Blatty Gone Batty
Blatty Gone Batty
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#1Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:15am
Well, THE EXORCIST is a highly reactionary work, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but still...
Blatty doesn't like the gays up in his Catholic
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#2Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:20amOh yeah. A few weeks ago when I was all raving about how much I love the Jesuit spirit of questioning authority, I was thinking how Blatty seemed to miss that part in HIS Jesuit lust.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#2Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:23amI've been avoiding THE EXORCIST because it is a silly movie, now I can avoid it because Blatty's a bigot.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#3Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:32amHas it been a long and difficult struggle to avoid the Exorcist movie?
Twitter @NamoInExile
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Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#4Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:40am
Nope. Easy, really. I'll cop to checking it out every now and then, just to see if it really is as silly as I've always found it to be.
And you know, it always is as silly as I've always found it to be.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#5Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:43am
I hope doodle doesn't open this thread.
....but the world goes 'round
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#6Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:55amCan I ask a question of someone who has seen The Exorcist? Is it really that bad? I remember when it first came out that people were saying there were audience members vomiting in the theater, etc. Is it really that bad or was it just the first movie that was graphic and people didn't have a tolerance for graphic effects?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#7Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:58amIt didn't even blip on my radar. I heard over and over how terrifying it was, so we rented it when we were like 13. I was unimpressed. I was much more scared of Freddy Krueger.
Pretty pretty please don't you ever ever feel like you're less than f**ckin' perfect!
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#8Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 11:59amPeople DIED watching The Exorcist when it first came out, they were so scared. More people died than babies were aborted that year. I never knew if we should blame Blatty or Friedken.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#9Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:00pm
Well after all these years the standard for "disturbing" is completely different.
Having said that I still find it to be scary as hell (pun intended). I suppose there will always be someone who is shocked, shocked I say! at the image of a teenage girl raping herself with a crucifix, but it's not the visceral aspect that makes it scary.
It's the tone, the atmosphere, the acting, and all the other things that Friedkin did when he made this masterpiece.
....but the world goes 'round
#10Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:00pm
^No, it isn't that bad. Most of the parts are actually quite humorous.
#11Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:01pm
I was protected from the movie as a kid...to the point of being utterly fascinated by what could be so horrible as to cause a freak out if the movie was on and I was in the vicinity. I finally saw it in high school and was mightily disappointed. I didn't find it scary, I found it ridiculous.
I appreciate it a bit more now as some sort of strange cultural touchstone. As an atheist, there is actually nothing scary about the movie...maybe just a few thrills. Burstyn is a bit 'too, too' in that hilarious 70's way. Jason Miller is the performance of the film. And Friedkin's direction is pretty great. When I finally saw BOYS IN THE BAD, I thought, 'Oh...it's THE EXORCIST with lisps!'
Updated On: 8/7/13 at 12:01 PM
#12Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:03pm
I saw it at an early age and I couldn't sleep for a month. I kept waiting for my bed to start levitating and knocking me around.
....but the world goes 'round
#13Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:03pm
I think people weren't exposed to such "horrendous" and "graphic" images at the time, which I can imagine, freaked them out.
I heard people were just as scared when Carrie was released.
#14Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:05pm
William Peter Blatty's best work remains JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME.
Updated On: 8/7/13 at 12:05 PM
#15Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:08pm
I wonder what would have happened if people saw the new version of Evil Dead back then. That's what you call graphic.
Updated On: 8/7/13 at 12:08 PM
#16Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:10pm
Really? I didn't think the new Evil Dead was very graphic at all.
You want graphic? I can give you a list of graphic films to check out.
....but the world goes 'round
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#17Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:13pmThe Exorcist has also lost a lot of its power, in my opinion, due to it being parodied endlessly in pop-culture. Even people who haven't seen it know the main shocking parts (the vomit, the crucifix masturbation, the "subliminal" images). Add to that the people who see it first in its heavily edited, and poorly dubbed, "safe" version for network TV (I had to turn off the film when I saw it a few years back on TNT or one of those channels because the choices made to cover the language were just so ridiculous) and the impact is gone.
#18Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:14pm
I had read the book and found that scary. When I saw the movie I was scared until the head spinning part which
a) looked completely fake
b) made me think, that's just not possible, even with a demon. a 360° head spin would kill someone. Possessed or not.
I remember it was a big stir in the catholic church back then. I was in a catholic high school at the time and I remember running into two of my priest/teachers at the theatre. The fact that they wanted to see this (for educational purposes) shocked me more than the movie did.
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.
Updated On: 8/7/13 at 12:14 PM
#19Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:15pm
@tazber Thank you, but no thank you, I've seen enough graphic films. I was referring to horror films, not just films in general...
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#21Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:16pmYou need to see THE EXORCIST when you are a child or approaching puberty.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#22Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:17pm
@tazber Hm, really...give me a list of horror films more graphic than Evil Dead
#23Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:18pmThe Collection.
Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!
#24Blatty Gone Batty
Posted: 8/7/13 at 12:33pm
Well first off there is an entire sub-genre of German splatter films.
Of those some of sickest I've seen include:
Barricade
Der Todesengel
and the most controversial of the genre: The Burning Moon
Then you have:
Bloodsucking Freaks
Cannibal Holocaust
Train
Anything by Takashi Miike but notably "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer".
Remember that scene in Evil Dead where Lou Taylor Pucci pulls the needle out of his eye? Well, imagine if it was an acupuncture needle. And there were dozens of them. That would be close to a scene in Audition.
Old school Italian graphic: anything by Lucio Fulci.
And for unparalleled sickness (not necessarily bloody, but incredibly disturbing) there is A Serbian Film.
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 8/7/13 at 12:33 PM
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