite being upholders of patriarchal values and outmoded belief systems, sacrifice themselves to restore order to an atypical family, without attempting to convert the MacNeil family to the religion. In part, The Exorcist is exploring how the Catholic church attempted to redefine itself in the 1970s in the wake of societal shifts. The Omen seems to exude anti-Catholicism sentiment because the faux fathers’ depiction becomes one of demonisation that exemplifies the collective anxieties and targeted criticism of Catholicism, consistent with US marginalisation of and suspicion towards the papacy. However, The Exorcist, which came only three years before, seemed to have found value within Catholicism through the faux father's self-sacrifice, which allows a new family model (or, in this case, an atypical family model) to thrive.
Endings
Ultimately, Father Merrin and Karras, and Robert Thorn, die attempting to uphold the traditional symbolic order. The fact that all three men die suggests that the restoration of those values may be in doubt. This offers a particularly nuanced representation of fatherhood and masculinity as something inherently flawed. The faux fathers hold strong positions of power and attempt to become ‘restorers’, yet the beliefs they are trying to restore are still portrayed as outdated and ambivalent. The faux father assumes he has restored order in The Exorcist by driving the demon from Regan, who survives without recollecting the ordeal. Survival, however, does not necessarily equate to victory, as Regan’s lack of recollection means she has not learned from the ordeal and could potentially fall prey to possession again. The nuclear family is not restored, the matriarch remains in charge, the father remains absent, and, as we learn from the film’s twenty-first century sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, when Regan is made aware of the ordeal, she becomes estranged from her mother. This highlights that just as society and patriarchal institutions were in flux, families were too, and more complex models of families began to emerge and even thrive.
In contrast, in The Omen, Robert dies before he can murder Damien, who is seen in the closing scene smirking, standing next to the President, at his parents’ funeral. Damien's positioning alongside the President suggests the father of the nation is being mocked as he stands next to the unruly child who seeks to disrupt the symbolic order. Thus, these films often depict a bleak and unavoidable future, one in which fatherhood and patriarchy play an ideological tug of war and become intertwined with themes of both power and precariousness, restoration and abolition, traditionalism and progressivism.
The faux father archetype has continued and evolved in contemporary horror cinema and is best represented currently in 2023’s The Pope’s Exorcist, which explores the attempt of faux father Gabriel Amorth to restore order to the Vasquez family after the death of the patriarch (the absent father) and possession of the unruly child, Henry. But in the archetype's evolution, contemporary faux fathers do not die like their counterparts in 1970s horror cinema did, highlighting the precariousness and ambivalence in the representation of fatherhood at the time and foregrounding the archetype as one worthy of further exploration.
References
Allit, P. (2003) Religion in America Since 1945: A History. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bellah, R.N., Madsen. R., Sullivan, W.N., Swidler, A. and Tipton, S.M. (1996) Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkley: University of California Press.
Bjarnegård, E. (2013), Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bruzzi, S. (2005) Bringing up Daddy: Fatherhood and Masculinity in Post-War Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.
Carter, J. (1979) ‘Crisis of Confidence’ Speech. Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/thepresidency/presidential-speeches/july-15-1979-crisis-confidence speech (Accessed 29 October 2022).
Carty, T. J. (2004) ‘Nativist Anti-Catholicism or Christian Evangelism? Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, and the Marginalisation of Religion during the 1960 Presidential Campaign’. In: T. J. Carty (ed) A Catholic in the White House? Religion, Politics and John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Campaign. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 49-66.
Cooper, D. L. (1977) ‘Review of The Omen’. Cineaste, 7(4), pp. 46-47.
Creed, B. (1993) The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Cull, N. J. (2000) ‘The Exorcist’. History Today, 50(5), p. 47.
Daley, M. (1985) Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon.
Edley, N. (2017), Men and Masculinity: The Basics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Goodstein, L. (2003) ‘Decades of Damage; Trail of Pain in Church Crisis Leads to Nearly Every Diocese’. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/us/decades-of-damage-trail-of-pain-in-church-crisis-leads-to-nearly-every-diocese.html (Accessed 20 October 2022).
Grosz, E. (1990) Jaques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction. London and New York: Routledge.
Kristeva, J. (1982) Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.
Laycock, J. P. (2023) Satanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leeder, M. (2018) Horror Film: A Critical Introduction. New York and London: Bloomsbury.
Lennard, D. (2014) Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors: The Child Villains of Horror Film. Albany: New York University Press.
O’Brien, M. (2004) ‘Social Science and Public Policy Perspectives on Fatherhood in the European Union’. In: M. E. Lamb (ed) The Role of Fatherhood in Child Development, 4th edition. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, pp. 121-145.
Ruether, R. (2001) ‘Christian Feminist Theology’. In: Y. Y. Haddad and J. L. Esposito (eds) Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 65-80.
Rutherford, J. (1992) Men’s Silence: Predicaments in Masculinity. London: Routledge.
Schober, A. (2022) The Omen. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Seltzer, D. (1976) The Omen. London: Futura.
Semmerling, T. J. (2006) ‘Evil’ Arabs in American Popular Film: Orientalist Fear. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sobchack, V. (1996) ‘Bringing It All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange’. In: B. K. Grant (ed) The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 143-163.
Sobchack, V. (1980) The Limits of Infinity: The American Science Fiction Film. New York: A.S. Barnes.
West, A. (2021) ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers: Eyes of Believers in The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016)’. In: R. Booth, V. Griffiths and E. Thompson (eds) Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in Horror Film. Belfast: House of Leaves Publishing, pp. 17-39.
Williams, T. (1996) Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film. Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Wolfe, T. (2008) ‘The “Me” Decade and the Third Great Awakening’. New York Magazine, Retrieved from: https://nymag.com/news/features/45938 (Accessed 12 December 2022).
Wood, R. (2018) ‘An Introduction to The American Horror Film’. In: B.K. Grant (ed) Robin Wood on the Horror Film: Collected Essays and Reviews. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 73-110.
Allit, P. (2003) Religion in America Since 1945: A History. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bellah, R.N., Madsen. R., Sullivan, W.N., Swidler, A. and Tipton, S.M. (1996) Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkley: University of California Press.
Bjarnegård, E. (2013), Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bruzzi, S. (2005) Bringing up Daddy: Fatherhood and Masculinity in Post-War Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.
Carter, J. (1979) ‘Crisis of Confidence’ Speech. Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/thepresidency/presidential-speeches/july-15-1979-crisis-confidence speech (Accessed 29 October 2022).
Carty, T. J. (2004) ‘Nativist Anti-Catholicism or Christian Evangelism? Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, and the Marginalisation of Religion during the 1960 Presidential Campaign’. In: T. J. Carty (ed) A Catholic in the White House? Religion, Politics and John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Campaign. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 49-66.
Cooper, D. L. (1977) ‘Review of The Omen’. Cineaste, 7(4), pp. 46-47.
Creed, B. (1993) The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Cull, N. J. (2000) ‘The Exorcist’. History Today, 50(5), p. 47.
Daley, M. (1985) Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon.
Edley, N. (2017), Men and Masculinity: The Basics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Goodstein, L. (2003) ‘Decades of Damage; Trail of Pain in Church Crisis Leads to Nearly Every Diocese’. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/us/decades-of-damage-trail-of-pain-in-church-crisis-leads-to-nearly-every-diocese.html (Accessed 20 October 2022).
Grosz, E. (1990) Jaques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction. London and New York: Routledge.
Kristeva, J. (1982) Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.
Laycock, J. P. (2023) Satanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leeder, M. (2018) Horror Film: A Critical Introduction. New York and London: Bloomsbury.
Lennard, D. (2014) Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors: The Child Villains of Horror Film. Albany: New York University Press.
O’Brien, M. (2004) ‘Social Science and Public Policy Perspectives on Fatherhood in the European Union’. In: M. E. Lamb (ed) The Role of Fatherhood in Child Development, 4th edition. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, pp. 121-145.
Ruether, R. (2001) ‘Christian Feminist Theology’. In: Y. Y. Haddad and J. L. Esposito (eds) Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 65-80.
Rutherford, J. (1992) Men’s Silence: Predicaments in Masculinity. London: Routledge.
Schober, A. (2022) The Omen. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Seltzer, D. (1976) The Omen. London: Futura.
Semmerling, T. J. (2006) ‘Evil’ Arabs in American Popular Film: Orientalist Fear. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sobchack, V. (1996) ‘Bringing It All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange’. In: B. K. Grant (ed) The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 143-163.
Sobchack, V. (1980) The Limits of Infinity: The American Science Fiction Film. New York: A.S. Barnes.
West, A. (2021) ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers: Eyes of Believers in The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016)’. In: R. Booth, V. Griffiths and E. Thompson (eds) Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in Horror Film. Belfast: House of Leaves Publishing, pp. 17-39.
Williams, T. (1996) Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film. Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Wolfe, T. (2008) ‘The “Me” Decade and the Third Great Awakening’. New York Magazine, Retrieved from: https://nymag.com/news/features/45938 (Accessed 12 December 2022).
Wood, R. (2018) ‘An Introduction to The American Horror Film’. In: B.K. Grant (ed) Robin Wood on the Horror Film: Collected Essays and Reviews. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 73-110.