As thirteen year old girls who obsessed over Right On! and Bop Magazines, for this sleepover we decided to get grown and purchase a Cosmopolitan Magazine from the local grocery store. We took the sex quizzes and broke out the Caboodles makeup kit and started putting on foundation and mascara. We had to look good before we watched The Exorcist you know. When I inserted the VHS cassette into the VCR (yes do you remember VCRs?) I pressed play and was ready to scream and be frightened to death!
For the most part, the film didn’t scare me. The only scene that creeped me out the most was when Father Merrin says, “The power of Christ compels you!” and Linda Blair began to levitate in the air with her white eyes and that creepy expression on her face. The scene with the revolving head kind of freaked me out too, but not as much as the levitation scene.
Do you remember light as a feather stiff as a board?
After the end of the film my girlfriends and I totally wanted to reenact that legendary scene. Of course I was the chubby girl of the group and they insisted I be the one who play the girl who ascends into thin air.
Great idea ladies.
As it turned out, there was no floating happening with this thirteen year old anytime soon. We decided to switch girls, which ironically the skinniest girl of the group decided to be the bait. We chanted over and over again:
light as a feather stiff as a board
light as a feather stiff as a board
light as a feather stiff as a board
Just as Father Merrin and Father Karras chanted incessantly, the power of Christ compels you, so did the girls and I chant light as a feather stiff as a board to see if we have just as much authority to drift upward and float as Linda Blair’s character Regan did in The Exorcist. We felt a slight shift upward and then something moved!
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| Remember this infamous scene from The Craft? |
It was my friend Lori’s cat!
We all screamed which as you can imagine a group of 13 year old girls screaming is the equivalent to the sound of a dying macaw. We laughed and cried from our fright, but in the end it was all in good fun!
I know this sounds very bizarre, but this horror film that may appear to be grotesque, disturbing, and terrifying, was actually one of the best memories of my "teenhood". I will forever associate the movie with my sleepover experience and sometimes it doesn't matter how frightening a film can be, if you have a great experience and you were entertained, then that is the beauty of what celluloid does for all of us. Horror movies tend to resonate with me more than other genres, because it triggers so many emotions for me all at once.
I love watching movies. Especially the scary ones.
