Happy October! To celebrate the start of the spoopiest season of the year, Jay and Josh discuss what was long considered to be the scariest movie of all time, The Exorcist. Break out your split pea soup!
“There is one shot of him sitting in a chair which is how I feel most of the time: he looks so world-weary and beat down by life...” Jay’s gonna need a vacation after this Halloween
Talking about movies for a living will wear you down I'm sure. Drinking beer and talking about shot compositions with your friends for money must really AGE you.
Bruce McClelland lol I know you’re probably joking but most of Mike and Jay’s work is done in the editing room (imagine how long it’d take to simply get a draft cut of an episode of BOTW done)
My mom was a nuclear medicine tech in the 1970's. On her first date with my dad, he took her to The Exorcist. She hates horror movies and said she watched most of it through her fingers. The only thing that DIDN'T bother her was the medical stuff. The infamous spinal tap scene was when most people walked out of the theater; Mom just said "Yup, that's what a spinal tap looked like. I did at least one a day."
@@headphonic8 It was a cerebral angiogram, where they would insert a catheter into the carotid artery to inject dye so they could take images of the brain. She also has a pneumoencephalogram.
@@dragonfurry69 With the meme out of the way, the idea of re-dubbing the exorcist with lines from Coast to Coast is totally doable. I'm 90% sure that at some point SpaceGhost vomits in an episode and if he doesn't the spit take sound effect could be used for the pea soup scene. "Hey rapp'n space goblin what's the word on the street about a good diet?" "I'm going to follow him to his home, kill his whole family." "Thank you for coming to my magic show."
The jumping out the window thing was always clear to me that it wasn’t evil winning. To me, even as a kid when I first saw it, it was the priest overcoming the demon long enough to make sure it couldn’t do any further damage. As sad as the ending was, I always viewed it as a win for the good guys. Just my two cents.
It’s more subtle than the similar ending to Exorcist 3, but I prefer that ending because it finally resolves that character’s sacrifice in the Exorcist.
@@DarkScherzo94 ehh sorta true i guess, but with their sacrifices made regan was able to live. instead of letting the demon run its tricks on a new body the priest decided to take back control. pretty harrowing actually
It's a heroic sacrifice, like when Stansfield susses out who Leon is and shoots him in the back, only to then reveal, when he's standing over him, all the live grenades on the SWAT gear he's disguised with. He gives his life to save the little girl and to avenge her family, who Stansfield murdered.
I actually find the opening in Iraq to be the scariest part. Everything is just a bit off. There are some very subtle details as well that indicate a demonic presence early on in the film. The editing is fantastic.
Not to mention the sound editing being some of the best ever. The audio is forward cast and deliberately. Its not projected so much in your face as it is into your head. And the music is so iconic.
Holy hell... for some reason it never crossed my mind that Max von Sydow might have had makeup on to make him look older. That was done SO well. He looks almost exactly how he looked when was older.
Yep. It is the best exorcism movie of all time not because it's the scariest, but because it is the smartest, the most mature, and has the most interesting characters. It is an exorcism movie, but what it is really about is loss of faith - in a god and in humanity.
When I was in the Army, stationed in Ft Myer, sometimes we'd run to and up the exorcist stairs for morning PT. The SGT would yell "we're running the exorcist stairs!" and everyone would groan. Fun times.
The one time I visited the Exorcist steps (about 20 years ago) there was a woman running up. A jogger. I thought "Oh, shit. She's running up the Exorcist steps."
Brainscrawler - I’m wondering if this is worse than the 5 mile beach runs I had to do in Pensacola. Wait... I take that back... I remembered something worse than the beach runs. Hearing the words “lets make it rain” in boot camp.
@Degree7 I was thinking sth like that, whenever people make stuff this early in their life it's always because they were trained from super early on or had so many more resources.
Honestly- and don't hate me, please- I don't think it's all that remarkable a piece of music. Iconic and eerie because of its connection with The Exorcist, sure, but it's not really that complex.
That part when priest tries to talk her out of it. That's real. They are required to get written confirmation from psychiatrist that they don't know wtf is going on. There is whole procedure associated with it. Even among priests, exorcism is something of a fringe idea.
Terror: "what is behind the door?" Horror: the door is open. This movie is one of the most horrific out there. You are experiencing the events as they happen.
RLM has exposed the failing of sequels: You do not explain the magic. Call the demon Pazuzu, WRONG! Explain the force as being microbiotic organisms, WRONG! By leaving the mystery you give yourself infinite playroom. Explain it and you have painted yourself into a corner.
No, mystery works _if the movie is made well._ People trot out _Jaws_ all the time as if it proved that "not showing the monster" is the key to a good monster movie, when what it proves is, if you have talented people working under the right conditions, you can deal with bullshit that would wreck another sort of production. "Leaving the mystery" can turn out _terribly,_ and it _has._
I completely disagree, it’s a well made film, but it was severely underwhelming to me after years of hype. Probably didn’t help that I saw the Dinosaurs parody episode of the Exorcist multiple times beforehand.
The Exorcist is great because it comes from a time before horror movie conventions/expectations were so firmly established, so it's an actual movie and not just a cheap spook hallway based on a true story that never happened.
Amusingly, Exorcist 3 has one of the best jump scares of all time take place in a hallway. Nothing cheap about it though, it's a complete masterclass in building tension.
@@overgme Yeah, that's the thing, it's actually built up. So that when the "scare" happens you're actually anticipating it, you just don't know exactly when it will come or what it will be. As opposed to most jump scares which are the film equivalent of someone sneaking up behind you and screaming in your ear. It makes you jump, but it also makes you want to kill the person that did it.
How do you feel about some of the recent horror movies where they're re-injecting some of the drama back into the genre? I'm kinda on the fence. I like them a lot more as movies than the usual horror trash we're used to, but I don't really find them as scary as the 70s classics.
As a lifelong Mike Oldfield fan, I'm thrilled you guys actually talked about him and the album a bit. I feel like a lot of Americans don't know that album or who he is.
It’s also used more than in just one scene. We hear it in the hospital montage, the end scene where Dyer walks off and finally in the closing credits. Also, a different part of the album can be heard being played in the residence where Karras lives, but no one ever mentions this.
I remember watching The Exorcist when I was a little kid and was so inspired by it. From that moment on I knew I wanted to be a 12 year old girl possessed by a demon when I grew up.
My parents still talk about coming home from vacation at 1:00AM to find my brother and babysitter sound asleep, and 3 year old me sitting in front of the TV frozen in terror while watching The Exorcist. Maybe I should bring that up at my next Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
My parents (somehow) took me to the movies to watch Robocop and my older brother used to "invite me" to watch horror movies all the time when I was a little kid and I turned out to be perfectly alright. The doctor says there's nothing wrong with an adult peeing in the bed and liking to draw pictures of people in bondage.
The scene that scares me the most is the nanny noticing that she has a scar on her belly..that just means she has been scrubbing her all along while she was possessed, and she was brave enough to go ahead with it anyway.
The spider walk is important because otherwise she never leaves her room while possessed. The idea she could move to the rest of the house made it 10X creepier.
@@davidferrara1105 yeah exactly. don't you think it's scarier that she can leave her room. without that scene she's pretty much stuck in bed. with that scene you get the feeling she could creep up on the mom making coffee, or just trying to sleep. it makes the whole house feel much less safe to me.
@@robfinlay8058 yeah I could see your point there. But I don't think you really need to show her walking around more. The exorcist is more about the idea of something happening than it is showing it. They did throw some stuff in to show it's the whole house. The recut version shows the demon face in the refrigerator. The initial ouija board scene is in the basement. I just felt like when I saw the recut in theaters, the spider walk scene sort of upped the threat level. At least we have both edits so you can watch whichever one you like more.
I really liked the alternate version of the spider walk scene where Reagan’s tongue is going in and out and she crawls at them more than the blood coming out of her mouth. I feel it’s creepier and less over the top as the blood coming from her mouth because it’s so uncanny; but the blood version is certainly more startling and adds more textbook horror to the experience. Either way, the scene should’ve never been cut if you ask me. I remember that scene scared the hell out of me as a kid. I was afraid to watch the movie. Just today saw the film again in theaters for it’s 50th anniversary, and I still had chills. 10/10 movie!
I never interpreted the ending to be the demon "winning" by making the priest kill himself, but I also never saw the ending as "good winning" either. Yes, they managed to save Reagan, but it cost an innocent man's life and the evil that caused all of it is still...out there. What's stopping it from attacking another normal family? For me, that inconclusiveness is what really solidifies it as a horror movie to remember.
If you see it as a parable for mental health, it's right that the evil isn't outright eliminated, merely held at bay, as the ending. Oddly more satisfying, albeit it so hard to see Miller die.
The Exorcist was made in an era of horror that has yet to be outdone, no matter what expensive computer animation you have, or "creative" adaptations of previous titles that you make. The 70's and 80's had a renaissance in horror, and they're my favorite movies.
i remember working at a movie theater when the exorcist the begninning was showing, me and the crew thought the movie it self was possesed because we would have to go up and check on the film to make sure the Platters that the film was on, was not spinning so fast it would cause a brainwrap (film getting tied up through the pully's). this film broke down so many times, and the Projector kept breaking down too. One time i Went up to manually control the speed of the platters. it got so out of control that the film slid off the platter and fell in my lap! i then had to throw film up onto the platter until eventually the film started wrapping on itself, i had to shut the projector off manually. I keep thinking of so many moments when that film was being played. Pain in the ASS!!!
@@TigburtJones i found some ectoplasm there, so i called the local catholic priest, unfortunately he said he couldn't come after i said it didn't belong to a minor
Rosemary's baby was actually good, this movie hasn't aged well, it's rather terrible. If you'd never seen a horror movie before, sure it might scare you, but if you've seen very good ones already, all you'd notice are the terrible acting and boring characters.
Polanski certainly made some very unsettling films. Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion, The Tenant. Other 70s favourites for me are Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man.
My dad watched this movie when he was 7 years old and what made it scarier to him was not only because of the imagery and the demons, but he also lived in the Georgetown area, and only a couple of blocks from the Exorcist steps.
Whenever someone says "I don't understand what the big deal was with The Exorcist, it's not scary" I always mention how it affected my mum. She used to stay up with her housemate watching old horror films back in the early 70's, and went to see The Exorcist at the cinema. Since that day she hasn't watched a single horror film, and even mentioning this film makes her visibly uncomfortable. It affected her on a deep, psychological level, which I find absolutely fascinating...
Numptynerd do they happen to be on the young(er) sign? people around my age are used to “horror” that is made up of ghosts, excessive gore, and jumps scares. not saying i don’t enjoy those movies or they aren’t scary but, ya know.
Exactly.... if you'd never seen a horror film before; especially back then in 1973, then The Exorcist was going to hit you hard. Different times, and different ways of thinking. Nowadays people say it's boring, etc, but that's cause the're already desensitized after SO many horror films of all genres. Back in the early 70's there was nothing to match this film..... and in case many younger viewers don't know, this film was banned in several countries because of how it basically, frightened Roman Catholics!! That was the case here in the UK for many years... it is of course now widely available because the film censorship board finally saw some sense.... But yeah... this film was extremely influencial in it's day; and for years to come - even if you 'weren't allowed to watch it' !!
Society had different attitudes toward the sacred and the profane. "bad language", for example, was much more taboo. That's what was so scary about it. it was a sustained, profane assault on the sacred. The church, the cross, the innocence of childhood were all debased. I don't think it's possible to recreate that effect today. But at the time it was an attack on the things that held society together..
Both of my parents were based in Northern Ireland as part of the raf in the 80s and one night they were all sat watching the exorcist. My mother was the only woman in the group. She was then on patrol around the base on her own after and they had to get her and replace who was on patrol because she was so terrified of being alone in the dark despite being armed.
Hit it right on the head with this! People watch this in 2022 and go “that’s not scary”… The real horror is seeing how Chris is so despondent at how her daughter is sick and just cannot be cured. This coupled with Father Karras despair that builds over the film (from the loss of his mother up to the actual exorcism) creates a great sense of dread. This film is the all time greatest horror movie, it is truly horrifying in every sense of the word. Never mind that every acting performance is oscar worthy in this, it’s a great film period.
Josh is who you go to when you want actual movie discussion. He's knowledgeable and has a great eye for detail. He always knows his shit when it comes to movies and music. His re-views with Jay are always the deepest dives, but also the least humorous as these two clearly appreciate the art of film making and want to focus on that instead of jokes. That's part of the reason I like RLM so much, the different personalities are each unique and have their own viewpoints to offer.
@@diego_wagner I get what you're saying, but I enjoy Josh attempting to be the straight man while the others keep goofing on him. Not only that, but OBJECTIVELY, Josh has been a panelist on some of the best episodes. Rem Lazar? Josh was there. Edged Weapons? Josh. Who wanted that juicy Shaq meat? Josh. Christmas or Cats? Josh. Whether we can explain it or not, Josh seems to be there for a lot of the episodes we'll never forget. Which happens too much to be a coincidence. He adds something we can't quite put our finger on, but somehow it leads to all-time great episodes.
Josh has some really great insights and I like his energy. And he calls Mike out on his bullshit during the panel discussion. And as a musician, I appreciate his musical insight.
G -Watch I watched an interview with Blatty and Friedkin , according to them , they say the Exorcist is not a horror movie . It’s a movie about faith ! What makes this movie frightening is that it was made with such realizem and based on true facts
4 different strong stories - Father Karras and his faith, the mother and her frustration with doctors and shrinks, Regan's transformation and Father Merrin trying once again to defeat the enemy.
@@Football__Junkie Might be because english isn't my first language but I don't get that one joke (and a few others in Airplane too). His "gun" doesn't go off because he thinks about his balls getting hit by a a baseball bat, is it something like that?
The radio ads for it were creepy.. I remember being in my car late at night and the ad would come on with Tubular Bells and the vo, 'the one hope, the only hope, the exorcist.' and I would get a chill.
Michael Cooper You think that’s bad ? I remember seeing the coming attractions on tv for the first time ! They really didn’t show too much , just the hallway leading to the bedroom and that voice saying Merrin over and over again . It terrified me as a kid and ran into another room where there were people ! But as scared as I was, I knew I wanted to see this movie !
The ending is Biblical. When Jesus suposedly casts the demons ("I am Legion") from the man and sends them into the pigs, who then cast themselves off of a cliff.
Well that just makes no sense. What would a bunch of Jewish people be doing with tons of pigs? They couldn't eat them, so that's a big plot hole right there. My belief in the Bible is now shattered
re: head turning 360 I think of it as an illusion the demon used to further break Karras, just as with his mother appearing to sit on the bed when she wasn't actually there. Makes MUCH more sense than a literal 360, which indeed makes no sense at all.
Yes! Joe Dokes is correct. Very surprising Jay did not think of that. Father Merrin even says when preparing Karas for the exorcism that "the attack will be psychological."
In story, that makes more sense. In reality, director Friedkin liked the first head-turning effect and insisted on repeating it to an even greater degree, over the objections of the writer.
My parents saw this movie at release even though they aren't into horror at all (my father loves WW2 movies and my mother loves romcoms). And they have always completely refused to talk about it like they were scared for life by the experience.
My mother recalls seeing this as a young chick despite not being into horror, and walking home from the theatre scared out of her mind. Definitely left an impression on her.
My mom used to go to school or live near those stairs. She's seen the movie, but absolutely hates talking with me about it and will want to change the subject. I thoroughly enjoy both the book and the movie.
I know the name Pazuzu is hilarious to the average american, but I think its awesome that they picked a mesopotamian demon that is relevant to apotropaic magic, which has parallels to exorcism. Also, the statue is pretty much what representations of him look like. The king of the wind demons. I feel that's a pretty amazing and thought out pick. Also, Pazuzu's brother is called Humbaba. So be glad we got the one with the cooler name.
Humbaba a bitch anyway, begging Big Gil and Enkidu for his life after failing to be a good park ranger for Enlil, sheeeeee3it. Glad that fuckboi didn't get a movie.
"There's nothing scarier than having a family member or yourself having something wrong, and nobody can tell you what it is" I'd like to interject and recommend the movie "Feed". This scared the shit out of me for that reason, tho it may not be considered a great movie.
This movie snuck up on me when I first saw it. I'll admit I was a victim of the reputation it had. I was pretty bored at first and was like "this is it?". By the end though it had pulled me in and scared the shit out of me. The build up and execution is perfect. The fact that it starts out mundane and kind of boring and builds up to the crazy shit is why it works. It's the perfect slow burn and quite possibly the perfect movie in terms of pacing.
Bro, listening to Jay's unchained pretentiousness is unbearable. We need someone to offset that shit. I've never heard a person so up their own ass about film and "what makes a film good" as Jay. Josh is just boring and unfunny. Give me anyone else any day lol.
Went to see The Exorcist with my bud John in...74-ish? Then we went over to Georgetown, bought some beers at Dixie Liquor, and drank them on those steps. Ah, good times!
I saw The Exorcist for the first time also when I was in my 20's, which is fortunate because by then I could appreciate the effort that went into producing it and the tone that the writer and director were going for. This movie works because it's not filled with harsh music and jumpscares. It works because it builds very slowly to the conclusion - because that slow build is just pumping every single minute with pure dread. It really is a masterpiece.
I think what scares me the most is how accurate Kris' struggle to find help for Regan is. Having caregiven for my sister and my mother, a lot of the repeated passing of the buck depicted in the film is horrifyingly real. Kris' helplessness and rage really hit home for me.
I saw the theatrical re-release, and the scenes where they are performing a carotid angiogram and a pneumoencephalography were the most uncomfortable to watch on the big screen. Those were actual medical procedures of the time, it makes me glad for modern medical imaging.
It’s one of the best horror films of all time for me. Just so much memorable dialogue, great practical effects, and visuals that are still gripping decades later.
Something-and its really hard to find a nitpick with this movie-that seemed off was how did Regan survive her head spinning around, supernatural or not, her neck would have broken, also when Karras was punching her...that's a strong guy who was shown earlier beating the piss out of a bag and had boxed in school...no broken facial bones? LOL
I was so happy to hear the two of them geek out about film scores. I respect Josh so much more for even knowing who Penderecki is, never mind being able to see his influence on horror scores.
I remember the first time I saw The Exorcist thinking that it was just going to jump straight into the Exorcism, and was surprised by how grounded and methodical the film took to cross out the "skeptics" line of possibilities. I went in thinking it was just another spooky movie from the 70s, but instead got this brilliant, slow burn of a drama.
i liked how Ellen Burstyns character took Linda Blair first to doctors, then psychiatrists, and as a last resort a priest. sounds like what anybody would do in that situation. i think the film made the unbelievable pretty authentic.
I feel like David Lynch is a fan of The Exorcist - I see alot of subtle similarities with Twin Peaks in particular: the idea of a demon possession standing in for inner turmoil; the inability of science / technology to solve spiritual problems; the backwards talking; I think there's even a church scene in the exorcist with red curtains and a black and white floor. Both wring creepiness from the idea of a normal, bland looking house containing some hidden evil. These similarities really jump out if you watch the two close together.
Don't know about Lynch, though undoubtedly he's seen it, but I haven't found any specific comment he's made about his response to the film. One director who is a known fan of the film and has watched it routinely, is Tim Burton.
@Artemis S. Reinhold I don't doubt that he was, but he can have more than one influence, and him not mentioning the Exorcist in interviews doesn't mean that he wasn't influenced by it. Also, I'm specifically talking about Twin Peaks. I realise how much of a stretch it sounds when you just try to describe it like I have done in the comment above, but if you rewatch the Exorcist with Twin Peaks in mind, they are strikingly similar. The third season of Twin Peaks hits you over the head with this idea of the importance of making and maintaining human connections ("families" can stand in as a symbol for human connections). I don't want to get too deep into it, but it stems from Lynch and Frost's spiritual beliefs (to put it simply: collectivism, as opposed to individualism). What ties into this is the theme of broken families, and of a communication breakdown (the recurring imagery of things with no eyes, like the Experiment, like Naido, like Leland covering Theresa Banks' eyes with his hands when he has sex with her in FWWM, and how this is repeated by Diane on Cooper when they have sex in the final episode). The Exorcist strongly suggests (if not outright admits) that the demon appeared because Regan felt guilty about her parents arguing. Father Karras is able to take the demon into himself because his guilt over his mother. Sarah Palmer's demon is similarly a symbol of her guilt and resentment. In The Exorcist, there are distressing scenes of Regan being tested in the hospital, which don't achieve anything (which can be read as attempts to fix the surface, or the physical body, instead of the mind / soul). In Twin Peaks, there's a constant motif of hard drug use, which I'd argue stems from Lynch's beliefs in transcendental meditation, i.e. drug use is the "false" escape of the surface or material world (into unreality / a dream / unconsciousness / the black lodge); as opposed to the solution offered by meditation, which is to go below the surface world, to GREATER consciousness (the purple sea / the white lodge). I'm not trying to argue that Twin Peaks is a 1:1 retelling of The Exorcist, but if you watch Twin Peaks, particularly FWWM and the third season, particularly if you watch it through with the themes above in mind, ie through the lens of Lynch and Frost's interests in TM, Buddhism etc, and then rewatch The Exorcist, it's hard not to see BOTH aesthetic similarities and thematic similarities, so much so that it's not even a question in my mind that Lynch was influenced by it, even if subconsciously.
@artemiss.reinhold6859 I don't think lynch is that interested in Tarkovsky. I don't really see it, nor have I seen him talk about tarkovsky nearly as much as kubrick or billy wilder
If you’re a fan of the movie and you want more, I can’t recommend the 40th anniversary audiobook narrated by Blatty enough. There are some utterly haunting and profound passages in it that have lingered in my mind for weeks, partially due to his flawless vocal delivery. All the stuff pertaining to Father Karras is just heartbreaking.
How did they get through this whole review without even mentioning Mercedes McCambridge?? Her voice acting is phenomenal and the extreme things she did to get those sounds is insane. Tied up, steady diet of whiskey and cigarettes, etc. The Exorcist is my all time favorite movie and her performance is a big reason for that.