CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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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,
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.
Thanks for letting me spam. 😉
But seriously, looking forward to being back in the groove here. SOON, my babies! 😀
M.I.K.E.
You give us Christians a bad name, Glynisbethel. It’s not exclusively what you allow our eyes and ears to be exposed to which might indeed pollute our mind and corrupt our heart, it’s the less-legalistic daily living as Christians more than just in name. We are to, besides on Sundays or holidays, live out daily the example Christ shared with us.
While you mean well, your methods are not Christ-like, and are not loving toward others, but rather judgmental. Pre-judging them.And hinging on a single movie? Listen, while I’m not a Catholic, I actually see more of Christ’s example in The Exorcist than in your post above. The Damien Karras character, in particular, lays down his life so that another human being, Regan MacNeil, might live. Jesus preached this. “There is no greater love than when a man [or woman] lays down his life for another,” to paraphrase. Oh, and Karras succeeds. The mystery of goodness is fulfilled, and the demon is driven out.
Sure there’s some blasphemus imagery and one-liners, but we’re dealing with a story, a drama, one featuring an enemy of Christ, the devil or a demon — take your pick — and anyway, such a film as The Exorcist is validated in the eyes of God, if I had to guess, because it presents the two-part question to humanity, where a vast majority of our secular culture does not and never would:
“Are you right with God — and if you are, are you settling for mediocrity instead of His very best life for your life?”
Films that present good and evil as thoughtfully as this one actually tend to share the gospel better in many ways than an unloving fire-and-brimstone, legalistic, in-name-only “Christian”. And however we receive the gospel — hopefully mainly through the scripture, God’s word, than a filtered version, even one as heavy-hitting as The Exorcist — that’s better than no contemplation of God’s love for us. A love that challenges us to rethink our broken, selfish culture, lifestyles, and yes, lives.
Please forward this to all who may disagree. The church has changed very much since Christ’s day. Leave it to humanity. But leave it to God to provide His example of how to truly live, for others, and finding true happiness and joy: Jesus Christ.
Love, not hate,
M.I.K.E.
RPD… yeah, good one, Cap! 😛 Response Please Damien, now on tour! 😛
Some others I’ve conjured:
Chipped Face
Priest Minus Parachute
Waddling Detective
Soap For the Serpentine Tongue
Airborne Exorcist
The Burke Dennings
Bedroom Window Refugee
Mental Clearance Sale
Wants No Straps
Evil Against Evil
It Wants Mouse Traps
Brain Legion
Free-falling Exorcist
The Swiveling Heads
Pea Soup & Quince Jelly
Synchronizer
Sweating Richard Burton
The Incidentallys
Red And Yellow Contacts
Pea Soup Will Put Writing On Your Chest
Parker Brothers Are Satanic
The Barringer Clinic
George Cobb Scott
Okay, that’s all I got. 😛
M.I.K.E.
Cap, if anything, other possession flicks could be covered, reminding us why “our movies” are better, or in some cases worse. But a movie news site, let alone a horror one, I think it could kill what a beautiful thing we have here now which has improved with age, and hits (millions of ’em, if I recall correctly). 🙂
It’s your website, so you may do what you wish. 🙂 That said, I appreciate your conferring with us before any such overhaul.
Yours until my body lies stinking in the earth,
M.I.K.E.
Rather than write out the full titles, here are the Aussie slang versions inspired by or coined by the great Justycist (over the years) — with the ratings:
Exy: 10/10
Herry: 5/10
Leggy: 7.5/10
Beggy: 4.5/10
Dommy: 8.5/10
M.I.K.E.
I expected more out of something crafted by Rob Zombie.
Then again, what remake based so faithfully on a classic was ever decent? Psycho, Omen, Halloween…
Argh-sigh. At least we have the originals and not just the lifeless counterfeits.
M.I.K.E.
