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
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.
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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six months ago) link
Isn't it??
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:33 (six 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 (six 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 (six months ago) link
"I lied - you look like Sal Mineo"
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Saturday, 7 October 2023 15:37 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six 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 (six months ago) link