It's the 40th anniversary of the Exorcist! Honestly can't believe this movie is 40 years old. It holds up very well. The effects aren't exactly state of the art, but since it's mostly a teen girl's head flipping 180 degrees and stuff floating around by itself, well, that's all still done pretty much the same way, I think? Meh, who knows. It was well done at the time and still looks good today and that's all that matters.
The Exorcist (1973) was voted the scariest movie of all time. Now you can't have a movie that good without good acting, and a good story, and well, good everything, really. Linda Blair might have won an academy award for it, but nobody has any respect for horror movies. To sum up, a well known actress has a teenage daughter, and they are very close. The daughter starts messing around with a Ouija board and dammit, isn't that just the gateway drug to hell? I guess we all know what happens then! Yea, you know it's coming! All hell breaks loose! lol
The Exorcist does take a very long time to build. Slow starter to be sure. There's lots of scenes of Father Merrin (Max von Sydow, who looked old when this movie was made and is still making movies 40 years later), and the actress mom (Ellen Burstyn) and Regan (Linda Blair) before the whole possession thing starts. There's also a death attributed to Regan, and a cop investigates that as well, which is all part of the long slow build up to, obviously, the exorcism. Then of course, they have to convince the church and the local priest to perform one. I mean, you can't just call Exorcisms'R'Us, or even the Ghostbusters. All this takes time, while old Horny hoof guy is making himself at home inside poor Regan. Of course, the exorcism itself is probably where half the terror comes in, making the movie as memorable as it is.
Obviously this sort of movie is one you can watch more than once. The acting and story hold up perfectly even in this day and age, though everyone has heard about this movie by now and there have been a thousand imitators, so this sort of thing is old hat for the kids of today. But when I was a kid? Scary stuff! No nudity in this, unless of course you count Linda Blair, who was 13 or 14 when this movie was made, so she really doesn't count, I don't think. I don't think there's much more to say about that, other than, if this movie has the cajones to still be revered as the scariest movie ever made after 40 years? It's got to be worth watching. lol I saw this on AMC's fear Fest! Unfortunately, it's not available on netflix.
On to Grimm! Grimm is a TV series about a detective who hunts monsters on NBC. Last season on Grimm, Baron Samedi (yea, the voodoo guy) managed to tranquilize Nick with his neurotoxic goo and loaded him into a coffin for a trip to europe and a fate known only to Captain Renard's brother, the Prince. In this season's premiere, however, Nick awakes early from his Samedi-induced coma and attacks everyone on board the plane, causing it to crash. Baron Samedi is killed, the pilot and co-pilot survive, but Nick wanders away from the crash and brawls his way through a bar-fight while under the effects of Baron Samedi's goo. Captain Renard, nick's girlfriend, the werewolf fellow and his girlfriend, as well as nick's partner, are hot on his heels tracking him down! Catch up on the show at NBC.com.
And now a review of the new show, Dracula, following Grimm on NBC. Apparently someone wakes up Dracula's corpse in the late 19th century, and he takes on a new identity as an american industrialist who invents wireless electricity. I'm not sure why he decides to do this, as there's absolutely no time between his resuscitation and his appearance as Alexander Greyson, nor any explanation as to why. What we are left with is a hulking Renfield who plays his assistant, and Dracula's obvious desire to gain some patents so he can make some money, or something. He's apparently trying to slay his way through the Order of the Dragon, some shady cult of oil barons intent on world domination through financial means. Twenty minutes in and there's no explanation of why he hates the Order of the Dragon so much, or how he found out about them when he's been in the grave for some number of years. Apparently Dracula is the hero, going up against oil company executives? lol I guess someone thought only one of the most brutal villains in fictional history could take on the oil companies and win? lol Oh geez, now they are calling Jack the Ripper a vampire and there's yet another shady organization hunting vampires that covered up the killings. This isn't going well already. And he's wantonly killing co-eds. lol I love how there's female medical students in the late 1800's medical schools over in england. I'm pretty sure the male-dominated medical system didn't allow female medical students until well into the 1900's, but, hey, I could be wrong! Also, Drac's killed once already and he's quickly working his way through the... ah, shall we say, arteries... of the female cast members. Either he's a hero or he's a villain, can we make up our minds here? An indiscriminate killer who hates people with money and power while he craves the same? I really don't get what's going on here. And everyone is wielding samurai swords! That's so convenient in late victorian england. Oh apparently the order of the dragon killed Drac's wife, and THAT's why he's so pissed at them. Well that makes slightly more sense. Can't say as I like the actor they picked to play Dracula. I've seen review blurbs where the selection of this actor is praised as genius, but I think that's more to convince whoever is producing the series than the public. He certainly wouldn't have been my first choice.
Okay, I'm not liking the new Dracula. Seems very... lame. Victorian england, puffy shirts, balls, the lusts and romance of Dracula as the anti-hero against the ... can you really call an organization evil if it fights vampires? I'm not sure. Is this two bad guys killing each other off, or are they trying to paint the Order of the Dragon, literally, oil company owners, as the good guys, trying to stop vampires and Dracula? lol There's no romance here, no drama, no passion, not even good storytelling. Flashy blood and Dracula made into a nightly soap opera, with political overtones. Blech. I think I'm taking a pass on this whole series. If you want to see how bad it is, try NBC.com, they probably have it available to stream.
That's it for tonight! Hope everyone has a nice weekend. See you tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment