#Video watchdog exorcist subliminal full#

#Video watchdog exorcist subliminal full#

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dick a couple of times, back in the 1980s and 1990s - first in relation to an uncredited favor he did for his protégé Rick Baker in relation to David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME (in the basement of his home, he and Steve Johnson took a full body cast of Deborah Harry for a scene that was ultimately not filmed), and then again as Donna and I were preparing VIDEO WATCHDOG's sixth issue, devoted to THE EXORCIST - an issue whose impact directly led to the publication of Mark Kermode's BFI Modern Classics books on the film, his documentary on the making of the film (which appears on the DVD and Blu-ray of the film, and William Friedkin's own 'The Version You Thought You'd Never See' recut.

This - I'm happy to say - I got to experience, a few times, by telephone. As many of the stories being repeated today confirm, he was also one of the great gentlemen of the business. The much remembered projectile vomiting doesn’t occur until much later, by which time those who have come merely for cheap shocks have long since tuned out.Dick Smith - the cinema's most important makeup artist since the immortal Lon Chaney - has passed away at the age of 92, leaving behind him a treasure trove of character and horror makeups whose imagination and scientific detail were truly indistinguishable from magic: LITTLE BIG MAN, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, THE GODFATHER, THE EXORCIST, ALTERED STATES, THE SENTINEL, GHOST STORY. One of William Friedkin’s master strokes was knowing that viewers would already be worked up into a state before enterting the theatre, because the novel was so controversial and no one knew how they would film it without getting an X-rating, so he played off the expectation, toying with the audience for the first half-hour with nothing but an enigmatic prologue in Iraq and scratching noises in the attic. That’s not what the film is about, despite its reputation. Well, almost no film can overcome a willful desire not to be entertained.Īs far as boring, well, yeah, if you go in expecting special effects and violence from scene one, then you will be bored. Whereas once people went to the film in anticipation of being scared, now they go in as if challenged, and put up resistance to the film. I think what has happened is that the audience attitude has changed. I saw the film again a few years agot at a midnight screenining in Westood, California, and I have to disagree with those today who insist that it is no longer scary or that it is camp. At any rate, I doubt this happened very often (I saw the film three or four times during its intial release and never observed such an incident) probably the media exaggerated a very few incidents. If people had been waiting out in the sun, without eating anything, they might even be light-headed to begin with, hence the potential fainting. I would be willing to bet that the advance word-of-mouth, apprehension over the subject matter, the notoriety of the book, and the long time waiting…waiting…waiting to get inside and finally see the movie–all these contributed to a mindset conducive to being scared witless. The film played in only 60 theatres for several months if people wanted to go, they had to drive downtown and stand in line for hours. Remember, THE EXORCIST was released in the days before wide national releases opened films on 2000 screens the first weekend. Seems he had tried to identify the subliminals in the days before home videotape, laserdisc, and DVD needless to say, without frame-by-frame analysis, he ended up way off the mark.īy the way, I doubt the subliminals had much to do with the stories of people fainting in theatres. While pointing out the subliminals that actually are in the film, they also dissed an earlier article written by the guy that did that “Subliminal Seduction” book. There’s a big difference.Įven if Karras had committed a mortal sin (suicide or any other), he would not have been damned at the end of the film, as he makes a final (albeit silent) confession before dying.Īs for subliminal messages, Video Watchdog magazine did a good article on this (sorry, can’t remember the issue).

No, Father Karras did not commit suicide at the end of THE EXORCIST he performed an act of martyrdom in order to save Reagen Teresa MacNeil.