CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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It’s like a jig saw puzzle putting together the “Drac”, “Frank” & disjointed “Mummys” but here goes…
Love the “Psycho” series. The Bates charactor is unforgettable and the actor built on those good graces thru 1-4, layering on sympathy & depravity & black humor. Didn’t hate the remake and even got a kick out of Bud Cort in the blasphemous “Bates Motel” tv pilot.
Have a fond spot in my heart for the “Hellraiser” series from the intital good one straight on thru those odd sequels after #4 that were derived from unrelated material & reworked to include “Hellraiser ” mythology. Similarly, I’m fond of the appauling “Howling” sequels.
Didn’t dislike the “Omen” remake…it was, afterall a close copy. The leads seemed to young for the roles, like the casting of “Superman Returns”. The Omen I want to see is the goofy tv series pilot about the spirit of Damien possessing people by way of ectoplasmic barf. That’s entertainment!
Carpenter pretty clearly established Myers & Loomis died at the end of “Halloween II” and part III backed it up. I was not a fan of “Halloween IV” & while the later “H2O” was good, the whole point was that “Laurie” would finally kill myers off. Enter; “Ressurrection”. With Zombies’ “Halloween” one gets the distinct impression Myers is dead at the end. Is that the case? Ant sequels in the works.
“The Birds” is an immaculately directed, perfect film. I had friends oner one day and “Marnie” was playing quietly on the tube. Everyones eyes were drawn to it first for the beauty of star Tippi but soon they were captivated by the story. Not my favorite personally but the response from the group to an older pic they might not have ordinarily considered watching proves Hitchcock is The Master. “Frenzy” is grotesque & violent and twistedly funny. Probably the silent films he made in the 1920s are his least interesting but historians or completists may disagree.
I think “Exorcist II: The Heretic” is a terrible sequel but in terms of film-making is quite brilliant and fascinating. A reviewer named Pauline Kael decribed it as having enough movie magic for 12 movies and I tend to agree. People who love “The Exorcist” tend to hate “The Heretic” and it’s easy to see why. Blattys’ “The Exorcist III” is slightly flawed but it’s smart and scary and perfectly cast & expertly directed. I love them both. It’s that noisy, edited-in-a-blender “Exorcist: The Beginning” which should be vilified. I still can’t believe the studio shat all over Schraders’ “Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist” in favor of that twaddle.
I think “The Heretic” is a complete zero by comparrison to “The Exorcist”, “The Ninth Configuration” (perfect films). It scores quite highly in technique and Boormans’ direction. Blattys’ “The Exorcist III” scores an 8 1/2 of 10 and is aging very well. “Dominion” is a 6 1/2 of 10 while the least interesting pic; “The Beginning” gets a 3.
“Exorcist III” sent heads spinning with a very respectable $20,000,000.00+ take on its’ opening weekend & while biz dropped off significantly afterwards, taking into account VHS and later DVD, overseas box office tv station rental, etc…it probably didn’t bomb.
“Exorcist II: The Heretic” suffers greatly for the studio mandated inclusion of the Merrin charactor neccessitating that time-travel lightbulb thingy. The entire project collapses around that one device.
Mineo was known about Hollywood as being gay & Kinderman knew his stuff when it came to Hollywood. Maybe it was a playful gay slur. Also John Garfield was an A-list headliner with his name high up on the marquee while Sal never was much of a star & is now remembered mostly for the unsavory manner of his death.
My fav is the Juliet Mills Italion rip-off “Beyond the Door”. There may have been litigation over its’ release given how much it ‘borrows’
There was always that allusion to the father and his split with Chris as being a psychological motivation for the child to be acting out as opposed to being truely possessed by a demonic entity. While the scene with Chris freaking out at the opperator sort of implies dysfuntion between her & her ex there is nothing I can recall from the film or novel to back that up. He was simply unreachable as Chris herself must have been, working as she did. The girl began to seriously act out at the party Chris held for her high powered friends and she continued to draw attention to herself throughout her possession. While there was clearly a demonic possession at work here, just as with “The Omen” the intension of the filmmakers was always to allow for doubt when it came to the supernatural elements.
Anchor Bay has the distribution rights to “Shock” (Beyond the Door II) but the last time I saw #1 was a Goodtimes VHS There are a number of intriging clips & trailers available on you tube.
