Halloween is here and with that brings a horde of scary movies of which the granddaddy of all scary movies (in my opinion) is The Exorcist. Not only because it made people faint, puke and stampede up the aisles to the exit signs at the friendly neighborhood theater, but because it was damned good movie making. To this day there still are very few movie studios that create the art of the horror movie with the intention that a mature, adult audience will be watching their movie. Most are aimed at the teen audience with the impression that teens will swallow any old crap the movie studio shovel at them and sadly, they swallow away quite happily.
Okay, down from my soapbox. One of the most Iconic images from the movie The Exorcist is the original movie poster which shows the older priest, Fr. Merrin exiting a taxi cab and pausing in front of the house in Georgetown as seen above. What I didn’t know until recently is that when creating this scene, they attempted to mimic a 1954 painting by artist Rene Magritte: L’Empire des Lumieres.
What do you think? Seems possible?
Whether you are a believer or not, you can add this to your collection of Exorcist trivia and impress everyone at the Halloween party while you’re dressed in a tutu trying to act cool.
Being that it’s Halloween season, I wanted to share one of the most terrifying images I laid eyes on a child: The Doll from an episode of The Night Gallery. If there were no monsters under my bed at the tender age of 8, there were for many night to come. I hadn’t thought of this image for a long time and wondered if my childish imagination ramped up the horror a little. Maybe the doll wasn’t as scary as I remember?
Fuck yeah, it’s the doll from Hell! Look at the damned thing! Makes the doll from The Trilogy of Terror look like Gumby & Pokey.
I was definitely freaked out. How could a benevolent TV that gave us Scooby Doo in the day give us such horror at night?
I became hooked on the macabre shortly thereafter.
www.franksay.com
