Day 30 - Your favourite horror film of all time.

 

    My favorite horror film of all time is The Exorcist (1973), you stupid piece of shit! I have been leaving hints throughout some of my posts, if you haven't noticed ( ¬⩊¬) I think The Exorcist is an emotional drama about a mother's love, faith, and sacrifice. It's funny because a lot of my favorite horror films are just Jesus films in disguise. A lot of them are about hope and faith, which is something I need a lot of these days.

    At first, I was interested in watching The Exorcist because of its notorious reputation. It's the scariest movie of all time! Let me take a look at it for myself... I saw brief clips as a kid while my parents were swimming through cable channels. I wanted to watch it and my mom left it on for a bit, until the crucifix scene. Then my dad made us change it, which is fair!

    The next time I tried watching The Exorcist, I got my 3 younger brothers together to watch it on Netflix through their PlayStation. I was around 15 years old, so the movie kind of bored me at first. The film is a bit of a slow burn! I ended up falling asleep on the film. lol!

    I didn't get to seriously watch the film until my early 20's! I took the time to watch the film and eventually purchased the book second hand. I watched and read The Exorcist during a very tumultuous time of my life. I was suffering from depression, anxiety and insomnia. My grandmother had just passed away. I was obsessed with angel numbers and thought entities were watching me in my sleep. I had several dreams about being possessed. I was also struggling with thoughts of self-harm, trying not to relapse. I had also developed this great and sudden fear of dying. I couldn't fathom the feeling of not being alive. Becoming nothing. Just stopping. Where will I go?

I read this during the height of my fear of dying.

    The film and book comforted me. I felt like I was Regan. Except, I didn't have Chris MacNeil or Father Karras to save me. I felt sick. Possessed. I struggled so much, trying to accept my past and what happened. It felt like coming out of a very bad dream. It took a lot for me to realize that I am suffering because what happened was actually worse than I was led to believe. I always thought I had a good life, that I didn't suffer as much as my peers. It all came crumbling down as I got older. To this day, I am still realizing that my dissociation, insomnia, obesity, derealization, oral health and so much more is a result of my trauma. I have been slowly picking up all of the pieces and The Exorcist had a part in helping me.

    The Exorcist is unique because of its story centering around a young girl. The audience watches all of these atrocities happen to this little girl. It is utterly disturbing. We have to question: Why?

Father Karras: Why her? Why this girl?

Father Merrin: I think the point is to make us despair. To see ourselves as... animal and ugly. To make us reject the possibility that God could love us.

    The devil is merciless. No human life is spared, not even the children. That is frightening. Especially to the audience during the year of 1973. I'd argue that current society has become quite desensitized to such imagery. I know current audiences (and past) might see this film as a slog or silly. "It's not even scary!". I feel like a lot of horror junkies are searching for the next big thing, the next Terrifier. I don't want to be a snobby piece of shit, but I think horror is quite versatile. It can be whatever we want it to be. With that in mind, I appreciate this film as a great piece of art.

    The Exorcist is responsible for setting the trope of "young woman being possessed in a nightgown", lol. The Exorcist is mother and she has many children. Many films try and fail to reheat her nachos. For every bastard child of a film, the more the possession genre becomes regurgitated garbage. That baby doesn't look like me! Many films try to replicate The Exorcist's success, but few understand why certain choices were made in the book and film and why it is shocking. Because of that, we get movies like The Vatican Tapes (2015) and The Devil Inside (2012). 

    There is a lot of fucking lore behind this film, there's even a documentary, The Exorcist Untold (2023), on Tubi if you're into that. There are countless articles, blog posts, and video essays one could find on the world wide web. It's easy to fall down the rabbit hole when it comes to this film. I have a digital purchase of The Exorcist, I have yet to acquire a physical copy. The shame! I also wanted to be Regan for Halloween, but I don't have the funds for a faithful costume. One day! I am constantly watching The Exorcist for comfort, so there's no waiting for Halloween for me.

A lithography project from college!

The prints I made with it!

    This is the last post of the Horror Film Tag! Yippie!! Which means that tomorrow is the first day of October! Woo hoo!! How exciting. I'm quite chuffed with myself for actually finishing this tag. I attempted to complete this tag last year, but I totally failed. I think posting everyday has taught me consistency. I'm glad it's over though, this challenge has been consuming most of my time! I'm ready to start working on other things now ☆ ～('▽^人)