note to self: thesaurus. "stuff" three times, jesus H
― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing), Sunday, 18 July 2010 03:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh and Society! Yes! Nice to see someone else remembers that movie, it deserves way more attention than it ever got.
― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing), Sunday, 18 July 2010 03:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Hell yes! Seriously couldn't eat anything wet looking for days after I saw that.
― Darramouss, Sunday, 18 July 2010 03:36 (thirteen years ago) link
by contrast, the Shining is about a building that basically eats people, about family members becoming murderous nutjobs etc.
Exorcist is also about family members becoming murderous nutjobs tbqf. Little girl straight-up murders Burke (director of mom's movie) by throwing him out a window.
― Phil D., Sunday, 18 July 2010 22:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm completely a-religious, but you don't have to believe in the devil to find some kinds of evil scary, and to me the movie is just incredible in the way it shows a personification of pure, distilled, absolute and absolutely terrifying evil. And Shakey if one of your family started levitating and vomiting guacamole i'm willing to bet you'd be pretty terrified. The things that happen are not just a bit weird or unnatural, they are an absolute violation of the natural order of things. Ya cannae break the laws of physics - but this entity can. Admittedly for it to just focus on a suburban family rather than fucking up the whole world seems a bit odd - but even that oddness, that unpredictability, is disturding in itself.
Damn it's bedtime now and i've got this film in my head ;_;
― ledge, Sunday, 18 July 2010 23:15 (thirteen years ago) link
"Do you know," he said, "you interest me immensely? You think, then, that we do not understand the real nature of evil?"
"No, I don't think we do. We over-estimate it and we under-estimate it. We take the very numerous infractions of our social 'bye-laws'--the very necessary and very proper regulations which keep the human company together--and we get frightened at the prevalence of 'sin' and 'evil.' But this is really nonsense. Take theft, for example. Have you any horror at the thought of Robin Hood, of the Highland caterans of the seventeenth century, of the moss-troopers, of the company promoters of our day?
"Then, on the other hand, we underrate evil. We attach such an enormous importance to the 'sin' of meddling with our pockets (and our wives) that we have quite forgotten the awfulness of real sin."
"And what is sin?" said Cotgrave.
"I think I must reply to your question by another. What would your feelings be, seriously, if your cat or your dog began to talk to you, and to dispute with you in human accents? You would be overwhelmed with horror. I am sure of it. And if the roses in your garden sang a weird song, you would go mad. And suppose the stones in the road began to swell and grow before your eyes, and if the pebble that you noticed at night had shot out stony blossoms in the morning?
"Well, these examples may give you some notion of what sin really is."
(Arthur Machen, The White People)
― ledge, Sunday, 18 July 2010 23:19 (thirteen years ago) link
GODDAMNIT I just had to clean my teeth turned away from the sink 'cause I was too scared to have the door of the bathroom behind me! I saw this movie once! When I was 21! 15 years ago!
― ledge, Sunday, 18 July 2010 23:28 (thirteen years ago) link
despite a background of a kind of piecemeal protestantism / agnosticism, The Exorcist hits me right in the fear core like The Shining doesn't. I thank an obsession with books on 'true life' paranormal activities from age ~10-13. The tale of the possessed guy who had to stop his car in the middle of nowhere because his personal demon was urging him to kill himself by crashing it gives me a funny little tingle still.
― Merdeyeux, Sunday, 18 July 2010 23:34 (thirteen years ago) link
The Overlook Hotel is not really populated by humans. Everyone in the movie feels a bit spectral. There's no one to latch on to.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 00:42 (thirteen years ago) link
I know, I know... rote criticism of Kubrick. He's too cold, he disregards the actors in favor of his screenplays, and yada and yada. But The Shining is probably the best argument for this POV that is so often blanketed over all of his films.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 00:45 (thirteen years ago) link
OTOH, seen from a detached POV, The Exorcist is hilarious. The acting is so hammy, it should be glazed in honey and served at Christmas.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 00:50 (thirteen years ago) link
that, and the fact that we're secretly all crossing our fingers that shelley long gets the axe before the movie's even half done
― Everytime I hit 'submit post' the internet gets dumber (darraghmac), Monday, 19 July 2010 00:52 (thirteen years ago) link
The Shining is great. Always found The Exorcist sorta boring.
― is breads of india still tite (admrl), Monday, 19 July 2010 00:54 (thirteen years ago) link
They're both kind of shit
I mostly agree with this :/
― RIP la petite mort (acoleuthic), Monday, 19 July 2010 00:57 (thirteen years ago) link
burstyn's over-acting grates a little, but all in all the performances in the exorcist are pretty good imo.
― Everytime I hit 'submit post' the internet gets dumber (darraghmac), Monday, 19 July 2010 00:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I suppose it's hard to fuck with Max von Sydow. Agreed.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 01:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Then again, putting him in it in the first place seems like a cheesy move. Like Friedkin assumed (correctly) that he would be automatic gravitas.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 01:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Hey I've never seen the Exorcist. I know there are a number of different versions out there. Which would you recommend watching first?
The original theatrical release. There's also "The Version You've Never Seen", which came out in 2001 I think, but don't see that first. It adds a couple of good scenes, like Megan in the Drs office and a theological conversation on the stairs between the two priests. But it really blows the ending.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 01:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Friedkin assumed (correctly) that he would be automatic gravitas.
well, y'know- casting is casting is casting
― Everytime I hit 'submit post' the internet gets dumber (darraghmac), Monday, 19 July 2010 01:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Casting Hackman as Popeye Doyle took a lot more stones.
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 01:22 (thirteen years ago) link
casting popeye's girlfriend in the shining bringing us back full circle.
― Everytime I hit 'submit post' the internet gets dumber (darraghmac), Monday, 19 July 2010 01:25 (thirteen years ago) link
HA!
― kenan, Monday, 19 July 2010 01:25 (thirteen years ago) link
just wanted to echo the love for Society - amazing movie
― Major Lolzer (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 19 July 2010 15:31 (thirteen years ago) link
This is the key to the real horror of this movie, something overlooked by people that just see a relative lack of gore and murders. The scary part of this movie is the atmosphere it creates; it's otherworldly, it's surreal, it's kind of displaced from time and space. The Physical Cosmologies write up painstakingly details all the visual themes - subtle and infamous - that come together to create an atmosphere that is truly supernatural.
http://www.mstrmnd.com/log/802
http://www.mstrmnd.com/files/PDVD_076.jpghttp://www.mstrmnd.com/files/PDVD_102.jpg
― Beach Pomade (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 19 July 2010 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Saw The Exorcist in a theatre tonight. Thirty-eight years after first seeing it, I still have to cover my eyes a lot of the time. What I like more and more is the between-scare-scenes stuff; Ellen Burstyn walking around Georgetown while Mike Oldfield plays is excellent. It was Friedkin's recut tonight, which I don't like as much as the orignal, spider-walk excepted. The extra inserts are clumsy, and I seem to remember a quiet, atmospheric ending--more Oldfield--instead of the title coming up right away, underneath thunderous music.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 01:52 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u15h02Y0MDY&feature=share
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 25 October 2014 14:14 (nine years ago) link
The Shining is the great film of the two, but I can think of few other horror film performances that pin me down as much as Ellen Burstyn's in Exorcist.
― Eric H., Saturday, 7 March 2015 02:53 (nine years ago) link
She's great. I love her awkwardness and embarrassment, and the way she phrases the question, when she asks "How do you go about getting an exorcism?"
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 March 2015 14:29 (nine years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/i-was-there-too/the-exorcist-with-eileen-dietz
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/boogeymenslashers/images/1/14/Pazuzu.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120816194312
Face of Pazuzu was interviewed this week on I Was There Too.
― how's life, Saturday, 7 March 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
otm re burstyn but all the performances far better in exorcist, but as stated upthread Kubrick wasn't making a human movie
― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Saturday, 7 March 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
nobody needs more of me on this, but duvall hugely underrated by boys with a narrow frequency tolerance. kid good too.
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 7 March 2015 16:23 (nine years ago) link
(i've never seen the exorcist, but that last perlstein book practically had a shot-by-shot)
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 7 March 2015 16:24 (nine years ago) link
I was trying to figure out what tacky-looking ripoff of The Exorcist the gay bar was showing with the sound off last night.
After about 10 minutes I realized it was The Exorcist.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 9 February 2018 15:51 (six years ago) link
lmao
I prefer it to The Shining tbh but that's probably cuz catholic
― Simon H., Friday, 9 February 2018 15:55 (six years ago) link
I lol'd a couple times, esp at BVM statue w/ monster bosom
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 9 February 2018 15:56 (six years ago) link
"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 (five 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 (five 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 (five 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 (five months ago) link
Isn't it??
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:33 (five 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 (five 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 (five months ago) link
"I lied - you look like Sal Mineo"
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:37 (five 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 (five 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 (five 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 (five 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 (five 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 (five months ago) link