The Big Picture
Despite its association with horror, “Tubular Bells” is not prominently featured during the scariest moments of The Exorcist. Director William Friedkin had a difficult search for the right music and ultimately stumbled upon “Tubular Bells” by accident. The simplicity of “Tubular Bells” contributes to its effectiveness as the theme for The Exorcist, and it has had a lasting impact on horror music.
“Something beyond comprehension is happening to a little girl on this street, in this house. A man has been sent for, as a last resort to try and save her.” A deep voice delivers this narration, heard over the theatrical trailer for The Exorcist (1973) right as frightening black-and-white images flash on the screen for a strobe effect. It’s jarring, gearing up audiences to what to expect from the movie itself. The horror classic from director William Friedkin is beloved by many and just as praised over the decades is the Mike Oldfield song, “Tubular Bells,” intertwined with a possessed Regan (Linda Blair). It’s known as The Exorcist theme on scary music playlists and in pop culture, that slow, repetitive, lullaby-like music that can bring to mind the silhouette of a priest standing below an apartment building where “something beyond comprehension” waits upstairs. So it may be surprising that “Tubular Bells” wasn’t made out to be the theme, nor was it planned to be used until a happy accident occurred.
“Tubular Bells” Is Not Played For Long In ‘The Exorcist’
Image via Warner Bros.
Despite the association with demonic levitating and pea soup vomiting, “Tubular Bells” is not played during or leading up to the more obvious horror moments. Before the first 20 minutes, the most prominent scene it plays in follows Regan’s mom Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) leaving the film set she worked on. She doesn’t choose to be driven home, wanting to go for a walk instead. It’s the day of Halloween, and the music and visuals create a strange atmosphere where nothing specifically creepy happens, but the mood says otherwise. Leaves falling from trees that loom around her should depict a cozy, picturesque autumn day, but there is something ominous in the air. Chris passes a group of young trick-or-treaters in costume, racing off to start the candy grabbing. The apartments she passes by have blood-red paneling and blood-red doors against purity-white walls.
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“Tubular Bells” plays with its recognizable piano notes and then the weirdness comes in. Chris spots a pair of nuns whose habits blow from a gust of wind that seems to be a cautionary omen, to religious figures and Regan’s mother. Chris stops when she spots the conflicted Father Karras (Jason Miller) long before she turns to him for help, the priest is talking off in the distance to a fellow priest. His words are cut off by the noise of a plane overhead, cutting off “Tubular Bells” too. Unable to listen to Father Karras, it foreshadows what will eventually happen to Chris, unable to enter the bedroom when her daughter is placed under the care of the titular exorcist and Karras. For what is considered the movie’s theme, it briefly returns before the end credits, but this is the biggest moment it’s heard in and not for very long either, a deliberate choice by director William Friedkin.
Director William Friedkin’s Difficult Search for the Right Music
A subtle use of “Tubular Bells” and the rest of the soundtrack was the goal. He had plenty of composers to choose from. Bernard Hermann wasn’t picked, as the composer’s style didn’t fit what the director wanted. Hermann talked about Friedkin in a 1975 interview: “I was going to use an organ, and he said, ‘I don’t want any Catholic music in my picture.’” Lalo Schifrin (The Amityville Horror) was brought in to create music for the theatrical trailer with strobe-like images, as well as work on the movie’s soundtrack. However, the composer’s involvement with The Exorcist ended on bad terms, with Schifrin believing Friedkin wanted the composer to be let go.
In an interview, Lalo Schifrin said, “The trailer was terrific, but the mix of those frightening scenes and my music, which was also a very difficult and heavy score, scared the audiences away. So, the Warner Brothers executives said Friedkin to tell me that I must write less dramatic and softer score. I could easily and perfectly do what they wanted because it was way too simple in relevance to what I have previously written, but Friedkin didn’t tell me what they said. I’m sure he did it deliberately. In the past we had an incident, cause by other reasons, and I think he wanted vengeance. This is my theory.” There were additional rumors that Schifrin made a rejected soundtrack that went on to be used in The Amityville Horror, but he denied this.
In a Vice interview, Friedkin gave his side over what happened, “I had commissioned Lalo Schifrin to write a score, and I didn’t like the score. I felt the need for something that was akin to Brahams’ ‘Lullaby’ — a kind of childhood feel.” Unhappy with the process, Friedkin went to the head of Warner Brothers, attempting to describe what he wanted, which wasn’t understood, but the director was given access to the music library. The search continued until Friedkin found a demo that Warner Bros. had no plans to release. He went on to say in the Vice inteview, “It’s a narration record. Because right after I play ‘Tubular Bells,’ Mike Oldfield starts narrating and talking about tubular bells, what they are, and how they sound. But I listened to that refrain, and it hooked me, and we won the rights to it. I think it sold 10 or 20 million records. And it was an accident.” The musician who created the song had no idea what was coming.
‘The Exorcist’ Theme Is Effective Because of How Simple It Is
Image via Warner Bros.
Tubular Bells was the debut album from British musician Mike Oldfield. At age 19, Oldfield recorded the two tracks that made up the album on instruments he mostly played on his own. He was able to release it in May 1973 to a decent amount of success, his album being the first one released by Virgin Records. After Friedkin put it into The Exorcist, Friedkin went on to use a limited selection of music, along with a downplayed score by Jack Nitzsche (Cruising). From the inclusion of Oldfield’s song in the movie, the album had a surge in worldwide sales when The Exorcist was released in theaters.
The long lines of people waiting to see the movie would witness Georgetown besieged by a demonic entity, as well as be forever haunted by Oldfield’s music. It boosted the musician’s popularity immensely, helping the growth of Virgin Records that put out the album too. Despite all of this success, Oldfield had never thought to create “Tubular Bells” to be a horror score. In a 2011 interview, Oldfield said, “It wasn’t made that way, although I was pretty paranoid at the time. I was only 19, and I had a lot of psychological problems and phobias. But I didn’t design it as a piece of scary movie music, of course not.”
You can tell too, as the longer it goes on, it gets funky and lively, and sounds less and less eerie, more and more like the ‘70s rock song Oldfield intended. But like John Carpenter’s equally minimal Halloween theme, the time signature for “Tubular Bells” is unusual, evoking a strange feeling. The Halloween theme is the asymmetrical 5/4 time signature, where the motif in “Tubular Bells” is 5/8, compared to movie soundtracks that have an even (or more pleasant to hear) time signature. While the song has no organs, like what Friedkin didn’t want Herrmann to use, the tubular bells that are similar to bells ringing from a church tower, as well as sounding like a kind of lullaby, perfect for the “childhood feel,” the director said he wanted. New versions of “Tubular Bells” are heard in The Exorcist: Believer, which director David Gordon Green also wanted to use for limited scenes.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Updates “Tubular Bells”
Image via Universal Pictures
Taking place 50 years later, the legacy sequel has a more typical horror movie soundtrack than the original, but there remains a vital power from the unique sounds of Mike Oldfield’s song. An archival interview of Chris is watched by Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), who is desperate to find answers to what is happening to his daughter. Chris is directly asked whether demonic possession is real. She responds with a redirect, “Is their suffering real? Absolutely.” While Victor drives to Chris, a remix by David Wingo and Amman Abbasi, (“Tubular Bells – Chris MacNeil”) picks up. Whatever someone might think of the movie overall, the return of this music is welcomed and it arrives with restraint. It builds slowly, like a cloudy memory piecing itself back together, eventually hitting those familiar beats horror fans cherish. The theme creeps back into the movie later too, when Chris takes an ill-advised visit to a bedroom, and again during the climatic exorcism. One more time it’s heard for the end credits, uninterrupted over the original Exorcist typeface drenched in red.
Unlike how briefly it is in the ending to the 1973 classic, Believer keeps the song playing, instilling a melancholy tone that can represent the pain and torment of the central possessed girls, before a church-like choir is added. The return of “Tubular Bells” brings along a history of when the right elements aligned in horror cinema and the music industry. An album could have used some better sales and a director needed of a certain piece of music that he couldn’t find. William Friedkin’s strong reactions to what didn’t work ultimately led to what did work. Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” became the perfect match for The Exorcist, going on to endure as the movie’s theme to lead into all the uncomfortable and disturbing horrors of possessed Regan.