#david friedkin

[rcbertleckie]

masters of the air · part three

[sleepy-hyperfixations]

Curt: If you took a shot every time you thought Bucky was attractive, how drunk would you be?

Brady: Sober.

Hambone: Maybe a bit tipsy?

Friedkin: Drunk.

Blakely: Wasted.

Buck: Dead.

[cacaitos]

CRUISING (1980), dir. david friedkin.

[mysoftboybensolo]

New behind the scenes picture of Freddy Carter from his Instagram story

[swanimagines]

In case anyone is wondering

Yes, I will write x reader stuff for David Friedkin and you're welcome to request something. He has been dramatized and part of his story has been fictionalized in Masters of the Air + the real David is dead, so that qualifies me to be willing to write for him.

Also since it's Freddy's birthday, chapter 8 of BatBP will be publishing within the next few hours!

[austinbutlermischief]

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[brokehorrorfan]

Mondo will release The Exorcist by Zero and The Changeling by David Seidman tomorrow, February 29, at 1pm EST. They're expected to ship in May.

The Exorcist is a 24x36 screen print with a hidden spot gloss layer, limited to 185, for $80. The Changeling is a 24x36 screen print, limited to 140, for $80.

Read on for statements from both artists.

Zero on The Exorcist:

In creating the poster for The Exorcist, my main inspiration came from the wings of the demon Pazuzu. I was particularly drawn to how these wings, along with other details of the demon, subtly weave through the movie, evident in hidden details even before the plot starts, such as Reagan's crafts with winged animals (sculptures and drawings). I aimed to do something similar in my own piece by incorporating these hidden details or Easter eggs in the poster, along with other interesting elements found in the film.

Seidman on The Changeling:

As an artist whose work is heavily influenced by haunted imagery, The Changeling is a movie that delivers so much through it’s storytelling, atmosphere and visuals. The abandoned antique wheelchair and possessed red ball have become so influential in the horror genre and icons on their own. Using these objects prominently helped me set the scene to perfectly capture the tone and atmosphere of one of my favorite haunted house movies.

[sigurism]

The Exorcist | William Friedkin The Exorcist III | William Peter Blatty The Exorcist: Believer | David Gordon Green

[diueliz]

I love having my little list of directors who are my enemies

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

UNBELIEVABLE

Opening in theaters this weekend:

The Exorcist: Believer--Two 13-year-old girls go missing one day after school. Their panicked parents, single Dad Victor (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and evangelical couple Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz) frantically search their Georgia suburb, but three days later the girls turn up alive.

These early scenes of this sixth Exorcist follow-up are tense and gripping, convincingly dramatizing a dread familiar to parents, but also deploying a few well-executed cheap scares. Soon after the girls reappear, they start showing unmistakable signs of demonic possesion. The nonbelieving Victor is skeptical at first, but before long he has enlisted the aid of Chris McNeil (the radiant Ellen Burstyn), who went through a similar experience with her daughter Regan up in Georgetown half a century earlier.

Act Two of Believer is mostly devoted to a rather ecumenical exorcism, with Catholics, Evangelicals and what appear to be Voodoo practicioners all participating, among others. This section falls flat. We get all the obligatory stuff--levitation, projectile tummy trouble--but none of the elliptical yet grueling intensity that the late William Friedkin brought to the 1973 film. Put simply, the second half of the movie just isn't very scary.

Part of what made the first film so potent was its harsh, judgy small-c conservative Catholicism. It seemed to suggest that Chris McNeil's wordly career and single life left the door open for the devil to take her daughter. The new film almost gets this right; it implies that Victor's daughter's yearning to communicate with her dead mom gives the demon a foothold, as Regan playing with a Ouija board invited in "Captain Howdy" back in the original.

But the kum-ba-yah sensibility of Believer's interfaith exorcism weakens this blood-and-thunder atmosphere. Don't misunderstand; I agree, on the whole, with the sentiments expressed in this movie's mild little homilies about faith and community and hope. But I don't think they're the most effective way to scare an audience. Decades ago I had a girlfiend, a lapsed Catholic, who found the original Exorcist so terrifying that she could barely stand to have it mentioned (I used to tease her by imitating the demon's voice).

The new film lacks the ruthlessness that could create that sort of reaction. Nor did I really find it plausible that these staunch traditionalist faiths could practice this archaic rite in harmony. As soon as anything went wrong, wouldn't they start blaming each other?

The director, David Gordon Green, works from a script that he wrote with several hands including Danny McBride. They were the team behind 2021's Halloween Kills, another honorable but unsuccesful revival of a classic horror franchise. The cast here is capable, with one standout--that splendid, always reliable warhorse Ann Dowd as a nurse with a relevant past who befriends Victor.

This much more, if little else, can be said for Believer: although the insolently absurd yet imaginative spectacle of John Boorman's 1977 Exorcist 2: The Heretic has its fascinations, Believer can probably still claim to be the best of the Exorcist sequels. But that's a low bar.

[martynrandles]

David Moyes returns to Everton as Manager!

[hotelelectrico]

Sometimes at the end of a year, I'll post stills from ten of my favorite movies that I saw for the first time that year. This year, those movies have something else in common: none of them are currently available to stream or rent online in the US. I rented almost all of these on disc from Scarecrow Video, the world's largest publicly-available video archive. They're in the midst of an important fundraising campaign - please consider renting from them, becoming a member, or donating what you can!

The Heiress (1949, USA, director William Wyler): A suitor (Montgomery Clift!) encourages a rich young woman (Olivia de Havilland!) to assert her independence from her father, but can she trust his motives? Classical Hollywood rarely got more psychologically insightful than in this tense but gorgeous melodrama. On Blu-ray from Criterion.

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952, USA, dir. Henry King): A young husband is happy to put down small-town roots while his wife dreams of the city. David Lynch says that this was the first movie he ever saw, and you can feel its influence on his work. Wholesome Americana as a force of perpetual destruction to those who dream of anything else. On DVD-R from Fox Archive.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969, USA, dir. Sydney Pollack): Hm, I'm realizing there may be some recurring themes in these, maybe a little bit of cynicism about "capitalism" and "America" and so on. Desperate Depression-era contestants join a nightmarish dance contest for the prospect of guaranteed meals and a cash prize. One of the key films of the New Hollywood movement and a highlight of Jane Fonda's career! On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

Wicked, Wicked (1973, USA, dir. Richard L. Bare): Okay time for something fun! A cheesy, gimmicky, thoroughly enjoyable psycho-horror shown almost entirely in split-screen "DuoVision". The film makes genuinely interesting and varied use of its core gimmick , but even without it the lurid twists would be a blast to watch. There's even an atrocious but catchy theme song! On DVD-R from Warner Archive.

Man of Marble (1977, Poland, dir. Andrzej Wajda): A driven young documentary filmmaker seeks out the true story of a bricklayer who had been lauded as a proletarian hero decades before. For another change of pace, we have some cynicism about communism instead of capitalism! Agnieszka the filmmaker is one of my favorite characters of the year, because she possesses every admirable trait: a rock-steady moral vision, a fearless investigatory instinct, and a world-class ability to lounge around and sit in odd positions. On DVD from Vanguard. (I saw this through my university library, but Scarecrow has it too!)

The Driver (1978, USA, dir. Walter Hill): A cool-guy-does-cool-car-crimes movie so stripped-down that none of the characters have names or even change outfits. Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani are as pretty and blank as you could possibly hope for. The car chases rock. It turns out you can strip this whole genre down to just the chassis and it's still immensely satisfying. On Blu-ray from Imprint.

Urgh! A Music War (1982, UK, dir. Derek Burbidge): Punk and new-wave concert footage from some of the greatest acts of the era! And plenty of other people too! Inherently inconsistent, starts and ends rough but there's a stretch in the middle that's nonstop fire. If you don't know and love Klaus Nomi, you need him in your life. If you haven't watched The Cramps' performance from this, you have no idea how low a pair of leather pants can ride or how salaciously a man can treat a microphone, and you need that in your life too. Plus Devo, XTC, OMD, The Go-Gos, Gary Numan (in an adorable little Star Wars car!) - all aces. On DVD-R from Warner Archive.

To Live and Die in LA (1985, USA, dir. William Friedkin): A vital companion piece to Friedkin's landmark The French Connection, with 80s LA sheen replacing 70s NY grit but the dark heart of copdom left completely unchanged. Willem Dafoe is unforgettable as the artist/counterfeiter antagonist. (Fun fact: the counterfeit money used in the film made its way into actual circulation, which earned Friedkin a visit from the Secret Service. He told them to come back with a warrant and they never did. And that's how the greats do it!) On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, but 4K UHD is also available!

Twilight (1990, Hungary, dir. György Fehér): You know how people who don't watch a lot of international art films think they're all slow, grim, ambiguous black-and-white slogs through Eastern European despair? Well, that's what this is and it rules. It's shot like nothing I've seen before, full of subtle, misty grays, and the plot is about some detectives failing to catch a child murderer. You know if that sounds like your jam or not, and if it does, you're in for a great bad time. On Blu-ray from Arbelos.

I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK (2006, South Korea, dir. Park Chan-wook): "Taking mental illness seriously" doesn't have to mean being dour or even realist. Park Chan-wook is of course one of the best filmmakers in the world, but he's especially good at nailing tricky, ambiguous tones. I'm thinking of the triumphantly salacious end of The Handmaiden, the tragicomic ending of Thirst, the cathartic but sorrowful but etc etc climax of Lady Vengeance - anyway, this movie lives in that realm all the way through. On Blu-ray from Tartan (I think).

[mysoftboybensolo]

Freddy Carter as David Friedkin in "Masters of the Air" (x)

[swanimagines]

I am so happy you are posting your other Freddy fics/headcanons, I love them so much. May I ask for a separate kissing headcanon posts for Gideon from The Doll Factory and David Fredkin from Masters of the Air? Thanks!

Hey, please send two separate request asks for this! I do my requests straight to asks to credit the original requester and I can't do this if I don't have an ask for each request. Those posts I made yesterday were actually old fics from a year ago and I no longer have their asks, so I wasn't able to do it like I usually do.

"Hi, may I ask for kissing headcanons for Gideon from The Doll Factory?"

"Hi, may I ask for kissing headcanons for David Friedkin from Masters of the Air?"

And thank you! 💕

// Got them, thank you! And no worries, I know it was probably confusing because I had just spammed fics without the original request, it's understandable you didn't know 😊

[austinbutlermischief]