The Power of Blog Compels You

As I posted about last week, myself and my crew were aiming to check out a double feature of The Exorcist and The Silence of the Lambs in Frankfort last night. Unfortunately, due to certain job-related circumstances, one member of our crew couldn't make it and another had to work early this morning. So we decided to implement Plan B and catch only the first half of tonight's doubleheader, the extended "director's cut" of The Exorcist, tonight. So let's see how that went, shall we?

I'd seen various bits and pieces of The Exorcist on television in the past, but nothing could have prepared me for just how disturbing the movie is. Really, the movie actually made me want to curl up in a padded room for a few hours. What I thought was especially harrowing was all the little subtle things, like the faint Pazazu idols that creep up in the shadows of some scenes, and the split-second frames of Captain Howdy that were subliminally edited in there like they were Tyler Durden's porn collection. The shots of Captain Howdy particularly frightened me, because they were so quick that I was left with the feeling that while I wasn't a hundred percent sure what I saw, it made me almost pee my pants anyway. And that, folks, was effective.

Everything about the movie is just so disturbing. I normally don't feel like I've been punched in the stomach after leaving most horror movies, but that's how The Exorcist left me feeling. That's the only way I can describe this feeling. There's a reason why The Exorcist has developed a reputation as one of the genre's most enduring classics, and I believe that how I feel now is that reason.

Honestly, not very many movies have left me feeling the next day exactly how I felt after I left the theater. But The Exorcist is one of them. It's one of those movies that, when the credits roll, makes me want to stand up, take a deep breath, and say, "Man, that's messed up." I am simply in awe of just how mind-blowing The Exorcist is. The writing and direction are well done, the acting is spectacular, and most importantly, it's scary. Very, very scary. And it earns high praise with four and a half stars, a definite "Sutton At The Movies" recommendation.

Now that that's out of the way, we still have Silence of the Lambs to see tonight. I've seen it a dozen times, but I'm still excited about seeing it up on the big screen. There's just something about the experience that makes it so much more fun. Now if there were a way I could have made it to the doubleheader of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel and The Descent that the Harrodsburg drive-in was showing this weekend...