By Janna Wong
At Halloween time, you’ve got your ghosts and ghouls, witches, vampires, and monsters. They are all designed to scare you to bits. But, if you ask me, the scariest of all scary creatures are…children! And there are two movies with super-scary children that frighten the hell out of me when I saw them in the theater.
The first is a movie called The Other (not to be confused with the Nicole Kidman movie called The Others). This 1972 film from 20th Century Fox film is adapted from the novel by actor Tom Tryon, who also wrote the screenplay, and is directed by the famed director Robert Mulligan (yes, the Academy Award-winning director of To Kill a Mockingbird and other prestigious films such as Summer of ‘42 and Love With the Proper Stranger). Featuring excellent performances by Diana Muldaur and Uta Hagen, the real stars of the movie are twins Chris and Marty Udvarnoky who play (you guessed it), a set of twins. In the movie, mysterious acts of weird and even criminal behavior begin occurring in the small farming community that serves as the setting for the film. When it looks like one of the twins is the culprit, his response is always that it was “The Other” who did it. How long can this response work? I’ll never tell!
The movie was rated PG (so was Jaws, which shows how the MPAA ratings have changed over the years) and I haven’t seen it since its original release in 1972. But I will tell you…this movie gave me nightmares and it is intentional that I haven’t seen it in the 50 years since its release. No, it doesn’t have things jumping at you saying “Boo.” But it does have psychological scares that keep you up at night…and a pair of extraordinarily frightening twins. Sadly, the movie is not available for streaming; there are DVD and Blu-ray copies floating around at exorbitant prices.
While The Other scared me tremendously, there is one other movie featuring a child that scares me even more. To me, this wins my award for the most frightening Halloween Scare: The Exorcist. The supernatural horror novel by William Peter Blatty about a young girl who believes she has been possessed by the devil and her single mother’s attempts to bring a pair of priests into the situation to rid her daughter of the evil power, was published in 1971. The rights were acquired by Warner Bros. and the script (also by Blatty) was sent into production as quickly as possible, despite multiple problems casting the key roles due to its content. After settling on a cast including Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow (in an incredible and understated performance), Jason Miller, and Linda Blair (as the Regan, the possessed child), the movie began filming under the direction of William Friedkin (fresh off his Oscar-winning direction of The French Connection).
The film was released in 1973 to mixed reviews but giant box-office success. In those days, studios loved seeing lines of moviegoers wrapped around the block waiting for the next showing (no advanced ticket sales or ability to select seats in those days) and that visual is what greeted those of us in Los Angeles who were anxious to see this most talked-about movie.
Here, in LA, we were privy to all the inside rumblings about the making of this film. First, there were rumors of multiple production problems, including sets being destroyed by fire or by inadvertently activated sprinkler systems; a 10-foot-tall statue being shipped to the wrong location; injuries to cast and crew (including back injuries to the young actress Linda Blair and her mother played by Ellen Burstyn); untimely deaths among the cast and crew. As Friedkin said later in an interview with the horror-film magazine, Castle of Frankenstein, “I’m not a convert to the occult, but after all I’ve seen on this film, I definitely believe in demonic possession…We were plagued by strange and sinister things from the beginning.”
Once audiences saw the film, there were further reports of odd and eerie physical reactions to it. It wasn’t just fainting and vomiting; the movie was said to cause heart attacks and a miscarriage as well. And a psychiatric journal published a paper on “cinematic neurosis” brought on by viewing the film. The scenes of Regan’s demonic possession (including her bed rising and shaking, her weird spider-walk, the child receiving an angiography test when a needle is inserted into her neck, the two priests performing the exorcism) are frightening visuals, made even more so by the sound of Mercedes McCambridge’s voice as the demon. I get the chills just writing about some of these scenes!
As for me, I waited in a long line for a late-night screening and was nonplussed by the parents who brought their infant into the theater…and said baby cried through the entire movie, creating anger and angst for those of us in the audience (who brings a babe-in-arms to see a movie like The Exorcist? Why don’t the parents take that baby out of the theater?!). The movie was rated R (no movie for a baby; barely one for an adult!) and many felt it should have received an X-rating after viewing it.
The movie stayed in theaters for over two continuous years and went on to huge box-office success, earning nearly $500 million in box-office receipts (for a movie with a budget of $12 million, that’s a pretty nifty return). Adjusted for inflation (per 2014 dollars), the records show the movie has grossed close to $2 billion. In fact, it was the highest-grossing horror movie until “It” replaced it in 2017. In addition, The Exorcist was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (in addition to 9 other nominations; it won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound). And, it has yielded several sequel films and a television series. The movie is currently available to rent on almost all available streaming services and can be watched on HBO Max with a subscription. It is also easily available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Overall, it’s an excellent movie with superb acting, directing, and writing. I read the book before I saw the movie and admit to being disappointed that Blatty felt the need to change one key moment from the book to the film. Still, when I begin watching it, I cannot stop. Although, it’s hard to say it’s an enjoyable movie, there’s no denying that it is an important piece of cinematic history as the first horror movie to earn so much at the box office and to win such major accolades, including preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, recognizing the film as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
However, if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, I warn you: be ready…and be afraid…
Are you one of a handful of people who saw The Other upon its initial release? What was your reaction to it? How many times have you seen The Exorcist? Does it frighten you as much as it does me? If you read the book, do you agree with my statement that Blatty’s one alteration from book to movie was a disappointment?
