Kurai Tsuki
10th April 2004, 22:19
First of all let me say that I believe that spiritual entities exist in the context of their religions, and so its not right to take something from one faith (like Pazuzu from the mythology of Mesopotamia) and vilify it in the context of Christianity. Demons (coming from the word Daemon) were not always bad things; they were simply entities that could communicate with both the deities and humans. Pazuzu was the Mesopotamian demon of destruction and wind, but destruction was not always a bad thing in pagan mythology, its simply clearing the way for something new. Does the filmmaker expect me to believe that a Mesopotamian demon that has the ability to control wind and in the mythology is even known to protect newborns is going out of his way to possess a spoiled little rich girl under a cheesy name like Captain Howdy? As Implied, Pazuzu was even said to be helpful to humans. Pregenant women were known to wear necklaces of him to protect their babies.
There seems to be a similarity to when the Phoenician goddess Ashorah (better known by what the Greeks called her, Astarte) is vilified in John Milton's book Paradise Lost by being turned into a form of the Christian devil.
Other than that I thought The Exorcist was a great movie, who could have imagined a film where a priest would have a man-to-man conversation with a demon? As for the scare factor I thought this movie was more frightening than any other horror movies that I have seen but I think that I may have been scared by different scenes than most people were. The acrobatic and physical tricks which Pazuzu commenced to do with Regans body were not too frightening for me, but I was very scared of that subliminal demon face that kept appearing, and this was amplified by me thinking that it was, "the devil."
There are those who would say that because the movie deals with subjects that are evil to the Christian faith, this must also be a heretical movie, but if you watch the credits you will see that there were three, Reverend advisors credited; giving lie to that claim.
I've now begun to read the original novel on which the movie was based and will try to have a review of that shortly after.
There seems to be a similarity to when the Phoenician goddess Ashorah (better known by what the Greeks called her, Astarte) is vilified in John Milton's book Paradise Lost by being turned into a form of the Christian devil.
Other than that I thought The Exorcist was a great movie, who could have imagined a film where a priest would have a man-to-man conversation with a demon? As for the scare factor I thought this movie was more frightening than any other horror movies that I have seen but I think that I may have been scared by different scenes than most people were. The acrobatic and physical tricks which Pazuzu commenced to do with Regans body were not too frightening for me, but I was very scared of that subliminal demon face that kept appearing, and this was amplified by me thinking that it was, "the devil."
There are those who would say that because the movie deals with subjects that are evil to the Christian faith, this must also be a heretical movie, but if you watch the credits you will see that there were three, Reverend advisors credited; giving lie to that claim.
I've now begun to read the original novel on which the movie was based and will try to have a review of that shortly after.