50 years have passed and not one shitty knock off has had the guts to contain something this brutal.
Believer was so weak you could probably get it down to a pg13 with minimal changes. And it wasn't just the violent content, the language was also toned way down, even a literal demon isn't allowed to say the word homosexual anymore. Just embarrassing levels of cowardice all the way through.
It was obviously very ballsy to include back then but I think you could get away with something like this today its just that they didn't even try. The crucifix scene is so vicious that you have to accept for some audience members its gonna be too much and turn them against the film.
That is an idea that Jason Blum is not willing to even entertain. Blumhouse make only the blandest broadest slop for mass appeal so they made the the most risk averse version of the Exorcist they could possibly make. Not because they couldn't go further but because they're just absolute hacks.
>they made the the most risk averse version of the Exorcist they could possibly make.
They really did didn't they? And it managed to miss the whole point of the Exorcist in the process. It's about taking a leap of faith, it's about how if the devil exists then God, in his absence, must do to. And they missed it completely.
Fuck, at least Exorcist 2 was genuinely trying. It's still godawful but at least it tried.
I hate Believer more than the Heretic easily.
Heretic is an absolute misfire on almost every level but it is at least sincere.
I can't say the same for this new one. It's has just as much stupid shit as Heretic does but as you say it isn't even trying. It's a purely cynical cashgrab, no redeeming value whatsoever.
At least a couple of the music tracks from The Heretic are pretty good. I mean, it's Ennio Morricone, one of the best film composers ever so no wonder. Plus it is funny watching Richard Burton get progressively more and more drunk as the movie goes on
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
I think the failed exorcism at the start has one decent moment. The rictus grin as that lady burns herself alive is the only genuinely creepy image in the entire film but unfortunately its in the first 3 minutes.The sequence with Reagan almost jumping off the weird reflective balcony of her flashy apartment looked cool I guess but thats about all I can say in the positives.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
Honestly the fact that we're looking for positives in Exorcist 2 is proof enough that Believer's a piece of shit. At least Exorcist 3 exists, right?
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
>At least Exorcist 3 exists, right?
Damn right.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
That one scene, you know the one
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
?si=ObmAh-rFiQRiO48y
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
I once fell asleep while watching Exorcist 3 and the noise at 0:52 is the single most terrifying sound ever to wake up to
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
>Plus it is funny watching Richard Burton get progressively more and more drunk as the movie goes on
Weird. I've seen the exact same line last year by an anon. I wish the post was more alike so I could pretend I was having a spooky déja vu moment and question my uneventful and sad life.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
Synchronicity. Or it was me saying the exact same thing last year.
They didn't bribe shit, censors gave the film a pass with no major cuts because they knew it was pure kino. Warner Brothers had resigned themselves to getting an X rating but the head of the MPAA at the time told friedkin he'd made a magnificent film and it deserves to be seen so they gave it the R rating instead.
I mean half the words you can't say in movies anymore weren't even "swears" ten years ago. Like homosexual and shit like that. Kind of stuff you would say with your buddies and not worry about someone overhearing in public because it was nbd. Also idk if I would say it was mainstream accepted. The internet makes it sound like it completely shocked people with the content
It is. But the point is that almost everybody misconstrues and misunderstands things nowadays because of stupidity and knee-jerk reactions. It's like the people who listen to Slayer's Angel of Death, a song about Joseph Mengele, the Nazi physician who did awful medical experiments on people and animals during WW2, and then assumed that Slayer is a anti-Semitic band. When really the song was about how horrific and horrible Mengele was and how shitty humanity can be.
>If they made this today, homosexuals on Cinemaphile would accuse it of being kike subversion, promoting Satanic pedophilia etc. etc.
No, it wouldn't, since white people aren't painted as evil oppressors, Christianity is shown in a positive light and the Christians prevail over the demonic evil in the end
My favorite Friedkin story is that when he made To Live and Die in LA he hired an actual counterfeiter to create the fake money in the film and if you watch the scene where Willem Dafoe creates the fake money it's actually showing you more-or-less how to counterfeit money properly:
Not only did the real counterfeiter teach Willem Dafoe how to actually counterfeit money, the close-ups where you can only see his hands are all the counterfeiters hands.
Got the whole production with the secret service too (which is ironic since the movie's about a secret service officer losing his fucking mind and seeking revenge.) If you watch the documentary the rest of the crew claim it was some propmaster's son who took a bit of the money and that's how it all got out of hand. Then they cut to Friedkin and he just goes, "Yeah we pretty much hit up every resteraunt in town with that fake money. The key thing was to never go to the same place twice," lmao
God I rewatched it last week on an actual decent tv and fuck me, I forgot how amazing the sound mixing is. It goes from intense, layered noise to almost complete silence constantly. It's still really impressive now
I always loved the sound in this scene. The squishing of the crucifix going into the vagina, the nasty cracking noise as she turns her head, and especially the way Chris's scream transitions and fades into the next scene. Absolute kino
Oh yeah, as far as the supernatural/horror scenes it's always been the one that stuck with me the most by far. Well, that and this guy's face haunting my goddamn nightmares
I really wish I could sit in a theatre in 1973 and watch everyone's reactions to this. I'm wondering how would they have reacted to the spiderwalk sequence had it been included in the original release
>I'm wondering how would they have reacted to the spiderwalk sequence had it been included in the original release
Am I the only person who doesn't like the spiderwalk shot? The effect doesn't work for me, and therefore takes me out of it. The motion of of the stunt actor looks like she is suspended on wires, which she is. The face doesn't look like Regan. And the blood is too bright red, and thefore looks fake. The whole thing just doesn't work for me and cheapens the film. I agree with Friedkin when he left it out of the orgininal theatrical cut.
For me it's the fact that it actually detracts from the later crucifix masturbation scene. Like up until that point you could feasibly write all the weird shit off as mental illness, but once Linda Blair's head starts spinning and the furniture starts moving of its own accord that's when you call a priest. Plus, it makes it really obvious she killed Burke Dennings. In the original cut the mom doesn't know until the detective shows up and Reagan starts speaking in Burke's voice ("YOUR CUNTING DAUGHTER?!" and so on.) With the spiderwalk scene in it's like, no shit Reagan killed Burke.
Personally though I just really fucking hate the extended ending with the surving priest and the detective. The original ending, where it fades to black as the priest stares down those steps while the first few notes of Tubular Bells play, was fucking absolutely perfect. New ending's unnecessary and weakens the film. It's still one of the greatest movies of all time in either cut but man, I really don't like the new ending.
I agree on all counts. Original ending is also way superior.
As far as the two head spinning scenes go, I get that people shit on them because her neck would literally snap and kill Regan. But I always viewed the head spinning as an illusion that the demon was inserting in to the head of the mom or the priests. In the one shot, the face is somewhat blurry, like it's an optical illusion or something. But yes, if the head actually spun around, even 180 degrees, Regan would have been dead in that instant. At least the effects were seamless and perfect, unlike the spiderwalk, which looks goofy and fake as fuck.
>But yes, if the head actually spun around, even 180 degrees, Regan would have been dead in that instant
If you read the book when the 180 degree headspin happens it's told from Chris's point-of-view and it's right after she's slapped and hits her head hard on the wall. So it's written like she's seeing stars and her visions going fuzzy when Reagan appears to spin her head around and talk in Burke Denning's voice. Obviously that all still happens in the movie (and they actually whacked Burstyn in the head for real cause Friedkin was a madman lmao) but because film just isn't a subjective viewpoint like you can do in literature it doesn't quite have the same effect.
Still your theory does work. I mean when they do the full 360 degree head turn there's an insert shot of Karras's face in the middle. You can imply that to mean that it's from Karras's view that Reagan's head spun completely around. Plus there's this shot, for the obvious reasons, but also because Reagan's wrists are bound right before this happens and are bound again in the very next shot. So a lot of what's going on might only be happening in the priest's heads
in the book the first head spin is ambiguous to whether it happened or not.
'Chris started crawling painfully toward the bed, her face smeared with blood, her eyes still unfocused, limbs aching, and then cringed, shrinking back in incredulous terror as she thought she saw hazily as if in an undulating fog, her daughter's head turning slowly and inexorably completely around on a motionless torso until at last Chris was looking directly into the foxlike, angry eyes of Burke Dennings.'
Nah I agree. The only bit I'd keep from the directors cut is Merrin asking Chris what Regan' middle name is before he goes into the room.
Other than that the theatrical is my go to on rewatches almost every time, I love the bleaker ending even if directors cut does lead into 3 (the only decent sequel) a bit better in a way because it sets up the Kinnerman/Dyer relationship.
until it got knocked off in the last year or so the exorcist was still in the top 10 box office of all time (the adjusted for inflation one I mean). It really was a level of success that the horror genre will likely never see again.
IMO its incredibly box office performance was the real reason there are so many stories of people fainting and vomiting. It became so big that people that may have had no interest/experience with horror had to see what all the fuss was about and some of them got more than they bargained for.
The look on her face during that scene was the scariest thing in the whole movie imo. She somehow managed to show genuine fear, confusion, pain, evil... etc. Scared the living shit outta me. She was the best actor on the set by far.
>She was the best actor on the set by far.
Give me a fucking break. She was great for a 12 year old. But Burstyn, Miller and Sidow were far fucking better.
>the omen was boring as shit
It's pretty good, but severely overrated. Rosemary's Baby is the superior child-of-satan film. And it came out 8 years before The Omen.
Like how 2001 A Space Odyssey changed the shape of sci-fi cinema to come, I love how Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist did that to Horror. Rosemar's Babby is kind of overrated and more like a creepy relationship drama to me personally.
And on top of that, the Exorcist is about using good vs evil and about Father Karras' struggles. The omen is like saw, just gore porn without the gore, very boring, with no real good, just evil. The graveyard scene comes close to being interesting, but should've happened an hour earlier in the movie.
What I hate in horror movies like The Omen is how there are no good beings. It's just Devil working out his plan smoothly and there's no counter forces. Also how the characters keep denying the existence of paranormal and/or seek the help of religious authorities. It's bleak and also stupid how there's just evil and no God.
How did they convince Linda's parents to let them make her do that.
Immediately after she's showing her cunt to the entire room and yelling LICK ME!!!!
Apparently Friedkin asked little Linda Blair about the masturbation scene from the book and she basically said, "Sure, doesn't everyone jerk off?" or something to that effect while her doting mother was next to her smiling away. According to Friedkin that's when he was like, "I found the perfect girl to play Reagan." Friedkin was fucking awesome.
Pretty sure Linda Blair denied this though so who knows
>Pretty sure Linda Blair denied this though so who knows
She admits saying it just to help get the role, even though she says she really didn't even know what jerking off or masturbation was. She was just repeating a phrase to sound more mature.
I think it's funnier that Friedkin kind of fell for it. I think he was just trying to make sure little Linda wasn't traumatized by participating in the scenes he wanted to include in the film. It's a smart way to precondition someone to something so that it's not traumatizing. It's a simple technique really, like warning someone that a machine is about to get loud, or you may see some bright lights. If you are prepared for something, it's not as jarring to the psyche.
its all quick cuts between close up shots so they were able to shoot it in a way where the full context wasn't actually clear to Linda Blair at the time. the most explicit shot in the sequence (the crucifix going between the legs) was an adult body double
Correct. And the close up of Linda Blairs upper body and head, when she is raising and lowering the bloody crucifix, she is simply stabbing the crucifix into a box of blood-soaked sponges.
Why was Catholicism used to exorcise a Sumerian deity? Does any religion work if you believe it enough? How can the power of Christ compel you if you've been existing for 6000 years before Christ even existed.
yes, the bible doesn't deny the power of other gods, just that you must only believe in the israeli god. the egyptians magicians were able to turn sticks into snakes to counter moses.
One thing that always confused me, why would Pazuzu pretend to have a bad reaction to the fake holy water, which would make the Church doubt the possession, but then do a bunch of stuff that proves she is possessed?
the demon was playing games with karras. It wanted to torment him like the others but it also wanted to spread doubt and confusion. For every hint it gives to him that the possession is real it also tells a lie.
But what gets karras to finally accept the truth is actually regan calling out for help.
In the book Karras actually never believes the possession is real until the very end. When Merrin arrives and he's all serious about the exorcism he's like "wft he's this guy for real?". His logic still was that if Regan really belied she was possessed even a fake exorcism could help.
Isn't that the case in the movie too? I mean Karras literally says something like, "I don't know if she's actually possessed, but it meets the requirements for the ritual." He even tries to tell Merrin that there seem to be multiple personalities in Reagan before the exorcism starts and Merrin shoots him down. Even in the movie he only starts believing over the course of the exorcism.
Possibly, but the book makes it more clear. It helps that it has more details to justify the possession being psychosomatic, like there is a medium that gifts a book about demonic possession across history to Chris at the start, so they consider the possibility that Reagan could have read it and learned there how demons are supposed to act.
Oh yeah. I've read the book. Isn't there a bit where they mention that book went missing right before Reagan started acting weird? Putting a little hint of doubt into whether or not it's an actual possesion.
I was actually kinda shocked by how funny some of the exchanges were in the book. Although I guess some of the early, funnier scenes in Exorcist 3 make more sense since I guess that's just how Blatty writes characters.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
>Isn't there a bit where they mention that book went missing right before Reagan started acting weird?
Yes, one of the house keepers even finds it in Regan's room
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
Karras' friend was hilarious, too bad they had to cut his scenes almost entirely.
Speaking of cut scenes something that they really should have kept was at least one more scene with Dennings before his death. With only briefly appearing when they're shooting the film and then drunk at the party he doesn't even feel like a relevant character, and I bet the majority of viewers when hearing that Dennings had died were like "Wait who was that again?".
This movie is still pretty frightening if you aren't watching it at 2:00pm, with the windows open, light pouring in and the movie sound at minimum. It is more of a drama than it is a horror movie, of a woman unable to figure out how to cure her sick daughter and is at her wits end. It has scary elements added in and they are really potently scary
Oh cool, The Ninth Configuration is available for free on youtube:
It's the only other film Blatty directed, along with Exorcist 3 and it's a really interesting, weird little movie. Would recommend if you haven't seen it
50 years have passed and not one shitty knock off has had the guts to contain something this brutal.
Believer was so weak you could probably get it down to a pg13 with minimal changes. And it wasn't just the violent content, the language was also toned way down, even a literal demon isn't allowed to say the word homosexual anymore. Just embarrassing levels of cowardice all the way through.
I can't believe they allowed this in a mainstream movie in 1973. Like you said, they'd never get away with this today
It was obviously very ballsy to include back then but I think you could get away with something like this today its just that they didn't even try. The crucifix scene is so vicious that you have to accept for some audience members its gonna be too much and turn them against the film.
That is an idea that Jason Blum is not willing to even entertain. Blumhouse make only the blandest broadest slop for mass appeal so they made the the most risk averse version of the Exorcist they could possibly make. Not because they couldn't go further but because they're just absolute hacks.
That's true. Mother! had a scene where a baby is ripped apart and eaten by a crazy cult, so I guess there are still some balls in this world
>they made the the most risk averse version of the Exorcist they could possibly make.
They really did didn't they? And it managed to miss the whole point of the Exorcist in the process. It's about taking a leap of faith, it's about how if the devil exists then God, in his absence, must do to. And they missed it completely.
Fuck, at least Exorcist 2 was genuinely trying. It's still godawful but at least it tried.
I hate Believer more than the Heretic easily.
Heretic is an absolute misfire on almost every level but it is at least sincere.
I can't say the same for this new one. It's has just as much stupid shit as Heretic does but as you say it isn't even trying. It's a purely cynical cashgrab, no redeeming value whatsoever.
At least a couple of the music tracks from The Heretic are pretty good. I mean, it's Ennio Morricone, one of the best film composers ever so no wonder. Plus it is funny watching Richard Burton get progressively more and more drunk as the movie goes on
I think the failed exorcism at the start has one decent moment. The rictus grin as that lady burns herself alive is the only genuinely creepy image in the entire film but unfortunately its in the first 3 minutes.The sequence with Reagan almost jumping off the weird reflective balcony of her flashy apartment looked cool I guess but thats about all I can say in the positives.
Honestly the fact that we're looking for positives in Exorcist 2 is proof enough that Believer's a piece of shit. At least Exorcist 3 exists, right?
>At least Exorcist 3 exists, right?
Damn right.
That one scene, you know the one
?si=ObmAh-rFiQRiO48y
I once fell asleep while watching Exorcist 3 and the noise at 0:52 is the single most terrifying sound ever to wake up to
>Plus it is funny watching Richard Burton get progressively more and more drunk as the movie goes on
Weird. I've seen the exact same line last year by an anon. I wish the post was more alike so I could pretend I was having a spooky déja vu moment and question my uneventful and sad life.
Synchronicity. Or it was me saying the exact same thing last year.
They had to bribe people to get away with it in 1973
They didn't bribe shit, censors gave the film a pass with no major cuts because they knew it was pure kino. Warner Brothers had resigned themselves to getting an X rating but the head of the MPAA at the time told friedkin he'd made a magnificent film and it deserves to be seen so they gave it the R rating instead.
I mean half the words you can't say in movies anymore weren't even "swears" ten years ago. Like homosexual and shit like that. Kind of stuff you would say with your buddies and not worry about someone overhearing in public because it was nbd. Also idk if I would say it was mainstream accepted. The internet makes it sound like it completely shocked people with the content
You can't even say "retard" now without a games journalist or a youtube influencer losing their fucking minds.
Good
If they made this today, homosexuals on Cinemaphile would accuse it of being kike subversion, promoting Satanic pedophilia etc. etc.
Exorcist is a profoundly Christian movie.
Yeah and Cuties is anti-pedophilia
It is. But the point is that almost everybody misconstrues and misunderstands things nowadays because of stupidity and knee-jerk reactions. It's like the people who listen to Slayer's Angel of Death, a song about Joseph Mengele, the Nazi physician who did awful medical experiments on people and animals during WW2, and then assumed that Slayer is a anti-Semitic band. When really the song was about how horrific and horrible Mengele was and how shitty humanity can be.
retard
As christian as your circumcised cock
>If they made this today, homosexuals on Cinemaphile would accuse it of being kike subversion, promoting Satanic pedophilia etc. etc.
No, it wouldn't, since white people aren't painted as evil oppressors, Christianity is shown in a positive light and the Christians prevail over the demonic evil in the end
that's some hardcore strawmanning
maybe keep to reddit next time yea?
They'd definitely accuse it of satanic pedophilia.
Friedkin was insane and had balls of steel no other entry will ever top the visceral horror of the original.
My favorite Friedkin story is that when he made To Live and Die in LA he hired an actual counterfeiter to create the fake money in the film and if you watch the scene where Willem Dafoe creates the fake money it's actually showing you more-or-less how to counterfeit money properly:
Not only did the real counterfeiter teach Willem Dafoe how to actually counterfeit money, the close-ups where you can only see his hands are all the counterfeiters hands.
Got the whole production with the secret service too (which is ironic since the movie's about a secret service officer losing his fucking mind and seeking revenge.) If you watch the documentary the rest of the crew claim it was some propmaster's son who took a bit of the money and that's how it all got out of hand. Then they cut to Friedkin and he just goes, "Yeah we pretty much hit up every resteraunt in town with that fake money. The key thing was to never go to the same place twice," lmao
>Got the whole production IN TROUBLE with the secret service too
Goddamn it
God I rewatched it last week on an actual decent tv and fuck me, I forgot how amazing the sound mixing is. It goes from intense, layered noise to almost complete silence constantly. It's still really impressive now
I always loved the sound in this scene. The squishing of the crucifix going into the vagina, the nasty cracking noise as she turns her head, and especially the way Chris's scream transitions and fades into the next scene. Absolute kino
Oh yeah, as far as the supernatural/horror scenes it's always been the one that stuck with me the most by far. Well, that and this guy's face haunting my goddamn nightmares
this shit gave me a fear of mirrors and looking out of windows when its dark for years
I really wish I could sit in a theatre in 1973 and watch everyone's reactions to this. I'm wondering how would they have reacted to the spiderwalk sequence had it been included in the original release
>I'm wondering how would they have reacted to the spiderwalk sequence had it been included in the original release
Am I the only person who doesn't like the spiderwalk shot? The effect doesn't work for me, and therefore takes me out of it. The motion of of the stunt actor looks like she is suspended on wires, which she is. The face doesn't look like Regan. And the blood is too bright red, and thefore looks fake. The whole thing just doesn't work for me and cheapens the film. I agree with Friedkin when he left it out of the orgininal theatrical cut.
For me it's the fact that it actually detracts from the later crucifix masturbation scene. Like up until that point you could feasibly write all the weird shit off as mental illness, but once Linda Blair's head starts spinning and the furniture starts moving of its own accord that's when you call a priest. Plus, it makes it really obvious she killed Burke Dennings. In the original cut the mom doesn't know until the detective shows up and Reagan starts speaking in Burke's voice ("YOUR CUNTING DAUGHTER?!" and so on.) With the spiderwalk scene in it's like, no shit Reagan killed Burke.
Personally though I just really fucking hate the extended ending with the surving priest and the detective. The original ending, where it fades to black as the priest stares down those steps while the first few notes of Tubular Bells play, was fucking absolutely perfect. New ending's unnecessary and weakens the film. It's still one of the greatest movies of all time in either cut but man, I really don't like the new ending.
I agree on all counts. Original ending is also way superior.
As far as the two head spinning scenes go, I get that people shit on them because her neck would literally snap and kill Regan. But I always viewed the head spinning as an illusion that the demon was inserting in to the head of the mom or the priests. In the one shot, the face is somewhat blurry, like it's an optical illusion or something. But yes, if the head actually spun around, even 180 degrees, Regan would have been dead in that instant. At least the effects were seamless and perfect, unlike the spiderwalk, which looks goofy and fake as fuck.
>But yes, if the head actually spun around, even 180 degrees, Regan would have been dead in that instant
If you read the book when the 180 degree headspin happens it's told from Chris's point-of-view and it's right after she's slapped and hits her head hard on the wall. So it's written like she's seeing stars and her visions going fuzzy when Reagan appears to spin her head around and talk in Burke Denning's voice. Obviously that all still happens in the movie (and they actually whacked Burstyn in the head for real cause Friedkin was a madman lmao) but because film just isn't a subjective viewpoint like you can do in literature it doesn't quite have the same effect.
Still your theory does work. I mean when they do the full 360 degree head turn there's an insert shot of Karras's face in the middle. You can imply that to mean that it's from Karras's view that Reagan's head spun completely around. Plus there's this shot, for the obvious reasons, but also because Reagan's wrists are bound right before this happens and are bound again in the very next shot. So a lot of what's going on might only be happening in the priest's heads
in the book the first head spin is ambiguous to whether it happened or not.
'Chris started crawling painfully toward the bed, her face smeared with blood, her eyes still unfocused, limbs aching, and then cringed, shrinking back in incredulous terror as she thought she saw hazily as if in an undulating fog, her daughter's head turning slowly and inexorably completely around on a motionless torso until at last Chris was looking directly into the foxlike, angry eyes of Burke Dennings.'
>Burke's voice ("YOUR CUNTING DAUGHTER?!"
I never realized that was supposed to be Burke's voice....
Nah I agree. The only bit I'd keep from the directors cut is Merrin asking Chris what Regan' middle name is before he goes into the room.
Other than that the theatrical is my go to on rewatches almost every time, I love the bleaker ending even if directors cut does lead into 3 (the only decent sequel) a bit better in a way because it sets up the Kinnerman/Dyer relationship.
>Am I the only person who doesn't like the spiderwalk shot?
Nope, I think it looks goofy as fuck
So do I anon:
God these are great. It must've really been a phenomenon too with it being covered in the news:
until it got knocked off in the last year or so the exorcist was still in the top 10 box office of all time (the adjusted for inflation one I mean). It really was a level of success that the horror genre will likely never see again.
IMO its incredibly box office performance was the real reason there are so many stories of people fainting and vomiting. It became so big that people that may have had no interest/experience with horror had to see what all the fuss was about and some of them got more than they bargained for.
YOUR MOTHER SEWS SOCKS THAT SMELL
Is there a cable version?
YOUR MOTHER TUCKS SOCKS IN HELL
>your mum
YOUR MOTHER ISNT DOING SO WELL!
YOUR MOTHER HAS A FUNNY SMELL!
YOUR MOTHER IS SLIMEY AS A SNAIL!
YOUR MOTHER CANT CHECK HER EMAIL!
>50th anniversary
>Friedkin dies the same year
>Blatty's been dead for years now
>Shitty, soulless requel out the same year
Sad
Fuck this
>yes mom, would you get out of there please!
Hands down the best scary movie opener
DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID
The look on her face during that scene was the scariest thing in the whole movie imo. She somehow managed to show genuine fear, confusion, pain, evil... etc. Scared the living shit outta me. She was the best actor on the set by far.
>She was the best actor on the set by far.
Give me a fucking break. She was great for a 12 year old. But Burstyn, Miller and Sidow were far fucking better.
I would if I could
Imagine a movie doing this with the religious iconography of the other two Abrahamic religions. Imagine how fast Hollywood would shut it down...
Remember the USS Liberty.
You know that the person saying blasphemous things is a literal demon, right?
in stereotypical Pakistan voice
>let Mohammad fuck you, let Mohammad fuck your vagene
you're so gullible, brainwashed, or dishonest even tho you're on Cinemaphile you don't see obvious subversion with a thin alibi
100%. Blasphemy start to finish and the death of two priests. Thanks, Friedkin.
The exorcist is based, meanwhile the omen was boring as shit, literally turned it off after an hour and some change
>the omen was boring as shit
It's pretty good, but severely overrated. Rosemary's Baby is the superior child-of-satan film. And it came out 8 years before The Omen.
Like how 2001 A Space Odyssey changed the shape of sci-fi cinema to come, I love how Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist did that to Horror. Rosemar's Babby is kind of overrated and more like a creepy relationship drama to me personally.
And on top of that, the Exorcist is about using good vs evil and about Father Karras' struggles. The omen is like saw, just gore porn without the gore, very boring, with no real good, just evil. The graveyard scene comes close to being interesting, but should've happened an hour earlier in the movie.
What I hate in horror movies like The Omen is how there are no good beings. It's just Devil working out his plan smoothly and there's no counter forces. Also how the characters keep denying the existence of paranormal and/or seek the help of religious authorities. It's bleak and also stupid how there's just evil and no God.
certified hood~~*rat*~~ moment
How did they convince Linda's parents to let them make her do that.
Immediately after she's showing her cunt to the entire room and yelling LICK ME!!!!
Unreal. Old movies are so cool.
Apparently Friedkin asked little Linda Blair about the masturbation scene from the book and she basically said, "Sure, doesn't everyone jerk off?" or something to that effect while her doting mother was next to her smiling away. According to Friedkin that's when he was like, "I found the perfect girl to play Reagan." Friedkin was fucking awesome.
Pretty sure Linda Blair denied this though so who knows
>Pretty sure Linda Blair denied this though so who knows
She admits saying it just to help get the role, even though she says she really didn't even know what jerking off or masturbation was. She was just repeating a phrase to sound more mature.
lmao that's even funnier then
I think it's funnier that Friedkin kind of fell for it. I think he was just trying to make sure little Linda wasn't traumatized by participating in the scenes he wanted to include in the film. It's a smart way to precondition someone to something so that it's not traumatizing. It's a simple technique really, like warning someone that a machine is about to get loud, or you may see some bright lights. If you are prepared for something, it's not as jarring to the psyche.
Bullshit, girls start flicking their bean as young as 3.
Hell, some research shows they masturbate while still in the womb.
its all quick cuts between close up shots so they were able to shoot it in a way where the full context wasn't actually clear to Linda Blair at the time. the most explicit shot in the sequence (the crucifix going between the legs) was an adult body double
Correct. And the close up of Linda Blairs upper body and head, when she is raising and lowering the bloody crucifix, she is simply stabbing the crucifix into a box of blood-soaked sponges.
Why was Catholicism used to exorcise a Sumerian deity? Does any religion work if you believe it enough? How can the power of Christ compel you if you've been existing for 6000 years before Christ even existed.
Because God Jesus Christ is above all. Checkmate, non Christians.
yes, the bible doesn't deny the power of other gods, just that you must only believe in the israeli god. the egyptians magicians were able to turn sticks into snakes to counter moses.
>Implying the exorcism was actually working
Pazuzu only left Regan's body after Karras offered his body to him to be possesed.
Merrin only failed because he was too old and frail to finish the job. He had already exorcised Pazuzu in the past.
Because those arent gods. They are demons pretending to be gods to lead people astray. Pretty simple
>YOUR MOTHER SUCKS COCKS IN HELL
boomers shit and pissed their pants scared of that? KEK
>LET JESUS FUCK YOU!
Even demons like to project like liberals.
AHEM AMERICAN POLITICS DUUUUUDE
Fuck off, burger cunt.
One thing that always confused me, why would Pazuzu pretend to have a bad reaction to the fake holy water, which would make the Church doubt the possession, but then do a bunch of stuff that proves she is possessed?
>the demon is a liar. he will lie to confuse us
the demon was playing games with karras. It wanted to torment him like the others but it also wanted to spread doubt and confusion. For every hint it gives to him that the possession is real it also tells a lie.
But what gets karras to finally accept the truth is actually regan calling out for help.
In the book Karras actually never believes the possession is real until the very end. When Merrin arrives and he's all serious about the exorcism he's like "wft he's this guy for real?". His logic still was that if Regan really belied she was possessed even a fake exorcism could help.
Isn't that the case in the movie too? I mean Karras literally says something like, "I don't know if she's actually possessed, but it meets the requirements for the ritual." He even tries to tell Merrin that there seem to be multiple personalities in Reagan before the exorcism starts and Merrin shoots him down. Even in the movie he only starts believing over the course of the exorcism.
Possibly, but the book makes it more clear. It helps that it has more details to justify the possession being psychosomatic, like there is a medium that gifts a book about demonic possession across history to Chris at the start, so they consider the possibility that Reagan could have read it and learned there how demons are supposed to act.
Oh yeah. I've read the book. Isn't there a bit where they mention that book went missing right before Reagan started acting weird? Putting a little hint of doubt into whether or not it's an actual possesion.
I was actually kinda shocked by how funny some of the exchanges were in the book. Although I guess some of the early, funnier scenes in Exorcist 3 make more sense since I guess that's just how Blatty writes characters.
>Isn't there a bit where they mention that book went missing right before Reagan started acting weird?
Yes, one of the house keepers even finds it in Regan's room
Karras' friend was hilarious, too bad they had to cut his scenes almost entirely.
Speaking of cut scenes something that they really should have kept was at least one more scene with Dennings before his death. With only briefly appearing when they're shooting the film and then drunk at the party he doesn't even feel like a relevant character, and I bet the majority of viewers when hearing that Dennings had died were like "Wait who was that again?".
He certainly started believing when her head did a 180 and she started levitating
Nope. Paranormal phenomena like that, or opening the drawer, or reading his mind can be be explained with latent psychic powers.
Yes. He even stops the prayer early in the exorcism and seems to be in a state of shock.
>her head did a 180
actually she turned her head 3600 and looked away
This movie is still pretty frightening if you aren't watching it at 2:00pm, with the windows open, light pouring in and the movie sound at minimum. It is more of a drama than it is a horror movie, of a woman unable to figure out how to cure her sick daughter and is at her wits end. It has scary elements added in and they are really potently scary
Real talk, Pazuzu was kinda hilarious. I could see myself chilling and shitposting with it
I like III a lot.
>Did you do that?
>Uh huhhhhhh
>Do it again
>In time
Why did they have to make the demon so based and funny?
kino fullstop.
Oh cool, The Ninth Configuration is available for free on youtube:
It's the only other film Blatty directed, along with Exorcist 3 and it's a really interesting, weird little movie. Would recommend if you haven't seen it
>50 years later
>Still arguably the greatest horror movie ever
How did they do it?
They thought about making a good movie first and foremost
the "take me" scene is cinema's one of more powerful achievements, imo
Max Von Sydow and Miller are so kino in this movie.
DIMMY WHY DIMMY DONT YOU LOVE YOU MOTHER DIMMY
Genuinely harrowing scene and even more to me personally as my mother passed away lately.
Miller's scream of "YOU'RE NOT MY MOTHER" is excellent