Editorials
Special Feature: Exorcism: An Overview Part 1
Based on the non-fiction book by Matt Baglio, the upcoming film The Rite (releasing January 28) tells the story of a disillusioned young American man (Colin O’Donoghue) who travels to the Vatican to study exorcism and finds faith through his encounters with demons. Leading up to the film’s release, Bloody-Disgusting will be putting out a series of six articles dealing with specific aspects of exorcism, a practice that has become a staple of the horror genre ever since the release of William Friedkin’s 1973 blockbuster The Exorcist. In this first installment, B-D’s Chris Eggertsen gives a general overview of the exorcism phenomenon, shedding light on the legends and stories that gave rise to the practice in the first place and highlighting the real-life case that inspired The Exorcist.
The term “exorcism” stems from the Greek word “exorkizen”, meaning “to bind by oath”, and is said to have first come to use sometime in the early second century. In Christian religions the practice stems from the New Testament of the Bible, particularly the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), in which Jesus would cast out demons from possessed people as a demonstration of his Messiahship. He also granted his apostles the same power (and, to a lesser degree, his disciples), which is why those of a higher religious authority in the Christian faith (i.e. priests) are seen as qualified to exorcise demons from the bodies of possessed people. The passages that describe exorcism in the New Testament (perhaps the most famous one has the demons inside a man declaring, “My name is legion: for we are many”) are what gave rise to the practice in the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to other sects of Christianity, and it is a tradition that carries on into the 21st century.
Perhaps the most famous early case of exorcism happened in 1633/34 with what became known as the “Loudun Possessions” (the basis of Aldous Huxley’s 1952 novel The Devils of Loudun and Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film The Devils), in the town of Loudun, France. In 1632 several Ursuline nuns at the local convent began acting strangely, engaging in bizarre behavior such as throwing themselves on the ground, going into convulsions and shouting obscenities. The nuns then began claiming that a handsome priest by the name of Urban Grandier, who’d made many political enemies during his time at a neighboring parish, had been appearing to them in dreams and seducing them. After a series of bizarre public exorcisms in which the nuns would expose themselves and contort their bodies into overtly sexual positions, Grandier was convicted of making a pact with the Devil and burned at the stake.
Another notable case occurred in the United States over 300 years later with 14-year-old Roland Doe (known alternately as Robbie Mannheim or John Hoffman, depending on your source), who was thought to be possessed by demons following a series of strange occurrences in his Maryland home. The supposed demonic manifestations included scratching sounds on the walls, levitating household objects, and furniture moving on its own across the floor. These episodes would always occur in Roland’s presence, and the boy also began exhibiting strange behaviors such as defecating on the walls and lashing out violently at those around him. After medical and psychiatric evaluations turned up nothing, priests were called in and the boy was exorcised 30 times over a period of two months, after which the “supernatural phenomena” were said to have ceased.
While doubts remain regarding the more sensational details of the Roland Doe case, it was nevertheless what inspired author William Peter Blatty to write his 1971 novel The Exorcist, which became a massive bestseller and was later adapted into the blockbuster 1973 film. It is during this period that exorcism became a bona fide pop cultural phenomenon and entered into the lexicon of ordinary Americans of all faiths and backgrounds.
The film’s success can be partially contributed to the controversy that came to surround it, including genuine outrage expressed by many in the religious community – some of who believed that an evil force capable of causing madness had been burned into the celluloid – as well as to its shocking nature, which reportedly caused vomiting, fainting, and other horrified reactions from audience members (with some even going so far as to claim that individuals had been committed to mental institutions or killed themselves after seeing it). Needless to say, the film’s enormous success led to several rip-offs, sequels and parodies and opened the door for a wave of religious horror films that has ebbed and flowed ever since.
Be sure and check out Part 2 of our exorcism overview, where we delve into how an exorcism is actually performed and the ways in which the practice endures even into the 21st century.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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