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Movie of the Week #35 - The Exorcist
We end the horror month with William Friedkin's The Exorcist from 1973. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.
Since this is the month of horror movies, did you find it scary, unsettling, creepy, eerie, spooky or horrifying?
July's schedule is:
- 1st: The Mummy
- 8th: Mission Impossible: Fallout
- 15th: Snatch
- 22nd: Barbie
- 29th: Edge of Tomorrow
One of the greatest horror films ever made. I watched this for the first time two years ago, but I had experienced the film through osmosis with all the endless parodies. Such a great atmosphere, where everything feels uneasy at all times, with the brilliant score underlying everything. It's actually incredible how well the make-up and special effects hold up here.
I don't really see anything about the Vietnam war here other than the early scene where they're filming a scene about a college campus protest. I do think this is more about faith. It's not surprising to me that Christians and Catholics consider this to be a very religious movie, because it does feel like that. The rational and scientific explanations to what's happening with Reagan fail, it's the spiritual answer that's correct. Although Friedkein wasn't religious and was approaching the idea of faith from a more philosophical perspective. The need for spirituality.
In terms of awards stuff, as I'm obsessed with that shit, Exorcist was an early front-runner to win Picture. It was a cultural phenomena in a way a horror film hadn't been before. It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Director. However, George Cukor (director of My Fair Lady) started a harsh whisper campaign against the film. Saying it'd be a new low for the Academy to award such a film. This backlash is what led to The Sting sweeping the awards. As much as I like The Sting, what a missed opportunity to award a film like this.
Not a surprising take to hear, but it’s a great movie.
Jason Miller’s performance is absolutely incredible. It’s crazy that he also won both a Tony and Pulitzer the same year he was in this movie. The only other performance that I can think of that comes close to his portrayal of Father Karras in terms of raw, emotional power is Roy Schieder as Joe Gideon in All That Jazz.
Within the last few months I re-watched all of the Exorcist movies and they all have something interesting about them.
The second one has a very interesting take on continuing the story. It’s not always successful, but there is some fantastic miniature work at the end.
The Exorcist III is a totally different story that’s only tangentially related (or not at all, depending on the version you watch). I think I actually like this one the most of the three. George C. Scott’s performance is great and the 70s style direction is a great contrast to the flowy camera movement of modern films.
The dueling prequels both miss the mark, but watching them back to back makes for an interesting contrast between Schrader’s and Harlin’s styles.
Exorcist: Believer…well I guess that proves me wrong that there’s something interesting about all the movies in the series.
And now I’ve spilled more digital ink about the sequels than the actual movie we were supposed to discuss…
One of those iconic films where I have seen the clips and the parodies, but otherwise knew nothing of what it was actually about. I was pleasantly surprised of the high production value and the big city setting. Was somehow expecting a gritty setting in a remote country or something. Having terrible things happen to innocent girls has become a tired horror trope by now, but there is a reason it is often used. It so damn effective and poor Regan here is the epitome of that.
I like how the film doesn't go overboard with the possessed scenes. We see just enough to get a pretty good idea of what is going on, and while the editing cuts to something completely different a second after did feel jarring at first, I came to appreciate this approach as it is so far from the shock type style of more modern horror films. Add to that, the hospitals scenes are in some ways equally horrifying as the demonic scenes in her bed.
Looking at the themes section on the Wikipedia page, I am amazed how this can apparently be interpreted with all kinds of societal and political allegories. That is not really how I generally watch films, but it is a testament to this that it can work on several levels, because you don't really need to read more into it than what we see on screen with a possessed child and the exorcism process to enjoy it.
I think in the 70's up through the mid-80's, almost every film was meant to be an "allegory for the Vietnam War". I've seen this take for every film from "The Exorcist" to "Star Wars" to "Aliens", often from the filmmakers themselves.