MAY 5, 2014 1:17PM
A Banner Season for Demons: Update May 2014
UPDATE May 2014: On the Salon Article "Exorcism is Back! Meet the mavericks who will teach you how to cure demonic possession"
I just had to pop in quickly to note this Big Salon article about "exorcism being back." First of all, I don't feel like this is news, although I had been unaware of this Illinois school for exorcism that is mentioned. Tuition is $1500 bucks. As I've mentioned below, Italy has been awash in satanic panics going well beyond the early 1990s up until now. Wasn't Amanda Knox simply a sex-crazed devil worshipper?
And while there's mention of both Pentecostals and Bob Larson, too much of the "blame" is being placed on Catholics. Protestant sects have been interested in exorcisms for a while now:
I referenced it before, but check out Michael Cuneo's
American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty
. The U.S. is the place where exorcism will become a cottage self-help industry. This is why The Last Exorcism
was a great fictional take on the subject up until its silly and shlocky end.The article has one good point though: mental illness (and to a minor degree) sexual abuse end up being very literally demonized, and of course no good can come of that.
I might add that it's time to study the psyche and motivations of the exorcists. Do they want justification for turning back the clock on secularism? Are they in the grips of a religious mania? Or do they want to be Buffy in a cassock - i.e. superheroes saving the day?
UPDATE JANUARY 2014
SPOILERS
FOR: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4, THE
CONJURING, THE LORDS OF SALEM, THE POSSESSION, AMERICAN HORROR STORY
SEASON 2 and possibly more... I have a lot of catching up to do! In my blogging hiatus there has been no stopping the demon-devil-satanism-possession movie tidal wave. And even though no one cares, I am duty-bound to report on them all.
Right now, there's a big broohaha in Oklahoma caused by some Satanist merry pranksters to underscore America's religious rights; this couple was finally freed after a long, unfair satanic panic-fueled prison term; tiny new satanic panics are popping up, and; I just found out that the son of William Peter Blatty is both an Internet troll and a dedicated West Memphis Three truther.
Let's also not forget: OS's own Myriad has fallen prey to the dark demonic influence of cheap Wal-Mart devil ears!
And so, the devil films just keep on comin'!
The latest Paranormal Activity
chapter, The Marked Ones
(Jan. 2014), is blatant franchise milking. The expansion of the series'
mythology takes an obvious and corny antichrist/zombie apocalypse
flavor with an unexpected science fiction twist. The PA movies work because it's a personal, home-invasion spiritual horror that the protagonists face. One that you might relate to late at night when you hear a noise that you're only 75% certain is just the refrigerator. When you move the story towards more globally grandiose territory, it loses its creep-mojo.
Yet, there were things to like about it—among them new and well paced scares and the refreshing setting, a Chicano community. Actors Andrew Jacobs, Gabrielle Walsh, Jorge Diaz and Renee Victor did a great job.
While you might see the unfortunate stereotype of gangbangers, at least these gangbangers think to actually use their gangbanging powers against the witch cult that has set all the evil in motion (and no, I'm not implying anything you might find in your favorite online porn websites).
I expected there to be an involvement with Latin American afro-diaspora occult traditions. There is only a very brief scene, and I don't know if it involved Santeria
or just some Espiritismo
, Palo Mayombe
or Curanderismo
. Perhaps this is good — you don't need to pull out all cultural stereotypes simply because of the setting. Latin occult religions are fascinating, if rarely treated well by Hollywood. You may have seen The Believers
, or even the staggeringly racist The Possession of Joel Delaney
starring Shirley MacLaine. Two films worthy of a future post.
Last year, I caught the previous chapter, Paranormal Activity 4
(Oct.
2012). Again, good scares, a deepening of the mystery, but the ending
heads towards that plot path that's going to devalue the franchise in no
time. I appreciate the teen final girls who find their courage to confront the evil haunting (in both 2 and 4). If you look at the series as a whole, there are some interesting gender studies questions that arise. 3 also brings classic satanic panic tropes of recovered memories.
Deviating into TV Land for a minute, I just now in 2014 caught up with Season 2 of the much-lauded, highly star-powered American Horror Story.
A friend and I reached the conclusion that while Seasons 1 and the current 3 are slap-happy, enjoyable messes, Season 2, titled Asylum
, turned out to be some excellent, beautiful storytelling. Well, beautiful and bloody-brutal. The storyline is a thick stew of the most infamous American conspiracy theories. Project paperclip, MK Ultra, Project bluebook, etc. It involves an insane asylum, two serial killers (one a Nazi doctor), and aliens. But my reason for including it in this post is the wonderful Lily Rabe as Sister Mary Eunice, a demon-possesed nun.
The demon in Mary Eunice is wily, down to earth and cunning, and it enjoyed taking over the titular asylum and causing mayhem pain and evil.
The plot twist I thought would occur, didn't, and that may just be making the point about human evil versus supernatural agency. Who knows.
(Jul. 2013). In his review of the film, he states that it's got plenty to do with right-wing political fundamentalism and "misogyny."I wouldn't go as far as misogyny, but I don't disgree that it's based on some severe American right-wing mysticism, one served up by the film's protagonists Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) in the 1980s. I've written before about their impact on my home region, and on my warped teenage imagination. In the instance of The Conjuring, it's based on the "true story"
of the Rhode Island family chronicled by one of the daughters of the family; see here for an interview with her. Again, the film's conceit is that there were Satanic witches in Salem, sacrificing babies, and this is what leads to a haunting and possession for this poor New England family.
You know—the same belief that got innocent women killed
.
Ah, but then, The Conjuring wasn't the only 2013 film to imagine Salem witches as actual, vicious baby-killing hags. Here I posted my brief impressions of Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem
. I'm near-certain Rob Zombie is no ally of right wing mysticism, yet I think he served up exactly what that camp wants to see in anyone dabbling in occult things; perhaps in anyone who doesn't altogether believe as they do. I could see Pat Robertson championing this movie. Had it gotten better distribution, publicity and reviews (it is now being hailed by many as 'underrated' and a future cult classic) I think The Lords of Salem would have really lit the fire of a new satanic panic.
Basically, he turned gruesome old witch illustrations into a whole film.
Maybe for these reasons, I was excited to see what a Jewish exorcism/demon possession film would look like. I didn't catch August 2012's The Possession
in the theaters but did subsequently rent it in 2013. And I'm sad to say that I was disappointed by an obvious, uninspired and over-CGIed rehash of anything you would find in a Catholic or Protestant exorcism film.
Judaism has a rich mystic tradition
and I wanted to see the Talmudic Damien Karras; an exorcist with a deep
conflict of some sort. Matisyahu is a fun musician; the character they
wrote for him was underwhelming.Coming up in 2014, there will be the Antichrist/Rosemary's baby themed The Devil's Due, plus I will track down prior releases Here Comes the Devil
and The Last Exorcism Part II
.
UPDATE JULY 6, 2012
An update on this Banner Season for Demons: I finally watched The Devil Inside
(opened January 2012). The completionist in me needed to see it after
writing the article below this update, and despite being warned away
from it by various sources.
The various sources were right.
The Devil Inside
has this going for it: effective scare moments, an engrossing opening
mystery, a somewhat interesting conceit about a cabal of rebel Roman
Catholic priests (the plot shares the idea of a Hogwarts for exorcists
that I described below about The Rite),
and Suzan Crowley’s undeniably chilling turn as the possessed Maria
Rossi. Crowley probably portrayed the most frightening cinematic
possession victim since Linda Blair (possibly Anthony Hopkins too, but
frankly his possession was less sinister than his turn as Hannibal
Lecter).
Sadly,
the film proves yet another exercise of “much too vulgar a display of
power,” as Regan McNeil’s Pazuzu would say. Its found footage plot
device is beyond tired, the ending is as dumb as you may have heard it
is, and despite the religious gothic atmosphere it tries so hard to
build (and that isn’t tough to do when filming in Rome) it remains very
theologically shallow. It’s essentially a Body Snatcher movie wrapped
in religion.
I call The Exorcist
the 800-pound demon in the room for a reason. Despite the literal
supernatural antics of the Devil, right in front of your face, the
genre’s parent still gives us some beautiful gnostic wisdom - a human
example of Christ’s love left to you to interpret as you see fit. Part
of what makes the possession genre so fascinating to me is its
potential to comment on theology and mysticism, but in the genre only
four of the five films in the Exorcist franchise touch upon that in any interesting, thought-provoking way. The Devil Inside certainly didn’t care to try.
One side tangent: a priest in the movie mentions “about 800 Satanic cults active in Rome.” Italy has been in the perpetual grip of a Satanic panic for a while now,
even as the U.S. finally seems to be moving away from its own. Amanda
Knox was caught up in it. I myself had the pleasure of spending 6
months in the city of Firenze, and my boarder, a lovely, deeply
faithful Italian Protestant woman, was quite worried about Satanism and
the occult. I wasted much time in fascination clicking through a whole set of links about Italy’s Satanic panic - posted by Diane Vera, a woman who calls herself a theistic Satanist! I’d love to hear more from fellow OS blogger Beth Winegarner on this subject of Italy’s mania.
Originally posted October 31, 2011
The
“banner season” for the current wave of demonic attack/possession
films started last year, and is slouching towards January with the
upcoming release of Rome-based theological thriller The Devil Inside. What’s going on? Is torture porn no longer capturing the imagination and fear of the horror fans and moviegoers? Or, is this spiritual torture porn? Is it a resurgence of belief and evangelical fundamentalism that’s making this theme a trend again?
Me,
I suspect it’s nothing more than Hollywood’s mixed attempts to capture
the genuine and sensational electric current of fear generated by the
600 pound demon in the room, The Exorcist. I was susceptible to that current, and I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious household. Can you really point to another film that created so much fright and trauma in people (no, Glitter doesn’t count)? Are
film creators and executives genuinely interested in the subject and
the questions that it brings up, or do they want to find the next “hot
creature” and sell their souls to it for revenue?
Some of the films under discussion might have answers to that question, depending on your point of view. Spoilers below for all of them.
The Last Exorcism (released August 27, 2010) goes out of Catholicism into the American Protestant response to demonic possession, which I like. A summary paraphrased from IMDB:
In
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus agrees
that the filmmaker Iris Reisen and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz make a
documentary about his life as an exorcist. Cotton tells that he
questions his faith. Further, he tells that exorcisms are frauds but the
results are good for the believers because they believe it is true.
When Cotton is summoned by the farmer Louis Sweetzer to perform an
exorcism in his daughter Nell, Cotton sees the chance to prove to the
documentary crew what he has just told. Cotton performs the exorcism in
Nell, exposing his tricks to the camera, but sooner they learn that the
dysfunctional Sweetzer family has serious problems.
A good companion text for this movie is Michael W. Cuneo’s “American Exorcist: Expelling Demons in the Land of Penty." I highly recommend it. It
discusses how exorcism is becoming a ‘cottage industry’ in many
Protestant evangelical churches, and is being used to expel demons of
‘depression, laziness, apathy,’ etc., like some kind of mystic Prozac.
I loved The Last Exorcism
up until the very end. I loved the premise - an evangelical,
professional exorcist working backwards to debunk possession in order to
prevent further harm and superstition. Not only was the possession
creep factor high and well executed, but performances by Patrick Fabian
as the likeable Cotton Marcus and Ashley Bell as the afflicted Nell
Sweetzer were superb. The mystery surrounding Nell's possession was
engaging, as was Cotton's exposition of his bag of tricks.
But then, the film turned to a "much too vulgar a display of power." Eli Roth of Hostel
fame was one of its producers, and many were suprised that he could be
involved in such an understated horror film. Alas, the understatement
didn't last. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE LAST EXORCISM: the climax involved a plot twist shared by another film discussed below. While it fit well in Paranormal Activity 3, it cheapened and shlockened what up until then was a fascinating treatment on the topic of demonic possession.
The Rite (released January 28, 2011) is moody, serious and beautifully shot. It takes us back to a highly Catholic take on the subject, and it is based on the book ”The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by Matt Baglio which claims to be founded upon on true events. I never take that claim seriously. I also suspect that the bizarre “true cases” found in Malachi Martin’s “Hostage to the Devil” have informed this film. The premise involves a novice priest with lack of faith problem – yawn, again – being invited to join a sort of Hogwarts for exorcists run out of The Vatican. The
young priest Michael Kovak (played by Colin O’Donoghue) is a skeptic
almost from the start and though the exorcism course is meant to be a
way to keep him in the priesthood, he keeps pressing his instructors on
matters of science. As he resolves to leave for good, he
is asked to study under Father Lucas Trevant (played by Anthony
Hopkins) someone highly experienced in driving out demons. We
witness two dramatic exorcisms (a pregnant woman and a boy) that,
although they contain highly fantastical elements, don’t necessarily
riff The Exorcist overmuch.
Then,
Father Trevant himself becomes possessed, leading to the conclusion
involving Father Kovak and his red herring journalist love interest.
Kovak finally regains some deep Catholic faith. As you
can expect a possessed Anthony Hopkins is indeed terrifying and
enigmatic, even if you can’t tell the difference between the demon and
Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Switching gears and leaving religion mostly out of it, Insidious (released April 1, 2011) didn’t feature a demonic possession, but it would have if the evil hadn’t been stopped in its tracks. It
was a scary tale of household demonic attack, complete with all the
trappings – a psychic advisor, a spiritually beleaguered child,
progressive entrapment and a family secret. A little-used New Age twist, a father-son talent for astral projection, was used as a plot device. There were good frights along the way via the various apparitions and hauntings. That doesn’t last. The climax of the film might be original but suffers from showing us too much of what we shouldn’t see. Barbara
Hershey as the grandmother of the afflicted child brought an extra
tinge of residual creepiness from her own, highly disturbing 1983 movie The Entity about a rapist incubus.
Finally, we come to Paranormal Activity 3 which I watched on October 23rd. I
think this series does tap into what’s truly frightening about the
premise of demons and spirits invading your own house – every little
creak, bump, breeze and refrigerator hum as you’re trying to go to
sleep. The third installment in the series continues the
tradition of a swarthy good looking man of the house videotaping the
supernatural goings-on in his home. all the way to his doom. If
you follow the franchise you know that it’s not a ghost plaguing this
family, it is in fact a vicious demon, always formless and faceless. It was brought into this family’s life by a covenant, and in Part 3 we see a whole lot more of who and how. MAJOR PA3 SPOILERS FOLLOW. There
is a frightening and expertly realized climax that avoids obvious
didactic exposition and rewards all the hints and small pieces of
information to be gathered throughout the franchise. The
compulsive videotaper Dennis stumbles upon a multigenerational demon
worshipping coven responsible for the hauntings and subsequent
possession throughout the entire PA franchise. More importantly, the film is set in the 80’s, appropriately enough since it’s now dealing with the Satanic Panic as a motif. The
coven apparently has the ability to “brainwash” and alter
recollections, reminiscent of claims of multiple personality disorders
and suppressed memories by alleged victims of satanic ritual abuse. The cult has goats of Mendes and weird occult triangle symbols. It’s
interesting that this franchise wants to revisit the lunatic thought
of those days, especially when the characters in the films are so
modern and seem so beyond that sort of hooey. Also, I’m
stupidly tempted to read into the nature of the cult (women) and the
nature of the victim who receives the most violent and brutal death
(the men of the house, though certainly not the only victims). Retro in more ways than just its 80’s setting?
So,
with all these films, there seems to be mostly a superficial interest
in the horror of demonic attack and possession, which is certainly
appropriate for Insidious or Paranormal Activity 3. The explorations of faith and questions about the universe that are raised in films like The Rite are unsatisfactory, while The Last Exorcism dropped the ball on a fresh premise.
Mostly the genre seems to be unable to escape an old trope – God as a cosmic extortionist. You’ve lost your faith? Well,
just watch this innocent girl get incessantly tortured by demons,
watch for impossible supernatural goings on, and you’ll be back at Mass
in no time! This irritated me in The Rite, and it irritated me in 2006’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Now consider again the genre’s unbeatable parent, The Exorcist. Yes,
another priest lacking faith being tested via demons – but – Ellen
Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil didn’t come out of this ordeal as a believer. In fact no one did – no one said “I saw a little girl levitate and spin her head 360 degrees – there IS a God!”
The audience however, witnessed the Christ-like sacrifice of Father Damien Karras. There endeth the faith lesson.
UPDATE: I am now listening to an NPR interview with William Peter Blatty.
"The Exorcist"'s 40th anniversary edition (the novel, that is) is
revised! He says the novel remains a "novel of faith", not of horror.
Reported changes include a new character, an extended scene and new
dialogue.
Comments
Words can't be found to
describe the grouped insanity going on in the gay exorcism. It's
almost like something from a John Waters satire. Also, since when does a
Prophet wear a pink hoody? I think she's more about the "profit" than
"prophet".
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