Geena Davis as “THE EXORCIST”

 

St. Louis. . . . . the grassy outskirts, on the edge of the rising skyline. . . . . WHERE DEMONS WALK THE EARTH.

We may simultaneously be both the most blessed and backwards state in the union when it comes to wild-cat religiosity with all sorts of sanctified holy-rolllers. Casting out demons on local cable access t.v. programs as you could have a mixture of clap-board theater, self-taught demonology, and mental aberration for growling lost souls and any rabble of charity cases.

It’s all about on the production level of Beetlejuice’s yard—like flashing lights, arrow-signs, and checkered flags on the outskirts of civilization—a no man’s land of improvised sales pitches and gravel-pit roads. Like graveyards and landfills across the field from flea-market heaven.

That’s good and all—but when you really have a confounding problem you have to turn it over to the big guns of Western Civilization—The Catholic Church and not the roadside snake-farm.

A bit of ritual is in order. . . . . with the frocks, chalices, and holy water. It perfectly fits in with this town, as St. Louis  speaks of graveyard dirt and haunted, pallorous secrets with breweries, the stinking river, and insane asylums.

And believe it or not, but the actual “Exorcist case” happened here at the old Alextion Bros. Hospital.

Imagine, now—an Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step program meeting in a boiler-room, somewhere and an old groundskeeper volunteering “his piece”.

“I’m Joe Carletto. . . . . I’m an alcoholic but I don’t believe in any of this ‘higher power’ stuff. This support group may help me, for what it’s worth—but I mostly don’t believe it. THANK-YOU”.

But he couldn’t explain, for the life of him—what actually happened that night back in 1949. He was working maintenance as the excitement went on, upstairs. The only thing he’ll say is that they couldn’t control the temperature of the room as it dipped into freezing hellishness no matter how much they stoked the boilers.

He shakes his head and sits back down. . . . . not saying more.

Except for the child’s head twisting-around 360 degrees, it really happened. Only it was a young boy and not Linda Blair. The knocking beds, the levitating possession victim, the projectile-vomiting.

And now Geena Davis stars in a t.v. show based on the original “Exorcist” movie from 1973. . . . . and you can bet that her co-star, Beetlejuice “saw it 167 times. . . . . and how it keeps getting funnier EVERYTIME HE SEES IT”.

But Geena Davis steals the show, this time. Ever goofy, like a sharp fang and a corona of high-intelligence clarified by her beanpole height and open mind she returns to supernatural television. Read an interview with her—a fun gal to be around.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/arts/television/geena-davis-the-exorcist.html

 

Kings of Evil

So. . . . . how do you spend your Sabbath-night eve?

Demons and dark forces dance and whirl, summoned up to the top of Bald Mountain in this clip from Disney’s “Fantasia”. Absolutely surreal, it must have been terrifying at the time though you can see lots of subsequent influence on heavy metal with themes of European witchery and shadowed, lonely graveyards releasing forth the wrath of the dead.

It’s a cultural force to be reckoned, with as I could see some influence going into Beetlejuice 2, and remember– how the netherworld is a strange and unusual realm, populated by gods and monsters. So much twistedness exists beyond the veil of human perception as artists and madmen bring back visions to share through the very creative act of storytelling, itself.

Will Beetlejuice meet “the king of evil”? Or maybe he’s caught, hanging upside-down in a cage in the kitchen of a giant demon who fixes supper. He will meet demons and other figures from dreamworld’s on the outer edge of all-conceivable imagination, but must get back in time to have misadventures on earth.

Riding along the riplets of time/space distortion, he falls through portals and hidden doors between bio-living land and the kingdom of the dead. And if one’s thing you can say– IT’S A WILD RIDE!!