The Exorcist - Who thinks it's scary?- Page 3

[luvliza89]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:22pm

I have a really odd attraction to this movie.

I saw it for the first time in theatres when it was re-released. It was shocking. My mother fell asleep but that's just something she tends to due while at the movies. The movie got me interested into the whole idea of exorcism. So after seeing the movie I had to read the novel, and from then on I read a lot of different books on exorcism. Though I don't believe in actual possession, the idea of an innocent young girl being the instrument of evil is beyond unsettling. It's a widely good film, but it's hard for me too watch it alone. Whenever it's on television though, and I flip by it I have to stay and watch the rest of the film.

My friend's twelve year old sister can sit through the movie and not bat an eye. A lot of her friend's are the same way. I asked her why she didn't think it was frightening. Her response, "Well, I know it's not real so why should I be afraid?". And I think that is fine reasoning.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:28pm

"There is no such thing as "the devil" and there is no, absolutely NO such thing as demonic possession. There is simply misunderstood mental illness and religious mumbo-jumbo created by people who had no grasp of human psychology."

Yes, that's true...but telling that to a 10 year old catholic kid doesnt help.

(Zombies aren't real either.)

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:28pm

Simply put, I don't understand why the film has that extended sequence in Iraq at the beginning. All the ominous little touches (I seem to remember a clock stops, and Father Merrin finding the little devil's head and then that image of the Pazuzu statue and some fighting dogs) just don't add up to anything for me at all. What is the point of all this stuff, in a movie mostly concerned with the "possession" of a little girl in Georgetown?

The movie really takes itself terribly seriously, the lingering sequences of Regan getting tested at the hospital, the hints that Regan's possession is some kind of reaction to the instability of her home life (that ghastly scene of Ellen Burstyn screaming into the phone at the operator when Regan's father doesn't call on her birthday), yeah, well, they remain only hints, and frankly not very interesting hints at that without a more significant payoff. Yeah, she pukes pea soup, and all that. Ho hum.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:30pm

I don't do well with scary movies, so I definitely find it scary.

[babygiraffeboots]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:12pm

I get terrified during scary movies but I think The Exorcist is hysetrical.

When it first came out my mom had to sleep with the light on for a week.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:23pm

Roscoe, the scenes in Iraq are taken directly from the book. I believe what happens in Iraq is that Pazuzu, the demon, is released from his slumber once again. I think it happens when Merrin discovers the talisman, which was worn to defend against evil. This is why the man in the office later says, "Evil against evil." The clock stops at the moment Pazuzu is released, and it's a sign to Merrin that he has to gear up to fight again. He and Pazuzu have battled before and really, Regan's possession is an attempt on the demon's part to "get at" Merrin. The fighting dogs are a symbol of their battle (and the image is repeated later in the "Version You've Never Seen" in the scene where Chris is in the waiting room at the doctor's office watching two little boys wrestling on the couch), and the "standoff" with the statue of Pazuzu is, as I've said, a symbol of their battle. Pazuzu basically has beef with Merrin and is trying to make him seem as useless as possible. Possessing Regan, making Merrin travel to Washington in his weakened condition and perform an exorcism - it's all part of the demon's game.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:32pm

I believe it is the same demon that possessed the Jaws shark.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:33pm

Exactly, Namo. Why do you think the shark flies up into the air and onto the boat, just like Linda on the bed?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:35pm

And then chases the Brody family across several sequels.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:38pm

but how did the shark know where Lorraine Gray ALWAYS was...even on vacation?!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:42pm

Pazuzu has obviously taken the form of you-know-who on this board, which means one of us has to be Merrin. Who could it be?

THE POWER OF CRAIG COMPELS YOU!!!
THE POWER OF CRAIG COMPELS YOU!!!
THE POWER OF CRAIG COMPELS YOU!!!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:42pm

Pazuzu. The scene of the Brody kids playing with a Ouija board was cut from the first film, unfortunately, and the footage was lost.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:43pm

It had aliens come down and implant a tracking chip in her while she was sleeping.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:44pm

"La plume de ma tante! Hahahah!"

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:45pm

Jason Miller was hot.

It bothers me when people think his character is Italian. I always feel special when I can understand what his mother is saying in Greek.
Updated On: 11/1/07 at 01:45 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:51pm

Italian...Greek...the men are hot either way.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:53pm

"this is my house, and I'm not going...no place!"

"Why you do this to me Damie?"

that was greek?

Actually, his name, Karras, should tip them off.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 1:55pm

I've always found them sweaty, hairy, and lewd, but maybe that floats your boat.

No, Doodle, her lines spoken in Greek. The "this is my house..." line was just repeating in English what she'd just said in Greek, but her lines in the hospital are devastating. She cries out "Leave me here! I'm crazy! Leave!"

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 2:15pm

I was just kidding.

sweaty, hairy, and lewd...hot.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 2:24pm

Seriously, like any of those is a bad thing!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 2:28pm

Thanks, Shbrt, for the explanation. I guess it is clear enough in the film. I've just never been able to get past the "so what?" feeling I had when I saw it the first time, it just never scared, spooked or disturbed me in any way.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 3:05pm

When the movie came out, TVGuide ran an editorial called "The Movie That Will Never Be Shown on TV" and at the time it was inconceivable that it would ever be shown on broadcast, and HBO was barely in its infancy then.

It's funny how it eventually did get shown, and the profanity had been so cleverly changed:

"Your mother still rots in hell" was pretty damn great as a substitution!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 3:13pm

I'll always remember "Your mother sews socks that smell" from SNL.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 3:15pm

Movie scared the living daylights out of me when I saw it for the first time, on tv, dubbed in Spanish. My parents would not allow me to see it in the theater.

Saw the re-release, and did not find it nearly as disturbing as I did back then. Sad how desensitized we've become...

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 3:21pm

"besty, I cannot believe you saw it at 10 in its original run (I know we are about the same age) because I couldn't even hear it mentioned at that age!"

Oh, doodle, I thought you knew by now that my family was basically "The Munsters." Not that we were green with fangs or bolts in our necks. We were the "odd family" in the middle of the block in suburban Kansas who made educational films on a regular basis. My dad worked for Centron, one of the major distributors of educational and industrial films in the U.S. back then. It was based in Lawrence, Kansas, where I grew up. He then left the company and started his own educational film company, still distributing through Centron into the mid-'70s. He wrote and directed the films, and my mom, brother and I acted in them.

To make a short story long...

By the age of 10, I had appeared in roughly 40 educational films (yes, folks, the ones you watched in grade school about "looking both ways before you crossed the street," "how to tie your shoelaces,", etc).

I understood what "making a movie" was. I had seen and used "movie blood" a few times. I understood about actors, directors, crew, scripts, the whole process... by the time I was ten. I was also raised on a combination of Fellini, Truffaut, Disney and even Peckinpah. Subtitles were a part of my early movie-going education... so were R rated flicks, especially art films. Probably why I love movies so much today.

My parents DID have (big) reservations about me seeing The Exorcist at the age of 10. They had seen the hysteria, the fainting, puking, and such on TV. This movie was a phenomenon when it opened... which is why my 10-year-old self wanted so desperately to see it!

So my parents thought they threw me a hurdle by saying, "Well if you can read the book and get through it... and STILL want to see the movie, we'll take you to it." They were shocked when about a week later, I told them I'd finished the book. We had long discussions about it, too. I was raised Episcopalian (with a Jewish father), and was going through confirmation classes at the age of 10 as well. So that's why the "bigger picture" was on my little mind. Not only was it a good film, but it was a GREAT story. And as much as I was into the occult, vampires, witches, etc., this was a very positive story... about characters who go through hell, only to come out with renewed faith in the end. If the devil so obviously exists with proof on earth, then consequently, so does God.

And I LOVE the ambiguous ending (which Friedkin and Blatty STILL argue over to this day). Friedkin ended it ambiguously on purpose... and I like his ending much better than Blatty's scripted ending (which is in the extended cut). Works much better.

And I agree with you, doodle, about the shot of Chris, walking alone, with the leaves... and the nuns passing in their flowing robes. And that short section of Tubular Bells playing. That scene haunted me as much as any of the "devil stuff." Indelible images, painted on film.