Podcast Recording Practices
00:00:04
Speaker
Nothing like starting the recording off with, though. Ten seconds of silence. Isn't that what technically you're supposed to do? so like Yeah, for like room tone or something, but we don't really do that. No, we've never done that. You suggested it when we first started doing this, and then we just never did it.
Podcast Format & Listener Engagement
00:00:25
Speaker
Again, like that we have kind of like this DIY kind of thing going on. Like it's supposed to just sound like like a conversation between two friends and also a third friend. You, the listener. Yes. The listener and sometimes a fourth friend, Charlie. That's true. That's true. And Madison and Madison and Theron and.
Guest Mentions & Listener Speculation
00:00:48
Speaker
Yeah. The other person who was in that episode. John. John. John.
00:00:55
Speaker
You're welcome. i think um You think it was John?
00:01:03
Speaker
think Well, I don't know if they listen to this. I don't know. But and yeah, and other guests to come in the future, I'm sure.
Audio Issues in Past Episodes
00:01:12
Speaker
um But yeah, so like, I think like some of the, I'm not worried about it sounding like too super professional. And like, I think it sounds fine for the most part, except for the episodes where I accidentally have the input set to my headphones instead of my microphone. And then it sounds like shit. I think there's been like three of those and no more, there will never be another episode like that. Or the episodes when I um thought for some reason that I didn't need my pop filter and decided to just scream into the microphone. Yeah.
00:01:43
Speaker
There's a couple of us. It's fine. um Our dozens of listeners have stayed with us. Actually, I haven't even looked at our demographics. I don't know if we have more or less. Who knows? They changed the way Zencaster works, and I haven't been paying attention. Amazing.
Charlie's Birthday & Host Banter
00:01:58
Speaker
um Guess whose birthday is next week? I don't know. Not yours. Not not mine. Oh, it's Charlie's, right? It's Charlie's. It's Prince Charles's birthday.
00:02:13
Speaker
I've already gotten him his birthday presents, to which he immediately was like, what is it? And he was like, okay, I know what you got me. And I was like, what do you mean, you know what you got me? And he was like, yeah, guess. I was like, I'm not gonna, that will just get me to tell you what I got you. He just texted me, ask her what it is.
00:02:36
Speaker
No, he's not gonna find out until Wednesday. I'm texting him, stop listening.
00:02:44
Speaker
This is supposed to be a surprise.
00:02:51
Speaker
Nosy Parker. Right? Nosy Parker. Oh, he said something the other day that was very confusing. ah He texts me confusing things all the time. Yeah, that's just Charlie. Well, I could be a mile away and could still hear her. That's what he texted me. I feel so loved.
00:03:15
Speaker
because he can hear me in his heart, because he loves me, because you love me.
00:03:22
Speaker
This is a fun game where you talk out loud and then he texts me the response. Yeah. Don't you feel like such a part of our marriage? So true. So true. That's
Introduction to 'The Exorcist' Discussion
00:03:35
Speaker
right, guys. This is Go Get Your Girl or Go Get Your Ghoul. Ooh.
00:04:03
Speaker
that's right, guys. I'm Emma. And I'm Katie. Today we're talking about The Exorcist. Yes. um William Friedkin's 1973 film, The Exorcist, written by William Peter Blatty, bla lady gladty I don't know how you say it, based on his novel. um So he wrote the book and then adapted his own screenplay for this movie.
00:04:30
Speaker
um William Friedkin, a very famous director, just died last year. um He made the movie The French Connection, which won best director and best picture and best actor and all that. And he also, he made a bunch of other movies, including a movie called Sorcerer, which I like a lot. um He also did the Tracy Letts adaptation of Bug.
00:04:49
Speaker
with Ashley Judd, I don't know if you saw that. He's made a lot of like thrillers and horror movies and is generally considered to be like an insane person.
00:05:01
Speaker
yeah yeah There's lots of's lots of- Every single fun fact today. Every is about him being is about him being an asshole or something. Yeah, so like yeah There's a documentary that came out a couple years ago with like conversation with him and that but and him just like talking very honestly about Films and filmmakers and stuff like that that. I haven't seen but got a lot of praise and stuff and and yeah, he said he died last year and William Peter Blaty Blaty Blaty, I don't know BL EA TTY. I don't know L. E. T. T. Y. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Rhyme.
00:05:47
Speaker
Um, he also wrote a sequel to this, which he turned into the movie, the Exorcist three that he directed himself. Um, which is also good. The Exorcist two, not good. The Exorcist three. Good. Um, you just skip from one to three. Yes, because, because they have nothing to do with each other. So the Exorcist three is a direct sequel to this movie and the Exorcist two.
00:06:09
Speaker
um is ignored by the Exorcist 3. When they made the Exorcist 3, they made it like the Exorcist 2 didn't happen. Like so many reboots do nowadays. yeah um Like the Halloween franchise, for example. there's if There's like six different timelines in the Halloween franchise. yeah ah Some of them ignore Halloween 2, some of them i ignore Halloween 3 through 7. It's crazy.
00:06:30
Speaker
um Yeah, but it's good. So if you watch hal if you watch this movie and then watch The Exorcist 3, that's the way to watch it. The Exorcist 2 is considered to be kind of a cash grab and like the people involved left the project, including William Peter Blatty. And so, yeah, it's it's very weird. um I haven't actually seen all of it. um I've watched part of it and is it's not very good.
00:06:55
Speaker
But this movie was um hugely successful. It was a phenomenon. The book certainly was as well. um And then the movie was ah the highest grossing horror movie until 2017, when it um took that away from it. Oh, OK. This was um massive hit, nominated for 10 Oscars, including basically all of the major ones.
00:07:19
Speaker
winning two, including best screenplay. Amazing. Which is crazy that a horror movie, especially one this disturbing and yeah um like controversial, was was that well thought of critically at the time. Usually these things are like, oh, it's a classic in hindsight, but this was a absolutely massive hit. um And also, like the guy won best director and best picture two years before this. So I think a lot of that was, you know this was like,
00:07:48
Speaker
You know, in some ways, maybe the first art horror film in America, at least, or at least one that was perceived that way at the time. um Yeah. A lot of movies are considered our horror films that came up before this at Carnival of Souls and stuff like that. But um certainly the first one, I mean, it's so hard to say something like this on a podcast because someone, went well, if we had the kind of people who would write in and correct us, they would say, well, actually, there's something else. I'm sure there is, but well, yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
in the, in, as far as like popular movies and things that many people think of, this is the first movie horror movie that was received artistically in the way that something like, you know, it follows or the Babadook or the artistic horror movies of the past decade.
Medical Scenes & Research in 'The Exorcist'
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, and it was like um cult famous when it came out because of all the stories and like new stories and people going to see it, people passing out in the aisles, people vomiting in the aisles, like people, it was almost became a like a test of wills to see if you could sit through and endure this movie, which I haven't thought about. And it might be my desensitized 2024 brain um and my love of horror.
00:08:57
Speaker
um I felt this movie is 60 years old, right? 50 years old movies, 50 years old. Yeah. So like some of the things that were done in this movie were genuinely scary at the time.
00:09:11
Speaker
just like how Star Wars, things that were like seen at the time in theaters was like mind blowing, but now you see it or you're forced, your husband to watch it for the first time and he laughs at how fake everything looks. I'm not speaking from personal experience. I'm speaking from personal experience. Sorry, Charlie.
00:09:34
Speaker
He is not a fan of the Star War. And so the biggest thing that was the most disturbing to me throughout the entire movie that I was the most painful thing to watch, which then sent Charlie on a medical rabbit hole.
00:09:53
Speaker
I knew exactly what you were gonna say, yeah. Yep. When she gets, when she's at the hospital and they do that procedure to put the dye in her brain so that they can like look at the waves and they have to cut, yeah, and they have to cut it into her neck and then blood just goes, boo! Yeah. Horrifying. Yeah. Horrifying.
00:10:18
Speaker
There's there's a lot of 1970s medical horror in this, because like, I guess they still do. a kind they They'll do a contrast MRI, which is basically what they're doing there. But it's not. and I don't think it's generally. Yeah, it's not quite the same, though. But yeah, those things and the way though that that that like it's so loud, like the banging of that thing, like the the shit that this girl goes through throughout this movie, like not just being possessed by the demon, but the. Yeah. the doctors and the tests and the probing and all of that kind of stuff is that's the most horrific part. Like you get to the demon part and you're like, geez, well, at least, you know, she's not really that conscious for all this, whatever. um But she had to like live through all the like probing and the people telling her she was crazy and like the medication or like being wrongly medicated and the like the tests, the like 1970s tests that are just like horrific, like
00:11:16
Speaker
An MRI, as it is, that's or yeah that's the thing where you go into the little tube, right? Yeah, it's a little bit different than what happened to her. that Hers was an angiograph or angiogram, which is a little different, yeah. Yeah, but like like that, an MRI, as is, is already a little daunting for me mentally because you're sort of stuck in this tube, right? um Yeah, I mean, I've never had one, have you?
00:11:44
Speaker
No, no, I've never had one either. I've had cats, man, which is a lot less scary, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely I've been ultrasound like a gajillion times because I do that for my job. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Oh, then have they never given you an MRI for your job. No, I've never gone to an MRI for my job. Yeah, probably too expensive or I haven't worked my way up there. um I've gotten all sorts of ultrasounds.
00:12:09
Speaker
ah Which is great because it's the most fun thing is to see what your anatomy looks like Yeah, I think it's fascinating. I I love seeing the inside of me Yeah, it it should stay on the inside like it's important to see the inside while it's on the inside as opposed to the inside things on the outside exactly Then you still get to see it, but you don't want to see that Exactly. I like seeing my insides while they're still inside me. There it is. Yeah. Could be the tic-tac part. Right?
00:12:47
Speaker
The last time i I did an ultrasound gig, they were ultrasounding like my lower abdomen and so also like um fanning to sort of see my uterus and ovaries and all of that stuff. and so i as we like I did like two or three days of this and by the end of it, I was just like, okay guys, here's a fun game. Who can find my IUD?
00:13:08
Speaker
Gold star for the first one to see it.
00:13:14
Speaker
great Good for you. Good time. Yeah. Anyways, tell us about the plot, Katie.
Plot Progression & Character Analysis
00:13:20
Speaker
um Wow. The plot is a lot. So yeah um we start in Iraq. I was so confused.
00:13:28
Speaker
I've never seen this movie before. This was the first time. Yeah. And he said, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is the first time we've seen this movie. um This is only the second time I've seen this movie. I saw this movie for the first time last year. Yeah. It was one of those things where it's like, everybody's like, it's the most, it's the scariest movie ever. And it's so disturbing. And I was like, I bet not.
00:13:46
Speaker
Um, like jaded 2020s, but I think the movie is really good. Um, that I, um, I think that, uh, it was still very impressive to see. I think that, yeah, a lot of that stuff, you have to take it to context of how disturbing it would have been at the time, because now there's a million possession movies every year that are just as disturbing, just as like, quote, shocking and stuff like that as a, as a little girl, you know, telling you your mom sucks Cox in hell or whatever. um I think the difference between this movie and and and a lot of those movies is that the acting is is much higher quality in this, usually. And the amount of just the way that it's filmed, the amount of um of suffering and angst
00:14:37
Speaker
um that's that's able to be communicated by the film in general, not just specifically Linda Blair and um what's her name? Oh, shit.
00:14:49
Speaker
Got the famous actress. Ellen Burstyn. Ellen Burstyn, yeah. Ellen Burstyn. The cinematography, the the the the sound, all of it, is is just it's just ah it's like a it's it's a higher level than yeah you know the taking of Deborah Logan or whatever all of these other possession movies are that come out all the time. Yeah. There's a haunting in Connecticut. Exactly, yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker
There's no matter where you're from, there is a a haunting in your in your area. Like I am from a small town in Tennessee and there's the haunting of the Bellwetch. And that takes place in my hometown. Yeah, you've got the Bellwetch. Yeah, that's where from where I'm from. Yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
Um, yeah. So everybody, no matter where you're from in, in America and you know, probably the world, I'm sure. yeah Um, oh but in America, at least there is a movie that's about a haunting in your, in your, in in your area. It's not immediately your hometown, at least your region of, of your state. storage engine Yeah, like um I found out in researching for potential movies for next week that ah I live about 25 minutes away from the, oh my gosh, what's what's their name? um They did the conjuring. They were the real life paranormal investigators. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the um the Warrens, yeah. warren I live about 25 minutes away from their house, which used to be-
00:16:21
Speaker
Well, the thing is is that like, it used to be that like museum that you could go to and see like, yeah, there. Um, but it, it closed down. Well, she died recently, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it closed down because of zoning laws.
00:16:39
Speaker
Connecticut was like, you cannot do that. But because people are such a big fan of the conjuring movies, um they have security, like high security around the house and like cameras. You can't even get close to the house. ah That's that. Yeah, because it used to be a museum. It's a museum. All these of these of of this Of this con man and con woman who damaged these people over the years. And you can see all of the artifacts that they invented. yeah All the artifacts that they invented are all in their house, and their son tried to run it for a while after Lorraine passed away. But um but yeah, so he you you can drive past it. You can't get very close to the house itself. Like the Hummelone house in Wanaka? Yes. Well, they put that in Airbnb last year. Oh, well yeah. There used to be a big wall around it.
00:17:31
Speaker
Oh, not anymore. No, now they're they're really leaning into the nostalgia. So someone else must have bought it probably because it was for sale and there was like a huge wall around it. Did they did they did they change the interior to where it looks like the movie? Yeah. Because that's the only way I would want to stay in it it as an Airbnb. Oh, yeah, I wouldn't want to stay in it like where it looks nice, like a nice rich mansion in Winnetka. I mean,
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. What? Uh, whatever. But yeah, there's- So the plot? Yeah, the plot of The Exorcist. Oh, sorry. Sorry, did you have more? No, no, that was, I was just gonna segue, but you also segued. Well, I don't know if segued is the word for what I did. We segued. You were gonna go for a nice, like, even merge, and I kind of jerked the wheel. Yeah, so, um,
00:18:23
Speaker
In Iraq, Father Maron played by Max von Seidau, who was only 44 when he shot this movie and they made him look much older, um which I guess is a choice. It's weird though, because you're thinking like, wow, how old is Max von Seidau? Because he's in movies like up until he died in like 2020. But he was only, he was nine hes still old. He was 90 when he died, but you know he looks like he was 60, 50 years ago. yeah But he was he was only he was only only in his 40s and they made him look older.
00:18:55
Speaker
Which is a choice. um Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I mean, i he needs to be like physical and stuff. So I guess that's why they didn't want to cast somebody. But then like, why not have him just be like slightly older than the other priest? I mean, he really wanted the actor, I guess. I mean, to be fair, like the he's a he's a very he was a famous actor at the time. He is. Yeah, now he's the I get that. Main character in The Seventh Seal, you know.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, but like why not just make that priest not ancient and like less old? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's probably probably because of the book. I mean, this is the the guy who wrote the book wrote the screenplay, and he's on set and stuff. So I'm sure there were a lot of considerations to take place.
00:19:40
Speaker
ah Yeah, so he's in Iraq, um we're 23 minutes in, we're in the first second of the movie. um And he's uncovering, it never explains really what's going on. He's uncovering it so um artifacts and he sees, like it's a carving of a demon and then he sees like a vision of a large version of the demon. And I guess this is the demon that's possessed reagan um Regan. Regan.
00:20:07
Speaker
Regan. And Regan or Regan? Regan. Regan, yeah. um It doesn't really go into that. um The demon's name is Pazuzu. We don't really get a lot on that. It's just kind of a thing that's I guess that's in the book. I don't know. um So he sees the vision and then he's like scared and we cut to Georgetown and most of the movie.
00:20:36
Speaker
takes place in Washington, DC, where Ellen Burstyn plays a movie star, um, of some renown. She is rich. They are renting this super nice house in Georgetown in DC while she's, while she's filming this movie. And she is separated from her husband and she has their daughter with her. Um, and there they spend like You know, an hour, 15 of this two hour and 15 minute movie where like things start to happen to Reagan, obviously like, you know, she's sick. There's something wrong with her. But that take even that takes like 30 minutes before it really starts. No, I mean, there's like a good chunk of the movie of them just hanging out.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that that's really important because that's one another thing that separates this movie from a lot of the other, like the cheaper possession movies and stuff. It's like, why do we care about these people? Like they spend a lot of time building their relationship.
00:21:35
Speaker
and and building this this character of this little girl who is so good in this movie. She's yeah so like adorable and like um sweet and she's just the best. And so when like things start to start to change, it's it's it is really upsetting. Like, yeah, I Um,
00:22:02
Speaker
Like, watching the like the first scene of when those priests come in, not the priests, the doctors, when the the doctors come in to to like tranquilize her and she's like thrashing on the bed and everything, it is like genuinely upsetting, even 50 years later. And despite seeing all kinds of worse stuff on the air, just her talking and and thrashing on the bed is still and enough to like make your blood run cold, I found. Yeah.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I think, and especially like that first scene where you really start to sense that you really are told that something is wrong with Regan, where she goes downstairs, looks at um the director and says, you're gonna die up there and then pees. You're just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Linda Blair, what? Yeah, it's there that's very like,
00:22:54
Speaker
um scalpel precise in its yeah use of of ways to to disturb you. Because the other part of this horror is like the horror of something's wrong with my kid, the horror of the U.S. medical system. Like, yeah, you know, I've never had anything like this obviously happen. But, you know, like even in you know like knowing something is wrong with you or your loved one and being unable to figure out what it is, yeah is because nobody knows.
00:23:22
Speaker
it's It's so fucking terrifying, even if it's much, much milder than this. yeah um i So all of that is baked into this. yeah I honestly thought when she first was taken to the doctors that they were going to give her a lobotomy. like I thought we were about to watch.
00:23:39
Speaker
Reagan get a lobotomy and her mom was going to watch. And I was just like, are you freaking kidding me? But luckily it wasn't that it was just the like MRI with like the dye, but it was still disturbing to watch. I mean, 20, 20 years before, maybe they would have. Yeah. Yeah. It was terrifying. It was just like really, and like heartbreaking too. Um, yeah. I mean, the first thing they diagnosed her with is ADHD. I mean, they don't have, it they don't call it that yet, but they're like, it's a nervous hyperactive disorder and we're not sure what it is, but Ritalin seems to help. So let's get around Ritalin.
00:24:09
Speaker
I'm like OMG, she's just like me for real. yeah but Not that I'm on Ritalin, but you know, same thing. She just can't seem to focus. Right?
00:24:21
Speaker
Oh, Regan. I was confused for a good chunk of the movie about what Ellen Bernstein's job was, because like at first I was like, oh, she's an actor. But then I was like, oh, but we're in DC. And it seemed like they didn't, they don't like spell anything out for you really in this movie. um You just sort of have to like piece it together as the movie goes along.
00:24:40
Speaker
Um, she's in like a political thriller or something like that. Yeah. And so like at first I was like, Oh, well maybe she's in politics because she's got this fancy, smancy house. And, um, and I was like, because if she's a movie star, why would she be endorsed? I went on this whole like, I was very confused for like a good 10 minutes. Um, always get wrapped around the axle of where the movie's set every single time where it's set. It's very valuable. It says a lot of things about a movie.
00:25:07
Speaker
It absolutely is, it absolutely is. And this movie is very famously set in Georgetown. Like there's the steps, which is a whole thing, which we'll get to. Oh yeah. But yes, she is an actor. She is not from DC. She does not live in DC. They are renting the house. Nope. Yes. Yes. But it also came with like a nanny slash personal assistant and a butler. And a cook, right? And a cook, which is why I think I was confused because she had a whole staff.
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's hard I don't know if it explains if they were they can if they were part of the house or if she brought them with with her or yeah or just, I mean, we'll know, you know what I mean. Like if she hired them in in the in in the city, it's hard to, yeah I mean, I think what's her name, the the woman who's with her, like that's her assistant. She's probably from California with her, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:25:56
Speaker
um But yeah, so there's a lot of medical stuff.
Psychiatry & Symptoms in 'The Exorcist'
00:26:00
Speaker
They're like, something's wrong with Reagan. She's like cursing and like thrashing and like levitating. Yeah, that's not normal. And she's like, should I take her to a psychiatrist? And the doctors are like, absolutely do not take her to a psychiatrist. What is that wrong with you? That's fake You stupid bitch. Don't take her to a psychiatrist.
00:26:22
Speaker
um Which is accurate for the 70s and now. Yeah. It's also like, yeah, I mean, I think that they're like this movie is written and directed and shot and everything by men. But I mean, there is like a bit of like woman caught in man's medical machine like to this movie as well. Like she is just doing what these men tell her and nothing helps.
00:26:47
Speaker
Nothing helps, and Reagan's getting worse. Like whatever she does, it just makes the situation worse. To the point to where she's like under the table, has to be told to like maybe go to a priest. Yeah, yeah. And so we've also been following the story of this priest, not, so there's a priest, Max von Seidel was in the very beginning and then we don't see him for like an hour and 15 minutes.
00:27:11
Speaker
Again, I was very confused. Oh, also, there's two versions of this movie. Which one did you see? Did you watch the one on HBO Max? There's two versions? um Yeah. I think so. Yeah. OK. Because I watched the director's cut from 2000. And I didn't realize that I was watching that until like halfway through. So apologies. Because if you watch the one on HBO Max, that is the original theatrical cut. OK.
00:27:37
Speaker
So one version is two hours and two minutes and one but version is like two hours and 18 minutes. Oh, oh, I wonder if I saw the director's cut. Did you see her walk backwards down the stairs?
00:27:52
Speaker
where she's like, like a spider, like Ben. I'm trying to separate from my memory of watching the movie and that, cause that's just such like a famous scene. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the most famous deleted scenes in history. Yeah. And they added it back in in the director's cut in 2000. So that's the main, there's a bunch of other scenes though. So when the movie started, um did it fade in on the Georgetown house or did it go directly to Iraq? We went ah directly to i Iraq.
00:28:22
Speaker
Okay, so you watch the theatrical version. Okay. So that's good. So we both we have both versions to talk about then. There we go. So I'm sorry, i I forgot there was a director's cut and I certainly forgot that I was watching the director's cut until it was already like halfway over. Okay, oh well. So ah yes, so there's a few few different things um that happen. I think that there's there's more in the beginning as well with Regan and her mom in the director's cut.
00:28:51
Speaker
but i'm I'm not certain about all of this. um Things get worse. Father Keras is a Greek ah priest. he's ah He's a psychiatrist who is a psychiatrist. He's also a priest, but he's a psychiatrist for a priests in addition to being a regular priest. And he works at- I have, yeah, he works at Georgetown, I think. Yeah. don um I will let you know, I know almost nothing about Catholicism. and Um, you are going to have to fill in the Catholic bits because you were raised Catholic, correct? I was raised Catholic. Yes. Yes. And I don't know anything about any of that. Um, my partner, uh, it was Anglican. Yeah. And the first time like we, I went to her family's, uh, house in, um, you know, after like a couple of years of dating or something, it was Easter and we're like, let's go. We're going to go to mass. I'm like, okay. And I was shocked.
00:29:50
Speaker
at what happens during that. And it's like, you know, Catholic light, like Anglican is not quite Catholic. you There's a lot of things that are different, but there's standing and sitting and kneeling and people are, you had there's a script. I didn't know there was a script. theres you have you I alone with this movie at points. Yeah, i don't know I didn't know that I had lines going to church. um They did not do that in the limited amount of church I went to as a kid. yeah Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I didn't know any of that.
00:30:17
Speaker
um Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I mean, I know that. yeah Forgive us our sins as we, forgive us our trespasses as though as we forgive those who trespassed against us. yeah and I know like this, yeah I know the Psalm or whatever that is, the Lord's Prayer, but like I didn't, I don't know like the common response bits or whatever. So I'm from the South. I'm from Tennessee. I'm born in North Carolina, raised in Tennessee.
00:30:46
Speaker
And so I went to Southern Baptist Church when I was a kid and I stopped going at about age eight. So I was very young and it was a very different experience. um It wasn't that bad. It wasn't like super scary. It wasn't super scary like you're imagining probably. It was mostly like singing and like I'll tell you the songs are a lot better. um Yeah, Baptist Church. Yeah, Baptist is a lot more fun. Baptist masses are a lot more fun.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and also shorter. Yeah. But there's also a lot of fear and stuff. Fear of hell more than guilt for what you've done, I would imagine, is the big difference between the Baptists and the Catholics.
00:31:31
Speaker
um But yeah, so I stopped going because that it was definitely not my speed. And I don't come up into any of that now. It's the best way to describe it. No, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:31:45
Speaker
But in terms of like all the Catholic stuff, and I imagine that you know someone who is raised Catholic and certainly someone who is a believer would find this movie very differently than I would or or yeah a lot of other people.
00:32:01
Speaker
And here's the thing, here's the thing, as I'm not a current Catholic, I'm a glass Catholic, I was raised Catholic. I insisted on a Catholic wedding because I wanted to have a wedding in the church that I had my first communion in because it was pretty. um So we had Charlie and I had to go through all the like Catholic maha beforehand. The aesthetics of it, yeah. Yeah, yeah exactly. um And there's a lot about Catholicism that you know, is sort of beautiful. and Like the artwork, the music, like there's something like very calming. Like, do I listen to choral music and medieval Psalms sometimes as relaxing music because I was raised Catholic? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. This is the worst.
00:32:51
Speaker
Uh, it's great. I love it. Um, I was listening to some last night. Um, but like, you know, you get into the nitty gritty and there's a lot more like bad dark shit. That's not well, I mean, don't let me don't get me wrong. That's true of Christianity in general. And yeah, yeah, many of the other world religions. um are full of violence and intolerance and death and mistreatment of people. Exactly. exactly um I think there was one moment that Charlie mentioned when we were watching The Exorcist. He goes, I wonder if this is just the prequel to Spotlight. Oh, sure. Yeah, exactly.
00:33:34
Speaker
um Spotlight, great movie. um Yeah, a great movie. um About the the newspaper uncovering the conspiracies to the Boston archbishop covering up decades of sexual abuse by priests and stuff. yeah Yep, yep, yep, yep. But yeah, so anyways, that was a long-winded way of me saying the thing that was the most scary to me, and as someone, if I was still a Catholic, I feel that like the scariest part of this is something that you just
00:34:10
Speaker
You learn from a bunch of these movies being made, and you learn from being a supernatural nerd, um like the show and just supernatural shit in general.
Humor & Ouija Board Dangers
00:34:20
Speaker
Don't fuck around with Ouija boards. Don't do it. Don't fucking do it. Don't mess with them. Don't play with them. Yeah, I know they're made by Hasbro, but you know what? Don't do it. It's not funny. Hasbro is a morally bankrupt company, and you shouldn't support them anyway.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. They steal children's souls. Did you ever have a Ouija board? I actually currently do have one. It is at my parents' house. It was a gift from... It's got one around my neck. Oh, there she is. Like, I like the idea of a Ouija board. I like the aesthetic. And the essay played with one once when I was a tween. Oh. And that was terrifying enough.
00:35:08
Speaker
Because the entire time you're just afraid that you're gonna get possessed by like a Zozo or some sort of demon. Because that's how they come through. And they pretend to be ghosts of your loved ones and then they come through and they ruin your life. Interesting. this is you you have you have i So the movie that I'm gonna pick for not next week, but the week after that, ties into that very much so. So we'll get to that. Amazing. Amazing. So spoilers if y'all can figure that one out. Just like don't fuck around with Ouija boards, guys. Yeah.
00:35:47
Speaker
um ah you're you're you're asking for it, really. Right. And I hate to victim blame. I hate to victim blame. And so that's the thing that like I had, I lost a little bit of sympathy for Reagan and her mom because- She's 12 years old. There's a moment. Well, okay. I lost a little sympathy for Ellen Bernstein because Reagan's showing her the Ouija board that she found and how she's talking to like Mr. What's his name? Mr. Mr. Mr. Howdy, which is Mr. Howdy. Yeah, which is yeah yeah, not great. She's talking to Mr. Howdy and how fun it is. Ellen Bernstein is like, Oh, this is fun. Let's do this. Let's play with this. Don't encourage it. Shut it down. You're a grown up.
00:36:39
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, again, like so rented house, she found the Ouija board there and at the at the house. So it wasn't it wasn't there. She didn't buy it or anything like that. um And yeah, so there's again like a little thread like maybe that's how the demon got there. We don't know. It doesn't really ever explain anything. um Yeah, the specifics are really laid out. Apparently in the book. Now, my mother was a huge fan of the book.
00:37:06
Speaker
Oh. And last week I spent the the week with her. I should have watched the movie with her in retrospect, but I would have forgotten everything by the time we recorded. yeah um but But yeah, she was a big fan of the book. She used to have the paperback copy of it that she wanted me to read when I was a kid and I didn't because I was scared.
00:37:24
Speaker
um The cover is terrifying. i it's like It's like a face like coming out of the darkness. And like people who know me in real life like know one of my biggest like things that freak me out in ah in a show or a movie is someone's face changing. Like the famous like bathroom mirror thing where they open it, where they close it, in and then suddenly... Or like in Poltergeist where the guy rips his own face off. like Any of that kind of stuff. Or like in Face Off with face off.
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, yeah. um or or the ring, oh my God, the ring where like your jaw kinda comes off thing. Like yeah absolutely freaks me out, yeah. It's probably my vanity, I would say. A psychiatrist would tell you that that's gotta be related to self-appearance issues. um But who knows, who knows? Who knows? Any way. um So yeah, and in the book, apparently, there it's a lot more ambiguous about whether or not it's an actual possession or... So a lot of things were changed in the movie to make it specifically like supernatural. um And this is, again, the guy who wrote the the book did this to his own book, changed the screenplay himself to make it less ambiguous. But in the book, apparently, like any of it could be explained as um medical phenomenon and not supernatural phenomenon. So that's interesting, I guess. okay
00:38:47
Speaker
Well, and you know, this is famously based on a quote unquote true story, but it took place in the fifties. It was in, I think. Is this a fun fact?
00:39:03
Speaker
Oh, this is the first of Emma's Fun Facts, Emma's Fun Facts. So The Exorcist apparently really happened. I did a little bit of more research for this movie because I was in the mood because it's spooky season. So I started my annual watching of random episodes of Ghost Adventures until I get tired of stock vegans.
00:39:26
Speaker
I don't know who that is, but okay. Is that Biggs? He's the douche guy on Ghost Adventures who goes around screaming at ghosts. I mean, I assume so. I've never seen Ghost Adventures. That's not my speed. Oh, speaking of which, I have a rom-com book for you, but we'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah. Katie, you gotta watch Ghost Adventures. Do I gotta? My first double date with Nick and Madison was when we forced Charlie to watch an episode of Ghost Adventures and he hated it.
00:39:58
Speaker
ah But they go to the Exorcist House, ah which I believe is in Massachusetts. And so aren't they extra aren't they all right? Everything's in Massachusetts. Oh, no. Okay. So it was Maryland. So it was it was Maryland, not Massachusetts.
00:40:14
Speaker
can let's by Yeah, exactly. Same sort of general area. um But basically, the it's a sensationalized version of the real life case, which was in 1949, of an exorcism on a 14-year-old boy. um The priest was named Father William Bowerdern. I believe the boy's name was Roland Doe. um Oh, that's not his real name. That's a fake name. OK, good.
00:40:44
Speaker
ah ah because, you know, he then went on to live an actually like normal life afterwards. But it happened in 1949. And it's just sort of like a series of exorcisms that were performed on this 14 year old boy. That's a fun fact. So, you know, likely a mentally ill child being tortured by doctors and priests. Yeah. Well, um,
00:41:12
Speaker
debatable because Zach Bagans and his gang go to the Exorcist house in Maryland. And there is evidence and ah evidence of demon activity and shit goes down. Watch the episode for yourself. Does shit go down in every episode of Ghost Adventures? Is there every adventure where they're at somewhere and they're like, oh man, nothing's here. I guess we're just gonna like hang out.
00:41:40
Speaker
like eat some crackers and talk about our grandmas. I mean, there is some episodes are more exciting than others, but the Exorcist House was the 100th episode. So it was filled with shit. So they had to make a big one. That was probably rigged.
00:41:56
Speaker
Yeah. Um, let's see how many episodes of ghost adventures are there? There's 28 seasons of ghost adventures. Yeah. There's a lot. so And something, something happens in every episode. So, I mean, like we've got so evidence for ghosts, right? Like ghosts exist and are definitely real because this show is a documentary, um, nonfiction 331, uh, documented cases of real actual ghosts.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yep. My favorite is they use this one tool. and Not a fraud at all. Where where they they like, it's like a camera and it like reads some sort of quote unquote energies and it like makes little stick figures on the screen that they can see. And they're like, that's a ghost. That's a ghost.
00:42:44
Speaker
Fucking love ghost adventures. Sorry. so But yeah. Sounds riveting. They went to the office. Yeah. So Father Carras, his mother is dying. And so he's got this whole other plot. Like he's a psychiatrist. He is doubting his his faith because his mother is dying and he can't be with her. She dies. He's not there. Apparently she was dead for days before they found her. Like it's very upsetting.
00:43:13
Speaker
And so he's at a low point um when he gets approved to do this exorcism for Regan, basically, like their paths align.
Exorcism Scene Analysis
00:43:24
Speaker
Oh, because one of them dies, right? The the other priest gets thrown down the stairs. Well, that's at the very end. No, no, no, no. The other one, at the big near like halfway through the movie, um there's like she gets there and there's all the cops outside the house.
00:43:41
Speaker
no that's the that's the director the director gets thrown down the stairs oh it's the director right right it's not the priest yeah yeah yeah yeah sorry the director that was warned of his death by possessed reagan yeah prior to her urinating in front of him and so all of the party guests, the fancy party guests. He fell down the stairs and then it's this whole sort of like sea plot of the cop, there's a cop that comes into the movie that's like trying to figure out how the director died. Was it like manslaughter or was it like an accident? um And he's like starting to like figure out that like,
00:44:19
Speaker
The only way that that death could have happened was like he came out of the out of Reagan's window, but then like it doesn't make sense. It's a whole thing. Yeah, they're very famous stairs. They're real stairs in Georgetown shot on location. um they ah Very steep, concrete, dangerous ass stairs in like cramped Georgetown neighborhood in DC. Yes.
00:44:43
Speaker
um Yes. So the cop gets involved. His name is Lieutenant Kinderman. And he is played by Lee J. Cobb, who was a famous actor. He was the Willie Loman, the character in Death of a Salesman, was written for him. He was the original Willie Loman. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, nice. That's it. Katie's fun fact. Katie's fun fact. Katie's fun fact. Oh.
00:45:08
Speaker
There we go. He died three years after this movie was made. He was only 64. so ah yeah and so he is also yeah There's the the side plot with him investigating all of this stuff, and he you know gets involved with the priests and everything. and The last 30, 45 minutes are the act is the exorcism, basically. The first two-thirds of the movie, the first two acts are building up family life, like Regan being sick, and then the last like scene. like We don't really get into anything like super scary or supernatural until the last chunk, which is and Father Karras gets hired to do the exorcism. He needs another an experienced priest to be there for the church to approve it. They get Father Maren, who is Max von Seidau.
00:45:58
Speaker
um Oh, crap. What's it? Sorry, Dr. Caris, Father Caris is played by Jason Miller, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for that championship season. Oh, okay. Huh. How about that? Another their' Pulitzer Prize winner for drama in on our show.
00:46:20
Speaker
He was nominated for an Oscar. Everyone got nominated for Oscars. Linda Blair got nominated. Ellen Burstyn got nominated. He got nominated. um Everybody got nominated for Oscars. Nobody won. Where's Best Picture? I haven't heard of any of these movies. Oh, this was Paper Moon. Oh, The Sting. The Sting won Best Picture. Sting is fun. Sting is a fun movie. Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The Yeah, the opposite the absolute opposite of the exorcist. Like hijinks in the um like con men in the, I don't know, 1920s? I don't know. I remember this thing is set. They fix a horse race or something. It doesn't matter. Nobody cares. We're going to cut this out. Yeah.
00:47:06
Speaker
So yeah, they do the exorcism. It's very scary. There's all of that stuff. like The demon is talking to the priests. like It knows them. like um She projectile vomits in his face. Her head turns all the way around. She masturbates with a crucifix. um All of the you know scary stuff that you've all seen before. Which, again, for some reason wasn't as terrifying to me as the frickin' medical x-ray scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, well, if that's that's also real, you know? Yeah. Like, so. Yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
Anyways, oh, and it should also be said that the younger priest guy, his mom dies. Like, and he's very like, he blames himself. Yeah, I think I did say that. Oh, okay. Yeah. I can't remember. He blames himself for his mom's death.
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah, so she's saying that, you know, your mom, your mom's down here with us. Your mom sucks cocks in hell. That's the famous line, um which like, I guess, you know, might as well. I mean, if she's having fun, right? Yeah. Like, yeah. Is it consensual or not? Yeah, exactly. You're not saying whether or not like it's if it's a good thing or a bad thing. You're just saying for a fact she's sucking cocks in hell. Like, is she consensually agreeing to suck cocks in hell?
00:48:28
Speaker
Like, is she having fun? I mean, the inhale is doing a lot there also. Because like that that that that implies some things. like they Are they people talks? Are they demon talks? like but But also, we just we just don't know. we just Because nobody, i I personally cannot say that I've ever been to hell. um So like i just I cannot speak to whether or not it's a good place or a bad place. I cannot pressure say.
00:48:56
Speaker
You know, who's to say what hell is anyway? Like we don't it's outside our a realm of comprehension. Like, and you know, in supernatural hell is like a different dimension where there's all kinds of stuff going on. Yeah. And all you ever see mostly torture, but more so mostly torture or Sam and Dean being tortured in like a big spider web of just like flesh. But then you're led to believe. Oh, then you actually do see hell later. And it's like a castle. It's like a castle dungeon.
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot going on on that show. um I know, like I started to rewatch and I made it to season five and then I stopped watching it again. ah Yeah, so.
00:49:40
Speaker
um Then they ah they exercise her. ah Father Marin has a heart attack and dies. And then Father Caris, the younger guy, like tells the demon, like leave the girl alone. Jump into me. And the demon's like, well, OK then. And then he jumps out the window and falls down the stairs and dies. On purpose. Yeah. And then everything seems fine. Yeah.
00:50:04
Speaker
i mean but we are where Who are we to say what happens to that demon afterwards? Did that demon just like evaporate out of that guy and then go on to find its next victim? I mean, I'm sure Exorcist 3 might answer some of my questions, but like what happens to Linda Blair? Like obviously she doesn't remember anything, but like girl's face is fucked up. Like how do I answer those questions?
00:50:27
Speaker
OK, her face is bad. Well, she doesn't she doesn't remember anything that happens. And they take they go back to California at the end and like she's better. And there's another there's the the other priest who is involved tangentially at one point. Yeah. um Who ah is a character in the Exorcist three that it's a different actor, but it's the same character. um i I don't remember his name and the cop also is played by a different actor because like um What's his name died? Uh, yeah. Lee J. Cobb died. So George C. Scott plays the cop in Exorcist three. Oh, okay. but And it's much more than the Exorcist three is mostly famous for one of the best jump scares of all time, ah really which it is. very It's very, very good. Yeah. Okay.
Demons in Film & Object Inhabitation
00:51:15
Speaker
I'm going to tell you how we need to see the Exorcist three. Yeah. The Exorcist three is fun. Yeah.
00:51:19
Speaker
Yeah, because like, I'm wondering if it continues on with sort of the like storyline because the younger priest, whatever his name is, Jason Miller, he has this whole sort of- Charis. Charis, Father Charis. Or Dr. Charis, Father Doctor. Can you be a Dr. Father? A Dr. Father Charis. I don't know. I don't know the order. I don't know what they do. They call him Father Charis, I think, throughout the movie. It's Father, yeah. they They forget about doctorates at the church. Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
um It's your saintly doctorate. Well, it's like what's more important to you, right? I had a history teacher in high school who had a doctorate, but he preferred to go by coach. Oh. Well, then there you go. That seems like the same thing, Katie. Yeah, it is the same thing. I think so, yeah. Especially in the South. I mean, I'm not even being sarcastic. Yeah, for real, yeah.
00:52:15
Speaker
um But yeah, so Father Charis is having this whole sort of um crisis in faith, right? And the other priest is sort of more, I don't want to say more faithful, but he's like a little bit more godly and like a little bit more, the like younger one that survives is sort of like, what are you talking about? You're not having a crisis of faith. Drink some whiskey. Ah, have a good time. Jesus is great.
00:52:46
Speaker
For real. And that's why he lives. And that's why Father Paris gets thrown out a window. So, yeah you know, think about that, Catholics. hey Keep on to your faith, I guess, is the sort of... Don't sacrifice your soul to the demon. Like, find other ways. I mean, who's to say? Now, you could put in a box, you could put in a doll,
00:53:15
Speaker
You could put it in a lot of things. You could definitely put a demon in a doll. We've learned that from many films. Oh, yeah. From many films. You could put a demon in a necklace. You could put a demon in anything. Demons love to haunt fucking objects. They love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:34
Speaker
Um, so that's pretty much the exorcist.
Impact & Recommendation of 'The Exorcist'
00:53:37
Speaker
Um, I, um, I think this movie is, um, fun. Isn't the right word. I think this movie is, um, I think it's really good. It is upsetting. Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's really beautiful. There's some really famous shots in this movie, especially when, you know, the cover of the poster, when max fun side out, gets out of the the cab and arrives at the house for the first time, like that shot of him standing under the street lamp is really beautiful. Um, um,
00:54:03
Speaker
it's ah yeah its it's ah It's a good movie. You should watch it if you haven't seen it. If you think that it's something that's not like relevant or or scary in 2024, I think you should you should watch it. Yeah, watch it just that scene in the fucking ER. r like sorry just watch Just watch the medical scenes. I mean, it's crazy because like the TV show House like does that kind of stuff in every episode. you know It was just the way that they did, like you just, it was just so, they had, I think it's cause it's that like 1970s mentality of like the patient's pain isn't the most important thing. Like the most important. Oh, not at all. Yeah. Yeah. The most important thing is. It's very cold. Yeah. Very cold, very analytical, like very, like not patient rights.
00:54:54
Speaker
Organize. Yeah. And it's not presented. It's not presented. It's very it's it's not presented in a um in a subjective way. Like it's very, very much like almost like documentary footage kind of the way that it's filmed and the way that it's presented. It's very um super realistic and super hard to watch. You put yourself into Linda Blair's shoes and you're just like, ah, my neck. Yeah. um Which, by the way,
00:55:24
Speaker
I don't know if you do did this after you watched the movie, but i all I remember Linda Blair for is this movie, and then later on when she was on a travel show channel ghost show in the early 2000s as Linda Blair host of Spooky Stories XY and Z. um And do you know why that is? Do you know ah do I know why she hosted that show?
00:55:50
Speaker
No, why she's nowhere to be found when she was so great in this movie? Oh, yeah, yeah, why? This movie fucked her up. Well, yeah, I would imagine so. Yeah. Like physically and mentally. She's been in stuff. She shows up now and again as an adult. I think she's in an episode of Supernatural, isn't she? Yeah, but a lot of times it's stunt casting, and they'll throw her in there because she was the girl. Oh, of course it's stunt casting, yeah.
00:56:18
Speaker
Because she's the girl from The Exorcist. But basically, during one of the filming of the thrashing and jerking scenes, she fractured her back. And so she then had chronic pain for years, meaning that she like couldn't really work. um And then later on, she was able to do the ghost show where she stood around going, hi, I'm Linda Blair from The Exorcist. Let's talk about spooky stories, Travel Channel. Yeah, so Linda Blair is in the second season, seventh episode of Supernatural called The Usual Suspects where Dean gets framed for murder and she's the cop who's investigating. Oh, I remember that, yes. Yep, Linda Blair. She's in a lot of those like,
00:57:11
Speaker
shows as like a one-off character, like a co-star role. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, it's absolutely stunt casting. Yeah, yeah. So good for you. All right, so what are we watching next week? Okay, so as per year, it would not be an Emma pic without a full detailed story behind it. So I went on this whole sort of deep dive, like crisis of faith of like, what movie should I pick? Because we only get so many in spooky season four. And I know that there's gonna be more Go Get Your Ghouls,
00:57:41
Speaker
But I want to make sure that our first Go Get Your Ghoul season is a little bit evenly paced out in terms of like theme, vibe. Totally agree. Spooks. Totally agree. Genre. Well, not genre, but like decade. So I sent out a poll to a group chat with Madison Smith as a part of, and had everybody vote. And then disregarded that poll. Of course, yeah.
00:58:09
Speaker
um yeah Hold on, hold on. What won that poll? What what are we not doing? OK, so we're not doing The Conjuring. We're not doing Jennifer's Body. It was tied for those two. I also put on The Haunting. The Conjuring is pretty close to um The Exorcist, you know? Exactly. um We're not doing The Haunting, the 1990s remake, because we've already done a 90s film. And also it's awful, and I don't want to watch it. I fucking love that movie.
00:58:39
Speaker
Oh my God, Emma, no way. It's so bad. No, I get that it's bad. I get that it's bad. But I grew up watching that movie every single year and I just for some, it holds a weird place in my heart. Have you seen the original one? Oh yeah. Have you seen the one from the sixties? Oh yeah. Not in years, but that's like the first scary movie that I'm, yeah.
00:58:58
Speaker
The movie's beautiful. i watch We watched it at a friend's movie night like a couple weeks ago. It was my pick. um Totally like gorgeous movie, yeah. Yeah, gorgeous. I think was the first scary movie that my mom let me watch, because she loves it.
00:59:16
Speaker
But yeah, so we're not doing that. Also gay. I know, super gay, but like, not gay, but like, yeah, it's gay. Very 1961 lesbian longing, gay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A little non-consensually, but the news over there. Don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. A little a little lesbian predatory, but whatever. Just don't worry about it. It was a different time.
00:59:44
Speaker
So we're not doing any of those movies. We're not doing any of those movies. I decided that we're going to do a movie that's very near and dear to my heart and to Charlie's heart. We watched it every Valentine's Day until Charlie got sick of watching it and then said every Valentine's Day. Yep. Because the first Valentine's Day we spent together, we couldn't agree on a movie except for this. And then it became a tradition. It is the 20th anniversary of this movie this year. So I figured also a good reason to do it.
01:00:15
Speaker
It is from the early 2000s, so it is a decade that we have not done yet. It is also a monster that we have not done. So we've done Slasher and Demon. Now we're gonna go into Zombie. So we're gonna go with Shaun of the Dead.
Introduction to 'Shaun of the Dead'
01:00:33
Speaker
Hell yeah. Hells yes. Weirdly, I watched this movie last night. Did you really?
01:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it was it was Cassie's pick at at movie night, and she picked Train to Busan, which also roles, and Shaun in the Dead. Shaun in the Dead is great. One of the best. And we talked about how it came out 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah it's the 20th anniversary. um yeah like It's all over everything. I'm very excited. I love this movie. It's very close to my heart. um yeah Again, it is a horror comedy, which is sort of my vibe. It's my jam. But it's also spooky and scary.
01:01:12
Speaker
And legitimately touching. um Yeah. like they They allow things to become real in that movie, which I really like. But we'll talk about that next week. Yeah, exactly.
01:01:27
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Go Get Your Girl. If you like us, tell your friends, and please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It helps out a lot, and we would really appreciate it.
01:01:47
Speaker
or email us at gogetyourgirlpod at gmail dot.com. You can follow me on social media at Emily M. Pizza. And me at Katie of the Lake. Until next time, we're just two ghouls. Standing in front of the internet. Asking it to scare us. To scare us.
01:02:06
Speaker
good night good night
01:02:32
Speaker
Good night. Good night.