Too Scary; Didn't Watch - THE EXORCIST with Chase McCown

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

A demon named Pazuzu, stunts that caused lifelong spinal injuries, and language so foul Max Von Sydow forgot his lines - we're recapping William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. Chase McCown tells us all about this game-changing horror (the first and still only one of two horror films to be nominated for Best Picture!!). Join us as we find out where exactly your mother sucks cocks. Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily. I'm scared. It's 2020. I'm Henley. I'm scared. Are you scared? It's 2020 just completely? I am scared it's 2020. I'm excited and also scared. Okay. Got it. I'm Sammy and I'm brave that it's 2020. That doesn't make any sense. Stupid. Brave in 2020. Brave in 2020. Well, 2020. Brave in 2020.

Well, did anything scary happen to us this week? I cleaned my house for seven hours yesterday. I know I've complained about this to you guys before. You were really good at doing chores, Sammy. No, I'm like, I feel like I'm not because they just are never ending. And I just feel like it's scary how I can never catch up with how much needs to be done. It feels like no matter how much I do, it's all dirty again the second I'm done. Yeah. And it terrifies me.

You also have two cats. Two filthy, disgusting cats. And those are disgusting. Always getting their hair everywhere. Chewing on things. Sometimes one of them has poop on his butt and wipes it on my bed truly it's so insane that any of us let animals into our homes it's so disgusting they're foul like what are we thinking i mean they're very cute but it's insane i love

them a lot yeah anything scary happen to you emily um well i uh over the holidays, I was with my family and my dad and I, he brought me to this thing that he loves very much to do, which is indoor skydiving. Oh, right. Which if you're not familiar, please look it up. We got to post these photos on our Instagram. So indoor skydiving is essentially you're in a huge air tube and they shoot air up from the ground and you just like hover and it's really crazy it does feel like skydiving it's like i was really scared so you get there and you like can see people doing it and then you get your turn and you like go they tell you how to have good form they give you like cues and a trained skydiver is like in there

with you to sort of just make sure you're you. But it looked really scary and I was really scared to do it. And then I did it. And honestly, it's fun. It's really fun. Hell yeah. Henley, anything? I really struggle to come up with anything. I haven't been doing anything over this break.

I did get my ears pierced yesterday. Oh my God. And you have headphones on. How are your ears doing, Hen? I was definitely was a little nervous beforehand. I remembered right before it happened. I was like, right. This might hurt.

I forgot. And then it honestly was totally fine. Didn't hurt. Yeah. It's especially ears. It's like it's just. But I did get four piercings technically. Yeah.

And you're an adult. So they did them like with the needle. Uh huh. Because when we were kids, they do like the gun. Did you get the gun piercing? I got the gun piercing. Oh, I don't even know what she was doing. I couldn't see.

But... Probably a needle. Anyway, that was my scary thing. Pretty anticlimactic after the indoor skydiving. I don't know. Okay, should we get into this movie? What's this movie? Yes, this movie.

This week's movie is The Exorcist. I had to say it in an extra spooky voice. It was really spooky. It's a scary one say it in an extra spooky voice it was really spooky it's a it's an extra spooky movie it's like i feel like it's one of the scariest of all time right like without it just is um it was made in 1973 directed by william friedkin written by william peter bladdy based on his his own book um it is starring ell Burstyn Max von Sydow Linda Blair and Jason Miller and this week to talk about the access with us we have oh you're just gonna love him the so delightful actor writer comedian dear friend McCown. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for being here, Chase. So happy you're here. Welcome. Did anything scary happen to you this week, Chase? Funny enough, while watching this last night, my boyfriend and I just moved into a new place and there's like a guest room and guest bathroom on the other side that we just never go over there.

It's always dark. And I'm watching the movie. Are you home alone at this point? No, but, but well he was asleep oh he's not watching this no he was asleep and i was in living room i hear something on the roof um i manage the building and so i have security cameras that i can go look at and there's nothing up there but it's like oh my god oh my god and then because my boyfriend has a cold i spent the night in the guest room and all throughout the night last night i could keep hearing what sounded like something either running or pacing or walking on the roof of the building no no no no no rather krampus than what we dealt with in the exorcist yeah

so that was all night? For the most part, yeah. I did get a little sleep, but it was consistent. Wow. What do you think it was? Honestly, I think it was probably like a squirrel or some sort of animal or a demon. Or a demon. A squirrel, animal, or demon.

I really hope it's not a demon. You know, I do too, and I appreciate that. Probably maybe like an animal that has something wrong with it. That's a lot of energy, a lot of manic energy coming from a squirrel. Well, it's a flat roof though. So I think I would have even been able to have seen like an animal with a security camera. There's nothing. So I think it's all in all likelihood probably a demon.

Probably. Oh my God, bring that security footage with you next time and we'll review it together. I shall. Oh, yes. And maybe there will be some tips in this movie for how to deal. Oh my god bring that security footage with you next time And we'll review it together And maybe there will be some tips in this movie For how to deal Honestly also what a Very loving partner you are that you Didn't wake him up I immediately would have been like um

Well only because I know he's not gonna Listen to this It would have been kind of like getting Scooby Doo If you were scared of something Wait so do you like watching horror movies generally? I do I love horror film I have a weird

Not a weird I don't mind being scared That's fine I do not like gore Beyond like your screen If it's on the inside I want it staying on the inside Yeah yeah okay

So there are horror films So you can see a stab happen as long as nothing comes back out sure and I have seen most horror films I have skipped over like the torture porn genre yeah I've never seen that I was really aiming to find somebody who likes it because we've got we're up at

zilch right now zero yeah nobody yeah I don't I've we've yet to have anyone on who loves gore I have no one a lot of people love horror movies she loves gore but not torture porn gore that's true right violence there yeah like there is gore that can make me laugh like kill bill not a horror film but like that level of high gore like that's you can do campy yeah you're right not gore torture but your favorite are more like psychological yes this is one of my favorite horror films.

And I like some of the slasher stuff that leans on gore, like 80s stuff. I love Scream from the 90s. But there are a lot of great, very subtle, quiet horror films from the 50s that aren't necessarily jump scares, but 50s and 60s and so on, but effective. So I've always loved the genre. Yeah. I like to be scared. I don't know.

Maybe it just puts in perspective whatever stresses me out in my day-to-day life. I'm like, well, at least I'm not. Like a release. Yeah. At least someone's not systematically killing all my friends. At least. It helps with gratitude. Right. Yes. That's why I love horror. I like that definition

of why you would like horror. It's a gratitude practice. Reminds. Gratitude practice. Giving thanks. Chase, can we... Would you mind sharing your horror trivia, your personal life horror trivia that I do truly love? Oh, is it the poster? Oh, yeah.

Oh, boy. Yeah. I forget about that. I never do. So, The Human Centipede. Oh, my God. No. From 2009. centipede. Oh, my God. No. From 2009, the first one. Something like that, yeah. Oh, my God.

There's multiple? Oh, yeah. I think there are two or three. I've never seen any of them. Right. No, no. But I am on the very first poster for the very first human centipede. Oh, my God.

You're like the middle of it. You're the guy. I'm the man screaming, yeah. Oh, my God. With two pairs of hands behind me. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. How're like the middle of it. I'm the man screaming. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. With two pairs of hands behind me. Oh my God. Oh my God. How did you get that job?

One of the pairs of hands behind me, she was like, they want a male at the front of the poster. She and her two friends were going to be the hands. And they're like, we want someone we can like trust because it's going to be very close quarters. You'll have on pasties to make it look like you're naked. So I didn't know. I knew the title of the movie i had no idea uh if it was going to be theatrical or oh my god it would be ever seen seeing the light of day for like one hour at some studio off like south labrea um behind like a target shower curtain so

it had this kind of visual effect um with a little bit of like fake blood painted on for an hour we just the three of us i'm at the front with my hands up and two pairs of hands around my derriere and just a bunch of fake screaming oh wow then i was in new york about a year later almost and i was coming out of a subway and the subway lets off like by a movie marquee. And there's the poster for the first time I'd ever seen it. Wow. Yeah. What was your reaction when you saw it?

Oh, fuck. Hi, everybody. It is time for cocktail hour. This week's cocktail is The Devil in Me. To make this drink, you will need one and a half ounces of cognac, a third an ounce of ancho res, which is a chili liqueur, half an ounce of plum sake, a third an ounce of Luxardo maraschino liqueur, and a dash of chocolate bitters. You will stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a Luxardo maraschino cherry. We are still not drinking

because it's still dry January and I'm very sad because this sounds really good. So if you make it, tell us how it is. Let me tell you guys about why i've never watched this movie until until this week yeah okay um i have tried to watch it twice and both times a window in the house shattered oh no first time it happened almost immediately it was in a very like you know when you scroll through channels and just watch whatever was on so we were like starting in like the middle of the movie basically because it was just on a channel and it was at a like crazy exorcism part oh my god pretty much the second that we turned it on the window shattered and we were like no no no no no why did it shatter what happened well okay so we didn't know that we

didn't know that it shattered at first we like looked at there was like a loud bang and we looked outside we're like oh it's raining all of a sudden but it was the glass like breaking oh my god and then there was like a loud banging at the door and we were like oh my god like what the fuck is going on and it was the neighbor who had heard something and he was like are you guys okay like i heard a loud bang we went and looked outside to see if like a bird had flown into it i like assume that is what happened what happened yeah couldn't find anything is it that didn't happen again but then so we were like okay well we're not gonna watch that because now we're freaked out

and so we watched something else and then yeah like we're not going to watch that because now we're freaked out. And so we watched something else. And then, yeah, like a few months later, we circled back and we were like, let's, in the same house. Yeah. And we were like, let's try it again. Put it on again. This time, the bathroom window shattered. Stop it. And this was in the daytime this time.

First time was at night. So it was extra spooky. But this one was just like, oh, this movie is just unrelentless. It will smash windows at any time. Wait, were windows smashed in that house at any other point? I don't think so. That is crazy. So I've been pretty scared of this movie

and haven't watched it up until now. But I'm really glad I did because it's very good. No windows broken on Friday? No windows broke. But I did watch it by myself and I was pretty nervous. I don't know. Chase had footsteps. Yeah. Well, I think maybe I passed, I'm scared. But I did watch it by myself and I was pretty nervous. Oh my God. I don't know. Chase had footsteps. Yeah.

Well, I think maybe I passed it on to you. I think someone watches it with you every time you watch it. Yeah. Or something. Oh my God. That's so scary. Rent it tonight. Rent it.

Rent it. Oh, I'm really excited to hear about it, but I'm also very scared. Okay. And there's like lots of weird trivia about this movie. Yeah, I was going to say, that's my personal trivia. That's freaky. That's my personal trivia. That's freaky.

I think the most important trivia for this podcast is that this is the first ever horror film to be nominated for Best Picture. Oh my God. Wow. Only one of two. Get Out is the only other one. Whoa. There have been some psychological thriller, like Silence of the Lambs, Jawsaws But those are the only two that are actually Like categorized as horrors

And people were very upset that Hereditary was not Yes I recall or at least that Tony Collette I think they will start getting nominated more I feel like There are some incredible films Yeah but there always have been though So I don't know Maybe that's wishful thinking

But yeah I don't know just like watching This maybe that's wishful maybe that's wishful thinking but um yeah i don't know just like watching this movie i was like wow this podcast is so great because it's really making me expand my knowledge of horror and it's just such a great genre and i'm just growing more and more appreciative of it every day amazing amazing and this hit like the filmmaking zeitgeist of the 70s just in time to not just be a horror film but a really well edited and well shot movie that looks a lot like the movies of its time so it's just even if you don't like scary movies visually it's very striking

yeah okay so there's a scene where Reagan the little girl projectile vomit vomits on the priest pretty famous scene pretty famous and the plastic tubing misfired and was intended to hit him in the chest, but instead hit him in the face. And so his reaction is genuine.

And they only had to take one take because he was so angry and shocked. There you go. And then the like profanities coming out of Regan's mouth made Max von Sydo like actually forget his lines because she says such vulgar things and it's a little girl and it is really like disconcerting you're like it's so weird to like watch this little girl give this performance I want you guys to quote that later

oh I've got my line ready okay I'm excited how old is she in the movie 12 and is the actor actually she must be close to 12. She I think. Yeah. Like 13, 12.

Yeah. And she got like she's like fucked up from making this movie. Right. Is that a thing? She and Ellen Burstyn, the mom, had some long lasting scars physically or emotionally from this movie. Oh, they both got pretty injured. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. They both got like spinal injuries. Oh, my God. Because they're being like flung around so much in like exorcism scenes. Similar to the scene you described with Max von Sydow when there's a scene where Ellen Burstyn

has flown off her daughter's bed. And I mean you watch it. It may even be in the trailer. She had told Friedkin like hey the first time we did that it was a little rough with the harness. Go easier. So instead he went a little harder. Oh my god. And I mean you see it like you see that reaction is not acting. Right.

Like the pain in her face. A few things I feel like. Oh no. And I was reading. This is a time before actors write. This is way before actors write. Yeah. And I, after I watched this last night to go to bed, wanted to like read about it.

And Ellen Burstyn, like in an interview from a few years ago, was like, I still have weekly massages and they can still feel like in an interview from a few years ago is like I still have weekly massages and they can still feel like oh where the back is messed up and it's been 50 years almost since the movie wow Jesus oh no okay so and another thing I read is I believe she was nominated for best supporting actress but at the time people didn't know that the voice coming out of her mouth was not her voice. Oh, okay. So she's basically lip syncing and it's like a much older woman who said she chain smoked incessantly to prepare for the part to make her voice extra scary. Just for that one voiceover line?

No, it's like throughout. Oh, okay. You hear a little bit from the demon. Yeah. voiceover line? No, it's like throughout. You hear a little bit from the demon. I'm realizing I feel like I've seen this movie because I've seen so many of the classic scenes and also parodied so many times. But I also am realizing I know

absolutely nothing about this movie. I don't know what the plot is at all besides the basics. Wait, so did they nominate her because they thought she was such a good actor that she did a crazy voice? Yeah, which is like a little crazy to me because I feel like it's, I don't know, pretty clearly not her voice, but maybe that's just because I know. But like, you hear her, she

has a little girl's voice. She's a little girl. And then the demon voice is like Yeah. The demon voice is not subtle. An adult who chain smokes to prepare. Yeah, different. Yes, but I don't know. But she's still really good. She is.

I mean, it's like, I just think it's funny that they were like, we didn't know that it was another voice. We got tricked. We got tricked. So they didn't, she didn't win. I think lip syncing is hard in and of itself. Yeah. Amazingly, yeah.

She's still doing the work. Yeah, she's definitely still doing the work. Should we watch this trailer? Let's watch the trailer. Let's watch the trailer. Oh, boy. Look look your daughter doesn't say she's a demon she says she's the devil himself i'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter now i want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter except in her mind you tell me you know for a fact that an exorcism wouldn't do any good

the one hope the only hope The only hope. The Exorcist. That was a scary trailer. It was. One of my favorite things upon going down the research rabbit hole last night is that this movie came out the day after Christmas. What? You watch that trailer and you're like, well, what better way to celebrate the holidays. The perfect Christmas movie.

Going into 1974. Yeah. To celebrate the holidays. The perfect Christmas movie. Going into 1974. Yeah. I just want to, because I didn't mention it earlier, but I feel like it deserves mentioning the makeup artist in this movie is named Dick Smith. And the makeup in this movie is amazing.

Not just on Reagan slash the demon, but on Max von Sydow, who was 44 at the time of this filming and looks so old that I actually got like confused and I like had to look it up and be like wait but he's like still alive how old is he but they did the old like latex like wrinkling his skin like he truly looks like an old

man and I was just confused and thought that he was now like 130 years old. But yeah, great makeup. Okay. All right. Let's get into it. I just want to know if we're going to hear footsteps on the roof right now while we're going through it. I sure hope not.

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who specifically that demon is uh but there's this beautiful shot where after he finds this amulet you can tell it has historical significance to him this demon's face he's very haunted by it he's familiar with this demon yes and then a lot of kind of subtly spooky stuff starts to happen the winds pick up two dogs get in a big fight and then there's this beautiful shot of him the face that's on the amulet is also on a big

statue out in this desert and there's a shot where father marin comes face to face with this statue kind of setting up the good and evil. Yeah, the good versus evil conflict of the movie. We then cut to modern day Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Ellen Burstyn's character is an actress named Chris McNeil, who is on location with her 12 year old daughter, her assistant and a small housing staff in this house in Georgetown. She's shooting shooting some sort

of political activism movie we get a good swath of just their day-to-day lives Reagan her daughter is a happy normal 12 year old girl who loves horses horse girl and Chris even though she's rather

temperamental on set which I found delightfully fun I love a movie about actors Um, and Chris, even though she's rather temperamental on set, which I found delightfully fun. I love a movie about actors. That's one of my favorite unforgotten detail or forgotten details of this movie. It's like the mom's an actress. That's cool. Filming a movie. Um, and I wonder if that lends to people not taking her seriously.

I don't know. I also read, um, in casting, what ifs they wanted Audrey Hepburn to play this. Which is so interesting. And to me, I like Audrey Hepburn. Ellen Burstyn has that Betty Davis thing where she can just be in a rage of fury. And there are so many points in the movie where that serves her and the character well. And Audrey Hepburn had great range. But Ellen Burstyn's temperament is perfect for this movie.

There's a scene early on before any of the conflict happens where Reagan's dad is kind of an absentee parent and she's simply trying to reach him in Rome to get him to wish his daughter a happy birthday and Ellen Burstyn is irate at just being held on hold she's like I've been on the phone for 20 goddamn minutes just shrieking that was a good Ellen Burstyn

thank you I've been working on it so then as we are meeting them, we also meet Father Carras, a priest who's in New York, staying at like a YMCA.

Yeah. He's like in a college dorm, I think. Yeah. Or is that later? Well, no. Yeah. I think that he's at like a university and he is a priest and also A psychologist Um and I got like very spooky

Vibes from him early on as Like someone whose this was their first time Seeing it and so I was like oh he's the bad guy Well and he's an extra The bad guy is the demon I know but I was like oh we got a bad priest Here cause you meet Max von Sydow first and I was like, oh, we got a bad priest here because you meet Max von Sydow first and I was like, good priest versus bad

priest. Sure. That's not the case. It's not how it turns out. You can tell the Father Karas, the younger priest in New York, has some like secular levity to him. Like he's watching Ellen Burstyn's character film this movie. He's laughing with all the other extras.

He drinks. Was he an extra in the movie? So her character filmed this movie. He's laughing with all the other extras. He drinks. Was he an extra in the movie? So her movie within a movie. That's how we're introduced to him. He is standing as an extra in the character Chris's movie that's being filmed. Okay, cool. We also learned that his mother is sick. And there's this choice that he and his uncle have to make to try to find somewhere for her to live with constant care.

She ends up being put in a really poorly run mental institution. Yeah, it's like a very scary one flew over the cuckoo's nest type place. And then his mom passes away. Yes. Yes. And so we've set up the story rather quickly of this secondary character kind of seeing that he has his own struggle with faith. He's starting to have these fairly creepy dreams about his mother. And then even out of the gate with Chris and Reagan,

a few weird things start to happen. Like Chris is convinced. She's like, I heard rats in the cellar. She's telling one of the handyman and he's like, I went up there, there are no rats. And she's like,

no, I hear something up. Not cellar, excuse me, the attic. Yeah. And then like lights will flicker where they're not even aware of it but we see it so something strange is afoot in the mcneil house and then

one night there is a party that chris is having at her home yeah well before that they have the ouija board oh thank you yes yes um they're like in the in the basement now reagan is the daughter she's down there and um they find a ouija board and the piece moves all on its own and chris is like oh haha like you know how to play and she's no one's like as freaked out by it as they should and they give a weird name a captain howdy howdy so um re Reagan says she's been playing with Captain Howdy look if your child tells you they've been they've met someone

who you can't see in a house that's bad it's always bad yeah is this the first scene of a Ouija board in a horror movie like this is the first Ouija board experience interesting question. Yeah.

I don't know. I would love to do a little history on the map. I've never even seen one. Let's do a little history on the Ouija board. I'm good. I'm good. I don't want to be near. You don't need to. I don't necessarily not believe in that.

So yeah, then they put the Ouija board away and she goes and tucks her in bed and the daughter's like, basically brings up Burke, who is the director of the movie right yeah and she's like is burke coming to my birthday party or whatever she like has a little moment and she's like what do you mean she's like well i know that you like him and you're gonna marry him aren't you and like so her weird her single mom has like a maybe a crush on the director or whatever they oh the kid says that about the mom yes oh i thought you meant the mom said that about the kid yeah so do you my 12 year old, have a crush on the adult director? You're going to get married.

Cool, yeah. And that's not the scary part of this movie. Okay, got it. And then one more thing that happens before the party, or like one more little clue that something weird is happening is Reagan sleeps in her mom's bed. And she's like, why are you sleeping in my bed? And she's like, my bed won't stop shaking. Oh, yeah.

Not good. Yeah. And then i think we get to the party it's like a wrap party right yeah and it's a big party it's quite happening um after everyone assumes that reagan has gone upstairs to bed she comes back down and there's an astronaut at the party okay and she looks at him and rather coldly just says you're gonna die up there and then she immediately starts to urinate on the floor oh wow and the adults are obviously this is this is when the party is at an end there are probably like half a dozen people left um but the mom gives her a bath right after that and she's just trying to coax like what's going on with reagan out of her. Reagan will not talk. And you can just tell in her facial expression, this is the first time something's really different where she's just changed.

She looks kind of angry and unsettled. We go through a whole series of diagnostic stuff and she's getting a shot and she's refusing it the whole time. And it's a very quick shot, like many of the shots in this movie to kind of keep the story going but they give her this injection and she looks at the nurse or the person administrating the shot and she goes you fucking bastard and then we cut immediately away from it so we can just see that

her temperament is giving away to something she's not a normal 12 year old little horse girl because when we see her she is so happy she's talking about horses and getting back to LA now she's an agitated little devil yeah but this this so

the like doctor scene was one of the hardest to watch for me there's a lot of them because they put her through like a lot of tests and it looks so miserable and just like so the first thing I had to look it up because i was like this looks like the most barbaric test i've ever seen in my life they like inject a needle

into her neck and then our like blood is like spurting from it she's not under like anesthesia stone cold and um i don't know it just looked so horrible and scary and it's called a cardioid angiography angiography. And apparently this was the scene in which when the movie first came out that most people like threw up and fainted. This was like the first big. It just looks so real and so scary. I really hated it. What is it a test for?

So they're basically like trying to find a lesion in her brain that would make her act out in this way. So they're doing like really in-depth like spinal and brain scans. So they do like EKG. I can't remember, but they do like a few things, but this looks like

the most like invasive one that just really I hated. And including that one and all the other subsequent ones, they don't find anything at all. Yeah. Okay. But certain they're like oh yeah she's gonna have like a brain lesion tumor or something and then they're all like what the fuck like there's nothing because then one night when chris is out she has her boyfriend burke uh babysit and reagan is like out she is sedated um and then chris returns from wherever she was and burke has died mysteriously by falling out of the window oh my god and it's assumed that it was an accident because

when we first meet him he's a heavy drinker he's drunk at the party he starts a fight with someone in the kitchen wow good babysitter um yeah that's not who i would have left my sedated child home alone um and then you know a lieutenant investigates the death interviews chris and this is where we start to bring father caross a little bit more directly into our story with chris and her daughter because his mother at this point has passed away after being in this mental institution right i think the detective goes to talk to him first father cross and is like what do you know about like witches and like witchcraft and like supernatural things because he tells him that burke's head was turned around in such an unnatural

way that like well yeah 180 180 180 180 180 yeah and um and it's like pretty unlikely that it would have happened in the fall yeah that doesn't tend to happen it's like oh i think he says like a one in a thousand chance and i'm like that seems too high of a chance that's crazy um but another thing that happens in between these things is when they like go and check on her in her room one day she's like i think it's when the like doctors come in they're like oh things are really bad like come in and sedate her some more and this is like her first like very vulgar thing she's like thrusting like like humping the air and screaming, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me. Very sexual. And it's a really weird thing to see a 12-year-old girl do.

And it gets weirder. That was just the first one and then a weirder one. That's the first time we've really seen her since Burke dies. She's been sedated pretty much. They're like, we don't know what to do with her. Let's just keep her mellow. Can I just ask a logistical question? is it summertime is she like on summer vacation like is she not in school right

now maybe because they're like she has to like travel with her mom for work maybe they maybe she has a tutor because it is winter fall yeah i think it's what a question i don't know i just want to know where like you know school friends are she has an assistant who's with her i think she must be homeschooled yeah she doesn't live there so there's an assistant who looks after her all day and i think there's a scene where they're doing homework early on i just want to make sure she's getting her schooling while she's being she has a tutor she's not getting her schooling at this point about the midway point algebra is no longer a concern it is not

a concern for the well-being of Reagan that'll be a mistake when it's time for her to apply to college she'll have a damn good essay though that's true so then there's a scene of Chris going in like this boardroom of all the like doctors where they first suggest an exorcism

because they've suggested psychiatry they've run all the like doctors where they first suggest an exorcism because they've they've suggested psychiatry they've run all the tests oh wait the psychiatry scene is first huh yeah okay they had to first suggest a psychiatrist a psychiatrist comes over and it does not go well does not go well at all he hypnotizes her oh demon's not gonna like that and first he's talking to reagan and she's like yes like i want i want the demon out of me and he's like okay like let me talk to the demon has she been saying this whole time there's a demon in her like did she make that clear is this the first time we hear her say that she says someone is in her i think maybe she doesn't use the word demon but she's like get

him out or something like that yeah um and so they think she's like schizophrenic or something or making it up or something and so anyways the in this hypnosis session he's like okay let me talk to whoever is inside of you and big mistake her face turns scary yeah via the makeup from the great makeup artist um and she just like, kind of low grumbling and then grabs his dick. Yeah. Oh, my God. And, like, doesn't let go of it.

Correct. He, like, jumps back and she just, like, follows with him and they have to, like, pry her fingers off his dick. Yeah. It's so crazy. Yeah. So this is a very sexual demon. Extremely sexual demon.

Yes. What a choice. And again, I repeat, we're just getting started. Oh my God. I can't wait. So, okay. So they dubbed the voice, but- She's doing the stuff.

A 12 year old girl. Yes. Yeah. And it's Linda Blair. Yes. I'm sure she had a stunt double, but- Yeah. Not all the time.

No. No. Yeah. Okay. I did not realize that this demon really wanted to fuck. Yeah, this demon fucks. Oh no! Oh no, Chase! Oh no! Okay.

Okay! Okay, so then we've got the big boardroom where they're like, okay, maybe we should try an exorcism. And they're like, not necessarily that it's a demon, but sometimes people have it in their... Like the placebo. Yes. They'll have it like not necessarily that it's a demon but sometimes people like have it in their heads

that it's a demon and so only through like the show of an exorcism will they admit that they're better now or whatever they're like can't hurt to try a little placebo exorcism actually it probably could

but leave no stone unturned at this point leave no stone unturned yikes leave no dick ungrabbed yeah exactly um well then no karas has repeated difficulty trying to get through to the demon and to reagan oh they start with him yeah oh and yeah and this is where we get one of our more colorful lines from the demon fabulous one of my favorites um but basically what happens is he's like you know

as we know from the conjuring you need permission to perform an exorcism from the catholic church yes and so he and so what you need is proof that the possession is happening yes and so he and so what you need is proof that the possession is happening um and so he you know comes with his recorder and how did they do it before we had recording equipment you know what i mean i don't know they flew the pope in an honor

welcome to our home so he gets to travel so much What a great life There's a part where Do you want to say the crazy scene between just her and her mom That this is Where she flies This is where we reach Kind of the peak of the sexual perversion Yes And

Mixed in with the religious Desecration So mom walks in boy and mixed in with the religious desecration so mom walks in and Reagan or the demon whose name by the way is it's like pizzazz or something that's like a character from the Lion King

excuse me it's Pazuzu P-A-Z-U-Z-U isn't that literally the name of the bird's Pazuzu P-A-Z-U-Z-U Isn't that literally the name of the bird Yeah Pazuzu So Reagan is repeatedly Stabbing her crotch With a crucifix

Blood everywhere Blood everywhere She is stabbing her vagina with this crucifix And I believe we are hearing once again the famous words Fuck me Let Jesus fuck you Let Jesus fuck you dabbing her vagina with this. And I believe we are hearing once again, the famous words, fuck me. Let Jesus fuck you. Jesus.

Fuck you. Let Jesus fuck you. And the mom runs in. Yep. And she grabs her mom's head and rubs it into her bloody vagina and screams, lick me, lick me. It's so upsetting and disturbing.

I was shocked. Yeah. As shocked as you all are now I'm glad I did not want to be the one to relay that I love that this movie was nominated For best picture There is that Notion like a movie from the 70s Didn't fully go there but it went there It went there

And then in Burke's voice she says well he says you know what she did you know what your cunty daughter did like angry Burke yelling from within the daughter's body because she like possessed him to kill himself is what we're gathering yeah okay

um okay and so yeah and then so then we've got some scenes with father cross doing trying to record things um this is where she says i'm i'm the devil emily is yeah i know i know i'm sorry i just can't i just can't believe it she can't she hasn't moved on also in that scene that is the scene where um chris uh ellen burstein like broke her back or whatever because then she's like flung back from her and then reagan like throws a chest of drawers at her it's like a piece of furniture actually crazy crazy scene jesus christ but father caross father

caross um oh this so yeah she's like fucking with him and saying your mother is in here with us and really taunting him and then he says if my mother's in there what's her maiden name and then she looks at him and projectile vomits very green

vomit all in his face which was supposed to hit his chest supposed to hit his chest supposed to hit his chest he looks very upset yeah gross um and he at some point throws holy water on her on her and she like big reaction acts all crazy and then he goes to the mom and she's like isn't that good isn't that proof like the proof we need to be able to have the exorcism and he's like that was tap water and so no it's like maybe she's still acting but like placebo water yeah um but don't test right but so he take there's when she's reacting with the holy water, she sounds like she's speaking in tongues. But he takes the tape to another guy who is like, it's like, yeah, that's a language.

That's English. Like as if like, duh, it's English, but it sounds crazy. But basically she's speaking English backwards. So they play it backwards and it says, let her die. I am no one. Fear the priest, Marin. And Marin is the beginning priest. So this demon knows who's coming, it seems.

They have a relationship. They have a relationship. It's been established. And so he's saying fear the priest like I fear the priest. You should fear the priest. I think he fears the priest like i fear the priest you should fear the priest i think he fears the yeah he fears the priest why would he admit that he's defeated him a long time ago okay um there's also a part where he's just being honest yeah he's just telling him i don't want to be this way and again gratitude yes yes um there's also a scene where the um kind of assistant chris's assistant brings

father carison and is like i don't want chris to see this lifts up the shirt while um reagan is sleeping and it says help me as if someone from inside the torso has written with their finger yeah it looks very creepy i hope this assistant really is getting compensated golden time um yeah this is tough so then we go to get permission for the exorcism and this is where father marin gets kind of called in they decide by the church yes they decide Kuros is like not he's too inexperienced has never done an exorcism before right and so this demon

said the other guy's name yeah so they're like we gotta bring him in yeah it's a direct referral from the demon so he'll be like assistant exorcist yeah because they're like we'll need a psychologist there anyways which is like, okay. Sure.

You know, the normal exorcism structure. So, yeah, Marin comes in and he's like, okay, here's how it's going to go. Don't listen to anything the demon says. It's going to try to get in your head. It's going to try to fuck with you. Like, he's a liar. He's a trickster. Don't listen to him.

And Father Karras is like, OK, well, let me tell you, there's, I think, three different personalities that have manifested so far that I've picked up in my in my observations. And he's like, no, there's one demon. I know a demon. Like, let me fucking do this. He's a pro. We got a professional. It's Pazuzu. Thank you. Thanks so professional on our hands. It's Pazuzu.

Thank you. Thanks so much for your effort. It's Pazuzu. Mic drop. And then we exorcism happens. Wow. And there's a part earlier where they say like some exorcisms can go on for a year.

Yeah. Which I was like oh my god. That's too long. Too long. Oh, no. Oh, my God. That's too long. Too long. God, I'm tired just thinking about it. Well, Pazuzu starts off strong with, your mother sucks cocks in hell.

And we've met the mother, obviously. She is an elderly, elderly, scared, sad, ill woman. Oh, no. Not that anyone should ever have that comment said about them by a demon but this is an especially low blow here so this is where

Marin is like okay dismissed after is it that or is there one more inciting incident I mean there's kind of a lot of like craziness that happens it's a long exorcism it's not a year it's not a year but it's long they're thrown holy water the bed is floating she's vomiting she's spitting nasty gross head spins not quite yet oh boy well probably we're getting there yeah it's it's around here um and

you're starting to see her like nasty tongue comes out she's got like a a Krampus-y type tongue and she's wiggling it around very sexually because she's a sexual demon I think this movie it won like one or two Oscars one was for sound design and you really hear that in this part yeah sound design and I believe writing

and Father Marin effective honestly effective um it's ramping up father maron saying i cast thee out that's when we get the 180 degree head turn yep with

a smile smiling creepy nasty um and she's yelling things at cross like you killed your mother. You left her alone to die. He is not doing well. He is really, he keeps like kind of going into his head and like Father Marin has to be like, come on, come on, come on, come on, pay attention. Like, I need you to be reciting these words with me.

And then. So Pazuzu's winning over cross yeah yeah um there's something where they take a little they take a little break okay let's take a little rest they go their separate ways father marin takes some pills he's also not doing well no father man is not holding up and have we learned yet about father marin's history with pazuzu i don't think we get much like explicit i think we are just to infer from the beginning implied that they have a history yes yeah there are a few things that are never outwardly like we don't ever get a firm answer on how the demon possessed reagan or why and that's a common question there's either the assumption that it was a Ouija board. Right. But I've read a lot of film theorists that are like,

it's not about Reagan, it's about Karas finding... And I don't know how she would have been the likely choice since they were strangers. Easy to get into a child? Yeah. Or, yeah. But the movie suggests a lot. Okay.

As opposed to just outwardly. Okay. Yeah. I mean, opposed to just outwardly. Okay. Yeah. I mean, look, it's happening. Right. Sometimes in life, crazy shit happens and there's no rhyme or reason. You just have to deal with it. So true.

Yeah. Gratitude. Gratitude. So then Karas is like actually seeing his mother like on the bed. She is like appearing as the mother to him and I think this is when Maren likes like okay like yeah get out because Karas has an incident where he gives

into the anger and starts to throttle Reagan right like starts to strangle her right right right what the demon wants yes exactly um so he kicks him out so Maren's in the room alone but unfortunately he is not faring too well himself and when karas um comes back upstairs uh we discover that marin

has died what no pretty unexpectedly yeah i was like wait what we don't see him die We assume it's a heart attack we don't know The exorcist Dead the titular exorcist The one who had once defeated Pazuzu Is now dead Oh no That's bad news for everyone That is when I'm sorry that's when Karas

Loses his temper Well it's because She's giggling yeah He looks over At her and at first she's kind of quiet and just Watching and then she starts like Smiling and giggling and then he loses It yeah and that's where we also get this

Straight up like beating the shit out of her And then we get this crazy image I think it's at this point where we see Reagan Kind of almost powerful on the bed And then that statue from the very Beginning of Pazuzu in Iraq reappears kind of in the foreground. Background. Okay. It's a very creepily lit moment.

And then as he's like beating her up, he has like a moment of clarity where he's like, he says, go into me, I believe. Yep. So he's like calling says go into me I believe yep so he's like calling the demon out of Reagan inviting him in feels like a bad idea well it all happens very quickly though to the credit of like how

this movie moves you have a brief second where you can just see from the makeup and the eyes that Karas is possessed but he with his laugh he knows what's happening still has a moment of lucidity so he throws himself out the window to kill that Karas is possessed but he with his he knows what's happening still has a moment of lucidity so he throws himself out the window to kill himself

so that the demon dies so he dies while the demon is inside of him and so we've now lost two priests both are priests but Regan is free we believe yes we believe because it feels like that wouldn't kill a demon I wouldn't think I don't know how demons believe. Because it feels like that wouldn't kill a demon. I wouldn't think.

I don't know how demons really work. Yeah. It seems like no. And I think because even in the movie they talk about how rare an exorcism is. I don't get the sense that it's easy for this to happen. Yeah. Maybe there's some sort of fluke or some loophole. Right.

So then Reagan is just okay? Well, she's, I mean. A a little dazed There's some bruises As okay as she can be She's not going to be having sex anytime soon No definitely not She was lucid the whole time Well they say later no They say she doesn't remember anything

Which is great Great blessing But she does have this kind of, because there is an old friend of Karas pops up. His name's Father Dyer and he kind of administers the last rites. And so then a few days later

when Reagan and her mom are getting ready to leave back to LA, even though, yeah, she has no recollection. There's something like when she sees the clerical collar on Dyer. It's almost like a flash of memory. and she gives him like a very sweet just soft kiss on the cheek is that it um yeah they they drive they drive off and you know there's like the alternate ending i feel like that i was

trying to like read what happened in the end and the other one I read was completely different. So the version I watched, they drive off, and she has Father Kross's necklace, and she gives it to Father Dyer. And that's the end. Krista. Yes, Krista's. And he's holding it, and he goes back to the spot where he died and he's kind of just looking at it and he's sad. It's a very quiet moment, too. Like the movie does not end with any score.

Like it's a slow fade. The lights come up, but it's very quiet and almost unsettling at the end as well. Right. How much noise and sound there's been leading up to it. Right. What is I wish that I had read about The Exorcist before doing this, because I would love to know, like what people's interpretations of it were right after it came out. I was getting like, there's just so much obviously written about this film, so much

trivia, so many iterations that have happened since. There's sequels, there's a TV show. There's so much to know. Same. I was overwhelmed with the amount of information I could spend like all day reading about the exorcist and like critically it was mildly received when it first came out it wasn't just derided but it wasn't embraced it was the box office this was one of the first actual blockbusters right because it made so much money it was warner brothers highest grossing film for like a long, long time.

And I think maybe adjusted for inflation, it still might be, but I'm not sure. And it inspired so many things that came after it, like The Omen, Amityville. There was just, even if it wasn't in the same wheelhouse of demonic possession, it showed that horror wasn't any longer relegated to just like B-movie. Right. And you had a lot of rather well-regarded people like Betty Davis find their way into horror films after this. It kind of raised the bar and the expectation. It made horror kind of prestige in a way. Because it is a slow story.

It's not just shock value. It's a good 40 minutes until I think even until she pees on the carpet right like it takes its time telling a story for like the whole open I was like I I think I checked twice to like make sure I was watching the right movie because I had always thought of it as such like a crazy you know like 100 miles per hour

movie but it's not it's a very like yeah like slow open like his whole time in Iraq is like I think it's like almost 15 minute long open of kind of no real dialogue and yeah it's it feels like a

drama wow it's very good but I found the creepy trivia about so there are tales about ominous events surrounding the year long shoot the shoot was 224 days. What? Which is insane. No.

What? That in and of itself. Can you imagine working on this movie for a year? Yeah, that's crazy. 224 days? It's insanity. You've lost them so much money. What would you say an average shoot is for a movie? That's like three months.

A few months, yeah. So, okay, so What would you say an average shoot is for a movie? That's like three months. A few months. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So, ominous events surrounding the year-long shoot include the deaths of nine people associated with the production. Nine? And stories about a mysterious fire that destroyed the set one weekend. Oh, I've heard about that.

This is crazy. Wow. Emily, would you ever see this movie? No. Absolutely not. No movie no absolutely not no no no i must say that like crucifix part was yeah so jarring it also feels like and maybe just because it is so deeply shocking and that's why but like it doesn't feel so it just was definitely a choice to make pazuzu so sexual like and it's actually so because it's based on a book and it's like apparently quite toned down from the book

like the book is much more oh my god yeah i i kind of want to watch the first 40 minutes of this movie and that's it just so i can like understand what it feels like before it gets scary because i've seen the scary clips enough and heard enough about it that I'm like, I don't need to see that. Wait. So what was the point? What was the point at which Marin forgot his lines when she yelled at him?

What was she saying? Oh, it must've cause he's only in there for the end. So it must've been that your mother sucks, sucks cocks in hell and that sort of thing. And then she's like, she's also yelling at them to fuck each other she's like fuck him

you like fuck each other and like she's she's going on and on and crazy shit yeah it's wild wow amazing I didn't know much about this I was like little girl gets possessed that's pretty much all I knew her head spins around she projectile vomits

that is a detail I did not know at all and would never have guessed. That it's asexual? Yeah. Yeah. I think that is very important to the story. Very important. It seems to be like a number one thing that's happening here. That's what I want to read about.

I want to read about like how people reacted to sexualization of a child in that way. I think it had a pretty negative. Okay, wait. I know one more trivia. of a child in that way. I think it had a pretty negative. Okay, wait, I know one more trivia and it's that because people thought this movie sympathized with the devil

there was some like religious people that there must have been religious. Yes, there's no way. How did it sympathize with the devil? Seriously? I don't know by embodying it as a little girl. I feel like this was the because we're familiar with exorcisms now, but at the time this was well, they're sensationalizing it profiting off of it commercializing something

like that i think it was a i remember that criticism i think it is a big misread i think this movie is sympathetic right i think that's your very conservative sect yeah oh for sure so they actually had to um ellen burstein had to have like bodyguards For the six months following this Film's release because she was getting so many Like death threats and like people I don't know being Aggressive with her on the street I'm curious about her parents

How they felt when this movie Was being She's gotta have a stage mom because I don't know I'm looking her up She was a child model actor. Out of 600

people, she was picked for the role of Regan. I remember. Congrats, Linda. I know that they had a very big casting search and there was this family show on in the 60s called Family Affair kind of a precursor

for the Brady Bunch everything from like a little girl in pigtails and that actress Anissa Jones she wanted the part but her mom was like no you take that part no one's ever going to cast you in anything else yeah and I don't think Linda Blair worked a lot I just

read so she she the first blow to her career was the real when people realized that the voice was dubbed and they're like oh she's not that great which is so crazy to me right that is so crazy and um also it's like it's more like that they're dumb for not knowing that. The voice is like very clear. That's really crazy. And then, according to this IMDb trivia, which who knows, she was peer pressured into buying cocaine at 18 and sentenced to three years probation and was blacklisted. Oh, no. So she was like essentially, I guess she was blacklisted

for being a child actor who did cocaine. How times have changed. In the 70s, too? No, by the time she was 18, this would have been, like, the 80s. Yeah. Come the fuck on, Hollywood. Yeah. Wow.

Excuse me. That's a real double standard for 18-year-old girls. Woo! Oh, my God. What a wild ride. What a wild ride. Damn. I'm going to be going to bed thinking about that little girl

Saying your mother sucks Cocks in hell It's a fun party line too Honestly yeah if you're really trying to get at someone That feels like a good way to go Yeah Pretty tough And Chase keep us posted about those

Footsteps I don't like it Just watch for my stomach if I start writing help me Oh no Chase, keep us posted about those Footsteps on Princess Mary's roof I don't like it Just watch for my stomach if I start writing help me Oh no Wow, well We did it Thank you so much for making me finally watch this movie

Thank you So far, no windows No windows have broken I really don't want to have to pay to fix a window So let's hope that that remains true. Should we say it in the demon voice? I don't know how. Goodbye.

Oh, that was really good. Goodbye. Goodbye. It's deeper and deeper. We have to change. Oh, my God. That was good. We did it.

We did it. Hi, guys. Emily here. Thanks for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. Hopefully none of your windows shattered while listening. If you liked the episode, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. You can follow us on social media at TSDW Podcast

on Instagram and Twitter. Send us an email at TSDW Podcast at gmail.com. We love to hear your thoughts on movies you want to hear recapped or just to say hi. We truly look forward to it. And we hope to see you here next week. We love you. Bye.