[kokumo]

William Peter Blatty should have done the Exorcist sequel. That he managed to create a suitable companion nearly two decades later is no small testament to his ability. A few very good directors have stumbled over the material and countless others have aped The Exorcist and failed miserably. A writer with the ability to craft characters with dialogue that stays with you long after the film ends is what Exorcist II needed. Most of the posts indicate nothing could save the Exorcist II but a man as talented as Blatty who understood the rythms of Friedkins' original film may have been able to salvage some of it.

[kokumo]

I have a love/hate relationship with Exorcist II. It's probably not what anyone wanted or expected to see but it's so brilliantly constructed and deftly produced at times it almost feels like a masterpiece. Boorman has proven himself time ant time again to have a sure hand as a director and even a visionary one.  The inclusion of the dead exorcist, the backstory set in Africa's past & that strobelight crap crippled The Heretic. Blatty made the concept work in Exorcist III but it was a hard sell even with his writing and directorial skills but ressurecting the priests wasn't what I wanted to see in Exorcist II. RIP, Karras. Stay the hell dead, Merrin.

[kokumo]

Not The Exorcist but again sometime soon.

Watched Prometheus and had a blast with it. In terms of quality it equals Alien. Arguably not in content; Alien is a more pure viewing experience while Prometheus covers a lot of bases as it coast along. Did like it a lot and am keeping my fingers crossed that Scott gets to do a sequel.

[kokumo]

Hello, Hammer Horror, I wanted to ask a question about the Italian edition. There is an actress who starred in a number of Mario Bava films including Hatchet For the Honeymoon with a rather unique voice. She'd been an in-demand charactor actress in Europe for decades before being hired to dub the voice of the demon in the Exorcist for overseas, primarily the Italian market. Was she the voice of the demon in the version you saw in Italy and if so, how did she compare to Mercedes McCambridge?

[kokumo]

I want to believe is very much like an episode of the series. Had it been an episode it would have been considered one of the best. It simply wasn't the blockbuster the fans wanted. It wasn't the kind of movie destined to earn 100 mill on it's opening weekend. It was dismissed in Hollywood who have no eye or interest in under-performers. I go over to chat rooms on the imdb and people are chatting about John Carter's box office & overseas haul & how much it dropped between monday & wed & just scratch my head in wonder. Very little about it is even about the movie. And that seems to be the mindset people have going in to movies in the millennium where everything is expected to open as wide as The Dark Knight & earn X dollars before X date on schedule. It's crazy. People think they're cub reporters for variety.

 

That mindset damaged I Want to Believe going in. The actor who played the fallen priest deserved an oscar nomination for supporting actor. The film was loaded with refs & injokes to satisfy hardcore fans. Moulder & Scully are magic together. What's not to love? It was a very smart film & smartly directed while still embracing it's trashy roots in z movies like The Brain That Would Not Die. What Chris Carter got onscreen on that budget is a solid achievement and stands as testiment to how good a genre movie can be without shelling out 250 million to redo The Lone Ranger with werewolves and an additional 100 million spent on PR to drive the heards into the theatres to feed that all important opening weekend.

[kokumo]

I didn't see it when originally released but later it was re-issued. The buzz surrounding The Exorcist had not faded and the horror elements were legendary. The spectacle of the horror far overshadowed the quality of the work, even after the oscar recognition. It was understood that this was a great film and serious discussions were to be found on the novel & film but it really was allll about the puke & masturbation scene, etc. The quotes being bandied were what you might expect; the nasty ones. The audience was rapt during those intense moments as was I & I think we were all there salivating for the next fright rather than enjoying the depth of the material; the nuances. Many years removed from that initial viiewing the way we watch films is so different. We own them. We sift thru them and study them & obsess over them in a way that we could not back them except for the junkies who would pay night after night to watch it in theatres. You really had to get some distance from the hype and sensationalism of it to  appreciate it for how grand an experience it was overall.

[kokumo]

I have't read the revised version of The Exorcist but I know many people who were glad to see expansions of The Stand & Salem's Lot by Stephen King and felt both works were even more satisfying for having been rereleased in that form. So long as it's not one of those tricky publishing deals where the estate of an author permits ghost written material to be penned under his/her name, I'm all for it.

[kokumo]

I'm not very far into it but just in these first 40-50 pages you are instantly fascinated by the story. Blatty has a deftness to how he crafts his sentences, there is a preciseness to his language and there is an economy to how he tells his story that reminds you why The Exorcist sold a gazillion copies.

 

It's always an experience to delve into the work of Blatty & I hope that this book finds an audience.

[kokumo]

I bought the 'book' box set which covers the series up to 'Jason Takes Manhattan'.  It's an economical was to pick up 8 'classic' slashers. Part III is presented in startling 3D. The last 15 minutes or so of Part VII are surprisingly good. The commentary for Part VI is worth a listen as is the track for the original Friday the 13th. The movies are what they are…bad slasher pics. If your tolerence for slashers is high this box set is definately worth owning but if you thought they were crap 25 years ago they've not improved with age. Much of the bonus material seems fan produced & is rather repetative & tiresome, especially the faux 'Friday the 13th'esque extra murders. A few discs contain raw footage of fx ultimately trimmed by censors. It's been a number of years since I watched the series & was surprised at how much I enjoyed seeing Part 1, 3 & 6 again.  In recent years “freddy Vs. Jason' & the effective 'friday the 13th' reboot have been a breath of fresh air for this tired old series.

[kokumo]

I'm a phan of the Phantasm pics & am eternally optomistic that a sequel or remake will be forthcoming. It's unusual to see such a low budget series envelope itself in such a fascinating mythology…aliens, time travel, dimentional portals, mysterious spheres and the enigmatic; The Tall Man. Arguably, the 1st pic was the only 'good' one but even the lesser films add to the mythology in ways that make them invaluable viewing.

[kokumo]

I was always willing to overlook the business about 'the exorcist lasting for months and nearly killing him'. That's not going to translate to film anyway. So you either accept the lack of continuity or chalk it up to some gossipy priests exaggerating the tale over the years. The problem with the prequels was that (imo) Merrin wasn't the focus of The Exorcist, the relationships were. Exorcist II (which had no dramatic weight) had no business even including Merrin. The inclusion doomed the movie. Exorcist: The Beginning was noisy & unlikely overall and conveyed none of the power Blatty instilled in The Exorcist III by effortlessly constructing relationships and characters worth caring about. The exception to the prequel curse would be; Dominion, which I quite liked and respected and wish had been a better film and a better horror fim.

[kokumo]

hmmmmm, “Silent Hill” 1 & 2, a strange Japanese game (infuriatingly hard) called “Siren”, a few of the more puzzle-centric “Resident Evil” titles and an obscure old PS2 bargain game (whose title is lost to me) about a haunted moonbase. It had loads of atmoshere…

[kokumo]

continuity-schmontinuity. It is what it is; a sequel to “The Exorcist”. That's canon.

[kokumo]

Love the Omen, enjoyed the sequels (mostly) and would have even watced the weekly series if it had gotten beyond the pilot that aired on NBC. The remake was competently told but poorly cast. The leads were far too young to carry off the material. What did work was the casting of Mia Farrow as the satanic nanny. It's almost an extention of “Rosemary's Baby”

[kokumo]

John Carpenter's unforgettable theme to “Halloween”, “Godzilla's March” from the legendary Toho series (performed especialy well in “Invasion of the Astros”), the beautiful score used in “The Omen” & I'm fond of the reworked musical score for Bela Lugosi's “Dracula” & The music from “Candyman to name a few

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