If I'd seen either of these movies as a child, I wouldn’t have lived long enough to blog. In 1973, in my very Catholic town of San Fernando, word got around that you’d die in 5 years if you went to see the heretical Jesus Christ Superstar or The Exorcist, the work of William Friedkin and the devil. I wondered then, if I'd see both, would my end come in 2.5 years?
The few joys of adulthood include rebelling against what you were taught as a child, and doing them over and over again. I only mustered enough courage to see both films in my 20s, away from all the priests and Kapampangans of my youth, and would then revisit them one after the other. Christ and the Anti-Christ in one sitting.
Both films remain groovy, long after people have stopped saying groovy. I like how the contrasting styles of these films redefine the paradigms associated with their respective genres: the Jesus material is not slow and somber, treated with sickly sweet deference and piety. It’s meant to provoke the viewer, and make him understand what made Him the original superstar, and the price he had to pay for being one.
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| One of the most iconic images in film history |
The Exorcist is more than just a terrific acting ensemble (with the great Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow and Linda Blair). It’s beautiful terror. Like Kubrick’s The Shining, it takes awhile before the scarefest happens. It starts out slow and eerie. The atmosphere unsettles you before Regan the possessed girl frightens you with vomit, levitation, head-turning and that gravelly old woman’s voice. It just stays with you.
Would rather call it a night by singing along with the awesome Ted Neely.
