November 9, 2011 Get Your Exorcisms While They're Hot
I hope everyone likes the new look for the site since the move, though one of the new site's issues is that no one can comment yet. The Hallowee'n festivities suffered lower viewer numbers than previous years due to the move, and despite getting the word out better with more locations. The whole 13 Nights is a bit taxing. It was more so this year because I didn't suspend all other blogging, only some of it. I'll admit I was tempted not to schedule the post this week, but I couldn't stay away. Bear with me though if it's a little brief.
One of the hot topics on people's minds this year has been exorcism. Perhaps some of it traces to the release of The Last Exorcism (2010) on DVD and Blu-Ray and the release of The Rite (2011) in theatres--both kicking off the year in January. Or it could be the word from the Catholic Church about training more exorcists, but is likely both. In August I posted a link with my commentary at WraithStop titled "Meet the exorcist schoolgirls who..." It seems a little silly admittedly but it lays out some information on how real possessed people are supposed to act. Someone recently pointed out an interview with "Matt Baglio, Author of the Rite", which backs up the possessed's behaviour. In short, among other things, they blink long and/or belch at certain words--and most don't do anything more exciting aside except speak with a specific, creepy, guttural voice in some instances. Not terribly thrilling, which is why possession gets played up significantly for horror stories and movies. Except...
Just last night I was watching Paranormal Witness, an awesome new SyFy show that re-enacts the true stories from the witnesses as well as showing interview clips with these people. The paranormal tale I watched this time had to do with a young man released from jail for a funeral who--total spoiler here--comes into contact with something evil, perhaps even possesses him, and some kind of liquid comes raining from out of nowhere inside both the house he was staying at on his furlough, and inside the jail he returns to. Not only does this liquid fall indoors but it also defies gravity, raining in impossible directions and hitting or missing specific objects and people only, including striking someone he couldn't even see at the time. As they say, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction because fiction generally has to make sense. This leaves a storyteller to choose from a number of different levels of scares and general spookiness.
Music: The One That Got Away by Alice Cooper and Soul Intruders by Bruce Dickinson.