The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

also youve got to hand a lot of credit to that and carrie for permanently establishing the double ending gotcha moment xpost

friday the 13th is kinda gack and im on record as not entirely hating some of the late halloween sequels

i was raised Catholic ... and my parents were pretty hardcore religious, too ... but even so the whole "this is why the exorcist is really scary to Catholics!" had to be explained to me. then again, i've always had a sick sense of humor (though a 12 year-old stabbing herself in her crotch was admittedly shocking) and when i 1st watched it as a teenager my honest reaction was "lol 12 year old cussing up a storm and spitting green pea soup COMEDY GOLD".

i think to be fair part of the problem w/me seeing the greatness of the exorcist was that growing up in a godless heathen household it just wasnt really scary because posession seemed way less likely than getting eaten by a werewolf or w/e.

I grew up the same way, jjj, but I always counter the position you've taken by asking, "What makes you (or the characters in the film) so sure that the 'possession' was caused by anything as easily-definable as a demon or that there was any theological solution to the problem?". It's a question that I think the film leaves open to interpretation (assuming you ignore the additional backstory supplied by subsequent installments).

The OG F13 killed an actual snake on screen. Can Val Lewton say that?

huh deric thats actually kind of an interesting question

I'll give F13 credit for the double-shock ending. And, oh, how well that has served us.

also, i saw the Richard Pryor Exorcist/SNL skit long before i'd actually seen the exorcist (lol my parents having less trouble having less problems w/ a teenaged me watching/listening to Richard Pryor even at his raunchiest than they had w/ me watching stuff like the exorcist or top secret! or playing dungeons and dragons, but that's another topic). so that probably irrevocably predisposed me to seeing the comedy in the exorcist.

I agree that as a non-Catholic the "horror" element of the Exorcist totally eludes me. like OMG the devil can levitate a bed. stop the presses.

I wasn't a huge stan for black swan, but I think it would be fair play for a horror poll - it certainly has enough hat-tips to Repulsion to reveal that Aranofksy was totally going for the Polanski model of woman-in-distress.

never cared for the exorcist honestly and i could only be more catholic if i was wearing a pope hat.

I think the extremity of the exorcist leads ppl to be either really into it or totally out of it. if you think the proceedings are goofy I guess you're just going to check out? what lends the craziness of the final sequence its power is the patient buildup, that 70s verite style contrasted with totally outlandish happenings. there's a great use of sound design - a lot of sudden cutting between loud jarring scenes and complete silence. and some of my favorite moments from it are the early ones - the mysterious prologue in iraq, karras' dream, his first meeting with regan etc. and all the scenes between karras and the detective are golden.

also the stories about friedkin making the exorcist are kinda hilar, like him slapping an actual priest to get him to cry onscreen which scandalized the catholic crew.

i was more disturbed by the discovery that high-ranking Catholic clergy during the late 20th century still took the concepts of demon possession and exorcisms of same seriously than by what i saw on the screen while watching the exorcist. it was as if they also disclosed that they still believed in witch-burning or torturing heretics.

I don't understand most of the religeous references in supernatural j-horror (and they're in there), but that hasn't stopped these movies from freaking me out.

Yeah Friedkin's kind of a maniac and the movie seems genuinely unhinged, which I think is more what's scary about it than anything theological. It's incoherent and objectively ridiculous, but the whole thing feels out of control.

I agree that as a non-Catholic the "horror" element of the Exorcist totally eludes me. like OMG the devil can levitate a bed. stop the presses.

i think it's that more that unknown forces can force you out of your own body, replacing you with some kind of hideous monster

also think the horror is more about the torture of an innocent girl and the helplessness of her family to stop it - the possession functions in part as a metaphor for debilitating illness, there's a reason there are so many sequences of medical procedures in the film

see, now I would say almost the exact opposite. I find the 'big, scary evil ol' Satan' thing to be one of the least-engaging horror tropes.

maybe i should watch it again. it's been eons.

it's body horror as much as any early cronenberg flick

xxp - in saying that, though, I'm not referring so much to The Exorcist as I am to something like The Omen, or the concluding sequences of Rosemary's Baby.

also think the horror is more about the torture of an innocent girl and the helplessness of her family to stop it - the possession functions in part as a metaphor for debilitating illness, there's a reason there are so many sequences of medical procedures in the film

that's an interesting point. to the extent that regan is the "monster", we're not supposed to be afraid of her, but rather afraid for her. she's an innocent little girl caught in this terrible situation from which the people who care for her cannot protect her. we're supposed to empathize with their torment in this failure, not just be freaked the fuck out by scary devil powers. but that too.

Dude, do you ever get tired of restating what people have just said?

prior to seeing it, I remember the Exorcist being built up as this unbelievably terrifying thing - I knew that it involved the devil posessing a teenage girl, but I figured there was more to it than that, that it was like an epidemic, or a sign of the apocalypse, or the Devil was using her to murder people or something. And then I saw it and all she does is hurt herself, vomit guacamole, and make a priest throw himself out a window. I was like "that's IT?!? lol catholics"

xp

the movie seems genuinely unhinged, which I think is more what's scary about it than anything theological. It's incoherent and objectively ridiculous, but the whole thing feels out of control.

This could just as easily be a description of Poltergeist. Which, to me, works almost as well on a lot of the same levels as The Exorcist (minus the whole "losing control of one's body" horror thing).

it would be scary if it was YOUR kid or YOUR priest.

def prefer Rosemary's Baby and the Omen
xxxp

Bah sorry, that was pretty rude, you do just seem to be acting as ILX's commentary track at the moment, which I know, it's a free country and all.

as an aside wr2 the omen -- it was only a year ago when i realized that the 2nd Doctor (from Doctor Who) was one of the priests who got snuffed. from that point on, i was wondering when Jon Pertwee (the 3d Doctor) would show up.

Dude, do you ever get tired of restating what people have just said?

uh, i just did that (clearly), but i don't think it's something i make a habit of. gather that this is "take shots at contenderizer" day, though, so have ats.

will dial it down a notch, as the message is getting too loud to ignore

prior to seeing it, I remember the Exorcist being built up as this unbelievably terrifying thing - I knew that it involved the devil posessing a teenage girl, but I figured there was more to it than that, that it was like an epidemic, or a sign of the apocalypse, or the Devil was using her to murder people or something. And then I saw it and all she does is hurt herself, vomit guacamole, and make a priest throw himself out a window. I was like "that's IT?!? lol catholics"

xp

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:08 PM (3 minutes ago)

see, I don't get that. why does something have to be apocalyptic and over the top to be terrifying?

burstyn acts as a stand-in for the non-believing audience (and by that I mean the entire audience, regardless of faith - I certainly don't believe in demonic possession). she's a modern, rational woman whose daughter is suddenly attacked by forces beyond her control, forces she doesn't even believe in. that's the starting point of all horror. and the realness of her fatigue is another thing the movie does a great job of portraying.

I find the 'big, scary evil ol' Satan' thing to be one of the least-engaging horror tropes.

― Troll 3 (Pillbox), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 5:00 PM (1 minute ago)

so no evil dead for you?

i think that using the fear of something turning you into something monstrous is the lynchpin of idk over half of horror movies tho so i dont see that as some sorta big talking point in favor of the exorcist or other possession based films really

basically its kind of like a zombie film except no one else seems to catch the virus which is prob the real root of the problem for me

p sure Evil Dead is on some Lovecraftian pagan demons of the ancient world type thing, which is frankly much cooler & far more badass & scary than lame old Satan.

one devil many forms

Actually, now that I've just realized the ways in which Poltergeist and The Exorcist are similar, this brings up a really fascinating topic in horror movies (which is barely ever even implied in horror films, to the extent that it's explored at all): this idea of taking a completely fucked-up situation over which the protagonists have no control and attempting to throw a net of order (however supernatural in origin) over it. "Shit's going crazy in my house! Must be poltergeists!" "My daughter has turned into a monster! Must be a demon!" And then an expert is brought in and the situation is handled. But my question in these situations is always, "Who says this person is any more of an expert with unexplainable stuff than, say, John Edwards or the Ghost Hunters douchebags? Who says they have any real grasp on or control over this completely bugfuck situation?" It's rare that a horror movie has the courage to say, "Y'know what? None of these people have a clue, and this horrible stuff is just gonna keep happening until it stops." So I often just choose to interpret those films as if that were the case.

plus satan is always badass

like if you met a kid named satan, you'd be like badass! I don't know how I'd feel about a kid named yog-sothoth

something is in your child and scientists are baffled. it knows your weaknesses and has spooky powers.

plus there is some vague scary shit out in the desert and man this thing is OLD

this thing claims to be an all-time bad guy (actually a multitude of bad guys) from another dimension

some priest from an old religeon walks into your house and starts chanting in a dead language AND SHIT GETS REAL

PS your kid's head is turning around 360 and she is stabbing herself in the crotch with some weird sacrificial symbol derived from an execution device

religion

why does something have to be apocalyptic and over the top to be terrifying?

bear in mind that was teenaged-me's reaction I was describing. but yeah, my conception of the Devil - the Ultimate All Powerful Force of Evil - was on the grand end of the scale. I was not expecting a gritty 70s realist sort of approach. I was expecting something mind-meltingly diabolical.

xxp

Man, contenderizer, don't pay any attention to people being dickish. You bring good value to threads.

I don't know how I'd feel about a kid named yog-sothoth

u racist

the omen kind of perpetually ruined the viability of the first name Damien. just sayin'

well, i wouldn't say that the possession-fear that makes the exorcist scary on the "it could happen to you" level is unique, just that it seems like legitimate scariness fodder.

the idea that a zombie would have to be some sort of plague creature to be scary is odd to me. i think you could build and excellent horror story around just one. w.w. jacobs did just that in "the monkey's paw", still the scariest zombie story i can think of.

^ that in response to jjj

i mean, i grew up friendly w/ a kid whose first name was Damien (he was born just before the omen was released) and yes he caught lotsa shit for his name.

man when the exorcist places we are gonna have nothing to say

How about "Exorcist II: The Heretic was robbed"?

have no fear there will always be something to say about the exorcist.