Oh, hate that.And we find out that the Phantom and Christine had a consensual tryst at some point during the first movie, which we never saw.So he does a big retcon.They fucked.She has a kid who only sings his dialogue.
So obviously- Yeah, pretty much all the dialogue in Phantom is sung as well.It's that sort of movie.That sort of musical.I'm looking up Patrick Wilson in this movie.
He looks like a horribly miscast Lestat.
Welcome to the Phantom of the Opera cast.So, uh, should we get into this?Yeah.Yeah, let's go.All right.
Good evening and welcome to Progressively Horrified, the show where we hold horror to standards it absolutely never
Good evening and welcome to Progressively Horrified, the podcast where we old order to progressive standards that never agreed to.Tonight, we're talking about one of the biggest horror movies that we still haven't talked about.
One of the all-time classics, one of the most beloved, one of those movies that shows up on the absolute favorite movie of guys that maybe don't want to hang around.Sorry, that's stereotyping, but it's The Exorcist.So yeah, here we go.
We're talking about The Exorcist.I'm your host, Jeremy Whitley, and tonight I have a panel of cinephiles and Cenobites.First, they're here to challenge the sexy world of Sexy Vampire Binary.My co-host, Ben.Come on, Ben, how are you tonight?
So Father Karas is gay, right?Like, I'm just gonna rip off the band-aid.That is a gay boxing psychologist priest, right?Dudes are taking off his shoes.Cops are asking him out on dates. This is a gay man.
Is it gay boxing or is it just that he is gay and boxing?Is there a different type of boxing?I don't know.I'm not sure about this.Emily is off tonight, but we do have two wonderful guests, friends of the podcast.
First of all, artists and good friend of ours, Jamie Noguchi.Jamie, welcome back.Sing for me.
Oh, you don't want me singing.
That is for anybody who wasn't here with us 10 minutes ago, I've been talking about how I just watched the Joel Schumacher Phantom of the Opera with my kids.Okay.Newsflash, it's long.
And also a friend of the podcast and editor and all around great guy, Kevin Keller.Kevin, welcome.Hello.Let's get Catholic.
So needlessly keeping it on the subject of Joel Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera, I asked the panel, you are the director, you are in charge of remaking The Exorcist.Who are you casting Jerry Butler as?
Ooh, I like that.Yeah.Yeah.Perfect, perfect.Ooh.I don't know.I kind of like him in the Max and Saito part.
I'm picking him as the Swiss butler who fucking chokes the asshole director out.
Oh, I also love that, I don't know if you guys all watch Only Murders in the Building.
Oh, one of my favorite shows right now.
Martin Short's character is like very modeled on Burke, the director.
Yes, oh, that's why he was like ringing so familiar despite knowing I've never seen the actor before.You're right, oh my God, you're right.It is Oliver, holy fuck.
All he needed was a monologue about dips and it would have been official.
Does anybody else feel like it's weird that Jason Miller is billed like so low and all this stuff for this movie considering like the movie follows him almost as much as anybody else if not more?
That is wild because he is objectively the male lead of the film.He has an arc. Okay, that's your fucking remake cast.Do The Exorcist with Steve Martin and Martin Short.
We need a tall priest and a short priest.
Max von Sydow is so good in this movie.
It also freaked me out that when they filmed it, he was barely older than I am now and he looks so young.
Well, that's the thing. They put him in old man makeup.I saw a picture of like what he looked like out of makeup when he filmed this and he looks like a normal looking dude in his 40s.
When Ridley Scott was making Prometheus and he cast Guy Pearce as like a ridiculously old man, was it just a reference to Maxwell and Sidehow in this movie?
I mean, I want to say, I know it's not, but I want to say it is.
I almost feel like this movie cursed Max von Sydow because I feel like every movie after this, he's ancient.Like, yeah, it's just like, yeah, he was in this movie and people were like, what a great old man to make him older.He'd show up to things.
People would be like, what the fuck?
No, literally that.He talked about having trouble finding work after this movie because casting agents were like, wow, look at this great old man actor.He's got to get him for some old man roles.And then this 44-year-old shows up to the audition.
And they're like, what the fuck?So he actually talked about how it did legitimately typecast and hurt his career.He had to wait 30 years to age into the age everyone already thought he was.
now's my time i like the variety of like east coast american accents that are in this movie it's it's one of those like you know how british people can tell what part of britain anybody is from by the way they speak it's one of those that like you're like wait a minute hold on no not boston
Almost though.Brooklyn?This is the movie that every British actor for the last 20 years watches to train on American accents.
This is the most aggressively Washington DC movie that has nothing to do about politics.
Yeah. Georgetown looks great.Sometimes when they talk about movies taking place in D.C., they do not take place in D.C.
Those bridges don't exist, those tunnels don't exist, but this movie, it opens in Georgetown, it's like, I've been there, I've seen that, I've been on that campus, that staircase is still there, that gas station isn't there anymore.
I remember going around looking at colleges, going to Georgetown and being like, well shit, yeah, of course we have to go by the Exorcist stairs.
I mean, I know that there's no gas stations anywhere in the DC metro.I don't know how that happened, but you cannot get gas within 100 miles of DC.
They really had to include the detail that when Burke Dennings fell down the stairs, his neck twisted all the way around.
Because otherwise, I'm like, I find this entirely believable that this man abandoned a sick child and then drunkenly slipped down a really tall staircase.I'm like, I know she's possessed, but I'm truly not sure that's connected to him dying.
Yeah, he wouldn't do that.I'm like, I don't know, man.He's been in the movie for five minutes and I have him pegged as the guy who would just go.
I absolutely believe this man would abandon a sick child.
He would call the six year old a Nazi and then he'd leave.Yeah.
I did have my thoughts, I'm like, well, I don't know, what was, like, you know, the 1973 equivalent to where were you on January 6th?Like, where were you in Central Europe 30 years ago?
But I did look it up, and the character is supposed to be Swiss, which does explain why he reacts so violently to the accusation.
He says he's Swiss, and then, like, the dude keeps fucking messing with him, and I was like, I think I'm about to punch this dude out as well.Yeah.
I did have a little bit where I'm like, this director's like being a real asshole, but I don't know.What if he is a Nazi?We don't know.It is DC.This dude could have been Operation Paperclipped.I don't know.
Moved from Operation Paperclipped to manning a house that actors sometimes stay in.
I wanna be like, what's the deal with this weird priest-run college?But I'm like, no, that's just Georgetown.That's just how that school works.
That's my sister's alma mater.Yeah, no, I don't think we've done any William Friedkin movies yet, so this is directed by William Friedkin.
Well, we haven't really had much reason to cover The French Connection on this horror podcast.
Or cruising.Cruising has not made it on here yet.
I feel like we could swing cruising.
If you ever get to Sorcerer, let me know.And it is written by William Peter Blatty, who I believe also wrote the source material as well, right?Yeah, he wrote the novel.
Yeah.And it is starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, It is not starring Lee Cobb.Get the fuck out.It is.I cannot believe that they got like the fucking lieutenant above Jason Miller.
I mean, like Linda Blair is a huge part of this movie, but usually you like list children late in the credits.Yeah.She got listed above the the guy that we're basically following for most of the movie.Wild.Jason Miller is low on this list.
Which, god, Jason Miller just pulls off this haunted, soulful, yet grounded blue collar.Like if Rocky was a poet.
I would love to see the movie where Rocky becomes a priest.I'd be into that.
Oh, man. So yeah, it stars Ellen Burstyn, Max on Side Out, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair.And God, what a crazy performance.You have Eileen Dietz as the uncredited face of Pazuzu, which I guess is what we're calling it.
And I really feel like I have to give her a shout out.Mercedes McCambridge as the voice of Pazuzu.And so much of the movie is that character's voice.
They don't do a name drop in the movie, do they?Because I watched it this morning and I didn't hear the name.
At no point in the movie do they call it Pazuzu.It might be in the extended version that we discussed earlier, but I think it's in the book, and I think that's why it gets credited that way.
I spend a lot of time looking at images of Pazuzu, or at least Max von Sydow does.
staring at the little thing and then staring at the statue and yeah they never they never name it which is is wild for like stuff about exorcism because usually like anytime there's a devil in something they're like you have to name it yeah yeah say the name 800 times yo it's so wild that like this came out in 1973 right and
a part of the movie they're like, she's gonna need an exorcism.And everyone's like, what's an exorcism?And it's like, oh, do we all like just know what exorcisms are because of this movie?Yes, 100%.
No, I'm so glad you brought that up because that was so much of my notes.I love this attitude that they're like, The Catholic Church doesn't do that anymore.Like, that's so esoteric.Like, no, no.You know as much as we do.We don't do that shit.
And now you go to any Catholic Church and they're like, Yeah, we'll do that shit.We'll just lie.We'll tell you we do.
We got a department.It's all good.We will send Luke Cage.
This movie is definitely why people think the Catholic Church has their special forces exorcism division where Russell Crowe gets sent out on a Vespa in an Italian accent to fight demons.
Saying he's sent out on an Italian accent I think really encapsulates the feeling of that movie.Send him out on an Italian accent.Go!
I hope they make 12 of those movies and he does a different accent every time.
I love that he had two movies where he plays a priest that's doing exorcisms that are not related within a year.I thought it was crazy, but yes, you just confirmed that that's true.
Yeah, when that second one came out, I was like, surely this is related.Surely this is a second in the franchise that they just rushed when Pope's exorcist did great.
But no, he made two different movies about doing an exorcism that came out in the same year.
Russell Crowe is truly in his give-no-fuck era, and I'm kinda living for it.Like, Russell Crowe is starting to make Nicolas Cage-level career decisions.
I mean, Russell Crowe was part of the... I feel like I brought this up before, but part of the decision where they're like, you know what?We should do a Gladiator sequel where my character from the first one is still in it.
Oh, if we could do Russell Crowe, I want them to make Russell Crowe's pitch for a Gladiator sequel so badly.
So for those of you at home, we lost Jeremy for a little bit, so I'm scrambling and just trying to pad this out now with more Russell Crowe talk.
Russell Crowe talk is the podcast we need to make.Gladiator 3, the gladiating.
Oh, if we could get Russell Crowe's time-traveling afterlife gladiator sequel.Oh, multiplana.
He has to win to save the community center.
This is the difference between Russell Crowe then and Russell Crowe now, is that now he would have insisted on doing an authentic Roman accent, no matter how many people told him to stop.
Yes, yes, yes. Are you not entertained?Are you not entertained?That's the movie we robbed of right there.
I am a husband of a murdered wife.
My name is Max, it was the day I was married.
God, that's the cut we need.And people are upset about fucking Denzel Washington do a fucking New York accent in the second one.It doesn't matter.
It's going to be amazing.I'd be like, that's just a Denzel Washington accent at this point.Yeah, yeah.He owns that.
Yes.Oh, and this movie owns the exorcism sub-genre.I feel like this is definitely in that, like, pantheon with, like, the way Alien launched all space horror and the way Halloween launched all slashers.
But I think the difference between this and those two is that every other exorcism movie has been garbage.
You're like half of them are just like, all right, pull your favorite beats from Be Exorcist.Make that the first act.
And then we'll just figure it out from there.Yeah.This movie is brave enough to make the first act.Nothing.Right.
This, this is one of the most like, you're like, Oh, what an interesting drama I'm watching.I wonder where this is going.What's happening to that girl?
Yeah, you're watching the first half of the movie being like, what an interesting exploration of celebrity and working single motherhood in the 1970s.And also this priest seal.
It's like a webcomic.It's like a slice of life of this woman going through her daily life.It doesn't matter.Like, none of this matters.It feels like a webcomic.
God, I want to do a webcomic now where your start is the entire setup to The Exorcist and then you just keep teasing the audience that she's going to get possessed and it never fucking happens and you just keep going with their lives.
That's kind of what we were doing in the early 2000s with our webcomics.It was just, it was all set up.
Hey, it says you.I was, I was fucking stealing Kingdom Hearts graphics. I was dodging potential lawsuits from Square Enix, but it was worth it for their shitposts in the form of comics.
I think you probably died rolling the lawsuits.
Look, I'm going to say I made better use of Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance than arguably anyone on the planet.All right.Should I get into like... So a quick and easy recap.It's The Exorcist.I know it.You know it.But it stars...
Well, first we get this wild ass scene of just Max von Sydow just digging up demon statues in Iraq.
And the bad, my favorite part is when he finds that statue, it's like, how did he know when he was grabbing?He wasn't really looking in there.It's just like completely covered in another piece of rock.
And he's like, here you go. The man could have grabbed a scorpion.He just goes in there blind.
My favorite was the Pazuzu statue's big giant snake dick.
And he's not an archaeologist.He's a priest.But they give him the hammer anyway.You can easily damage whatever artifact if you don't know what you're doing.
I also thought that.This is wildly irresponsible.
According to this movie, being a priest means you get to pick a full-on other profession to do and the Catholic Church will fund it while you get training.
It does seem like the Catholic church offers a great dual class program.
They're all dual classing here.Psychology and priesthood, archeology and priesthood.
God, like there's the scene of fucking of Harris's fucking Mario Mario of an uncle saying how if he had gone to the church, he could have been like a big, rich psychologist and his mother.And I'm like, They paid for his med school!
How is he getting this degree without the church?
This is like some 70s description of a psychologist.Yeah.It's like, oh, big, rich psychologist.It's like, OK, 70s, calm down.He's got real uncle energy.Yeah.
This man can only imagine Dr. Katz.
Max finds some statues, and then we do not see him for another hour and a half.No.Max von Sydow disappears. We're like, why, if you didn't know, you'd be like, why was that section there?Because I haven't seen this guy again.
I don't know what's happening with him.
Everyone, everyone needs a very elaborate and thoughtful backstory.We actually get to the movie.Yeah.
Also, aside from just the tease of his character, it does not impact the plot.He does not come into the story being like, oh, I've been tracking this demon's presence across the earth, and I've tracked it back to D.C.
He is just in Iraq, finding statues, finishes, comes back to D.C., and then they call him up and being like, hey, we got some shit going down.
They say they bring him in because he was involved in an exorcism in Africa at one point.He's the only guy that anybody knows has done an exorcism.And we don't know if that exorcism was at all related to this time he spent in Iraq that we've seen.
No, that seems completely unrelated.
Any other movie that would have been his intro, where he's just doing the exorcisms.But they were so like, man, you guys are not ready for an exorcism.We're going to make you wait.This is a lot too hard.
The exorcism is the shark.
I mean, given the response to this movie, it was definitely the right call.Audiences were not ready for an act one exorcism.
That's so interesting, the Jaws comparison, because, I mean, watching it, it's so funny because this was actually my first time watching it, and there's so much of it that is just absorbed by cultural osmosis and references.
cultural memory, what have you.But as I'm watching it, I'm increasingly where I was like, oh, 90% of what people remember about this movie is in the last half hour.
Including myself, and I've seen the movie 15 times, you know what I mean?Like, where I was watching it again last night, and I'm like, oh, I kind of forgot that we got everyone's backstory before we got the movie.
You could legit quaalude your way through the first 90 minutes of this movie and be fine.
It's like, it really makes me think about Jurassic Park.Because if you read Jurassic Park, the novel is structured much the same way as the Exorcist movie.
Where it's like, there's a lot of legalese and bullshit about whatever Alan Grant and Ellie Sadler are doing at the beginning.And there's a lot of chapters and chapters before they get to Jurassic Park.And the movie, Spielberg was like,
Let's start at the park, and then jump back out, do five minutes on what Alan Grant is doing, and get back to the park.
Well, this movie, you know how stories will open on an exciting moment, and then they'll cut to two weeks earlier?This movie feels like it forgot to start with the exciting part and just started two weeks earlier.
If you expect something to happen at the end of the opening segment, Because like, it is, it feels very much like one of those things, right?Where it's just like, all right, you know, this is the, the thing in a far off country.
They're, they're in an Indiana Jones movie, basically at the beginning of this.And you're just waiting.And like, he finds the demon statue and takes it to the other demon statue.And he's like, whoa, twins.And then.That one has a bigger dick.Yeah.
And then it just like jumps, it jumps to the DC.
No, that whole thing's a setup to remind you it has a heart problem later.
Yeah, that's honestly its biggest role in the plot is to just introduce the character and his heart condition.Otherwise, that's just a successful archeology vacation.
Yeah, by the way, his like pill container was so cool.It was like, I might get one of those and just put Tylenol in it.This is awesome.
Legitimately though, I do think or wonder if that opening scene was the main reason they cast a younger actor to play an older role.
Just with the thought of, like, we can't cast an actual, like, 80-year-old in fuckin' 19- We can't cast a 1970s 80-year-old and have him, like, runnin' around fuckin', like, and, like, fly him out to Iraq to fuck around in the desert and climb on rocks.
Like, let's just get a dude in his 40s and we can age him up.And that'll make this very physically active scene in the intense sun that we need to travel for a lot easier to handle.
Because otherwise, I don't know why you don't just cast a fucking 72-year-old.
It's almost like what you were saying earlier with the Prometheus thing.It's like, were they going to do scenes from when he was 40? as like a background or like a flashback and they were like, man, we don't need it.
Well, like you're saying.That would make sense with the opening scene is young him doing an exorcism.
Yeah.Or coming right out of it in like sweaty or bloody or whatever.Like we don't need to see the whole exorcism, but we could see the aftermath and be like, oh, shit.
what's this about and then they got halfway to a doc brown they put him in the 1980s old makeup but then they forgot to go back to the 50s where he's just regular like christopher lloyd age yeah like anyway and then you got chris mcneil's and her daughter reagan's backstory she's an actress she seems to be a pretty big actress because she has rented this
very nice townhouse, complete with servants, and she is filming a movie.
It seems to be she's... I don't know why, but I really wanted to piece together this movie she's making, and it seems like she's playing a teacher who is leading students to protest a college building being closed.Doesn't she say something about it?
Somebody says something about it being Like the Mao Zedong story by way of Disney or something like that.
Something like that.She says in her big speech that like, you have to work from the inside.You can't just protest.You have.So she does like the whole centrist thing, like use the system, work from within the system and that kind of thing.
Work, you fucking asshole. It's 1973 and this is the movie you're making?
Yeah, I was like, this sounds too relevant.
Look, avoid having your neck broken and you will have the entire 80s to suck that corporate dick.Maybe try giving a shit this decade.It's the one decade you'll get to as a filmmaker.I kid, the 90s were also good.
Yeah, and she has, and her daughter Reagan, who is 12 and quite precocious.She's a pretty obedient little kid.Well behaved.
We don't get much backstory like on her, just she's a kid.Her dad sucks and is not around.
That's the one character you would really want to justify spending a little extra time with to explain how this is so weird to be happening to her.Yeah.
Her dad's a deadbeat, but like nothing on her specifically.
Dad is out of the picture.I got the sense that dad is some like business big shot or Hollywood executive type.Cause they mentioned like, ah, he's in Europe again.Yeah.
Uh, but again, very much a deadbeat dad, like a hundred percent.
Doesn't call her for her birthday.
Yeah.So you very much have this element and I can't speak to the full historical context cause this is well before my time, but
1973, I have to feel like this is kind of the earliest times, like the first kids or adults of like growing up with divorce becoming a more normal thing in society and this working and being a very big movie and kind of working.
I'm not sure this movie has anything to say about single motherhood or if it's exploring single motherhood or if it's just simply depicting it and normalizing it in society, which has its own value.
But anyway, that's pretty much the end of our Is This Movie Feminist discussion.
Well, that and the whole like doctors not believing women thing that still goes on.Yes.Okay.
Funniest scene in the whole fucking movie is I'm at this fucking children's hospital and the doctor, just casual as could be, just lighting a cigarette in this children's hospital.
Being like, ah, she needs to see a psychiatrist.Well, the whole bed was shaking.Yeah, I said what I said.
It's like, hook her up to the MRI.She needs a scan.
Oh, yo.Actually, funny you should say the sound design that was so good.It scared the shit out of my wife.Oh, yeah.Like just the sound of them.
All the machines.They do a great job of making the hospital just as scary as I mean, the other stuff going on in this.You understand why, like, she wouldn't want to put her kid through all this.
Yeah.I love the next thing with the blood.
Oh, God.The arterial spray.Oh, yeah.And the doctor is just kind of like, yeah, like no urgency whatsoever to get that line.And he's just like, poke three a minute later.Hmm. Maybe I should plug that in with this little tube.
What's he going to do, put a cigarette out?
Well, that amazing image when she's at the table with like fucking 12 doctors and she's just pleading and begging for any of them to fucking do something.
And if they know if they can do anything to help and all these fucking doctors just stand there and be like, not really ever.
We don't even know what an exorcism is.
Have you tried magic?We are literally going to prescribe you magic.
Yeah.I really liked the mom in this.I was rooting for her the entire time.I'm glad she's cursing them out this close to punching somebody.But yeah, I just loved her.
Well, the punching in this movie is from Father Damian Karras, a former boxer turned priest turned priest psychologist. who is really struggling at Georgetown with his mother in New York.
Yeah, he's having a crisis of faith, just having a bad, his mom's guilting him for being a priest, which honestly, I thought Italian moms would be into, so she knows what I know.And then she,
Like, then she's in her own home, which hurts herself, and then the next scene, she's in, like, a nursing home, and then the next scene, she's dead.
And they said she died at home and she'd been there for a few days without anybody.Oh, that's right.Oh.
At a certain point, what the fuck was the uncle doing?
You know, the editing, I felt like that had to be, like, there has to be stuff around there in regards to that extended cut, because the pacing and editing there, something was off.
Yeah, I think you're right.I mean, it's been so long since I've seen that version, but I instinctually, I want to tell you you're right.
Because it's literally like he's at, the hospital, apologizing and trying to calm her down.And then the very next scene is somebody going like, ah, his mom died at home.And he's like, wait, what?When?How?
Yeah.Which this movie does love its off camera deaths.I feel like the pacing of this movie could have been helped if it actually showed some creepy moments instead of just telling us creepy moments happened off screen.
Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.I mean, I feel like this movie was trying so hard to not be what we know of as a horror movie, which is so funny because it is like defined so much of what we know of horror movies now.
Yeah.Like I guess that is like what was it trying to be?Because you do have this first hour and a half of. I mean, not traditional, but this kind of very in the mainstream feeling 1970s drama.
And then that last half hour just decides to go fucking hard as hell.
Yeah, it's like a slice of life kind of thing that doesn't know it's about to turn into a horror film.It's like Predator.Predator starts off as like, oh, we're going to be an action film.It's going to be awesome. Monsters killing everybody.
Yeah, it's a from dusk till dawn.Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah, I mean like he definitely has like the vibe of what it was where it's like William Peter Blatty like read like an article in a newspaper about like a girl getting an exorcism and then so he was like I better research that and write a book about it and then they were like we're gonna turn this into a movie and then now we get three movies about exorcisms every year.
Right?Like, god damn.You're right.It's been... Jeez, I had to do the math.It has been 50 years since this movie came out, and they have never stopped making Exorcist movies.
I feel like they're more popular now than they ever have been.That's the end.Big genre recently.
If you combine Exorcism anime and manga, Holy fuck.We as a species fucking love exorcisms.We just as a global society love the shit out of demons possessing people and specially trained dudes needing to fight those demons.Hell yeah.
Well, I mean, Americans specifically have a history of loving kicking people out of where they're living. So there's our politics here.
This movie is actually a very nuanced exploration of squatter's rights.Yeah, so we get like an hour of slice of life where, you know, Chris is having parties with her gay priest friend.Damien Karras is flirting with same gay priest friend.
Well, the cop hasn't, is the cop in yet?No, the cop hasn't come in yet because, the cop comes in after Reagan, pees herself at the party and sets off a big medical hub-a-loo about what's going on because she's being mean and strong and weird-voiced.
So we get all of our cigarette-smoking doctors who put her through all the tests and machines and are like, hmm, we diagnose her with a case of the weirdsies.
Then they bring in a psychologist who's like, her soul seems bad.
You don't happen to know any priests, do you?
I, a psychologist, diagnosed her with bad soul.The doctors legitimately did spend a while and tried a bunch of shit.That psychologist took one look at her and was like, Yeah, I think I'm not qualified for this.
I flipped through the DSM 2, I'm guessing at this point.Did not find Demon anywhere, so bye.
Also, your insurance doesn't cover this.Your insurance doesn't cover Demon.
But while everybody is looking after Reagan and trying to figure out what's going on, Burke at one point takes a break from being a movie director to look after Reagan.
Oh, I do love, we get to see where Reagan is talking to her mom and tells Chris, it's like, it's okay if you want to fuck Burke. Like, I get it.
And that is very much not the vibe I'm getting from them either.Like, I don't know.
Yeah, no.Oh, even Chris is like, oh, honey, we have got to work on you.We have got to teach you how to read a room.
I was like, I was sure after she said that when at their party, the handsome astronaut man shows up, I was like, that must be who she thinks her mom wants to fuck.And then you find out who Burke is and you're like, oh, so like,
Mom's into like Woody Allen types, huh?Okay, sure.
I think it's like kind of like a safe bet that like he would be the opposite of Reagan's father.Yeah.Yeah.That whole thing is like, man, it was so hard to be mad at somebody over the phone in 1973.
You had to yell at a whole other person just to be let someone know that you're, why didn't you call me?You can't text them and yell at them.You have to have an operator do it for you.
Operator, can you yell at this man for me?
I think it was because it was an international call was why they still had the operator.I want us to have direct calls by the 70s, but I'm also not willing to bet money on that.Well, how did it work in the wonder years?
Shit, Nick at Night is my only historical reference. Burke dies offscreen, which is where we get the detective who, because that all happened offscreen, has to come in and be like, no, no, no, take my word for it.It was a creepy death.
I love that like the mom comes in and it's like super cold.And so she's like the windows open.
Let me close the window and she doesn't find out that the director directing her film has died immediately outside of her apartment until like the next day sometime.
There's not like sirens or police or anything that are like, hey, there's a man dead right outside your door.You know what I think about this?
So this police, this detective, this is another gay man in the 70s who is trying to feel out which way Father Charis swings, right?Like that's how y'all read this scene.
He's like... He is gay Columbo.
He starts to walk away and he's like, one more thing.
Yeah, he was a little persistent, like... He's like, I like movies, but my wife doesn't like movies.Would you want to go to the movies with me sometime?
Yeah.They bring that character back in Exorcist 3, but George C. Scott plays him.Oh my God.
Yeah.So he's much he's he's much more interesting to watch in Exorcist 3.
Yeah, that's fair.Oh my God, George C. Scott, holy shit.But we also get the scene when he meets, when he's talking to Chris and he's like, can you sign an autograph for my daughter?And she's like, what's your daughter's name?
And he's like, I don't have a fucking daughter, it's for me.
He took a lot of improv classes apparently.Couldn't think of anything.
I'm like, oh, this man is a friend of Dorothy.Also good to know that Chris as an actress is a canonical 70s gay icon.
And this man is doing the same thing to Taylor Swift today.
Yeah.After the doctors are like, she bad and they're like, can't fix her.And the psychologist is like, yeah, bad brain that sounds like bad soul.She, she goes out to father Karis to get an exorcism. And he's like, that's not a thing.
And she's like, it will be after this movie comes out.He's like, OK.Well, it takes a while.I do feel like he is responsible about this.He's like, I'm not sure I believe you.It could be other things.
You know, he hits her with regular water, but just tells her it's holy water.
Well, he also says, like, it also seems like there's going to be a lot of paperwork.We have to prove it.And then you're not going to like it because the church is going to be all up in your shit.
And that's just going to make things 10 times worse for everybody.So I don't think it's a good idea.And she's like, no, fuck you.Come see my kid.It's fucked.
Yeah.I mean, I think that that's what makes that's to me.That's one of the things that makes her so likable.She's like out here.Yeah. Well, you won't believe what this child did to my crucifix.
I'm worried an exorcist, an exorcism can make it worse.And she just goes, how?Yeah.What is worse than what we currently have?Please tell me.
Yeah.Her flesh be peeling.That's not normal.
Yeah.Once words are spontaneously appearing in her flesh, he's like, I'm going to get the church on this.And they call Max von Sydow, who was just in town at the time.
Yeah.Yeah.They literally were like, isn't he in Iraq?They're like, no, he got back like two days ago.
He's dropping off artifacts at the Smithsonian.Yeah.Off camera.Off camera.
And again, like, I really thought that scene where Vaughn's side out or, you know, father, what's his face?Father Marin. He gets out of the cabin, like he's got his hat and his priest outfit and he's walking towards the house.
They don't actually play the theme during that scene.I felt like that was just like, get like, what's that word?Uh, Mandela effect?
Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.I think that, that shot shows, that shot was in the trailer with them playing the theme.Okay.
That's what it is.Okay. That's a, I would, given how iconic that is and how much that just feels like the beginning of the story. I really would have assumed, I'm like, this is minute 50 at the latest.
We've been reading issue zero of a 90s comic.
Yes.Up until this point.That's the scene that should have started the movie, and then it does the whole, I bet you're wondering how I got here.
Yeah, we needed to read the Father Karras secret origin one-shot tie-in issue first.
That is what that scene in Iraq feels like.
It's a hollow foil maximum side out.
It was an issue zero after Exorcist had already been going on for a year and single issues.
It only comes with the DVD or the mini comic inside the box.
Look, the regular artists needed a break, so they just got to fill in who could hit a deadline. So yeah, where were we?Oh yeah, the start of the movie.And that's where we get, you know, all this stuff.
Okay, to be fair, we do get a little head turning around and split pea soup vomiting earlier in the movie.Father Karas takes like a green load to the face.Like he just finished like a round with Hulk and just handles it like a champ.
I'm sorry for putting that visual in your head, but also not really.
I love that, like, Karis, like, fucks around, goes through all sorts of things, records things, is trying to find some way to believe in this thing, and, like, this guy shows up, and he's like, nah, fuck it, roll up the sleeves, let's go!
Time to exorcise some demons!
Shit's real.Fuck this noise.Let's do this.I don't need any background.
Catch him in, like, logic traps.Be like, what's my mom's maiden name?Like, I have found three dominant personalities.And marriage is like, there's only one personality.It's called demon.Let's go kick its ass.
And that's where we get all this shit you know.You get the writhing with the holy water.You get the bed levitating.You get the power of Christ compels you.Yeah. You get an old man having a heart attack off-screen.Every death is off-screen.
Well, except for the one that's very much on-screen.
Yeah, yeah.And... So yeah, after doing all of, all of the Exorcist stuff, you know, all of the tropes and all the crazy supernatural shit, all of this stuff, and this stuff rules.Like once you get to this last half hour, the movie fucking rips.
Like it's awesome.It really is a fucking slice of life getting there.
I wonder, you know, here's the thing, like I'm sure people will disagree with me on this, but like, I like,
how long it takes to get to that because I feel like so many movies now are like just just getting like okay I'm probably I don't know how everybody else feels about this but I re-watched the evil dead I don't want to say reboot or remake from a few years back and they get right into the whole evil dead of it all so fast
that it's hard to hear about any of the characters.Now, all of the stuff they do with tearing them apart and everything else, it looks great.It's like, hey, great job.But I don't care about any of those characters.And I love
like how entrenched we are in these people's lives just to have them all get jaffed up at the end.
Oh yeah, I'd say my issue with the pacing is not that we get an hour and a half of this setup and people's lives and exploring the medical options.
My issue is more than we only get a half an hour of the really cool exorcism where everything goes crazy.Like I think the movie that really nailed and struck a great balance was Alien.
Because we don't get the chestburster scene until about like 55 minutes into the movie.So it really is like an hour of setup and ramping up the tension and then an hour of the alien on the ship killing everybody.
Mm-hmm, but I I do really like the the the slowness of the first bit of it because Movies don't do that these days.Nothing does that these days like video games don't do that Like if you're on YouTube, you can't do that.
Otherwise people won't tune in and this this Movie trusts its audience to like if you if you hang with us throughout this whole shit We promise you're gonna get what we said we were going to promise.
You just have to start to give a shit about these people.We'll take you on this slow ass journey with us and then punch you in the face at the end.But it kind of trusts that the audience has the attention span.
And I feel like if they did this today, well, they've done this variations of it today.You do it every day.
Take one of the dozen ones that have come out in the last two years.
But modern horror movies don't give you that stretch of stillness to be with the characters. So that when it hits you, it really hits you.That last half hour goes by so quickly, but you feel exhausted at the end.
Now we just make five movies in a row of Patrick Wilson being Catholic Trad Husband Beefcake.Yeah.
Yeah, I like the way that in this movie you really just see Ellen Burstyn kind of falling apart throughout this movie.She's very put together, knows what's going on.My wife pointed out, we were watching this, she is ready to scream at anybody.
Anybody in this movie, she is there to scream at them.Before even all this exorcism stuff starts, she's fuckin' gives that operator one for her.
And they will deserve it because they're not taking her seriously.
Well, she is very compelling in the length she will go and the seriousness she takes protecting and caring for her child.It's a simple motivation, but it's very compelling.
100% and like it's you know here's here's a here's a woman who like you know she is a single mother but she has every other resource available to her like you know she's got she's got money she's got people like there's three people that help her in the house with with Reagan just in general but just things go so off the rails
that it's just like, even, you know, even she can't take care of this, you know, it goes so beyond what she thinks she has control over.
I feel like any other movie, they'd also be like, she'd almost be punished for being a celebrity, right?Oh, she she's going like, because in this movie, like, oh, she's doing parties.But like,
You know, adults are drinking, but they're still like mostly just like singing and chatting and having fun.And like even Reagan is able to join in and be a part of the party and is close to her mother the whole time.
Whereas I feel like so many movies make that and it'd be like. Oh, it's a distance.She hasn't she hasn't made time for her daughter.She she has to go on an arc to learn to take care for her daughter and stop putting celebrity and parties first.
Yeah.You would almost expect like a priest to be like, you know, this is because of the way your Hollywood Hollywood lifestyle leads the scene.But in this movie, there's a priest sitting at her piano leading a singalong.Yeah.In the middle of it all.
Oh, also other guys are not like. Like, yeah, I don't think we've said enough about the fact that she has an astronaut at her party, which is just cool as shit.I'm sorry.That's so Washington, D.C.
Yeah.Oh, yeah.Father Dyer is like his idea of heaven is a cabaret where he's the mainline attraction.
And that's why him. And the cop are the two main characters in Exorcist 3.That's good.Oh boy.Are they really?It's like almost like a buddy movie between the two of them.Oh Jesus.
Okay, based on this movie, that movie has to end with them getting married.Yeah.
Or at least going to see a movie.
If Exorcist three is not full on old man, yeah, we what is even the point after the back story we get of.Oh, I'm just a father.Karis is a boxer.I'm sorry about that.
Amazing scene when the detectives flirting with him, just telling him which famous celebrity boxer he looks like.Yeah, it's so gay.
So we get the resolution to Karis' Chekhov's punching skills, which he uses to pummel the ever-loving shit out of a 12-year-old girl.
After he finds Marin dead from a heart attack and possessed Reagan gloating, he just fucking, he just throws her to the floor and just starts throwing haymaker after haymaker at this little fucking girl.
And we see, she's like, even after she is possessed, like, she still has the punch blows on her face.
Yeah, the only evidence that anything happened to her.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're like, they're gonna, like, they definitely wrote a thing piece where they're like, look, all we know is that medical, medically, her brain tests were fine.
And then this priest did an exorcism and now she's got, like, a shitload of concussions.
The movie says, fuck them kids.
So after just, fucking wailing on Regan.
The possessed Regan rips off his medallion and Father Karras demands that the demon possess him instead, but I guess the message of the story is that Father Karras is stronger than a little girl because he can resist the demon enough to fling himself out the window down the murder stairs.
where Father Darby can homoerotically give him his last rights.And that's pretty much the end.I mean, we we we get we get Chris and Reagan bouncing the fuck out of Washington, D.C.
Oh, hell yeah.Oh, hell yeah.Like they get the fuck out of there.I love that.Chris is like, also, here's that medallion St.Joseph on it.Fuck this shit.We are like peace.I don't want any any symbol of this.
I don't want any any sign that we were ever here that any of this happened. My child does not know shit about what she's done in the last week.
Thank God she doesn't remember none of it.
Well, except she does have this just innate love of priests, which I'm sure won't backfire later in life in a fleabag kind of way.But I have to say, yeah, there you go.That one was just for you, Jamie.
Like that was really the scene where I'm like, this feels gross, like truly in a morally irresponsible way that I know you could not have anticipated in 1970s, but too bad.
this little girl just almost uncontrollably feeling the urge to kiss a like an elder like a middle-aged priest on the cheek i'm just like oh y'all like this and that's the exorcist You know it, we all know it.
The theme song rules.It is spawned an entire genre that will last for as long as we are here making films of, and none of them will get above fucking 44% on Rotten Tomatoes.
My wife, isn't this the theme song from Halloween? I mean, it's close.This one is better instrumentally, but like, the music itself is pretty close.
Yeah, it's like, it's like a challenge.You, okay, start, you walk up to somebody and you say, hum me the theme from The Exorcist and then see how long it takes them to accidentally start humming the theme to Halloween.
I feel like I like the Exorcist themes more, but Halloween utilizes its theme better in the movie.
I mean, it utilizes its theme overpoweringly in the movie.It uses it several times to a point that occasionally you're like, alright, maybe this scene didn't need quite so much synthesizing.
Well, I yeah, I mean that's that's that's what happens when you have a score written for a movie as opposed to William Friedkin just getting mad at music and then stumbling into some You know
Aw, man.So, this movie, we're definitely dealing with heavy religious themes.Karras describes his crisis of faith, his guilt over his mother, which, yes, gets resolved by him finding an actual demon.Like, objective proof?
Yeah, I mean, if the demon exists, then therefore, it's likely that God exists, so.
Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels like an attempt to create the 20th century American Gothic horror.To recreate, you know, instead of the Southern Gothic, now it becomes your upscale urban Gothic.
Yeah, so I'm just thinking about sort of like, by him saving Reagan, is it him trying to right the mistake of him having left his mother behind?Which I think we all agree with the fact that he was just living his life.
He didn't intentionally abandon his mother, but that's how he feels. Right.Yeah.And so is this is this him making up for what he perceives as a mistake?
Yeah, I think so.Like he really I mean, he implores the demon to take him.You know, he voluntarily sacrifices himself both in getting the demon and then throwing himself out the window.
So I think that is definitely the arc for him as he's finding some sort of, you know, deliverance from what he thinks is an issue for him in here and what the demon
Nose is an issue for him, capitalized on several times by doing his mom's voice, appearing as his mother at various times, and really driving that home.This demon has done his homework.He's got a dossier for everyone in his room.
I mean, this stuff that Possessed Reagan says is, like, revolting today.Oh, yeah.
Like, damn, it is wild that a movie with that kind of content was able to be such a big hit.
I almost thought they would have gotten an NC-17 just for the shit they have a child saying in this movie, even though it's an adult voice actor coming out of a child's body.
yeah i mean sticking the crucifix where she sticks it and shouting let jesus fuck you is um pretty wild that that got by censors in the 1970s i i guess i guess there was a different reagan that probably would have had something to say about that a few years later but yeah i mean it's it's a straight
We've never had to do a content warning where it's like, warning, talk of pedophilia from the child.You don't usually have to deal with the child as the instigator.
But no, it's, I wonder the degree of which, because God, 1973, you're coming out of like 69 Summer of Love, Vietnam War, It takes place on a college, on a college campus.You have the backdrop that like they're making a film about college protests.
Watergate is fucking happening while this movie is coming out in theaters.I wonder to what degree like
the possession, the fact that it's a child, and that the dialogue of this possessed child is of such a violent and sexual nature, I wonder to what degree it is a commentary on or an exploration of people's fears about changing societal values.
you know, protesting the military, expanding sexual freedoms.
And and maybe it's hard to maybe being, you know, having never existed in the 1970s, I'm too removed to say, but I just wonder to what degree this is all swirling around in the conversation.
That's interesting, yeah.I don't think none of us were around the anodes, but it's almost like if you, I don't know if any of that was intended, but it was sort of the kind of thing that's perceived by the audience.
Have any of you ever talked to your parents about seeing this movie?Because I know that my mom and so many other people her age who would have been, she was a teenager at the time that this came out.
and they talk about how like they see this movie and it just fucked them up like so bad and it's so interesting now because it's like you know it is you know how how old you know i didn't i saw this movie when i was a teenager but like i had also seen a million other like
lower rent, more slashery, kind of crazier horror movie.
Okay, mom, enjoy The Exorcist.Come back when you're ready for Hostile 2.Grow on a real movie.
More along the lines of the original Evil Deads.
Oh yeah, fucking Evil Dead.
I mean, so it's, I remember like very distinctly, like, I don't remember what movie I was seeing or whatever, but I was in a movie theater and there was like, there were two teens.
I was like in my twenties and there were like two like early, early to mid teenagers next to me.And the one was like, I don't even know why everybody's so making a big deal.And nobody's head even gets cut off in that movie.
And I was just like, Oh, it's like, I always think about like,
comparing that like kind of like attitude to this and how this was the scariest thing that anyone had ever seen and just like completely like you know that my mom talked about how she like couldn't sleep without the lights on for like a week after seeing you or whatever either that thing
I'm almost jealous of people who can get legitimately scared of horror movies.
Like the idea that you watch a kill happen in a movie, and then you're like, this is a scary thing that's happening, I can see it happening to me, and now I have to live and deal with the fear that that could happen to me.
Whereas I'm watching it like I'm a fucking gymnastics judge, getting ready to hold up a number, being like, it's like, eight out of ten points for creativity, but I felt the gore could have used work.
I mean, I mean, that's maybe that's what it is, too, is it's just like at the time that was people like what was so scary about this was it was like the little girl didn't do anything wrong except for maybe play with a Ouija board, depending on how you come at it, you know, and it's like audiences didn't know how to respond if it wasn't teenagers being punished for being sexually active.
Yeah.Yeah. I love that that the audience is being like, but she doesn't even deserve it.We didn't see her do a single drug.
She's still a virgin.Yeah, I think I do wonder, like we occasionally talk about the feeling that even though we love these movies, the feeling that in some cases, having child actors may be generally immoral anyway.
And this is one of those movies where I'm like, ah, she really did some stuff and went through some stuff in this movie.And I'm not, I'm not sure that that's okay, but I don't know.It's, it's pretty wild.
I don't know how much of like protection she's getting, how much of what she's doing.She understands how much of it is sort of cut together by, you know, things that are a little bit disconnected.
To what degree do you need? to compromise the quality of the movie to take proper care of your actors and crew is a question no director was asking in the 1970s.Especially William Friedkin.
They were putting out a flyer on a college wall, paying the people who showed up 50 bucks a day and sending them out into the forest to make Texas Chainsaw Massacre. No fucks were being given about crew safety.
Do you want to talk about race in the Exorcist?
There's not too much to talk about.There's some Iraqis in the beginning.
Yeah, I'm like, we get a lot of Iraqi extras.Want to talk about 1970s Iraq?I don't have anything to say about it.
No, I don't.I don't want to talk about that. It feels a little racist, that opening scene, but mostly just- Well, it's very much exoticized.
It's very much meant to be this exotic foreign land of mystery and magic.
Yeah, and I'm guessing there's more sort of context around Iraq and Mesopotamia and that stuff in the book, that there's a little more like, Oh, yes.Sumerian gods and demons and shit like that.
But I'm sure probably not much more than there is in Ghostbusters.So, yeah, I don't know.It's not great, but it's I mean, it's no worse than Indiana Jones.
Yeah, it is.Like the only sign the movie gives us, there's a connection between the demon possessing Reagan and this statue state like demon thing that he's hunting down in Iraq. is that he sees a flash of the statue during the exorcism.
And at no point does he go like, I'd recognize that snake dick anywhere.This could only be the work of Pazuzu, the snake-dicked motherfucker.
that's where that's where they went wrong they definitely should have it should have been max they're like a flat burrito it started off when he's his actual age and he's been hunting pazuzo ever since and he shows up the exorcism he's got a snake dick tattoo across his chest ready to fucking go and then he just has this like on the back of his tattoo like born to tread no i do agree like that would have been like
That is the one thing that I could have given the story a little more momentum and kept Marin more involved rather than disappearing for an hour and a half.
Yeah, I just wanted him to have an axe fight with Fuzuzu at the beginning.Like, you know, he finds the statue and the statue comes alive and then they fight to the death and then, you know.
I'm just saying if Max von Sydow shows up and now he's old and he's got a chainsaw hand and he's like the chainsaw handed priest.
He's got an eye patch.He's ready.
Oh, yeah.Oh, that would be sweet.
But the thing is, like, it's such an interesting thing to, like, have it just be like, I mean, I know they were setting up by saying that, like, he had experience with that type of thing years ago, but it's just like, what if you I don't know, it would almost be more interesting if he showed up under his own like.
Volition just be like her there's a demon in here.
I Really think that way again this sense that like oh, there is a force that's out there Like somebody like it's fucked shit up in the past.It could fuck shit up again that's what we're dealing with and now like and yeah, there's a lot like there's a
a fair bit of meetings in priests' offices with random elderly priests we've never seen before, and I'm like, this is where you could've had Psy'd Out come back into the story.
Yeah, if you're gonna do something off-camera.
Yeah, I'll be like, I heard through the priest's grapevine that there's been some shit going down, it sounds like what I've been hunting, I'm here because I'm like fucking Quint and Pazuzu is my shark.
Yeah.So that is like, you know, not necessarily like a thematic or political criticism or way it's aged poorly.This is just all us putting our backseat quarterback writer hats on and being like, we could have tightened a few bolts up a bit.
Interestingly, speaking of loose bolts, how do we feel about the way this movie handles psychology and mental illness?Or doesn't, I guess.Not well.
Yeah.The same way that probably society did in 1973.
They use the words, but they don't have any meaning behind them.
I really wonder how much of it is just this is what people knew of psychology and thought of it at the time.
Like, I don't quite know what to make of the way they presented of, okay, we have exhausted every physical medical option, only now do we even consider bringing a psychologist in.
Yeah, which like now would have been like, she's acting weird, huh?Yeah.
It's like now it's like, we're gonna have her talk to somebody before we, drill into her spine a little bit.
Yeah, the 2024 version of The Exorcist, had none of this been, like, you know, popularized, she would have peed on the psychologist's office floor.
Yeah.Plan A, traumatizing brain magnet.That don't work?Talk to someone in a calm manner.Yeah, no, I mean, it is interesting, like, Garrus is rather unique, even amongst the exorcist priests, the legion of them that we've seen.Haha, I did a Bible pun.
Legion!But that he's a psychologist and the priest is an interesting element.That he doesn't come into this being like, well, I believe in God and therefore I think it's religious demon stuff.That he comes into this being like, Exorcisms aren't real.
We don't do this shit anymore.She definitely has a psychological problem.And even this priest has to be dragged with almost like with empirical objective proof before he's like, okay, maybe now we try the weird ancient ritual.
Yeah, he's the man of science priest.
Yeah, but at the same time, it's not like we see that psychologist element of him.It doesn't really play into the plot.
It's not like we have a situation where he has worked to understand Reagan and the way this possession is manifesting, and Merrin just thinks there's a demon and he wants to kill it, and has no thoughts beyond that.
And that's why, it's not like that's why Marin loses and why Karis is able to succeed.It's not like that empathy or that psychological understanding then plays a role in resolving the conflict.
Yeah.Yeah, would it have been more interesting for, you know, him to have spoken to Regan before she goes full-blown possessed and then like trying to help her in those moments?
I think it would have, I think it would have helped heighten the investment.Yeah.Yeah.You know, I think having more of a Reagan-Karis relationship before full on possession, I think that, I think that would have helped the audience.
I think that would have endeared both of the characters more to the audience.And I think you would have Karis dealing with that he knows this is a sweet, innocent, wonderful little girl who is now being twisted to say all these terrible things.
And you can still do the same thing where it's like, you know, it's interesting to see, like, you know, here's a, you know, here's a psychologist, you know, but they have their own shit going on because he's dealing with the same stuff with his mother.
So you don't have to lose all of that to make that work either.
No, I think you're totally right.
Having a character that faces the brunt of who she becomes as possessed, having a sense of an appreciation relationship with who she's supposed to be, I think it helps make the violation that the demon is doing to her
feel all the more revolting and hateful or like not hateful but you know just making the audience feel that and like even heightened even more disgust and fear than we already do feel if that makes sense yeah Yeah.
How does this movie handle queer issues?You got to read between the lines, but Father Paris is mad gay.
Yeah, I legit while watching it again last night, it was like, right.I said, I don't know.I don't know if they did it intentionally, but it's definitely there.
I mean, I don't know if the movie knew what it was doing, but I do feel like this movie is giving us multiple depictions of deeply closeted men in the 70s, and in different ways, where you seem to have Harris, who is very in denial and in the closet to himself, and is running away from boxing and family, the church, clearly.
dealing with something inside himself.You have Dwyer who is flamboyant and much more outwardly gay, but uses the priesthood as a way to kind of exist as himself in a socially acceptable way at the time.
And then you have the police detective who seems to be more straight passing and existing, but like knows who, how he identifies and is on the down low.
So it's just, it's very interesting to just like at this time where it really wasn't a possibility to just be openly gay and certainly not exist in these kind of high society Georgetown circles the way
multiple men who all read as closeted in some way have responded and adapted to that environment.
I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, I have to assume that like some of that was like when William Peter Blatty was researching this to write the book and he was probably
meeting priests and and people along the way and he was just like writing it as how he sees it and maybe not completely understanding what he was uncovering in the moment you know like yeah and then it's just such a direct like translation from the book to the movie it's just all in there
I mean, I would, you know, if you told me they knew what they were doing, I'd say, sure, great.But I don't know that they did.It just worked out.
I mean, between William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty, we are talking about two men with eight wives between them.
Stable relationships were not their forte, very much so in the 70s.
Yeah.So that's a lot of wives.I think William Peter.OK, now William Peter Clouty is dead now.Died in 2017.
Somehow William Friedkin was alive until last year.
Yeah.Spite will do that to you.Yeah.Yeah.I'll keep you rutted.Oh, yeah.
I guess we think uh do we think this movie's feminist my reaction is yeah and so just the way that like chris is just like put out there is sort of like a hero to the world and then like even through this all she's still just fighting for her daughter i mean like she never really kind of loses
any of that.She's just, she's there, you know?
Yeah, Chris is pretty fully realized, I think, as a female lead in the story.
Even like, the hints at a romantic relationship are kind of laughed off and obviously not true in this, but like, I feel like the sort of thing that might get kicked around if you were, you know, if you were a popular actress like this.
Well, and you mentioned it earlier, but she's never shamed for her job or like for like not paying attention to Regan.And that's why this is happening.So, yeah, I think you're right.I think you're right.I definitely think you're right.
Yeah, I think, again, working to normalize single working motherhood in the 1970s, at a time when that was becoming a more visible family model and dynamic, divorced parents, single parents,
I think there's a lot to be lauded for normalizing that with such a three-dimensional woman character who is allowed to be both a loving, attentive, caring mother and also a very successful, famous actress with a vibrant social life and some astronaut dick on the side.
Can't forget that.Does Chris have it all?
Yes.Dick's been in space. Yeah.I guess all that leaves is, uh, is what we recommend this movie.Should people check it out if they have it?
Yeah, a hundred percent.I mean, it's a little unfortunate, like how many things people have probably seen.Okay.So this is probably going to be the way I feel about the Beatles.Like I. Um, respect them.I don't ever seek them out.
I'm not a huge Beatles fan, but I recognize so much of the stuff that I like comes from them.But it's just because I experienced that stuff before I got around to them.Right.I didn't understand.
You know, I was just kind of like, yeah, it's Beatles or old people's music or whatever.
So I kind of feel like this is the sort of same thing where there's so many younger people have seen a billion movies about exorcisms and just horror movies in general that I don't know if their brains even attuned anymore to appreciating this movie that people probably did in 1973.
satirized and referenced and homaged ad infinitum.Unfortunately, we can't go back and be in a theater watching it with a crowd, surprised and gasping at, like, the body horror and shock of this little kid's head spinning all the way around.
Unfortunately, we've now seen that so many times that when we watch the movie, you go like, Yeah, they did the thing.Yeah.Like, like, yeah, they look at that head go around.Yeah.Oh, there it is.
Yes.It's like it's the let the the power of the power of Christ is the ultimate like Joe Closer.You're like, yeah, they did it, man.
Like we we talked about the ring a few months ago and I'm just thinking like, God, imagine being in that audience. in Japan, having no idea this was gonna happen, and then that girl crawls out of the TV.
How fucking... And that the movie builds, the whole movie, that it doesn't end until the very end, just building, building, building towards it.That movie must have been so terrifying, seeing that, going into that movie blind.
watching it where that's the first thing you know about the Ring franchise, you're watching it with a real like, when are they going to get to the fireworks factory?
I actually, I did, well, the American, I saw the American version of the Ring in theaters when it first came out.And when she, she does it with you, that literally messed me up.Like I was in the theater like,
I didn't have like, there was no context for me in that moment.Yeah.
I've never seen like three too many times.
Yeah.Yeah.I haven't, you know, I didn't see Exorcist in the theater.
I feel like the closest I've gotten is like being in the opening night audience, not knowing when it's getting into watching Saw and then like the finale of that movie is really just like, nobody can experience that the way that like,
I did that, you know, opening night of that and just being like, when that man fucking stands up at the end of that movie, just being like, yo, what?No, it's, it's incredible.
But yeah, I feel like the exorcist had to be that for, you know, that generation of people in, in the early seventies, seeing the shit for the first time.
And especially like in 1973, you have to have like you really only see movies if you go to the theater.Yeah.So you have like this hour and a half buildup of like all this other stuff.And then you're just like, I wonder what's going to happen.Yeah.
What? There was no other like content.Yeah, exactly.
The detective says he saw one of Chris's movies six times.You need to understand the home video market does not exist.That means he went to the theater six times during its theatrical release window.Tell me again that this man is straight.
Going right after brunch, you know. Yeah, it's great.You know, you do feel like it's aged a little bit and so many things are so common, but still it's like really solid.
And I think in some ways it's not unlike watching Casablanca for the first time, like you're bound to see things that you're like, Oh yeah, I, I know that I know where that comes from.
I've seen that before, but also like seeing it all together, seeing it in one piece, you know, you, you get an appreciation for it that you can't get just through cultural osmosis.
On that front, do we have some stuff we want to recommend to people that they check out now?Kev, did you have anything?
I mean, you made an allusion to evil already, which would have been like my main sort of, I feel like, you know, it's got some ups and downs, but if you're just kind of looking for something in that realm, I feel like this kind of picks up the torch in a very
Uh, I do edibles sort of way, you know, like it's it's kind of it's weird moments But um, it depends on what you're going in for for that.
Yeah, if you want like, you know something really I would you know Possession will really jack you up if you I don't know if any of you guys have seen that yet That'll really mess you up if you want something weirder like that
And then if you were me and you watched Cable a lot when you were a kid and you saw Repossessed a hundred times, I thought that was the exorcist.
You know, go for it.Awesome.
Jamie, what about you?You got anything?I was trying to think.You already mentioned the ring, so I thought that would be a good one.I think
Honestly, just buy a bunch of Junji Ito comics because Junji Ito, even though the stories are pretty short, but it has that same feeling where like you get a slice of life.Something's a little bit weird, but it's more of the slice of life.
And then at the end, some weird ass fucking shit happens a great deal, like a whole lot.
and sometimes the the slow part is a long part of the comic and sometimes the slow part is like maybe a page but it has a similar feel where it kind of lulls you into a false sense of security like oh this is a cute little relationship manga oh god yeah ben what about you uh i recommend the opening scene to the 2005 movie constantine hell yeah
But no, I would say for a serious, if you want a serious, dramatic possession movie, we covered this on the podcast a little while ago, Attachment is really good.
And then if you want a very silly, campy exorcist movie, we talked about earlier, but fucking Pope's Exorcist, come on.Russell Crowe goes to a different ass country, but just has the Vespa still with him when he gets there.
I haven't actually seen that one.I just know it by reputation at this point.
Oh, we have to.We have to do it on this show.Holy shit.
It's really bad.I love it. Yeah, it's the eternal battle with this show.It's like, do we talk about the stuff that's good and we have interesting things to talk about, or do we just talk about the post-exorcist?
Look, we can have our vegetables, but sometimes I need a fucking chocolate cake.Much like Russell Crowe these days.Man is giving no fucks about his diet and I love him for it.
He'd be like, I'm showing up as Zeus however I show up and you're gonna deal with it, Marvel.
I do worry that came across as body-shaming, Russell Crowe, though, so... I'm sorry, Russell Crowe.
Stop fighting around the world.Okay, uh, so, I, uh, this last week watched a, uh, horror movie, I think it's... it's either, like, original to Paramount or Peacock, it's one of those. Paramount.It's called Significant Other.
It has Micah Monroe and Jake Lacey in it.And it's about a couple that goes hiking in the woods.And there's recently been a meteorite that's crashed down in the woods.And there's some body swapping and some fun horror stuff in there.
But it has some good twists and stuff going on with it. I really enjoyed it.It's by Dan Burke and Robert Olson.And it's like really solid.
It's not like it won't change the world, I don't think, but like it'll be something that, you know, you come away from just having a good time.
And I mean, Michael Monroe is always great, but Jake Lacey plays a very like adorable, bumbling boyfriend type. that, uh, simultaneously great and the worst.
And yeah, I feel like it's really solid and it's, you know, a good, a good time if you're in your, uh, October stretch of watching a bunch of horror movies and, you know, it's solid hour and a half watch and keep your gas and have a good time.
Oh, real quick.I also recently saw strange darling and I enjoyed it so much that like the next day I sent Jeremy a message being like, you really need to see this.
Yeah, I I've been looking for it playing anywhere near me and it's not, but yeah, that is, that is on my list of like amazing looking recent horror movies that I got to check out.
I might have to wait until it comes to streaming like so much other stuff.Yeah.All right.That does it for us this week.Jamie, did you want to let people know where they can find you online and what you're up to?
Uh, Jamie Noguchi.com and that has links to all my stuff.And, uh, I'm currently working on School for Extraterrestrial Girls book three coming when I turn in all the pages.And, uh, Kip, what about you?
Uh, I'm on various social medias on and off these days, usually using the name Electric Dracula.And, uh, yeah, that's about it.Yeah.
And, uh, Ben, what about you?
Yeah, you can find me mostly in Blue Sky and Instagram at BenConComics.You can check out Mr. Muffins, Defender of the Stars, out from Oni Press.What is this episode coming out, Jeremy?Late October.Late October.Okay, so...
Yes, we have Mr. Muffins coming out in January from Oni Press.And before that, Monster High New Scare Master.It's an ongoing comic book series set in Monster High universe.It's coming out now from IDW.
I wrote the Holiday Haunt One-Shot, which is coming out in December.So that, yeah, so fun comics all around.
Ah, right.And as for me, you can find me at JeremyWhitley on Blue Sky and Tumblr.You can find me at jrom58 on What's Left of Twitter and Instagram.You can find me at jeremywhitley.com.
I currently have My Little Pony miniseries, Storm of Zephyr Heights coming out.And that's really it.I mean, obviously, Navigating With You and The Dog Knight are currently still out there for you to go by.
And then, you know, whenever Jamie finishes the- whenever Jamie turns in those pages of School for Extraterrestrial Girls,
As for the podcast, you should check us out on Patreon at Progressively Horrified, on our website at progressivelyhorrified.transistor.fm, and on Twitter at ProgHorrorPod, where we'd love to hear from you, and speaking of loving to hear from you, we'd love to feedrate and review this podcast wherever you're listening to it.
It helps new listeners find it. Thanks so much again to Kev and Jamie for joining us.
This is our last October episode, so wrapping up our favorite time of year, and we'll be getting into some less incredibly popular and more esoteric movies coming soon, because we had four real big ones for October this year.
And maybe also the Pope's Exorcist eventually.Someday.
So thanks all of you for listening and until next time, stay horrified.
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