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but I don't know that doing so is what the film's about or what they were trying to do with it. Does that make sense?
You're looking for some sort of indication that this "sin-theme" was what the filmmakers had in mind when making the film?
One piece of corroborating evidence that I forgot to mention. Remember that the son spews out an apple as he's dying? This seemed to me to be a reference to the Garden of Eden story, which's meaning (at least in Puritan Christian teachings) is that mankind has experienced a fall from grace and is therefore inherently sinful. So the kid is spewing out his inherent sin as symbolized by the red apple as he's dying. To me, this seems to me to be a sort of "clue" that is supposed to guide you towards this mindset.
Or at least I can't think of any other reason as to why he would spew out an apple. Please don't tell me that this is some sort of weird cultural thing New Englanders do when they're dying, ok!? That'd seriously freak me out.
Assuming that it does and that you know what I'm asking, what from within the film leads you to believe that the religious shit was more than just "window dressing" and that we were supposed to understand the film as and walk away from it with a critique of Puritanism/religious dogmatism?
Well, this film does discuss religious dogmas more in-depth than your usual religious-themed horror movie. The concept of original sin is invoked at several times in the narrative and is used as an implication of horror for the characters. They are clearly distressed that their own teachings tell them that they are going to hell when they die, for what is essentially very slight things (baptism, etc). It seems like a whole lot of content for just being window dressing. Why invoke a concept like original sin so repeatedly when it is a rather abstract concept?
It's not just that the characters are menaced by religious monsters (like Paimon in Heredity, that is what I would call window dressing, a convenient monster out of religious lore), it is that they are menaced by the very ideas and dogmas that make up their religion (original sin, the impurity of others, going to hell for not receiving the proper ritual, etc). Hell the paranoia this causes torments them just as much as the actual supernatural baddies do. It turns them against each other, destroying their little community.
Wouldn't this mean that the witches were forces of good, that they weren't "evil" at all? But that wouldn't make sense, because they're killing/eating babies and shit. Where does that leave us with the concepts of "good" and "evil" - or, more specifically, where does the film want to leave us with those concepts?
Oh, no of course not!
My idea was more that these beliefs and mindsets inevitable lead to a collapse. It's more about puritanism leading onto evil because they view the world and humanity as fundamentally evil which just isn't sustainable. Just because the witches and the devil and such oppose the humans, doesn't make them good in response.
Also, witches and the ever-presence of the devil is also very much a part of the Puritan's worldview (every Puritan has a farm animal who is secretly the devil).
At least, that's according to the film. For example, why was the baby snatched when it was with her? Why was that egg all fucked up when she touched it? Why did she milk blood from the goat? It seemed like the film was trying to indicate that she had evil in her.
I don't remember the egg scene at all.
However, I saw those things more as red-herrings to "set-up" Tomasin. Make the audience and the family suspect her. Much of the runtime of this movie, after all, centers on the suspicion directed at Tomasin.
Remember, this is a movie where the family's GOAT literally is the devil... unlike our GOAT which is Fedor. The freaky occurrences in the film are better explained by his presence (along with his witch cheerleaders) rather than any nefarious influence on Tomasin's part. The baby-snatching... well, what is she going to do against witchcraft? It's not like Tomasin could have prevented that. The milking blood thing... again, better explained by the presence of the devil than her doing (and I suspect the egg-scene to be too). All we see of Tomasin's actual interaction with her family shows her to be a caring, loving person (the witch-prank on the twins non-withstanding). She's playing with the toddler when it gets snatched, after all.
However, despite her great affection, she's still signaled out as the source of evil within the family. This seems to me to be more an indication of their paranoia and world-view, puritans always being extremely hung-up on girls maturing into sexual beings, and all that. Right when Satan is sleeping in their own barn.
Lies is the only reason why anyone would ever dislike The Exorcist.