"The following is based on true events. The events depicted were transcribed by Father Joseph Steiger. The story represents the most thoroughly documented case of demonic possession in American history." 

Of course, the exorcism that we're all talking about is the same event that The Exorcist was based upon. I don't know what possesses filmmakers to keep chasing that lightning in a bottle, but I doubt it will ever be done. And I think that is something I like about The Ritual, directed by David Midell and starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens. It's not trying to be The Exorcist. Instead they are trying to do something more faithful to the original story, and I think that is one of several elements which led me to appreciate this film more than I have much of any horror out in the last handful of years.

“I am large; I contain multitudes.” 

If The Life of Chuck doesn’t take home an armful of awards this year, it will be a criminal shame. I first read the Stephen King novella when it was released in his collection If It Bleeds (2020), It was a story that you can tell King wrote during the COVID-19 panic. I remember liking the story, but it wasn’t one of my favorites in the collection. What stood out the most was the unique way he wrote the story about the end of the world. It didn’t really surprise me that the story was being adapted into a film considering just how many Stephen King stories are brought to the big screen and streaming every year. It was the fact that Mike Flanagan signed on to write and direct that got me excited about this project. For those who may not know, Mike Flanagan has been making a name for himself in the horror genre. The Haunting on Hill House, Midnight Mass, Hush, Doctor Sleep, The Fall of the House of Usher and Gerald’s Game are all hits in his filmography

"You're going to regret that."

Did you know that those windup monkeys that clash the cymbals are called jolly monkeys? I did not .. .that was until I came across a low-budget slasher film called The Jolly Monkey. It's the feature film debut of writer/director Ryan Ebert. The film was obviously put together fast to capitalize on Stephen King and Osgood Perkins' The Monkey, which hit theatres early this year. It doesn't really share anything other than having a monkey in the title. Put together fast, it was. They shot this film in six days with a budget somewhere just under a hundred grand. I found the film also takes a little bit from last year's Imaginary by Jeff Ladlow. You really have many of the same story beats but with much less money than either of the other two films. That's going to be a problem. Let me tell you about it.

"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests. The son of man hath nowhere to lay his head." I couldn't remember if it was from Luke or John, but it looked like I'd just joined a very exclusive club. It was Matthew, and reading the rest of the chapter before I fell asleep helped me get over the feeling I had when I watched almost everything I own go up in smoke. I tried to drown the rest of my thoughts in beer; that never really works. And the alcohol in my blood didn't make an August night in Boston any cooler. Actually I was being urban-renewed out of my office. I had to move uptown. Of course, uptown for me is still downtown for most people. My new place was at 357 Mass Avenue over a cheap cigar store and a florist specializing in day-old flowers at an office that used to belong to Madam Martino, a psychic."

If that psychic had still been in business, I wonder if she could have predicted the life of television icon Robert Urich.