"la plume de ma tante"
― velko, Saturday, 24 February 2018 06:44 (six years ago) link
Still used as an epithet amongst the bros mac
― Planck Blather (darraghmac), Saturday, 24 February 2018 19:21 (six years ago) link
The Exorcist again (posted about it above 12 years ago). Packed theatre, which was nice--part of a horror series, not the Friedkin series I mentioned in a different thread. When introducing the film, the manager asked if anyone was seeing it for the first time; surprisingly (university town), 20-30 hands went up.
I'm sure I must have realized this during some past viewing--it's so obvious--but Karras is Greek Like Me. Even says "Ti kanis" at one point (or his mother does). Performances all excellent, although I've always been on the fence about Jack MacGowran, the guy who plays Burke Dennings (dead by the time the film was released). Not sure if he's egregiously hammy or perfect. Probably both.
I think I'm finally immune to being frightened by the film, but something did spook me on the way home. Twice the GPS told me to do something, even though I'm quite positive I never programmed it to do so (no need to). It was like the clock stopping when Merrin's in Iraq. I thought, "God, what if it comes on again, only this time it's Mercedes McCambridge's voice?"
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 05:30 (seven months ago) link
The Exorcist is currently on BBC iPlayer, after a screening on BBC1. Just struck me as amazing how a film that was long banned for home viewing of any kind in the UK is now streamable on the beeb's major online platform, and nobody gives a toss.
― Ward Fowler, Saturday, 7 October 2023 10:17 (seven months ago) link
It's amazing in general that both The Exorcist and Taxi Driver have dodged the movement of history and continue to be shown on TV.
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 14:41 (seven months ago) link
Maybe ... at the end of the day The Exorcist is a clearly pro-God, pro-church movie in a way that may as well be Going My Way
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:30 (seven months ago) link
Isn't it??
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:33 (seven months ago) link
If it comes to that The Passion of the Christ, say, is more in the Buñuel vein than The Exorcist.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:34 (seven months ago) link
The Exorcist is a clearly pro-God, pro-church movie
Oh, it definitely is (why Robin Wood hated it--which I don't think is ultimately the best way to evaluate horror movies), but it also has a 12-year-old saying things that would make Joe Pesci blush.
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:36 (seven months ago) link
"I lied - you look like Sal Mineo"
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:37 (seven months ago) link
I love Lee J. Cobb's banter--he's so different than his Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront.
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:39 (seven months ago) link
And Taxi Driver is, ultimately, about all the things that Americans worship just as fervently as God: guns, misogyny and sociopathic individuality
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:39 (seven months ago) link
didn't Kaufmann or Kael say it's the best recruitment tool the Church ever got?
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:39 (seven months ago) link
(Yeah, Burstyn aside, Cobb's my favorite performance. A very leavening presence.)
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:40 (seven months ago) link
I think Jason Miller is excellent. I saw him in another movie years ago--possibly The Ninth Configuration?--and he wasn't nearly as good...I think he was primarily a writer, no?
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:42 (seven months ago) link
idk as a dude who outright hates religion I still enjoy watching the film. I brought my Pazuzu figurine with me when I watched it at the theatre the other night.
I hate possession horror in general, I think it's only a step above "torture porn" in the horror movie ladder. I think this one works because it creates such a sinister atmosphere.
the funny thing is the demon possession in these films never seems to have a goal above terrorizing everybody around the possessed person. real life beliefs of possession were more that demons could control weak-minded people and win them to their side, not have them throw up green shit and murder everybody that comes into their room.
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:43 (seven months ago) link
Just checked that--yes, a playwright--and learned he was once married to Jackie Gleason's daughter! (And Jackie Gleason gets mentioned by Lee J. Cobb in one of his fake movie-castings.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:44 (seven months ago) link
this movie, as a kid struggling with his faith as a teen when he watched it, did little to move me otherwise. granted, I wasn't Catholic, but all I could think was "it's pretty fucked up that demons can just do shit like this and the process to get them out takes like two hours and kills the people performing the ritual", like, shouldn't God have an emergency phone number ors omething to deal with stuff like this
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:45 (seven months ago) link
The emergency phone numbers are things Chris M. doesn't allow in her house ... crucifixes, a father figure, etc.
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:48 (seven months ago) link
film should always be paired with the exorcist iii bc i don't come away from watching both thinking they're pro-church, i come away thinking they're about the failure of systems to actually address the problem of "evil," and this includes the church, no matter how much more they're tapped into the source of regan's ills than like doctors or the cops or whatever
― ivy., Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:53 (seven months ago) link
the exorcist on its own, yeah, definitely rhymes with the moral panic of the '70s where all these evil forces in society were seeping into our innocent children and only the church can save them!!!! but i also find the way this is conveyed in the film to be much more ambivalent in that absolutely everyone around regan is lost too
― ivy., Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:58 (seven months ago) link
idk, i might be reading between the lines too hard, it's been a while since i've seen the first. the third one however is constantly being projected in my memory palace
― ivy., Saturday, 7 October 2023 16:01 (seven months ago) link
I love miller in iii as well, he holds his own in the “monologue” with dourif
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Saturday, 7 October 2023 16:01 (seven months ago) link
The book 1973 Nervous Breakdown posits the first one as an example of the inadequacy of systems.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 16:25 (seven months ago) link
is there an anti-exorcist where the horror comes from the church and/or its exorcists? that has the potential to get into some really dark shit that the original film can't touch
I hate both of these films but the exorcist is worse for boosting the church's flagging image and setting the stage for the satanic panic
come to think of it these are both films about women / girls being tortured by men (with or without supernatural forces) what's up with that why do people like these stories so much
― Left, Saturday, 7 October 2023 18:04 (seven months ago) link
Once scene made me laugh last night. (There was some laughter over Blair's language and gyrations...understandable, but for someone older like me weird.) It was when the two older priests meet to discuss who they want to pair up with Karras for the exorcism. You could take that scene, change the dialogue just slightly, and drop it into The Dirty Dozen or Reservoir Dogs.
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 October 2023 18:23 (seven months ago) link
think burstyn's is the performance i like the least tho tbh there's a certain amount that is simply baked in from the novel
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 7 October 2023 18:42 (seven months ago) link
I'm still surprised she earned a Best Actress nod.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 18:47 (seven months ago) link
is there an anti-exorcist where the horror comes from the church and/or its exorcists
maybe if jean rollin had ever gotten around to filming story of the eye
― ivy., Saturday, 7 October 2023 18:56 (seven months ago) link
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 20:21 (seven months ago) link
is there an anti-exorcist where the horror comes from the church and/or its exorcists?
Have you seen Witchfinder General?
I watched this a couple of weeks back (it's streaming on Max in the US) and the scene where Burstyn meets with the panel of doctors for the last time and one of them says, "You know, Catholics still believe in demonic possession...you could try that, I guess" as the rest of the doctors try to stifle laughter was great.
― read-only (unperson), Saturday, 7 October 2023 20:29 (seven months ago) link
Apropos to many loose threads weaving throughout this latest revive:
“I guess the priests didn’t let me watch my daughter’s exorcism because of the patriarchy.”Idk lady. I’d be a lot more thankful towards the priests who literally died saving your daughter. pic.twitter.com/w7zKx7yoWv— Rolo Spooky (@PoorOldRoloTony) October 7, 2023
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 20:51 (seven months ago) link
You didn’t happen to review who actually won the award that year, did you?― insert nothing here (Eric H.),
I'm so sorry. Eve Harrington.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 21:09 (seven months ago) link
The Exorcist horrified me like no other film before or since. Even before I saw it, the idea of demonic possession (which was very much in the air at the time) would keep me awake and scared at night. It competed with nuclear war for top billing on my list of anxieties. So, it's hard for me to separate out my general feelings about the topic and the experience from the film itself, which, tbf, is terrifying.
The Shining feels much more like a set piece and a vehicle for Jack Nicholson, which is not a bad thing, but it doesn't reach the depth of fear that The Exorcist does, at least not for me.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 7 October 2023 22:36 (seven months ago) link
agree with all that
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 7 October 2023 22:48 (seven months ago) link
I maintain that the fear engine of The Shining is that of a self-destructive failure both indulging in his own spiral and all too ready to blame his own family.Although, even in saying that I recognize I’m positioning it as the flagship elevated horror
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 23:03 (seven months ago) link
isnt it equally as easy to say similar about familial failure guilt but perhaps destruction is through proxy in the exorcist tho
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 7 October 2023 23:10 (seven months ago) link
I had a big fear of demonic possession when I was a kid. The posters for The Children of the Damned to me represented a movie so evil that kept me awake at night (I never did see it)
I watched The Exorcist with a first-term college friend in 1973 who was visiting me for Christmas. It was right around the time I was giving up my faith in religion. It was scary at first and then kind of hokey, but I thoroughly enjoyed it
The Shining was much colder, more mysterious and more frightening to me, with Danny's psychic visions of the past seeming like a foreshadowing of Jack's eventual madness
― Dan S, Saturday, 7 October 2023 23:25 (seven months ago) link
― insert nothing here (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2023 23:36 (seven months ago) link
Saw The Shining on my 12th birthday in 1980. It was terrifying and I remember that at the time the only other film that had frightened me as much was The Elephant Man with John Hurt. Which is odd, I guess. I don't think it was only Nicholson that scared me about The Shining, it was also the little twin girls and the general idea that the hotel was a haunted freak show.
I caught The Exorcist a few years later but I could more easily write that off as a Catholic paranoiac fantasy, and thus not as deeply disturbing.
― Josefa, Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:04 (seven months ago) link
The twins were, in my experience, the most terrifying part of The Shining. The first time I saw it, the flashes of their murdered bodies really chilled me.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:08 (seven months ago) link
I don't think the idea of possession is limited to Catholics, tho.
Maybe not, but it didn't have anything to do with anything I was familiar with growing up
― Josefa, Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:15 (seven months ago) link
You have to be religious for that to be scary, is what I'm getting at
― Josefa, Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:19 (seven months ago) link
I wasn't particularly religious as a kid, certainly wasn't raised with anything approaching religious regularity, but the idea terrified me. I think I accepted the idea of malevolent beings and, probably more relevant, the idea of loss of control of oneself.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:25 (seven months ago) link
First time, soon after release, at a drive-in in the States: me, my mom, my cousin, and my aunt. My cousin Glen and I were 12. I'm quite sure our moms weren't quite prepared for what we saw.
― clemenza, Sunday, 8 October 2023 00:31 (seven months ago) link
― Josefa, Saturday, October 7, 2023 8:19 PM bookmarkflaglink
I brought a Pazuzu action figure to my showing and pretty much am Team Satan and I find it terrifying as hell
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Sunday, 8 October 2023 02:32 (seven months ago) link
Thing is horror films don't have to be relatable to be scary if the film is framed right
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Sunday, 8 October 2023 02:33 (seven months ago) link
yeah its simply not a true statement imo
maybe if you go in ready to demonstrate yr atheism cool and make a point of not getting into the movie but otherwise its as scary as any other horror concept
xps im curious as to the parts of the shining that arent explicitly supernatural by the end of the movie tbh
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Sunday, 8 October 2023 07:50 (seven months ago) link
I think you will probably find The Exorcist scary if you believe in God or know anything about exorcisms - but the possession is the thing, right? The loss of bodily autonomy is a big theme in horror, that it happens to an innocent child is another, that it’s fully gloves off in the approach is another. I grew up hearing about exorcisms and how scary they allegedly were so it certainly struck that chord for me. But it’s a scary fucking film outside that!
― I’m going to get fined for being right, again (gyac), Sunday, 8 October 2023 08:28 (seven months ago) link