Today's film, viewed with my evening meal of pasta salad with mackerel: The Exorcist.
An old priest, Father Merrin, is working as an archaeologist in Iraq.
A young priest, Damien, working as a psychiatrist in America, loses his faith, He's poor and can't support his aged mother, who dies.
A film actress, Christine MacNeil, works for an asshole director who doesn't know the difference between German and Nazi. She's a single mother with a cutesy daughter, Regan, who can't sleep because "the bed was shaking".
38 minutes into the film, Regan has a psychotic break, predicting a death. Doctors find nothing wrong with her brain despite using lots of big scary equipment.
50 minutes in, Satan starts speaking through Regan. The doctors use more big scary equipment before one suggests exorcism as treatment.
68 minutes in, the man whose death was predicted appears to have climbed into the tranquilised Regan's room, left behind a crucifix, been killed by something and pushed out of the window.
Regan bloodily masturbates with the crucifix, objects fly around her bedroom, and her head rotates 180 degrees. The mother contacts a priest.
79 minutes and 25 seconds - the projectile vomiting scene.
Damien sprinkles "fake" holy water on Regan, who reacts as though it were "real" (supporting a psychosis diagnosis), and speaks backwards (supporting a possession diagnosis), but the words are "I am no one". The words "Help me" appear as marks on her flesh.
The church authorities agree to an exorcism and call in Merrin - who arrives at the house in a shot inspired by a Magritte painting.
At 95 minutes, Merrin and Damien begin the exorcism. At 96 minutes and 43 seconds - the "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" line. The bed levitates. More green vomit. Head goes round 360 degrees this time.
"I cast you out unclean spirit." "Shove it up your ass you faggot."
At 106 minutes, as the priests take a break from their notably unsuccessful first round, Regan imitates Damien's dead mother. playing on his loss of faith and guilt.
At 110 minutes, Merrin has a heart attack and dies. Damien fails to revive him. In a rage he attacks Regan, demanding that the devil enter him instead. For no clear reason, Satan does so, and Damien, for a different no clear reason, retaining some control over his body, leaps out of the window, tumbles down the steps where the other man died, and dies - a friend priest giving him last rites. This, for a third unclear reason, banishes the devil.
Regan goes back to being cutesy.
In all, a rather slow and silly film - slightly less annoying than Leslie Nielsen's "sequel". It reinforces the notion that mental illness is demonic possession, and neither the premise nor the conclusion make sense even in the film's own terms.
On the other hand, it does have the music of Mike Oldfield and the amazing voice of Mercades MaCambridge.
The boss has made some decisions:
* I will have daily meetings at 9am with Tania the secretary/tranalator/organiser/etc./etc./etc. This will increase communication and get things done faster. Even though there's nothing we need to communicate about, and having more meetings will not make the bureaucracy less lethargic, the students more plentiful, or the technology more reliable.
* I will move next door. Into the second classroom, currently used as a warehouse. Exactly how moving a teacher to a room with no electricity or sanitation will help - and indeed what's it's designed to achieve - I'm not sure.
* The rundown house will be renovated and turned into a summer school. In a village with no prospective students, in a country that doesn't have summer schools.
* All problems can be solved by him giving up his job and coming to Bulgaria. So we have one more person hanging around, and no further income.
As a result, I'm not entirely sure I can stick this job for six months.
Repeat this line to your boss...
ReplyDelete"Your mother sucks cocks in hell!"