Bechdel Test Movie List

Isabella and her mother, Maria, are the two characters most central to the film. They converse pretty early on in the film when Isabella visits her mother in an asylum. Although the conversation is unusual because of Maria's disturbed state of mind, there were some coherent bits, such as the discussion about Isabella's terminated pregnancy.

As soon as you recognize the patriarchal religious orientation of the whole enterprise—i.e., the devil/demon is male, the exorcists (only onscreen human beings shaping events) are male—the narrative is clearly about generational trauma, specifically women suffering the consequences of male "possession."

Stephen, what in the world are you talking about? None of that has anything whatsoever to do with whether the movie passes the Bechdel Test, so your disagreement with the rating is not valid.

I'm with Stephen: The demon possessing Maria is possibly male, but probably genderless. Technically Isabella is talking to the demon, not the mother, which means that this example does not fulfill the second criteria of the test: "2 women talk to each other". Isabella is talking to a demon.

"Technically Isabella is talking to the demon, not the mother."

I don't remember it that way at all. Although Isabella does talk to the demon(s) possessing Maria later on in the film, that's not the part that I referenced as passing the test. Just because Maria is possessed doesn't mean that it's always the demons that are talking for her. You can see this later on in the film when other possessed characters go back and forth between speaking/acting for themselves and having their possessors speak/act for them. Just because Maria has gone insane as a result of her possession doesn't mean that she is no longer a valid named female character.