CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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There should be a teeth-whitening exorcism. 😛
But seriously, Granny — GREAT ideas here. I really, really, enjoy what you’ve got conjured up, even if you don’t think much of it. It really looks good on paper. It is more or less-sounding like the kind of story Blatty would write, or something not so scary but memorable as Dominion. In any case, enjoyable reading. Keep coming back to it, embellishing it. Who knows, in time you might find a writer to beef it up into a good novella, novel, screenplay. Who. Really. Knows? Never say never.
Thanks for sharing.
M.I.K.E.
Man, you’re good!
I would, however, suggest the scene of the little girl in the room crying… I think, while I while I see how it fits and demonstrates the terror happening to the town, I think it’s distracting, excessive. Without it, “less is more”; the nightmare would be shorter and more frantic. Just a suggestion.
M.I.K.E.
Hey, and look — here’s the trailer… okay, not really!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Af76V5QPs&mode=related&search=
M.I.K.E.
Regan, that’s a great, compelling take, and given your “no straps” observation you’d posted elsewhere, this would make sense.
M.I.K.E.
Recycling a post I made at the IMDB (it’s in response to a poster there, and is not directly aimed at any here, so ignore the “quesion 1” and “question 2” mentions — these questions were pretty much what is being asked above, though):
As with other bad things like natural disasters and murder, where “good” people suffer, I believe, based on Biblical Christian theology, God allowed this to happen to Regan MacNeil. He allows things to happen to “good” people (“And Jesus said to him, What sayest thou me good? No man is good, but God alone.” Luke 18:19). With Regan MacNeil, He didn’t, however, select or target her; Satan did that, and Pazuzu (as one culture of humanity knew the Demon, while a child from a totally different one knows “Captain Howdy”) infested and possessed Regan. God allows such a terrible thing to happen because He knows Regan is not the primary target, but the human beings surrounding her possession; her family, friends, servants, doctors, priests, and a police detective, and who knows whomever else indirectly or in the short term and long term.
And the motivation for that is is love. Love for humanity. God works in mysterious ways, but the Holy Spirit through which He works touches and compels believers to seek to know Him better and non-believers in their own time to consider the choice set before them and to act on it: To pursue or reject Christ. Once that choice is made, the believers have a higher standard at which to live their lives, and, like non-believers, are given trials that are divinely designed to test and spur Christians on in their walk with Christ (With God, all things are possible, including trials (he doesn’t give us tasks beyond our means WITH HIM; but our sinful flesh, purchased with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, causes us to fail when we deny Christ); Christ told us up front that following Him would not be easy. Non-believers given the choice do not have the higher standard their believing fellow human beings do, UNLESS once it happens that by the end of life they’ve genuinely accepted Christ (the proof being a life change) living as a Christian, “like Christ”, in more than name alone; living for God, and in turn for others. As for agnostics, individuals on the fence as Chris MacNeil is presented, they’re in fact wasting their time if they consciously choose to remain agnostic, avoiding choosing a side; everyone’s free to accept or reject Christ, and whichever of the two roads we take — assuming we wholeheartedly subscribe to it (“for Jesus Christ” or “against Jesus Christ”) — the abundant living we find ourselves acquiring from choosing whichever path, it’s just too compelling to keep up the charade of “I don’t know”. If we keep finding ourselves “not knowing”, we ought to make an effort to find out and choose one of two sides. Because if there is no God, all the things Christianity denies and warns humanity about can be flushed down the toilet. On the other hand, all the positive things God has in mind for us (namely Salvation from sin, Heaven, numerous and untold blessings), these things can be ours if we choose it over the alternative. There is no middle ground with God. (Revelation 3:16: “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”)
Note: God had the ultimate physical safety of Regan in mind, setting Damien Karras and Lankester Merrin on a path to her bedroom to ultimately drive out the enemy, and even then God doesn’t make her a believer, in Christ, or necessarily anyone else; that’s “a different story for another time”. But the choice was put before them. By the end of each our lives, those of us are presented with this choice, whether directly, indirectly, specifically or generally, it will be a question we will consider dozens and hundreds of times no matter what we ultimately choose for ourselves. God’s trials can be any number of things, it’s mindboggling.
But let me close this answer to your first question with this: The rich or the poor, the city slicker or jungle dweller, anyone at all who might find themselves faced with the choice to choose or reject Christ… We are all told to “be prepared” for Jesus’ return. God loves everyone; if we’re not for Him, we’re for something else, but Christ specifies we’re “against [Him]” (Luke 11:23); so we must “get right with God”. In the world depicted in The Exorcist, He just happened to choose Regan MacNeil. Recognizing how devout Blatty is, maybe he also figured the upperclass and demonic possession makes for a better story. But the real message, I think, is: Everyone could use, and needs, Christ.
And as for question 2: I agree with the sentiment of that scene. If we are so crushed and full of despair in our trials, we doubt this life; we’re disillusioned. But more than that, we find it easier and comfortable, convenient, to doubt God’s love, and His existance. Satan relishes this. He perceives God’s “great divine plan” to have failed. In reality, limitless God KNOWS we’re imperfect, sinful, creatures incapable of genuine, holy, God-pleasing living WITHOUT Him. So he gives us great patience, and sooner or later, if we’re lucky enough to recognize His love for us and choose to accept (or maintain) belief in Christ, living an active life for others with God at the center, he answers what prayers of ours he as our heavenly Father (who truly, thoroughly knows what’s best for His earthly children, His creatures collectively known as humanity) chooses.
I know it’s preachy, but it’s a theological film that takes evil seriously. And as an admirerer of it, so do I.
God bless.
M.I.K.E.
Ps. I’m also a believer in science and evolution; macroevolution is pretty interesting; what I don’t see happening, though, are one kind of animal evolving into a completely different one; genuine hybrids (ie.fish-chimpanzees) are unheard of, unlike creatures with appendages, or things “left over”, where the animal is still the same fish or whatever (just with some “extras”. And as for mental afflictions frequently diagnosed as demons. Who’s to say there isn’t in fact a demon, in some, many, or every case, pretending to react to the Holy water”, causing us all to think a)it’s a demon, b)it’s this-or-that mental problem, etc.? I adore The Exorcist, novel and film, and Legion and Dominion, too… but I don’t know that the Hollywood way is the way the enemies of Christ manifest themselves in our, real world.
Karras questioned by Kinderman and Chris if he’d ever turn in a murderer to the police.
And in Dominion, Granville and Kessel seek killers of their murdered comrades.
Just something I noticed having rewatched these two films back-to-back. And let me tell you, in case you’re not a believer in Dominion, it’s fairly believeable as a lead-in to the original film. My two cents.
M.I.K.E.
Ben speaks the truth, but let me add if I may:
Elsewhere features cameo appearances by a couple of well-known priests in the series, making it a truer sequel (certainly moreso than The Ninth Configuration/TTKK whose astronaut was just an astronaut! 🙂 ) Neither are exorcists nor appearing in any of the sequels. Guess who they are!
M.I.K.E.
Hey, guys, why is it that Regan, when posessed stays posessed until the end of the exorcism, but Cheche’s posession seems to come and go? Cheche’ looks out the windowat everyone, saying “Apa”, and in the film he also admires his healing body, while the Devil seems dormant or away. In the case of him looking out the window, alone in the clinic with no other humans present, why would the Devil permit this “break” for Cheche when could insread let Cheche appear normal when back in the presence of Rachel, Merrin, Francis, or all of the above, to make everyone think Cheche was alright, the same way the demon in the Friedking film attempted to trick Karras into thinking Regan was not posessed (during the holy water sprinking)? Whew!
By the way, I think I may have it — why Cheche gets the red eyes while his East Coast-American counterpart 30ish years later and Karras 15 years after that get the yellow-red look! The Devil chooses color combos based on geographical hemispheres! 😛 Yeah, supposedly posessed Southern Hemispherians get BLUE eyes, and Norther PURPLE. I know, I know, I don’t get it, either. 😛
M.I.K.E.
If only it were truer to the original, in this way, it may have been scarier. The WB official site spells out the ritual.
http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/noflash_phen-fr.html
But I guess Merrin throws out all the rules — most — and wings it, making for a much shorter, swifter, exorcism, succeeding with less ritual and more good-luck.
The short exorcism is sole my major problem with the film. But with the acting of Skarsgard and Mann as the priest recognizing the need for an URGENT exorcism sans Church approval, it satisfies.
M.I.K.E.
I think Neeson would have been great.
I think Skarsgard did fine, and Dominion is just fine with him. But if Neeson starred, I think it would have gone a long way in making the film fit more with the Friedkin film. To me, Skarsgard looks a lot like Max Von Sydow, but I think Neeson actually is a closer match.
I do also like the idea of Merrin becoming tougher and deeper-voiced with time; the progression adds realism and believability.
Maybe one day Neeson will star in the rumored remake of the Friedkin film. I think the public and Skarsgard are sick of Exorcist prequel and the Exorcist in general. Well, many seem to be, disappointingly.
M.I.K.E.
As far back as ’97 they were planning this? Was that before or after the Dominion script by Wisher?
As for a special edition, I look forward to Justy and your in-the-works cuts. You should see what Justy’s cooking up! It’s great. Both you guys have differing yet splendid versions happening. Maybe one day it’ll clue Morgan Creek in.
Sadly, I think with everything (including time) they’d invested in two prequel films, I’m not sure even the promise of money could bring them back to Dominion again. They must curse it and Paul Schrader every day they clock in for work.
Having seen Dominion about as many times as THE EXORCIST, it IS believable that Skarsgard’s Merrin from Dominion becomes Max von Sydow’s; the Indiana Merrin version, from E:TB, though… Maybe Morgan Creek should just sell E:TB to George Lucas so they don’t have to even bother with that pipe-dream Indiana Jones sequel due out in 2014. Set in 1949, it could truly be a sequel. Hey, but seriously… demonic posession and Indiana Jones. Lost churches… seems like a great match. Maybe Lucas could just re-dub people’s lines with with the actors, avoiding filming altogether. Yeah, I’m just talking crazy talk.
M.I.K.E.
