Trivia: This film is actually the second version of "Exorcist: The Beginning" to be filmed and completed. But upon seeing the first version, the studio protested the film was based too much on the characters and wasn't the gore-fest they wanted, so they hired a new director and reshot the entire movie with a different script. The original version of the movie was recently released on video as "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist."
Trivia: Stellan Skarsgard, at age 53 when filming this movie, is nearly a decade older than Max von Sydow was at the time of filming the original movie (age 44), but is playing a younger version of the character.
Answer: Weapons on statues in conventional churches point upwards in veneration. The weapons here are pointing downwards in an offensive gesture.