Editorials
5 Awesome Demon Films Selected By ‘The Possession of Michael King’s’ Director
Anchor Bay Films’ supernatural thriller The Possession of Michael King, another found-footage horror, is set to release in limited theaters August 22 with an iTunes, On Demand, DVD and Blu-ray release set for August 26.
From Gold Circle Films (White Noise, The Haunting In Connecticut), Bloody Disgusting caught up with director David Jung who shared his favorite demon-themed horror films!
The Exorcist, William Friedkin, 1973
“Probably on the top or near the top of everyone’s list. The Exorcist remains the quintessential possession movie that all the others stand up against. Friedkin pulled off so many things that had never been done before. He actually piped in air conditioners and freezer units to cool the set so that you could see the actor’s chilly breath. Groundbreaking makeup and effects, like the words appearing on the chest, and the fact that they didn’t shy away from getting really nasty, with the demon projectile vomiting, and masturbating with a crucifix. So many things, especially for that time period, that were just amazing and trailblazing. Bravo.”
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Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski, 1968
“Not necessarily a straightforward demon movie, but one about a woman impregnated by a demon, or the king of demons himself, the devil. Polanski does an amazing job of slowly tightening the noose around Mia Farrow, who perfectly portrays an unsuspecting and innocent young housewife. We feel that slow sinking feeling of dread almost from the beginning, and it just keeps intensifying all the way until the end of the movie. We’re with her every step of the way as she begins to realize that everyone around her is in on the secret, they’re all against her, and there’s nowhere for her to turn for help. A masterpiece.”
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The Shining, Stanley Kubrick, 1980
“This movie was actually one of the main inspirations for The Possession of Michael King. Ever since I was a kid, I loved and was terrified of Jack Torrance, how he went mad, and wanted to slaughter his own family. I wanted to do a movie from the point of view of Jack Torrance. Get into his head. To hear from him, what it was like to go mad. That was the idea that launched my movie. Kubrick is a genius as a filmmaker. There are so many seminal and “classic” moments in this film.”
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The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi, 1981
“Including Evil Dead II and of course Army of Darkness. “Okay, I said the words…” “This is my BOOMSTICK!” I still pull numerous daily quotes from these movies to this day. Ask my wife how tired she is of me grabbing her, bending her back for a kiss and saying, “Gimme some sugar, baby!” Never before had I seen someone intentionally mix horror and comedy in such an effective way (usually the comedy came from bad acting and bad scripts). The inventiveness of these movies, for the budget that they made them for is incredible. The mythology he creates is clear and cool as well. True inspiration.”
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Insidious, James Wan, 2011
“I wanted to put something a little more recent on this list of classics. My dearly departed buddy Gregg Hoffman discovered James Wan when he watched the short for the first Saw film. He then went on to mortgage his house to raise the capital to make and produce the first Saw movie. Wan has gone on to prove himself as a wonderfully talented filmmaker. I saw Insidious twice in the theater because I was so impressed. There is inspiration in this movie from all over the place (the two ghost hunters Specs and Tucker remind me of something straight out of a Raimi film). The scares are great and highly original. I’ll continue to be first in line to see his films when they come out.”
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About The Possession of Michael King
David Jung directs the movie that “Tells of a documentary filmmaker who does not believe in God or the Devil. When his wife dies, he sets out to make his next movie on religion and spirituality, hoping to prove those things are just myth. But in allowing demonologists, necromancers, and various practitioners of the occult to try the deepest and darkest spells and rituals on him, he unleashes a horrifying force.”
Shane Johnson (Starz’ upcoming “Power”), Dale Dickey (Iron Man 3), Julie McNiven (TV’s “Supernatural”) and Tomas Arana (Guardians of the Galaxy) star.
The movie was by Paul Brooks and executive produced by Scott Niemeyer and Guy Danella. The screenplay was written by Jung with a story by Jung and Tedi Sarafian.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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