Tag Archives: samhain

Horrors of 2023: The 50th Anniversary of The Exorcist

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I was there in 1999 for the theatrical release of The Version You’ve Never Seen Before (a version of The Exorcist that, as I explain here, I didn’t care for and still don’t). Until today, that was the first and only time I’ve seen the movie in theaters.

The 50th Anniversary of the movie is being celebrated this October with a theatrical re-release, and a new Blumhouse/David Gordon Green sequel is premiering in four days. Fans are perhaps rightfully apprehensive about Exorcist: Believer, featuring the return of Ellen Burstyn as Chris McNeil. I myself have a surprising, almost overwhelming love for 75% of the Exorcist “franchise”, so stay tuned to this blog for my thoughts on this new chapter.

The version I saw this afternoon is something called “The Extended Director’s Cut,” and if I’m not mistaken, it’s a print that’s even further from “The Director’s Cut,” which takes elements from “The Version You’ve Never Seen” but excludes the worst parts of that one, such as the cheap, worthless CGI morphs slapped all over the place.

For me it was definitely a new experience of watching The Exorcist. Here’s why (spoilers for “The Extended Director’s Cut”}:

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Trick or Treat ’21: Another Evil

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Source: imdb By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4185566/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63019692

Welcome to Chillerpop’s inaugural Halloween 2021 Trick or Treat! For this project I asked friends far and…well, far…to pick a movie for me to cover in a blog post.

My friend Allan was the second person to reply to my prompt, but he’s going first! “Chef Al,” as he’s known on the excellent podcast Kiss The Goat, is armed with exceptional culinary skills and a vicious wit aimed straight at the throat of nasty-ass consumerist chain restaurant food.

Chef Al would like you to listen to the podcast Decoding the Gurus, for anyone needing to navigate or vet any “guru” they’re considering following or trusting – which is a fit for the film he chose, the 2016 horror comedy Another Evil.

“If you’re not averse to going low key,” he added.

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REPOST: William Peter Blatty’s “Legion” to Hit the Stage!

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[NOTE: Welcome to Chillerpop’s 31 Days of Halloween 2020! As if this year needed more inconceivable horror! It doesn’t, but maybe some nostalgia and escapism will help? Yes, nostalgia for…an economic crisis. This blog, you see, began in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008.

This month, mostly because I am lazy, I will repost some blogs from my original Open Salon page. These posts will be badly written, badly edited, and extremely out of date.]

Originally published MARCH 15, 2010 11:38PM

MARCH 15, 2010 11:38PM

William Peter Blatty’s “Legion” to Hit the Stage!


Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre is adapting Willliam Peter Blatty’s novel “Legion”, the basis for his 1990 film “Exorcist III” as a stage play.  I think this is an excellent opportunity to keep a purer vision of the source material in the face of audience and studio expectations of what a horror film should be.

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Around the World in 31 Days: Mexico

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habitante

Movie poster.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos! I hope this day gives you much wonder, and that you remember – or commune with the spirits of – your loved ones beyond the veil.

Since I began my correspondence with the folks at It’s Playing, Just With Research, I’ve been obsessive about chasing down every last possession/exorcism movie out there. That’s how the terrific Mexican horror film El Habitante (The Inhabitant), came to my attention. I had a deep fear as I began this movie: that it would be as rote and derivative as 99.6% of all modern exorcism films since the release of The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

I was happily wrong. Continue reading →

A Dark Song

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MV5BMTEzNDk1MzM4MDleQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU4MDM2NTI4ODEy._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_

October 18, 2017 – This film is going to be talked about for quite some time. It’s intense, original, and defies many, many expectations. It will probably get backlash, mostly by virtue of having to be packaged and marketed alongside Saw 12, Curse of Chucky or Paranormal Activity 45. I hate to summon the dreaded “post-horror” category, but A Dark Song could be comfortably placed there. I don’t care over-much, but you can call it “horror” in the same way that a quiet ghost story like The Haunting or The Others is horror. Continue reading →

Around the World in 31 Days: Australia

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There is a category of fiction out there called “horror adjacent,” mostly applied to movies that might feature supernatural horror elements but whose storyline itself isn’t actually horror. Some of these could fall in with ‘horror-comedy;’ others with fantasy, and another set, like Australia’s Boys in the Trees, defy easy classification.

Paranormal tear-jerker?

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Around the World in 31 Days: Romania

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be my cat

Source: imdb

Romania. The very name evokes dark forests, gothic ambiance, and the home town of one Vlad Tepes. Universal and Hammer horror films. Innocent frights and delights that kept you up as a kid, and bring you warm feelings of love as an adult.

I understand Romanians themselves are probably sick of the “Dracula” associations and just want to join the modern world like any other country.

Well, Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is a horror movie in a very modern (and American) tradition – found footage – and devoid of anything gothic, vampiric or supernatural. Its plot is driven by adulation for a major American Hollywood celebrity. Is this a point? Continue reading →

Around the World in 31 Days: United Kingdom

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[NOTE: Originally posted October 3rd, 2014 as part of that year’s 31 Days of Halloween]

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Around the World in 31 Days: The Philippines

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Seaside horror is going to have a resurgence. Robert Eggers, director of The VVitch, just released The Lighthouse. Another film (one I hoped to cover in this blog project), Cold Skin, also deals in coastal terror.

Where the land is adjacent to the cold, horror filled depths, that is fertile ground for nightmares. And Aurora delivered on those, although at times it is an uneven film. Continue reading →

Around the World in 31 Days: France

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Frontiersposter_9701

I’m not a gorehound, but when I heard the Faculty of Horror’s podcast episode on the New French Extremity movement I knew I had to delve (Alexandra West, podcast co-host, has written a book extensively covering these films.)

I was hoping to watch the original Martyrs, as its premise sounds mind-blowing, but I went for the low-hanging streaming fruit, Frontière(s) on TubiTV. Nazis are no longer quaint wrong fun for horror movie subject matter, so I wasn’t totally in the mood.

Now, NFE movies don’t typically fuck around; they will deliver some of the most shocking, nihilistic moods you can see anywhere. Frontière(s) opened with an abortion and the main protagonist declaring that this was no world in which to bring a baby forth. Opening salvo? Continue reading →