20 Hidden Movie Frames You Probably Missed In Famous Movies
6. Karras' Mother - The Exorcist
William Friedkin's masterful horror film The Exorcist is often cited for its abundance of "subliminal" imagery, with flashes of "Captain Howdy" which are actually relatively easy to spot - and slightly more subtle glimpses added into later editions of the film.
But there's an altogether subtler piece of imagery which isn't as much talked about in the film's climax, mere seconds before Father Karras (Jason Miller) makes his sacrificial dive out of a window to defeat the demon terrorising young Regan (Linda Blair).
Just as Karras is possessed by the demon, he looks up to the room's window where he sees a faint, momentary visage of his dead mother's (Vasiliki Maliaros) face.
Considering that Karras spends much of the film tormented by his mother's death, it's appropriate that he'd see her face again as he prepared to quite literally shuffle himself off the mortal coil.