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A good film but as a huge Stephen King fan ( not all his stuff mind) the film which scared the absolute gonards off me and disturbed me at the same time was the Exorcist.. I think it was William Friedkin who directed and Pete Blatty who wrote it.
I first saw The Exorcist as an underage comprehensive school sneak-in when it was re-released nationwide in a double bill format alongside Exorcist ll: The Heretic in 1980.
I saw it at multi-screen 'Studios Cinema 1-2-3' on St Helens Road which was a converted 1800’s (St Paul’s) church. The movie was projected/viewed in the section of the church that was once many years beforehand the churches crypt.
Watching the movie in an old church with traditional external stonework/architecture added to the whole experience for me, along with the fact that it was in the midst of winter and queuing outside on a cold dark night made the experience even more atmospheric,
It was a brilliant movie! And the fact that it came with notoriety and some ‘reputation’ made people queuing outside on edge even before they had paid for their admission fee.
Either the Carlton or Albert Hall for my viewing of The Exorcist way back early Seventies .
Again , bunked off School to try and see the film , must have been about 15 at the time .
Reports at the time mentioned cinema goers fainting , throwing up and walking out of the screening , I went back to school next day bragging to my mates about how I got entry in .
It was a craze with loads of kids belonging to my particular school band forms, they just had to go and see that movie in its 1980 re-release format, because the hype and hysteria was still there from six years previous.
It made many local newspaper stories throughout the U.K with local clergy wanting it banned from their parish area(s).
Some kids from my comp had a real bad reaction to it, and of course that made me even more determined to see it, thinking that this movie is surely a must watch, and not to be missed experience like no other.
I came home and did not sleep a wink that Friday night, there was a howling wind outside and a rattling single pane window (not many double glass sealed UPVC windows in those days) I found every bedspring creak or unexplained external noise unsettling also. The possession in The Exorcist did after all start with unexplained noises. And of course just like the first scene in Jaws what you cannot see is extremely psychological.
Jaws was shown in The Albert Hall also, great times because the general public and press/media really did help play a major part by creating/fueling excitement/hysteria that meant that queues went right around the block.
What a "that was then this is now" comparison with today. I cannot ever imagine seeing queues like that in this day and age, times and society have changed.
'Event movie' is another word, movies such as Jaws, The Exorcist and Star Wars. They were must-see when everyone you talked to at the time had either seen the movie, wanted to go and see it, or knew someone who had.
And it was wall-to-wall press/media build up many months before the movie(s) had even arrived on U.K shores, courtesy of the fact that the U.K always followed a long time after these movies were premiered over in the U.S.
And when the cinema-movie-spools were up and running? The U.K press/media went into full out Barnum And Bailey promotion mode!
It's a very psychological movie, the books author said that it struck an instictive primeval nerve in the minds of many. The fear of something unseen and deadly lurking beneath is understandable, quite similar to fear of the dark in an unfamilar area e.g. what is ahead at the end of that narrow unlit winding lane etc.
Just done a bit of digging about on Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells and its link to The Exorcist .
Found a clip on You Tube , looks like promo material trailer and editing , some shots of the original The Exorcist , worth a watch for the 6 minutes duration .
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