October 1, 2017 – This post was originally published October 1, 2013 and has been edited.
In his crisp narrative style, SA Bradley runs the horror movie-devoted podcast Hellbent for Horror. Listening to it is indeed a pleasure. SA has introduced a number of key concepts for those of us who study and discuss horror fiction. One of these is “The First Kiss” – that first movie or piece of fiction which introduced you to horror and has left you a helpless addict. Continue reading
Perhaps not, but you’re fascinating and worthy of the Exorcist legacy. Continue reading
“Once the wings have brushed you, is there no hope?”
I love Exorcist II: The Heretic.
There, I said it. It’s liberating. I have voiced the most shameful secret any horror fan could harbor. I and others like me can now march in the streets with our locust flags flying high, in pride.
I adore this loony, insane, beautiful mess. And a mess it is. Universally reviled, considered one of the biggest turkeys in cinema, Heretic holds up for me as an unintentional comedy and as a weird, original, meta-philosophical bit of art house cinema. It is the perfect example of the 1970’s excesses of visionary egomaniacs with relative carte blanche to make vanity masterpieces, or disasters.
Chillerpop 