CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
- This topic has 22 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Thanks for letting me spam. 😉
But seriously, looking forward to being back in the groove here. SOON, my babies! 😀
M.I.K.E.
This will be an interesting read about two well-intended failures. Such is the fruit of the studio system.
Very nice, Mikey, I wish you all the best with this project! Film school students will study it one day, with valuable lessons contained, I’m sure.
I am wondering how much of this be analytical, and how much will be a play by play of what happened.
Scrupulous Conscience,
It’ll be play-by-play, every little detail worth mentioning (read: exhaustive), since I’m going for DEFINITIVE here. On the other hand, that — a play-by-play — will be just the icing on the cake (or else I’ll only end up with maybe 20 pages to call a book! No one would buy that. 😐
It would be unimpressive to just copy and paste others’ reporting. Gotta bring something new to the table. Thus, I’ll be analyzing, scrutinizing and comparing, reading-into all of the following:
1.Cast and crew testimony (published interviews, DVD commentaries, and forthcoming interviews I’ll personally conduct in the days and weeks ahead.)
2.The films themselves
3.A few other worm cans, such as… no, I’ve said too much! 😮
Thanks for your interest, Scrupulous Conscience.
Keep your crucifix set to any and all of the following:
http://www.evilagainstevil.com
http://www.myspace.com/exorcistprequelsbook
yours, until my body rots and lies stinking in the earth…!
M.I.K.E.
Mr. Garrett, i would like to ask what makes you think that the prequels are worthy of a case study? I am not knocking your endeavor, just asking for a pitch. Most of us felt that both films were lacking. At any rate I will happily read your book.
Hello, Scrupulous Conscience. Thank you for your interest. Here’s my take, as requested. 🙂
Unique stories deserve case studies. That’s how observers or employers of a given subject matter can learn and grow, arguably the only way; books teach, and it’s an amazing thing to have so many to choose from — the more unique ones also tend to be more compelling.
Two dueling Exorcist prequel films. One greenlit, shot, and promptly shelved and replaced with a veritable instant-remake with the same star, select supporting actors, the same sets, same composer, same cinematographer… and months after that film’s DVD hit, the Schrader’s version got a theatrical release and eventual DVD immortalization.
This just doesn’t happen every day. 🙂
When people spend $100 million and end up with two films of virtually the same story, and neither does particularly well to make one or both worth all the time, energy and money spent, it’s too good to leave the story confined to a finite, minimal presentation in movie mags that eventually are only ever read by film fans, or skimpy online articles that can go MIA when the subject is no longer genuinely “news”. No. For a couple of such ugly, bad, and GOOD movies, they deserve better; a definitive book as EVIL AGAINT EVIL: THE PREQUELS TO THE EXORCIST will be of great value, looking for the known and unknown story, all 360 degrees of it without hundreds of dollars spent on magazine back issues with only a fraction of the overall story and no further, unearthed genuine, substantial news/insights direct from the testimonies of key players. Anything I can do to indirectly or directly promote the film that started it all, William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST, the original classic, the better.
This is a unique episode in the history of cinema, let alone horror cinema. I don’t blame you nor others for not being fans of the finished products — rather, end results — Schrader and Harlin served up. But it’s a compelling case that growing mountains of ongoing research and interviews are proving that the work and intentions by all involved tell a story long overshadowed by the controversy and unintended mediocrity the two films have to present.
Thank you for your honest and respectful skepticism, Scrupulous Conscience. It keeps us writers walking the fine line, doing our job as it should be done. 😉
Yours,
I would also like to ask if you will be discussing the following points.
– There are no Northern Lights in Africa
– Billy Crawford isn’t black, and looks like a Mexican floating in a diaper
– Jesus wasn’t dead in 5AD
– If that is where Lucifer fell, why is Pazuzu there
– The dream sequence has visions that don’t mean anything within context of the rest of DominionThe Logic behind the Northern Lights(at least to my understanding)
Is That A Supernatural Event is taking place, Science can’t explain everything.The character of Cheche played by Billy Crawford, is Actualy the Child of an African Woman who was raped by a British Soldier, This was in the un-released Novelization of the Movie(At least to My understanding)
Jesus was dead by 500ad, 5ad was a little mistake made in ETB(At least to my understanding)
At No time Does the Movie DOMINION state that Lucifer fell to earth in that spot, however I think there is a hint of it. In ETB it was said that that is the spot where Lucifer Fell(At least to My understanding) Pazuzu However is never mentioned by name in either Prequel, but there are also many ways to interpret that.
The Dream Sequence does have Meaning, but it is mostly Symbolic,Metaphorical.
These types of things are very important to an Exorcist Film.
The Captain Howdy Demon Face was put in the Dream however, to make a stronger connection to the original Film(At least to My understanding)You’re just apologizing for bad film making. On the commentary track,
Schrader says the images don’t mean anything. in a film, everything
should mean something. Look at the dream sequence in the first
Exorcist. Was it just a bunch of random stuff or did it all add up to
something? Look at the dream sequence in Exorcist 3. Was it just a
bunch of random stuff or did it add up to mean something? Then look at
the dream sequence in Paul Schrader’s trashterpiece, Was it just a
bunch of random stuff like floating clocks and strange women with
blowy hair or did it add up to mean something? I think it speaks for
itself. In closing, the dream sequence is tacky and badly made, and
none of the elements mean anything.I can’t explain the woman but to me the bandaged guy is symbolic for Merrin ‘wrapped in guilt’. It all doesn’t have to make sense anyway, it’s a dream, they never do.
Northern Lights are called northern because they happen in the north. Supernatural doesn’t mean illogical.
Cheche’s mom being raped only counts if it happens in the movie. Novelizations should fill in unnecessary info, not necessary info like this.
5AD is a major problem with the movies. It isn’t minor. Of course Christian churches wouldn’t be in Africa in 5AD, because they wouldn’t be anywhere else either.
The other point about Lucifer falling or not falling is equally a problem since the movies can’t even make up their mind about which demon it is. In The Exorcist it’s Satan. In Exorcist 2 it’s Pazuzu. In Exorcist 3 it’s Satan and the Gemini. In Paul Schader’s Beginning it is Lucifer. In Harlin’s it is Pazuzu wher Lucifer fell. Nobody seems to have any idea what is going on.
Regarding the dream sequence, explain who the woman is with the blowing hair, or the bandages around Merrin’s face?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.