It's February 19th! And that marks a couple of occasions! 1) It's post number 206 (not as exciting as 200, I know) B) It's day 19 of 7 Dollar Popcorn Presents the 7 Dollar Popcorn FILMuary Extravaganza: 28 Days of Movie Mayhem and c] it's time for another entry into The Final Girl Film Club. So, lets kick this off right...Having eaten my arctic blackberries with Eskimos, and avoided any extracurricular polar bear activities, it's time for 7 Dollar Popcorn Presents the 7 Dollar Popcorn FILMuary Spectacular Extravaganza: 28 Days of Movie Mayhem Day 15 Final Girl Film Club Edition of The Exorcist. More than that, not just The Exorcist, but the restored version. Aka, The Version You've Never Seen. Which, to be honest would describe ANY version as I have never actually seen The Exorcist. Shocking. I know. I mean, here is a movie largely to be considered a "classic" and I've never seen it. What next? Do I own up to never watching Halloween or Citizen Kane? Do I mention that I have never watch a Friday the 13th movie in it's entirety? Do I talk of never seeing Titanic or Dirty Harry?
Hell, it's all true.
The Exorcist starts in Northern Iraq where an archaeologist finds a demon looking thing in the sand. We then transition to Washington where a movie is being shot. There's also a priest there. And a kid.
Lets be honest here. There's a good chance you've seen this. And even if you haven't seen it, you know what it's about. It's about...someone needs to get me some fucking coffee!
Coffee? No. The movie dammit. Right, so there's this kid, and she gets sick. The doctors think it's something like ADD, only they don't call it ADD, it's "nerves" or some such thing. So, they keep running tests and trying to figure it...dammit, coffee....um...right, the doctors can't figure it out. Eventually mom things it's time to turn to the church. Naturally. She's not religious, so religion MUST be the answer. No, coffee is the answer. Goddammit, stop that.
Sorry guys, I can't help myself, it's like something else is taking over my body. And this "something" demands coffee. I don't know what to do! Someone call Father Karras...and a barrista!
The story has a couple of strings to it. You have the priest/archaeologist in Iraq. Father Karras' loss of faith, and the actual possession of Regan. And, it takes some time, but eventually all of these stories converge and the three people actually meet each other in Regan's bedroom. Thus begins the exorcism, the ritual, the ceremony, I need a thesaurus...and coffee...goddamn. I should have just slept instead of trying to stay up all night to make my flight.
Ok. You know the story, the last question is what did I think of it? Well, it was enjoyable. I can see why so many people dig it. Personally, it didn't do a whole hell of a lot for me. It didn't scare me. Maybe if I had seen it ten or fifteen years ago it would have. It's like Jaws. Jaws is a great movie, and it scared the heck out of my friend when he first saw it when he was 12 or 13. I saw Jaws as an adult. I love Jaws, but I don't think it's scary. On the other hand, Jurassic Park, which I saw at 13, has taught me to always fear velociraptors. So, a lot of it has to do with WHEN you see a movie.
The movie itself serves as a great example of how film making has changed in the past thirty years, though. Now, it would be rare to see a movie build this long. I mean, you would have to have Regan possessed and puking by about 20 minutes in. That it takes an hour to bring everyone together without being boring is a testament to the film making.
I liked it. I guess. I mean, I didn't NOT like it, so I must have liked it. I've seen it, I don't think I need to see it again. I'm good. 6 and a half kids spider walking down the stairs with a tray balanced on their knees and coffee on the tray out of 10.
