Eli Roth's History of Horror (2018) s01e04 Episode Script
The Demons Inside
Is there someone inside you?
I love, love,
love possession films.
Sink.
[weird laughter]
Possession stories
touch on our fear
of losing control
control of our bodies,
of our lives, of our mind.
One day, we could be
our normal selves,
and the next day
be a raging lunatic
spouting arcane languages
or obscenities.
The sow is mine.
both: The power of
Christ compels you!
"The Exorcist" is held up
as being the holy grail,
rightfully so,
of possession movies.
I'm the devil.
The world was afraid
of this movie,
and they were afraid of me.
"The Omen" is like
my hands-down
favorite horror movie.
Look at me, Damien.
There's just something
inherently creepy about kids.
Your loved one is not
who you assumed they were,
and we saw that
to wonderful effect
in both
of the "Evil Dead" films.
You're bitten by your
girlfriend who's possessed.
Your hand's
gonna get possessed,
so your hand's
gonna attack you.
[screams]
Looks like something bit you.
"Paranormal Activity"
was a game-changer for me.
It was a new way in.
Get out.
"Get Out"
is a possession film.
- It is a possession film.
- [laughs]
A force that's evil.
They have nothing
but bad intentions for you.
[shrieks]
Oh, my God!
What am I seeing happen?
[dark music]
♪♪
[gibbering]
[motor revs]
The fear that demons
will enter our bodies
and make us do terrible things
has haunted mankind
for millennia.
[shrieking]
In recent times,
it has inspired some of
the most frightening films
ever made
Fever dreams like
"Night of the Demons"
and "Hellraiser"
We'll tear your soul apart.
Fictionalized
case histories,
such as "The Exorcism
of Emily Rose"
and "The Last Exorcism."
The nightmare of being taken
over by a sinister force
can be seen as a metaphor
for mental illness,
but what if these films
reflect a deeper truth
a truth about the nature
of good and evil?
In the name of Jesus Christ,
the saints, and all the angels,
I command you
to reveal yourself!
[wailing]
Demons are real.
We're so used
to seeing the world
in just very few dimensions
time and space,
depth and appearance.
There is so much more at work
in our universe
than that which
just meets the naked eye.
Though our fears
are ancient,
films about demonic
possession
are a relatively
recent phenomenon.
Hollywood's self-censoring
Motion Picture Production Code
set strict rules on content
from the early 1930s
to the late 1960s.
There is no room
on the screen
at any time for pictures which
offend against common decency.
Outside of the Swedish film
"Haxan" from 1922,
full-on demonic possessions
do not appear on screen
until 1973
the year of "The Exorcist."
Obviously, "The Exorcist"
is held up
as being the holy grail,
rightfully so,
of possession movies.
[dark chords]
"The Exorcist"
is about a priest
that had his own demons
he had been following
years prior.
♪♪
Years later, he finds himself
in the same position
with this same demon,
but this time,
it's inside of a young girl.
The whole thing was to
draw in Father Merrin
to get him to do war
battle one more time.
Captain Howdy?
Linda Blair's character,
Regan,
becomes another person because
this demon is inside of her.
- I'm Damien Karras.
- And I'm the devil.
Now kindly undo
these straps.
If you're the devil, why not
make the straps disappear?
That's much too vulgar
a display of power, Karras.
Satan plays the role
of Satan.
I don't know if that's Satan
or a bunch of demons.
Doesn't matter.
- Where's Regan?
- In here with us.
The actor is really the one
selling the idea of possession.
[moaning]
So you've got to have
a great actor
to play somebody
who's possessed.
- Ahh!
- Oh! [indistinct shouting]
Keep away! The sow is mine!
Billy Friedkin, the director,
really wanted to make sure
that Regan was just any generic
all-American little girl.
Her transformation
from this very sweet,
very typical young girl
Oh, Mom,
can't we get a horse?
Into a monster I think
comments on this anxiety
that the young people
of the country were moving away
from the conservative
norms of society.
[screams]
It was 1973,
so we were recently
out of Vietnam,
and the hippie movement
was still in full swing.
There was definitely
upheaval going on,
social upheaval going on,
and generational conflict.
- [whack]
- [screams]
You have a mother who's
trying to deal with a daughter
who has suddenly become
something else,
and this is what
a lot of parents felt like.
The horror stuff
doesn't really come in
until, like, the second half,
but the first half
is all sort of upsetting images
and strange depictions
of medical procedures.
[unsettling music]
It isn't just that medical
science is inadequate;
it's that medical science
is even kind of destructive
toward the child.
Religion is really
the only answer.
You ever heard of exorcism?
[dark chords]
By the time
the horror stuff happens,
the audience is pretty
much desensitized.
They're already pummeled by
the movie that they've seen,
and it was extremely
manipulative,
and not a very nice movie
in the sense of being good
to the audience.
Every time they track down
the hallway to the door,
the audience did not
they wanted to but didn't
"Yes, no, yes, no"
to go into that door.
It's a hard movie to watch.
What happens to Linda Blair
is just it's terrible.
The scene where I'm sitting
up and down really fast.
Please, Mother, make it stop!
It's basically, like,
a metal brace,
and then I'm tied in
on each side.
Unfortunately, they didn't
tie it in really good.
It fractured my lower spine,
so that's what's on camera,
and the screaming
and yelling is real.
Make it stop!
It's killing me!
My mother had gotten
a call saying,
"Can Jamie audition
for 'The Exorcist'?"
And my mother said,
"Uh, no. I don't think so."
And then it came out,
and we screened it
for my 15th birthday.
"The Exorcist."
Your mother's in here
with us, Karras.
Would you like
to leave a message?
It freaked me so badly
that for the rest
of my high school life,
my friends made fun of me,
and they would taunt me.
"Dami. Dami. Dami, why you
do this to me, Dami?"
Dami.
Why you do this to me?
"Dami, why you do this
to me, Dami?"
You're not my mother!
That movie scared me so much
that I'm Jewish,
and it made me
believe in the devil.
I would sleep with a rosary
next to my bed every night.
[Karras, indistinct]
I have full-blown
"Exorcist" PTSD, so
What an excellent day
for an exorcism.
The whole thing about
"The Exorcist" was, like,
it may be too intense
for human beings.
That it wasn't just
a horror film in '73
when it came out; it was
You were
experiencing the devil.
Yeah, and that people, like,
committed suicide
after they saw "The Exorcist,"
or people were put in
insane asylums
after they saw "The Exorcist,"
and every new issue of
the "National Enquirer" had,
you know, "My son went crazy
and is in a straitjacket.
How watching
'The Exorcist' ruined my life."
I dream of reviews
like that.
People went back
to the church in droves
after that film came out.
The world was afraid
of this movie
and they were afraid of me,
and they wanted to have answers
about good and evil
and was the devil
really coming?
[moaning]
[wailing]
There's no place
to hide your religion,
your relationship to God.
No, none of that.
There's no safe haven anywhere.
Even the afterlife isn't safe.
I mean, you're gonna get there
and be in hell
like poor Father Damien.
I mean, it's this idea that
there's literally no escape,
not even if you're dead.
That is, you know,
to me the idea of pure horror.
[moaning]
No!
[Regan screams]
I think it's the greatest
horror film ever made,
and that's the horror film
that I think that will never
be duplicated, all right?
I don't see
I agree. I don't think
it'll ever be beat.
[grunts]
"The Exorcist" drew on
all the resources
of Hollywood in the 1970s,
one of the peak periods
of American film.
[loud thud]
Decades later,
a first-time director
shooting in his house
proved you don't need a big
budget or special effects
to bring a demonic possession
to terrifying life.
I can feel it watching me.
In 2007, software engineer
Oren Peli
decided to make
a low-budget movie
about a demonic possession.
The result was
"Paranormal Activity,"
the most profitable film
of all time,
and one of the most
unnerving movies ever made.
Oren made the movie
for $15,000.
He shot it at his house.
He had a crew
of about three people.
And the crew consisted of
my girlfriend at the time,
and then my best friend,
Amir, I told him,
"I'm gonna shoot a movie.
Do you want to help me?"
And he said,
"Sure. It sounds fun,
but I don't know anything
about making movies."
I said, "Perfect.
Neither do I."
All right,
we're operational, babe.
Ooh.
Shot entirely in
the found footage style,
the story follows
Micah and Katie,
a young suburban couple
who move into a new house
that seems to be haunted.
In fact, Katie is being
tormented by a demon
that feeds
off of negative energy.
[loud thud]
both: [screaming]
[muttering] out there.
- [thud]
- Aah!
There is a difference
between a ghost and a demon.
Ghosts are simply the spirits
of people who died.
They don't want to move on,
and they kind of linger around
in their own dimension.
But demons
are inherently evil,
want to possess people
Feel it?
[panting]
I feel it breathing on me.
But a demon is attached
to a person.
Leaving the house
doesn't really solve anything.
They're still gonna follow you
wherever you're gonna go.
It's not the house.
It's me.
You know,
wherever I go, it goes.
Micah sets up cameras
to record
the supernatural events,
which makes things worse.
It felt very much like
what would happen to anyone
if they were
going through that.
What is your quest?
The sounds,
wanting to record it,
playing with the Ouija board.
Got something to say?
- That moment
- When he was talking to
- a Ouija board.
- Yeah.
- You're like
- Oh, I was like,
"Run, mother[bleep]. Run!"
As the couple grows
more desperate,
the demon trying
to possess Katie
grows stronger and stronger.
Just let's go.
Please, let's go.
"Paranormal Activity"
was a game-changer for me,
because it just showed,
with a minimalist approach,
you can scare the [bleep] out
of people with mostly pacing
- Mm-hmm.
- And the way
you tell the story.
I mean, like,
what happens in that movie?
A couple sheets come off,
you know, the bed,
the girl gets pulled
through the door,
and yet, when they come up on,
like, day 28 or whatnot,
and you know some [bleep]
about to go down,
I remember the entire audience
- going, "Ohhh."
- [chuckles]
Aaaaaahhhhh!
Oh
There's something about
the vulnerability
that you have
while you're asleep,
and which I think is
something very kind of
engrained in human nature
from the days we were cavemen,
and you don't know if a tiger
is gonna come into your cave
and kill you
while you're asleep.
And the fact that that movie
shattered that space and said,
"Well, when you go
home tonight,
"you're gonna be thinking
about what this couple
endured in that bedroom,"
it's incredibly effective.
"Paranormal Activity's"
goal was simple:
to scare the audience.
- [loud thud]
- [screaming]
Jen?
The horror/comedy
"Jennifer's Body"
had a serious
and uniquely feminist agenda,
using demonic possession
to comment on the hell
of being a teenage girl
in a culture
obsessed with appearance.
Hi, Jennifer.
You look really pretty.
What up, Craig?
Jennifer is a alpha
female bitch
who is beautiful and popular,
and Needy is her
worshipful nerdy friend.
Jennifer is actually
a really intelligent,
clever, interesting person,
but nobody cares about that.
Jennifer is cursed
before she is cursed,
because all people can do
is look at her,
as opposed to engage
with her.
It's an incredibly dehumanized
place to be living in.
She does have
this incredible power
that comes with her beauty.
She uses it.
These are like
smart bombs, okay?
You point them
in the right direction,
and [bleep] gets real.
But it's not nearly
as satisfying to her
as when she actually gets
these supernatural powers.
Jennifer is the victim of
a demonic ritual gone wrong.
This rock band, in an attempt
to become famous
Do you know how hard it is
to make it
as an indie band these days?
Attempt to murder her because
they think she is a virgin
and that they are
sacrificing a virgin.
[screaming]
[guys singing]
But she is not a virgin,
and as a result,
the spell goes haywire,
and Jennifer is possessed
by a demon
and starts eating boys
to satisfy the demon,
and Needy has to stop her.
I am rooting for Jennifer
when I watch the movie.
This idea of just being,
like, hot and invincible
I feel so scrumptious.
Was about how teenage girls
are objectified,
it was about
female sexual appetites.
It was about the idea
of puberty
being a transformative thing
and using a sort of
a monstrous transformation
as a way of talking about that.
[shrieking]
Are you scared?
The notion of the female
as monstrous
in itself has been
a central tenet of horror,
and that's what remains
profoundly meaningful
to me about horror
is it's one of the few genres
that's had the guts to say,
as a culture, we are terrified
of women and girls.
Hi.
But it was so freeing
for me
to be able to explore
those themes in a completely
just heightened gory
bananas atmosphere.
You know, they have this fight
at the end of the movie,
and Needy stabs
Jennifer in the heart,
and it's like my way
of saying, like,
"You're all staring
at this girl's breasts"
- My tit.
- No. Your heart.
But what this is really
about is her feelings.
You don't get to do
over-the-top stuff like that
in a more understated genre.
You can only do that
in a horror movie.
You know what?
You were never a good friend.
"Jennifer's Body"
got a mixed reception
on its release,
but the director's cut
is now a cult favorite.
You got a tampon?
Stylistically,
it owes a debt
to one of the most influential
cult movies of all time:
"The Evil Dead."
When it comes to demonic
possession movies,
few can match the manic energy
and no-holds-barred horror
of Sam Raimi's film,
"The Evil Dead."
Hey, Scotty, what's this
place like, anyway?
Well, the guy
that's renting it says
it's an old place
a little run down,
but it's right up
in the mountains.
"The Evil Dead"
is about a group
of fairly dumb college kids
who go out to a remote cabin
in the woods
to have a fun little break.
They see the cabin.
They should be running
in the opposite direction
to the nearest Motel 6,
but instead, they go in.
They promptly find
a reel-to-reel recorder
in the basement,
which of course they play.
[voice chanting]
It contains
demonic incantations
that wake up the dead.
Shut it off!
- [screams]
- Oh, my God!
Dead rise and proceed
to possess these kids
one by one, and carnage
and mayhem ensues.
[roars]
Oh!
It seems like
the simplest setup,
but man,
oh, man, it was relentless.
And you're just,
like, blown away.
Why have you disturbed
our sleep,
awakened us from our
ancient slumber?
You will die!
What is fascinating
about the possession genre
of horror films
is your loved one
is not who
you assumed they were.
[screeching]
[cackling]
That's the most
terrifying thing,
and we saw that
to wonderful effect
in both of
the "Evil Dead" films.
And it was this grainy,
16-millimeter movie
that you could tell was,
like, made by amateurs
with that kind of, like,
single-spotlight lighting
and everything else.
[screaming]
But at the same time
was really scary,
and I mean, Sam was trying
to make a scary movie.
[dark chords]
The first person had to get
injured by one of these demons,
so we did it the first
character's kneeling down,
and the demon gets a pencil
and stabs it in the ankle.
That one got a big reaction
out of the audience,
'cause I don't think they knew
how visceral the movie
was gonna be until it started.
I fear that the only way
to stop those possessed
by the spirits of the book
is through the act
of bodily dismemberment.
So whenever you hear that
you can only stop something
through bodily dismemberment,
you know you're gonna be in
for a good show of gore
and horror, right?
[screeches]
Ohh! Ohh!
There is always the standard
aspect of the scream queen
- [screams]
- [screams]
[screams]
Sam wanted to up it.
He thought it was one thing
to have a woman scream,
but what if you made
a man scream like a girl?
[screaming]
Like, "I want it to be
that horrifying."
[screams]
There was also something
else about "Evil Dead"
that made it
particularly cool was,
well, you had to get it.
Not everyone could get it.
It was cheap,
so you had to be able to
not just look beyond that;
you had to embrace it.
[screaming]
It is scary,
but there is a really weird
sense of humor that,
if you're not in line with it,
you're gonna think, "Oh,
that's just a piece of junk."
[dramatic music]
In 1981, "The Evil Dead"
launched the career
of its gifted director,
21-year-old Sam Raimi.
Six years later, Raimi
returned with "Evil Dead 2,"
a wildly creative remake
of the first film.
With "Evil Dead 2"
in particular,
I think Sam Raimi just said,
"You know what?
Let's just go for it."
[grunting]
Let's just embrace the fun.
You're bitten by your
girlfriend,
who's possessed, your hand's
gonna get possessed,
so your hand's gonna
attack you.
[screaming]
It was just a long,
grueling sequence.
[screaming]
It's like,
get the Three Stooges,
but give them a chainsaw
[heroic music]
And see what would happen.
Groovy.
If you're a movie-mad
young guy in your early 20s
and you see "Evil Dead 2,"
and you see
that shooting style,
it's like,
"Well, what's the point
of ever shooting
any movie not like that?"
- I know.
- All right? That seemed like,
"Okay, a new shooting style
has been developed,
and everything else looks
old-fashioned by comparison."
[screaming]
Every single thing
just seems
old-fashioned and dated
unless you're doing that.
"The Evil Dead"
pitted a regular guy
against a horde of demons,
but what chance do you have
when you're up
against Satan himself?
[dark music]
Christianity teaches
that Jesus Christ
was the son of God,
born of mortal woman.
What if Satan decided
that he too
would father a child?
In 1968, Roman Polanski's
film "Rosemary's Baby"
explored the links between
pregnancy, parenthood,
and demonic possession.
[whispers] You're pregnant.
"Rosemary's Baby"
is a really interesting film,
because, artistically,
it's one of the best films
to come out in that era
and probably ever.
- I'm Rosemary Woodhouse.
- Uh, we're in 7E.
That movie made $30 million
back when movies
didn't make $30 million,
not in their first run.
I mean, if a movie
made $12 million, "Oh, wow."
- That's a huge hit.
- That's a smash.
- It's a phenomenon.
- It was a phenomenon.
And the devil
had never been dealt with
in that realistic
a form before.
It's a hugely
important film,
because it's portraying
a woman
at the height
of second-wave feminism.
It also coincides
with a rise in interest
in all kinds of alternative
religions and occultism
that was happening
in the '60s.
It was a period
where there was, you know,
questioning, you know, God,
the existence of God.
I think it was even on
"Time" magazine,
you know, "Is God Dead?"
No, you're not religious,
my dear, are you?
I was brought up a Catholic.
Now I don't know.
In "Rosemary's Baby,"
the heroine
is drugged by Satanists.
Then the devil literally
enters her through rape.
- She's awake. She sees.
- Can't see or hear.
She's like dead. Now sing.
[whispering voices]
Rosemary becomes pregnant
with Satan's child.
This is no dream.
This is really happening!
"Rosemary's Baby"
was a possession movie.
It was about someone carrying
the seed of Satan within her
and giving birth
to Satan's child.
This is actually
how Satan or his minions
can infest each of us
and draw out
the evil within us.
It, to me,
remains a metaphor
about domestic violence,
about emotional violence
in relationships
between men and women,
largely inflicted
by men onto women.
I didn't want to
miss baby night.
You while I was out?
And a couple of my nails
were ragged,
and it was kind of fun
in a necrophile sort of way.
[ominous chords]
When I saw "Rosemary's Baby"
when I was very young,
I don't think I thought, "Oh,
this is female consciousness,"
but obviously,
there aren't that many movies
from within a young woman's
point of view.
We know Polanski's guilty
of all these things
in his personal life,
but as a filmmaker,
he's incredibly sympathetic
to the female point of view.
And the relationship
between Rosemary
and her husband is fantastic.
John Cassavetes'
amazing performance
as the desperate actor
who will do anything
to get that big break.
Let's have a baby,
all right?
Rosemary's very much
the lovely,
submissive wife who is there
to help her husband out,
and what that gets her
is getting impregnated
by the devil.
Her husband basically
sells her to Satan
in exchange for a Broadway hit.
Oh, I got the part.
It was a hell of
a way to get it.
[ominous chords]
One of the things
I really love about horror
and the nightmares
that it touches on
are the idea of security
and a stable, normal place
that turns out
to be a place of danger,
or a person who seems
to be a friendly person.
And, of course,
one of the greatest things
in "Rosemary's Baby"
is the neighbors.
[door bell buzzes]
The central figure
in this patriarchal crush
is Ruth Gordon.
Hi there! We're not
bothering you, are we?
I heard you come in.
It certainly wasn't very long.
- Ta-da!
- Who comes in with her
multicolored scarves
and her accent
and delivers
a series of death blows
to everything that
poor Rosemary stands for.
- Here.
- What is in it? Tannis root?
A little bit of that,
a little bit some other things.
They're the kind of neighbors
you kind of all right
You sort of want to
avoid them
- Yeah.
- But you're nice to them.
- They're nosy
- They're harmless.
They're harmless,
and that they are, you know,
essentially agents of the
- of the devil.
- The devil.
We're your friends,
Rosemary.
There's nothing to be
afraid of, Rosemary.
Honest and truly there isn't.
Another thing that I think
young women
really can relate to
in "Rosemary's Baby,"
- no one believes her.
- One thing is for sure.
They have a coven,
and they want my baby.
Certainly seems that way.
To me, there's no scarier
moment in the movie
than when you realize
her doctor is
has turned on her.
That feeling of the person
that you've put
your ultimate trust in,
like your obstetrician,
this guy who's,
like, tending to your body
and your femininity,
and he is handing you over
to the satanists.
We're gonna go home
and rest.
That's all it takes.
Nothing supernatural
happens, actually,
for the entire course
of the movie.
You know,
she could just be paranoid.
She could be suffering from
some weird pregnancy delusions.
[unsettling music]
♪♪
What have you done to it?
What have you done
to its eyes?
He has his
father's eyes.
It's not until
she actually says,
"What have you done
to his eyes?"
that there is finally
a physical manifestation
of what
she's been talking about.
- God is dead!
- Hail Satan!
Satan lives!
I made the mistake
of showing it to my wife
after I got her impregnated.
Oh, God!
She's like,
"I've never seen it."
"What? You've never seen
'Rosemary's Baby'?
We're watching
'Rosemary's Baby. ""
I didn't think about how weird
that might be for someone
who was pregnant,
and it really played
on her fears
that we were gonna have
the antichrist as a child.
Uh, it was a bad call.
"Rosemary's Baby"
is a movie
about the dark side
of pregnancy.
Richard Donner's film
"The Omen"
takes things one step further
with a violent vision
of parents
at the mercy
of the ultimate problem child:
the spawn of Satan.
When the Jews return to Zion
"and a comet fills the sky,
"the Holy Roman Empire rises,
and you and I must die."
Released in 1976,
Richard Donner's film
"The Omen" revolves around
every parent's secret fear:
that their sweet young child
is a demon in disguise.
"The Omen" is the story
of an American diplomat,
played by Gregory Peck,
who takes a child home
from the hospital
that is not his own
and sets up shop
and seems to have this
beautiful life in England,
and then the whole thing
starts to unravel,
and we discover that the child
is actually
the son of the devil.
"The Omen" is like my
hands-down
favorite horror movie.
It's intellectually
a little bit above par
than the average thing
you would watch
at the video store, right?
Right.
It was a big-budget movie.
Richard Donner.
It was a huge deal.
Yeah, and Gregory Peck
is great in it.
Lee Remick's great in it.
So I just thought it hit
on all you know,
the quality was really high
on all the different facets.
Gregory Peck
in a horror movie.
That was kind of a big deal,
having an actor
of his stature.
It was a '50s-era,
established
older Hollywood legend
that was now appearing
in this horror film,
and he gave it,
along with Lee Remick,
gave it this patina of class.
Peck was going through
a terrible time in his life.
His son was found dead.
He was so devastated,
and his agent said,
"I got to get him out.
"I got to get him up
on his feet.
I got to get him working."
We pitched him,
"Greg, it's a strong mystery,
the suspense is incredible,
and on top of it,
it's a thriller."
Damien, the adopted boy
in "The Omen,"
does not seem to be aware
that the devil is inside him,
but as he grows older,
Satan's agents
begin infiltrating his life.
They send a sinister
Rottweiler to protect him,
and, in an infamous scene,
they possess his nanny
at his fifth birthday party.
- Look at me, Damien.
- "Damien, this is for you."
- It's all for you.
- Like
she kills herself
at the kid's party.
[screams]
In "The Omen,"
we don't really know
that Damien is the antichrist.
Neither does Gregory Peck.
It's not until somewhere
towards the beginning
of the second half
that you really come to terms
with the fact
that they're harboring
the antichrist.
[dark, heavy music]
♪♪
So the movie has
a story to tell,
and then it's gonna be,
"What do they do about it?"
They cast it well. They cast
the son of the devil well.
- Mom!
- Damien stop!
When you can get, like,
a good performance
out of children
in a horror movie,
there's, like,
nothing more effective.
[sinister chanting]
There's just something
inherently creepy about kids.
Even my own children,
if they wake me up
in the middle of the night,
and they're just standing
motionless next to the bed,
I'm briefly scared,
and I made them.
Casting that child,
we did one scene where I said,
"I'm gonna grab you,
and you want to get away."
Grabbed this kid,
went rolling,
and he kicked me
in my privates
Oh!
So hard that I just
threw my hands up
and said, "Cut! Hire him."
Aaahh!
After Damien nearly kills
his mother,
Peck's character searches
for the boy's true parents.
His quest triggers
an avalanche
of violence and death.
Aaah!
The spectacular staging
of these scenes
is one of the reasons
"The Omen" is considered
a horror classic.
[dog growling]
I wasn't prepared for
how scary it was gonna get.
Forget about the gore
and everything.
That didn't see
that coming at all.
- You know, just the
- The dog, the music.
The Rottweilers
surrounding them
in the graveyard was, like,
"Oh, my God,
what's gonna happen?"
[dogs snarling, barking]
But then, the decapitations.
I mean, that just
that was very scary.
I never saw that coming.
At the end of the movie,
we dropped the camera,
and it revealed
the back of the kid,
which I was right
behind the camera.
Kid turned and looked at me,
and he had this severe
face on,
and I said, "Don't you smile.
Don't you dare smile."
And he started to fight
the smile,
and then he couldn't fight it
anymore, and he kind of lit up.
It was like, blow up,
the end of a movie.
Was this real?
Am I really the devil?
Did this really happen?
And it changed the whole movie.
I never had children.
They scare the hell out of me.
At their core,
possession movies are about
the fear of losing yourself,
of a demon taking control
of your body and your mind.
I can't move.
In 2017,
Jordan Peele's "Get Out"
took that idea and used it to
hold a mirror up to America.
Good to see another
brother around here.
A young black man meets
another young black man.
Ah, yes. Of course it is.
But something
is very wrong here.
Jordan Peele's "Get Out"
is by turns a social satire
and a genuinely horrific tale
of demonic possession,
but the demons here
aren't from hell.
Get out.
Sorry, man.
[woman murmurs]
Get out!
I love, love,
love possession films.
- Hello.
- Hi.
My mother used to do
this thing to me,
play this little joke on me.
Every now and then, I would go,
"Mom, Mom,
can I get this candy?"
or whatever,
and she would look at me,
and she'd go, "Mommy's not here
anymore, Jordan,"
and I'd be like, "Don't do it,"
like, "Come on. Mom."
And she'd be like,
"I'm serious. Mom isn't here."
- Who was she?
- Right. That's the question.
That's the question
I've never answered.
All I know is sometimes if
there's too many white people,
I get nervous, you know?
"Get Out"
is a possession film.
It is a possession film.
[laughing]
Instead of the devil
possessing you,
it's literally the white devil
possessing your body.
I'm into it.
Oh, no. No. No.
And there haven't been
a lot of movies
that deal with race
straight on in the genre space.
Do they know I'm black?
No.
And I wanted this movie
to be,
"You can't do this movie
with a white guy."
My dad would have voted
for Obama a third time
if he could have.
Like, the love is so real.
In a nutshell, it's a story
of a black guy
who meets
his white girlfriend's parents
and kind of gets more than what
he's expecting, in a nutshell.
I would have voted for Obama
for a third term if I could.
Best president in my lifetime,
hands down.
- I agree.
- Yeah.
There is a genuine mystery
going on
in the case of "Get Out."
The audience knows,
okay, there's something
weird about this family.
There is definitely
something weird
about those black servants.
There's something weird
about this whole damn place.
But exactly what,
you don't know.
[chatter, laughter
abruptly stop]
But now you're really
watching,
because now you're
watching a mystery.
Jordan Peele knows
exactly what he's doing,
and we're gonna just
have to wait for it.
Do you find that
being African-American
has more advantage
or disadvantage?
Being black in America,
there's certain dials
you're sort of tuned into
to not walk into
a [bleep]- up situation.
- I got hypnotized last night.
- [bleep].
Get the [bleep] out of here.
No, yo, yo, yeah, yeah,
to quit smoking,
but Rose's mom's
a psychiatrist, so
Bro, I don't care
if the bitch
is Iyanla Vanzant, okay?
She can't fix my [bleep] life.
You ain't getting in my head.
Chris always thinks he's got
the situation in hand
- Yes.
- Because they're, like,
a bunch of white people.
What are they gonna do?
We're kind of like,
we can forgive him.
Oh, he's not being dumb.
Is he really going to jump
to the conclusion
that this family is literally
evil, physically threats?
Like, that's crazy.
Now sink into the floor.
- Wait, wait, wait
- Sink.
[ominous chords]
♪♪
The minute Chris is sent
into the sunken place,
I realized that this movie
was not just going to be scary
and not just going
to be interesting
but also going to be
important.
♪♪
Because he created a metaphor
that now gives so many of us
language to explain
what a state of suppression
looks like and feels like.
Now you're in
the sunken place.
When you're
in the sunken place,
you can still see
what's happening.
You're not unaware.
It's just that you feel there's
nothing you can do about it.
Someone or something
has taken control over you,
so therefore you're powerless,
and it doesn't matter
what color,
where you come from,
you can be in the sunken place
just by not having a voice.
In a pivotal scene
in "Get Out,"
we discover
all the black people
Chris has met on the estate
have been sold at auction.
Their bodies have been
taken over by white people
who desire their youth
and physicality.
They are trapped in the sunken
place, yearning for freedom.
It's really a Trojan horse
for telling
a much more important story.
Where the country is
certainly helped propel
the success of "Get Out,"
and also made "Get Out"
a particularly important movie
for its time
in a way that, you know,
it wouldn't have been,
and, you know, I wish that
that weren't true, but it is.
I mean, at the end
of the day,
the movie is about
how racism is horrifying.
It's the most horrific thing
in our world today,
is just people just hating
other people
for whatever reasons they do.
What is your purpose,
Chris?
What?
- In life.
- Is there a better statement
on race relations in America?
I don't think so, you know?
And that's totally pushed
the bar on satire and horror
and cut very deep,
at the same way
is being entertaining.
And that's what genre movies
do at their best,
especially great horror movies.
It gives you a way
to discuss the undiscussable.
- Yes.
- It gives you a context
to talk about subjects
that are just awful
and painful for everyone
- Yeah.
- But you can put it
in the context
of a scary movie,
whether it's a zombie movie,
whether it's a "Get Out" movie,
and it's like you're suddenly
allowed to talk about it.
And everybody needs it.
♪♪
Even if it's not in the package
of a horror movie,
everybody has this dark side
that needs to be filled.
[intense music]
I mean, I told you not to
go in that house.
I love, love,
love possession films.
Sink.
[weird laughter]
Possession stories
touch on our fear
of losing control
control of our bodies,
of our lives, of our mind.
One day, we could be
our normal selves,
and the next day
be a raging lunatic
spouting arcane languages
or obscenities.
The sow is mine.
both: The power of
Christ compels you!
"The Exorcist" is held up
as being the holy grail,
rightfully so,
of possession movies.
I'm the devil.
The world was afraid
of this movie,
and they were afraid of me.
"The Omen" is like
my hands-down
favorite horror movie.
Look at me, Damien.
There's just something
inherently creepy about kids.
Your loved one is not
who you assumed they were,
and we saw that
to wonderful effect
in both
of the "Evil Dead" films.
You're bitten by your
girlfriend who's possessed.
Your hand's
gonna get possessed,
so your hand's
gonna attack you.
[screams]
Looks like something bit you.
"Paranormal Activity"
was a game-changer for me.
It was a new way in.
Get out.
"Get Out"
is a possession film.
- It is a possession film.
- [laughs]
A force that's evil.
They have nothing
but bad intentions for you.
[shrieks]
Oh, my God!
What am I seeing happen?
[dark music]
♪♪
[gibbering]
[motor revs]
The fear that demons
will enter our bodies
and make us do terrible things
has haunted mankind
for millennia.
[shrieking]
In recent times,
it has inspired some of
the most frightening films
ever made
Fever dreams like
"Night of the Demons"
and "Hellraiser"
We'll tear your soul apart.
Fictionalized
case histories,
such as "The Exorcism
of Emily Rose"
and "The Last Exorcism."
The nightmare of being taken
over by a sinister force
can be seen as a metaphor
for mental illness,
but what if these films
reflect a deeper truth
a truth about the nature
of good and evil?
In the name of Jesus Christ,
the saints, and all the angels,
I command you
to reveal yourself!
[wailing]
Demons are real.
We're so used
to seeing the world
in just very few dimensions
time and space,
depth and appearance.
There is so much more at work
in our universe
than that which
just meets the naked eye.
Though our fears
are ancient,
films about demonic
possession
are a relatively
recent phenomenon.
Hollywood's self-censoring
Motion Picture Production Code
set strict rules on content
from the early 1930s
to the late 1960s.
There is no room
on the screen
at any time for pictures which
offend against common decency.
Outside of the Swedish film
"Haxan" from 1922,
full-on demonic possessions
do not appear on screen
until 1973
the year of "The Exorcist."
Obviously, "The Exorcist"
is held up
as being the holy grail,
rightfully so,
of possession movies.
[dark chords]
"The Exorcist"
is about a priest
that had his own demons
he had been following
years prior.
♪♪
Years later, he finds himself
in the same position
with this same demon,
but this time,
it's inside of a young girl.
The whole thing was to
draw in Father Merrin
to get him to do war
battle one more time.
Captain Howdy?
Linda Blair's character,
Regan,
becomes another person because
this demon is inside of her.
- I'm Damien Karras.
- And I'm the devil.
Now kindly undo
these straps.
If you're the devil, why not
make the straps disappear?
That's much too vulgar
a display of power, Karras.
Satan plays the role
of Satan.
I don't know if that's Satan
or a bunch of demons.
Doesn't matter.
- Where's Regan?
- In here with us.
The actor is really the one
selling the idea of possession.
[moaning]
So you've got to have
a great actor
to play somebody
who's possessed.
- Ahh!
- Oh! [indistinct shouting]
Keep away! The sow is mine!
Billy Friedkin, the director,
really wanted to make sure
that Regan was just any generic
all-American little girl.
Her transformation
from this very sweet,
very typical young girl
Oh, Mom,
can't we get a horse?
Into a monster I think
comments on this anxiety
that the young people
of the country were moving away
from the conservative
norms of society.
[screams]
It was 1973,
so we were recently
out of Vietnam,
and the hippie movement
was still in full swing.
There was definitely
upheaval going on,
social upheaval going on,
and generational conflict.
- [whack]
- [screams]
You have a mother who's
trying to deal with a daughter
who has suddenly become
something else,
and this is what
a lot of parents felt like.
The horror stuff
doesn't really come in
until, like, the second half,
but the first half
is all sort of upsetting images
and strange depictions
of medical procedures.
[unsettling music]
It isn't just that medical
science is inadequate;
it's that medical science
is even kind of destructive
toward the child.
Religion is really
the only answer.
You ever heard of exorcism?
[dark chords]
By the time
the horror stuff happens,
the audience is pretty
much desensitized.
They're already pummeled by
the movie that they've seen,
and it was extremely
manipulative,
and not a very nice movie
in the sense of being good
to the audience.
Every time they track down
the hallway to the door,
the audience did not
they wanted to but didn't
"Yes, no, yes, no"
to go into that door.
It's a hard movie to watch.
What happens to Linda Blair
is just it's terrible.
The scene where I'm sitting
up and down really fast.
Please, Mother, make it stop!
It's basically, like,
a metal brace,
and then I'm tied in
on each side.
Unfortunately, they didn't
tie it in really good.
It fractured my lower spine,
so that's what's on camera,
and the screaming
and yelling is real.
Make it stop!
It's killing me!
My mother had gotten
a call saying,
"Can Jamie audition
for 'The Exorcist'?"
And my mother said,
"Uh, no. I don't think so."
And then it came out,
and we screened it
for my 15th birthday.
"The Exorcist."
Your mother's in here
with us, Karras.
Would you like
to leave a message?
It freaked me so badly
that for the rest
of my high school life,
my friends made fun of me,
and they would taunt me.
"Dami. Dami. Dami, why you
do this to me, Dami?"
Dami.
Why you do this to me?
"Dami, why you do this
to me, Dami?"
You're not my mother!
That movie scared me so much
that I'm Jewish,
and it made me
believe in the devil.
I would sleep with a rosary
next to my bed every night.
[Karras, indistinct]
I have full-blown
"Exorcist" PTSD, so
What an excellent day
for an exorcism.
The whole thing about
"The Exorcist" was, like,
it may be too intense
for human beings.
That it wasn't just
a horror film in '73
when it came out; it was
You were
experiencing the devil.
Yeah, and that people, like,
committed suicide
after they saw "The Exorcist,"
or people were put in
insane asylums
after they saw "The Exorcist,"
and every new issue of
the "National Enquirer" had,
you know, "My son went crazy
and is in a straitjacket.
How watching
'The Exorcist' ruined my life."
I dream of reviews
like that.
People went back
to the church in droves
after that film came out.
The world was afraid
of this movie
and they were afraid of me,
and they wanted to have answers
about good and evil
and was the devil
really coming?
[moaning]
[wailing]
There's no place
to hide your religion,
your relationship to God.
No, none of that.
There's no safe haven anywhere.
Even the afterlife isn't safe.
I mean, you're gonna get there
and be in hell
like poor Father Damien.
I mean, it's this idea that
there's literally no escape,
not even if you're dead.
That is, you know,
to me the idea of pure horror.
[moaning]
No!
[Regan screams]
I think it's the greatest
horror film ever made,
and that's the horror film
that I think that will never
be duplicated, all right?
I don't see
I agree. I don't think
it'll ever be beat.
[grunts]
"The Exorcist" drew on
all the resources
of Hollywood in the 1970s,
one of the peak periods
of American film.
[loud thud]
Decades later,
a first-time director
shooting in his house
proved you don't need a big
budget or special effects
to bring a demonic possession
to terrifying life.
I can feel it watching me.
In 2007, software engineer
Oren Peli
decided to make
a low-budget movie
about a demonic possession.
The result was
"Paranormal Activity,"
the most profitable film
of all time,
and one of the most
unnerving movies ever made.
Oren made the movie
for $15,000.
He shot it at his house.
He had a crew
of about three people.
And the crew consisted of
my girlfriend at the time,
and then my best friend,
Amir, I told him,
"I'm gonna shoot a movie.
Do you want to help me?"
And he said,
"Sure. It sounds fun,
but I don't know anything
about making movies."
I said, "Perfect.
Neither do I."
All right,
we're operational, babe.
Ooh.
Shot entirely in
the found footage style,
the story follows
Micah and Katie,
a young suburban couple
who move into a new house
that seems to be haunted.
In fact, Katie is being
tormented by a demon
that feeds
off of negative energy.
[loud thud]
both: [screaming]
[muttering] out there.
- [thud]
- Aah!
There is a difference
between a ghost and a demon.
Ghosts are simply the spirits
of people who died.
They don't want to move on,
and they kind of linger around
in their own dimension.
But demons
are inherently evil,
want to possess people
Feel it?
[panting]
I feel it breathing on me.
But a demon is attached
to a person.
Leaving the house
doesn't really solve anything.
They're still gonna follow you
wherever you're gonna go.
It's not the house.
It's me.
You know,
wherever I go, it goes.
Micah sets up cameras
to record
the supernatural events,
which makes things worse.
It felt very much like
what would happen to anyone
if they were
going through that.
What is your quest?
The sounds,
wanting to record it,
playing with the Ouija board.
Got something to say?
- That moment
- When he was talking to
- a Ouija board.
- Yeah.
- You're like
- Oh, I was like,
"Run, mother[bleep]. Run!"
As the couple grows
more desperate,
the demon trying
to possess Katie
grows stronger and stronger.
Just let's go.
Please, let's go.
"Paranormal Activity"
was a game-changer for me,
because it just showed,
with a minimalist approach,
you can scare the [bleep] out
of people with mostly pacing
- Mm-hmm.
- And the way
you tell the story.
I mean, like,
what happens in that movie?
A couple sheets come off,
you know, the bed,
the girl gets pulled
through the door,
and yet, when they come up on,
like, day 28 or whatnot,
and you know some [bleep]
about to go down,
I remember the entire audience
- going, "Ohhh."
- [chuckles]
Aaaaaahhhhh!
Oh
There's something about
the vulnerability
that you have
while you're asleep,
and which I think is
something very kind of
engrained in human nature
from the days we were cavemen,
and you don't know if a tiger
is gonna come into your cave
and kill you
while you're asleep.
And the fact that that movie
shattered that space and said,
"Well, when you go
home tonight,
"you're gonna be thinking
about what this couple
endured in that bedroom,"
it's incredibly effective.
"Paranormal Activity's"
goal was simple:
to scare the audience.
- [loud thud]
- [screaming]
Jen?
The horror/comedy
"Jennifer's Body"
had a serious
and uniquely feminist agenda,
using demonic possession
to comment on the hell
of being a teenage girl
in a culture
obsessed with appearance.
Hi, Jennifer.
You look really pretty.
What up, Craig?
Jennifer is a alpha
female bitch
who is beautiful and popular,
and Needy is her
worshipful nerdy friend.
Jennifer is actually
a really intelligent,
clever, interesting person,
but nobody cares about that.
Jennifer is cursed
before she is cursed,
because all people can do
is look at her,
as opposed to engage
with her.
It's an incredibly dehumanized
place to be living in.
She does have
this incredible power
that comes with her beauty.
She uses it.
These are like
smart bombs, okay?
You point them
in the right direction,
and [bleep] gets real.
But it's not nearly
as satisfying to her
as when she actually gets
these supernatural powers.
Jennifer is the victim of
a demonic ritual gone wrong.
This rock band, in an attempt
to become famous
Do you know how hard it is
to make it
as an indie band these days?
Attempt to murder her because
they think she is a virgin
and that they are
sacrificing a virgin.
[screaming]
[guys singing]
But she is not a virgin,
and as a result,
the spell goes haywire,
and Jennifer is possessed
by a demon
and starts eating boys
to satisfy the demon,
and Needy has to stop her.
I am rooting for Jennifer
when I watch the movie.
This idea of just being,
like, hot and invincible
I feel so scrumptious.
Was about how teenage girls
are objectified,
it was about
female sexual appetites.
It was about the idea
of puberty
being a transformative thing
and using a sort of
a monstrous transformation
as a way of talking about that.
[shrieking]
Are you scared?
The notion of the female
as monstrous
in itself has been
a central tenet of horror,
and that's what remains
profoundly meaningful
to me about horror
is it's one of the few genres
that's had the guts to say,
as a culture, we are terrified
of women and girls.
Hi.
But it was so freeing
for me
to be able to explore
those themes in a completely
just heightened gory
bananas atmosphere.
You know, they have this fight
at the end of the movie,
and Needy stabs
Jennifer in the heart,
and it's like my way
of saying, like,
"You're all staring
at this girl's breasts"
- My tit.
- No. Your heart.
But what this is really
about is her feelings.
You don't get to do
over-the-top stuff like that
in a more understated genre.
You can only do that
in a horror movie.
You know what?
You were never a good friend.
"Jennifer's Body"
got a mixed reception
on its release,
but the director's cut
is now a cult favorite.
You got a tampon?
Stylistically,
it owes a debt
to one of the most influential
cult movies of all time:
"The Evil Dead."
When it comes to demonic
possession movies,
few can match the manic energy
and no-holds-barred horror
of Sam Raimi's film,
"The Evil Dead."
Hey, Scotty, what's this
place like, anyway?
Well, the guy
that's renting it says
it's an old place
a little run down,
but it's right up
in the mountains.
"The Evil Dead"
is about a group
of fairly dumb college kids
who go out to a remote cabin
in the woods
to have a fun little break.
They see the cabin.
They should be running
in the opposite direction
to the nearest Motel 6,
but instead, they go in.
They promptly find
a reel-to-reel recorder
in the basement,
which of course they play.
[voice chanting]
It contains
demonic incantations
that wake up the dead.
Shut it off!
- [screams]
- Oh, my God!
Dead rise and proceed
to possess these kids
one by one, and carnage
and mayhem ensues.
[roars]
Oh!
It seems like
the simplest setup,
but man,
oh, man, it was relentless.
And you're just,
like, blown away.
Why have you disturbed
our sleep,
awakened us from our
ancient slumber?
You will die!
What is fascinating
about the possession genre
of horror films
is your loved one
is not who
you assumed they were.
[screeching]
[cackling]
That's the most
terrifying thing,
and we saw that
to wonderful effect
in both of
the "Evil Dead" films.
And it was this grainy,
16-millimeter movie
that you could tell was,
like, made by amateurs
with that kind of, like,
single-spotlight lighting
and everything else.
[screaming]
But at the same time
was really scary,
and I mean, Sam was trying
to make a scary movie.
[dark chords]
The first person had to get
injured by one of these demons,
so we did it the first
character's kneeling down,
and the demon gets a pencil
and stabs it in the ankle.
That one got a big reaction
out of the audience,
'cause I don't think they knew
how visceral the movie
was gonna be until it started.
I fear that the only way
to stop those possessed
by the spirits of the book
is through the act
of bodily dismemberment.
So whenever you hear that
you can only stop something
through bodily dismemberment,
you know you're gonna be in
for a good show of gore
and horror, right?
[screeches]
Ohh! Ohh!
There is always the standard
aspect of the scream queen
- [screams]
- [screams]
[screams]
Sam wanted to up it.
He thought it was one thing
to have a woman scream,
but what if you made
a man scream like a girl?
[screaming]
Like, "I want it to be
that horrifying."
[screams]
There was also something
else about "Evil Dead"
that made it
particularly cool was,
well, you had to get it.
Not everyone could get it.
It was cheap,
so you had to be able to
not just look beyond that;
you had to embrace it.
[screaming]
It is scary,
but there is a really weird
sense of humor that,
if you're not in line with it,
you're gonna think, "Oh,
that's just a piece of junk."
[dramatic music]
In 1981, "The Evil Dead"
launched the career
of its gifted director,
21-year-old Sam Raimi.
Six years later, Raimi
returned with "Evil Dead 2,"
a wildly creative remake
of the first film.
With "Evil Dead 2"
in particular,
I think Sam Raimi just said,
"You know what?
Let's just go for it."
[grunting]
Let's just embrace the fun.
You're bitten by your
girlfriend,
who's possessed, your hand's
gonna get possessed,
so your hand's gonna
attack you.
[screaming]
It was just a long,
grueling sequence.
[screaming]
It's like,
get the Three Stooges,
but give them a chainsaw
[heroic music]
And see what would happen.
Groovy.
If you're a movie-mad
young guy in your early 20s
and you see "Evil Dead 2,"
and you see
that shooting style,
it's like,
"Well, what's the point
of ever shooting
any movie not like that?"
- I know.
- All right? That seemed like,
"Okay, a new shooting style
has been developed,
and everything else looks
old-fashioned by comparison."
[screaming]
Every single thing
just seems
old-fashioned and dated
unless you're doing that.
"The Evil Dead"
pitted a regular guy
against a horde of demons,
but what chance do you have
when you're up
against Satan himself?
[dark music]
Christianity teaches
that Jesus Christ
was the son of God,
born of mortal woman.
What if Satan decided
that he too
would father a child?
In 1968, Roman Polanski's
film "Rosemary's Baby"
explored the links between
pregnancy, parenthood,
and demonic possession.
[whispers] You're pregnant.
"Rosemary's Baby"
is a really interesting film,
because, artistically,
it's one of the best films
to come out in that era
and probably ever.
- I'm Rosemary Woodhouse.
- Uh, we're in 7E.
That movie made $30 million
back when movies
didn't make $30 million,
not in their first run.
I mean, if a movie
made $12 million, "Oh, wow."
- That's a huge hit.
- That's a smash.
- It's a phenomenon.
- It was a phenomenon.
And the devil
had never been dealt with
in that realistic
a form before.
It's a hugely
important film,
because it's portraying
a woman
at the height
of second-wave feminism.
It also coincides
with a rise in interest
in all kinds of alternative
religions and occultism
that was happening
in the '60s.
It was a period
where there was, you know,
questioning, you know, God,
the existence of God.
I think it was even on
"Time" magazine,
you know, "Is God Dead?"
No, you're not religious,
my dear, are you?
I was brought up a Catholic.
Now I don't know.
In "Rosemary's Baby,"
the heroine
is drugged by Satanists.
Then the devil literally
enters her through rape.
- She's awake. She sees.
- Can't see or hear.
She's like dead. Now sing.
[whispering voices]
Rosemary becomes pregnant
with Satan's child.
This is no dream.
This is really happening!
"Rosemary's Baby"
was a possession movie.
It was about someone carrying
the seed of Satan within her
and giving birth
to Satan's child.
This is actually
how Satan or his minions
can infest each of us
and draw out
the evil within us.
It, to me,
remains a metaphor
about domestic violence,
about emotional violence
in relationships
between men and women,
largely inflicted
by men onto women.
I didn't want to
miss baby night.
You while I was out?
And a couple of my nails
were ragged,
and it was kind of fun
in a necrophile sort of way.
[ominous chords]
When I saw "Rosemary's Baby"
when I was very young,
I don't think I thought, "Oh,
this is female consciousness,"
but obviously,
there aren't that many movies
from within a young woman's
point of view.
We know Polanski's guilty
of all these things
in his personal life,
but as a filmmaker,
he's incredibly sympathetic
to the female point of view.
And the relationship
between Rosemary
and her husband is fantastic.
John Cassavetes'
amazing performance
as the desperate actor
who will do anything
to get that big break.
Let's have a baby,
all right?
Rosemary's very much
the lovely,
submissive wife who is there
to help her husband out,
and what that gets her
is getting impregnated
by the devil.
Her husband basically
sells her to Satan
in exchange for a Broadway hit.
Oh, I got the part.
It was a hell of
a way to get it.
[ominous chords]
One of the things
I really love about horror
and the nightmares
that it touches on
are the idea of security
and a stable, normal place
that turns out
to be a place of danger,
or a person who seems
to be a friendly person.
And, of course,
one of the greatest things
in "Rosemary's Baby"
is the neighbors.
[door bell buzzes]
The central figure
in this patriarchal crush
is Ruth Gordon.
Hi there! We're not
bothering you, are we?
I heard you come in.
It certainly wasn't very long.
- Ta-da!
- Who comes in with her
multicolored scarves
and her accent
and delivers
a series of death blows
to everything that
poor Rosemary stands for.
- Here.
- What is in it? Tannis root?
A little bit of that,
a little bit some other things.
They're the kind of neighbors
you kind of all right
You sort of want to
avoid them
- Yeah.
- But you're nice to them.
- They're nosy
- They're harmless.
They're harmless,
and that they are, you know,
essentially agents of the
- of the devil.
- The devil.
We're your friends,
Rosemary.
There's nothing to be
afraid of, Rosemary.
Honest and truly there isn't.
Another thing that I think
young women
really can relate to
in "Rosemary's Baby,"
- no one believes her.
- One thing is for sure.
They have a coven,
and they want my baby.
Certainly seems that way.
To me, there's no scarier
moment in the movie
than when you realize
her doctor is
has turned on her.
That feeling of the person
that you've put
your ultimate trust in,
like your obstetrician,
this guy who's,
like, tending to your body
and your femininity,
and he is handing you over
to the satanists.
We're gonna go home
and rest.
That's all it takes.
Nothing supernatural
happens, actually,
for the entire course
of the movie.
You know,
she could just be paranoid.
She could be suffering from
some weird pregnancy delusions.
[unsettling music]
♪♪
What have you done to it?
What have you done
to its eyes?
He has his
father's eyes.
It's not until
she actually says,
"What have you done
to his eyes?"
that there is finally
a physical manifestation
of what
she's been talking about.
- God is dead!
- Hail Satan!
Satan lives!
I made the mistake
of showing it to my wife
after I got her impregnated.
Oh, God!
She's like,
"I've never seen it."
"What? You've never seen
'Rosemary's Baby'?
We're watching
'Rosemary's Baby. ""
I didn't think about how weird
that might be for someone
who was pregnant,
and it really played
on her fears
that we were gonna have
the antichrist as a child.
Uh, it was a bad call.
"Rosemary's Baby"
is a movie
about the dark side
of pregnancy.
Richard Donner's film
"The Omen"
takes things one step further
with a violent vision
of parents
at the mercy
of the ultimate problem child:
the spawn of Satan.
When the Jews return to Zion
"and a comet fills the sky,
"the Holy Roman Empire rises,
and you and I must die."
Released in 1976,
Richard Donner's film
"The Omen" revolves around
every parent's secret fear:
that their sweet young child
is a demon in disguise.
"The Omen" is the story
of an American diplomat,
played by Gregory Peck,
who takes a child home
from the hospital
that is not his own
and sets up shop
and seems to have this
beautiful life in England,
and then the whole thing
starts to unravel,
and we discover that the child
is actually
the son of the devil.
"The Omen" is like my
hands-down
favorite horror movie.
It's intellectually
a little bit above par
than the average thing
you would watch
at the video store, right?
Right.
It was a big-budget movie.
Richard Donner.
It was a huge deal.
Yeah, and Gregory Peck
is great in it.
Lee Remick's great in it.
So I just thought it hit
on all you know,
the quality was really high
on all the different facets.
Gregory Peck
in a horror movie.
That was kind of a big deal,
having an actor
of his stature.
It was a '50s-era,
established
older Hollywood legend
that was now appearing
in this horror film,
and he gave it,
along with Lee Remick,
gave it this patina of class.
Peck was going through
a terrible time in his life.
His son was found dead.
He was so devastated,
and his agent said,
"I got to get him out.
"I got to get him up
on his feet.
I got to get him working."
We pitched him,
"Greg, it's a strong mystery,
the suspense is incredible,
and on top of it,
it's a thriller."
Damien, the adopted boy
in "The Omen,"
does not seem to be aware
that the devil is inside him,
but as he grows older,
Satan's agents
begin infiltrating his life.
They send a sinister
Rottweiler to protect him,
and, in an infamous scene,
they possess his nanny
at his fifth birthday party.
- Look at me, Damien.
- "Damien, this is for you."
- It's all for you.
- Like
she kills herself
at the kid's party.
[screams]
In "The Omen,"
we don't really know
that Damien is the antichrist.
Neither does Gregory Peck.
It's not until somewhere
towards the beginning
of the second half
that you really come to terms
with the fact
that they're harboring
the antichrist.
[dark, heavy music]
♪♪
So the movie has
a story to tell,
and then it's gonna be,
"What do they do about it?"
They cast it well. They cast
the son of the devil well.
- Mom!
- Damien stop!
When you can get, like,
a good performance
out of children
in a horror movie,
there's, like,
nothing more effective.
[sinister chanting]
There's just something
inherently creepy about kids.
Even my own children,
if they wake me up
in the middle of the night,
and they're just standing
motionless next to the bed,
I'm briefly scared,
and I made them.
Casting that child,
we did one scene where I said,
"I'm gonna grab you,
and you want to get away."
Grabbed this kid,
went rolling,
and he kicked me
in my privates
Oh!
So hard that I just
threw my hands up
and said, "Cut! Hire him."
Aaahh!
After Damien nearly kills
his mother,
Peck's character searches
for the boy's true parents.
His quest triggers
an avalanche
of violence and death.
Aaah!
The spectacular staging
of these scenes
is one of the reasons
"The Omen" is considered
a horror classic.
[dog growling]
I wasn't prepared for
how scary it was gonna get.
Forget about the gore
and everything.
That didn't see
that coming at all.
- You know, just the
- The dog, the music.
The Rottweilers
surrounding them
in the graveyard was, like,
"Oh, my God,
what's gonna happen?"
[dogs snarling, barking]
But then, the decapitations.
I mean, that just
that was very scary.
I never saw that coming.
At the end of the movie,
we dropped the camera,
and it revealed
the back of the kid,
which I was right
behind the camera.
Kid turned and looked at me,
and he had this severe
face on,
and I said, "Don't you smile.
Don't you dare smile."
And he started to fight
the smile,
and then he couldn't fight it
anymore, and he kind of lit up.
It was like, blow up,
the end of a movie.
Was this real?
Am I really the devil?
Did this really happen?
And it changed the whole movie.
I never had children.
They scare the hell out of me.
At their core,
possession movies are about
the fear of losing yourself,
of a demon taking control
of your body and your mind.
I can't move.
In 2017,
Jordan Peele's "Get Out"
took that idea and used it to
hold a mirror up to America.
Good to see another
brother around here.
A young black man meets
another young black man.
Ah, yes. Of course it is.
But something
is very wrong here.
Jordan Peele's "Get Out"
is by turns a social satire
and a genuinely horrific tale
of demonic possession,
but the demons here
aren't from hell.
Get out.
Sorry, man.
[woman murmurs]
Get out!
I love, love,
love possession films.
- Hello.
- Hi.
My mother used to do
this thing to me,
play this little joke on me.
Every now and then, I would go,
"Mom, Mom,
can I get this candy?"
or whatever,
and she would look at me,
and she'd go, "Mommy's not here
anymore, Jordan,"
and I'd be like, "Don't do it,"
like, "Come on. Mom."
And she'd be like,
"I'm serious. Mom isn't here."
- Who was she?
- Right. That's the question.
That's the question
I've never answered.
All I know is sometimes if
there's too many white people,
I get nervous, you know?
"Get Out"
is a possession film.
It is a possession film.
[laughing]
Instead of the devil
possessing you,
it's literally the white devil
possessing your body.
I'm into it.
Oh, no. No. No.
And there haven't been
a lot of movies
that deal with race
straight on in the genre space.
Do they know I'm black?
No.
And I wanted this movie
to be,
"You can't do this movie
with a white guy."
My dad would have voted
for Obama a third time
if he could have.
Like, the love is so real.
In a nutshell, it's a story
of a black guy
who meets
his white girlfriend's parents
and kind of gets more than what
he's expecting, in a nutshell.
I would have voted for Obama
for a third term if I could.
Best president in my lifetime,
hands down.
- I agree.
- Yeah.
There is a genuine mystery
going on
in the case of "Get Out."
The audience knows,
okay, there's something
weird about this family.
There is definitely
something weird
about those black servants.
There's something weird
about this whole damn place.
But exactly what,
you don't know.
[chatter, laughter
abruptly stop]
But now you're really
watching,
because now you're
watching a mystery.
Jordan Peele knows
exactly what he's doing,
and we're gonna just
have to wait for it.
Do you find that
being African-American
has more advantage
or disadvantage?
Being black in America,
there's certain dials
you're sort of tuned into
to not walk into
a [bleep]- up situation.
- I got hypnotized last night.
- [bleep].
Get the [bleep] out of here.
No, yo, yo, yeah, yeah,
to quit smoking,
but Rose's mom's
a psychiatrist, so
Bro, I don't care
if the bitch
is Iyanla Vanzant, okay?
She can't fix my [bleep] life.
You ain't getting in my head.
Chris always thinks he's got
the situation in hand
- Yes.
- Because they're, like,
a bunch of white people.
What are they gonna do?
We're kind of like,
we can forgive him.
Oh, he's not being dumb.
Is he really going to jump
to the conclusion
that this family is literally
evil, physically threats?
Like, that's crazy.
Now sink into the floor.
- Wait, wait, wait
- Sink.
[ominous chords]
♪♪
The minute Chris is sent
into the sunken place,
I realized that this movie
was not just going to be scary
and not just going
to be interesting
but also going to be
important.
♪♪
Because he created a metaphor
that now gives so many of us
language to explain
what a state of suppression
looks like and feels like.
Now you're in
the sunken place.
When you're
in the sunken place,
you can still see
what's happening.
You're not unaware.
It's just that you feel there's
nothing you can do about it.
Someone or something
has taken control over you,
so therefore you're powerless,
and it doesn't matter
what color,
where you come from,
you can be in the sunken place
just by not having a voice.
In a pivotal scene
in "Get Out,"
we discover
all the black people
Chris has met on the estate
have been sold at auction.
Their bodies have been
taken over by white people
who desire their youth
and physicality.
They are trapped in the sunken
place, yearning for freedom.
It's really a Trojan horse
for telling
a much more important story.
Where the country is
certainly helped propel
the success of "Get Out,"
and also made "Get Out"
a particularly important movie
for its time
in a way that, you know,
it wouldn't have been,
and, you know, I wish that
that weren't true, but it is.
I mean, at the end
of the day,
the movie is about
how racism is horrifying.
It's the most horrific thing
in our world today,
is just people just hating
other people
for whatever reasons they do.
What is your purpose,
Chris?
What?
- In life.
- Is there a better statement
on race relations in America?
I don't think so, you know?
And that's totally pushed
the bar on satire and horror
and cut very deep,
at the same way
is being entertaining.
And that's what genre movies
do at their best,
especially great horror movies.
It gives you a way
to discuss the undiscussable.
- Yes.
- It gives you a context
to talk about subjects
that are just awful
and painful for everyone
- Yeah.
- But you can put it
in the context
of a scary movie,
whether it's a zombie movie,
whether it's a "Get Out" movie,
and it's like you're suddenly
allowed to talk about it.
And everybody needs it.
♪♪
Even if it's not in the package
of a horror movie,
everybody has this dark side
that needs to be filled.
[intense music]
I mean, I told you not to
go in that house.