"The attack is psychological... and powerful."

I take this time to pay homage to someone who has had a great influence on my life and to this day commands the same level of respect as when I was a young man. I humbly salute you… Regan.
 

Not Reagan people… Regan. Reagan is an ex-President. Regan is the little girl who survived the onslaught of a satanic possession in The Exorcist. For she and a pack of invertebrates were responsible for scarring my psyche.

As a kid I remember staying at my grandmother's house watching late night movies on cable T.V. long after she had gone to bed. I would sneak out of my room, tip toe over to the living room and ever so quietly turn the knob (yes… the knob) of the thirteen-channel relic. One night they were playing a movie called Squirm. I was tormented for life. The film was about a bunch of earthworms that go mad when a broken power line hits the ground and electrocutes them. They ooze out of the earth and go on to consume the residents of a nearby town. They weren’t giant worms but they would crawl, in great numbers, through peoples flesh and proceed to devour them from the inside. This was the most terrifying thing I had ever witnessed. I actually developed a small phobia for worms. This was further accentuated when I ran through a pile of garbage while playing cops and robbers (as young boys do) and slipped. I crashed onto the pavement but immediately stood back up. I checked myself for blood and looked to the ground to determine what had made me slip. Maggots… millions of maggots. They were all over the bags, all over the ground and… all… over… me. SQUIRM! I locked up and screamed at a pitch that could bust the eardrums off a dog. Every hair on my body was on end. I snapped out of my frozen state and ran to my grandmother’s house all the while shaking and slapping myself to insure I killed as many of the little bastards as possible. From a distance I must have appeared to the neighbors as an infantile maniac. I ran into the shower where I not-so-much bathed but rather scratched my entire body with soap. All the time I secretly prayed that they wouldn’t wiggle their way into my skin or worse… GOOD GOD! I checked every orifice from my nostrils to my ear holes and yes… the down belows. I bombarded my entire body with shampoo and whatever else I could find. If there had been Clorox nearby… I would have used it. I had never been nor have ever been that clean.

I no longer scream and slap myself in the presence of worms but maggots still give me that little shiver in the back of my neck. As an adult I took it upon myself to re-watch the films of my youth to see if they had equal impact. When it came time to see Squirm… I was ready. My god… what a piece of crap. It had instilled in me a fear that I have all but extinguished from my mind (and for that I will remember it fondly) but the movie itself no longer held it’s wicked grasp over me. I could easily watch it without reigniting that level of terror. “Hey” I said to myself “Maybe the Exorcist won’t be so scary anymore either!”

Idiot.

Why? Why does this movie still have the same effect it did when I was younger? Why have I outgrown all the others like Jason, Freddy, Meyers, Chucky, Pinhead and the earthworms of Squirm… and yet not the disembodied form of Captain Howdy?

There was a level of realism to The Exorcist and growing up in Puerto Rico (a predominantly catholic country) you learned to respect or at least acknowledge the power of the occult, regardless of what you believed. The characters didn’t just accept the entity as matter-of-fact like in other movies either. Poor Regan had to undergo a harsh series of medical exams, which took up a good portion of the film, to prove it wasn’t something physical or psychological. When the tests revealed nothing… then you realized… uh oh! Could it be? Nothing about this film was exaggerated. Even the most horrifying moments were played with a subtlety that managed to disturb rather than scare and, let’s face it, “disturbing” lingers. Enter the hero… Father Merrin, spiritual badass. Watch him as he matches wits with the beast. Watch him as he stands his ground in the face of pure evil. Watch as his faith never dwindles. Watch as he… has a supposed heart attack AND DIES?  HOLY S**T! The exorcist is dead!? But… who’s gonna beat this thing now? Enter Father Karras, priest of wavering faith. He is a man on the verge of losing all hope and upon seeing his fallen master, stands upon the very edge of sanity and his own beliefs. This was not some one-dimensional persona running from a demented cliché… this was a fully developed character and, along with Regan and her mother, made me actually care (Something few horror movies achieve… In fact there comes a moment in most scary movies where you find yourself cheering for the bad guy.) Needless to say, Karras takes on the creature, tricks the beast into his own body and throws himself out the window rendering the demon trapped inside his dying carcass. The girl had survived but you still felt like throwing up. Still do. Gotta love that.

When the credits are over and it’s time to go to bed… that’s when it hits. No more deep fear of worms and no real fear of demons but, just in case, check the garbage can and, if only for tonight, the lights stay on. Good night and Happy Halloween.