Sometimes setting reasonable expectations is the better way to enjoy something. Hoping for too much makes disappointment more likely, haha. Yeah, the idea of explaining why Regan was the demon's victim is the opposite of what the horror is based on! The horror is that it can happen to anyone! 3 sounds much more interesting.
I seem to remember Devil being fairly okay. I only watched it once, and don't know if I'm likely to watch it again, but wouldn't refuse to either.
I think the Warrens were con artists who used their "investigations" for the dual purpose of gaining their own publicity and as a form of evangelizing, because they always struck me as a LOT more interested in proving that demons (and therefore their god) was the only form of real spirituality as opposed to actually doing any good for the people they claimed to be helping. That seemed to be the motive (to me) in the "Devil Made Me Do It" case - if they can LEGALLY "prove" that the devil was responsible for this, then the world (or at least the US) is tacitly admitting that the christian god is also legally real. And the more flashy and sensationalized cases they can try to be a part of, then the more people they get to preach to. If they managed to help some people along the way, that's still a good thing, and I know there are people who say they feel what the Warrens did was a genuine help. (But there are an awful lot of people who say that many, including some of the most famous cases, were deliberate hoaxes, or feel that the Warrens were exploiting people with very non-demonic problems.)
There's a lot of cultural and spiritual practice that's very much not well-understood, especially by colonizers and missionaries and such who go in with the intent of conversion or death. I think it was a fairly common position that "foreign/pagan gods" were actually demons. So someone channeling one of their deities? I can absolutely believe that would be the source of a "possession" belief.
I forgot the girl in the first Ouija movie had been in Bates Motel, ha. My grandmother has an old spirit board that she uses as a lap desk, ha. Not branded a ouija board... I think it says "mystical oracle" on it or something. It's from the 30s or 40s, I think. Ouija boards are SUCH a common horror trope, and always in such predictable ways, lol. So not realistic!
I didn't see the Doctor Strange movies (my brain slid off of the MCU stuff long before that) but I remember hearing it was fairly good. I did really like The Black Phone. It definitely didn't feel like a retread of anything else, which was refreshing. Yes! Sinister is very creepy. (That scene of them following him down the hall reminds me of one of the scenes I found creepiest in The Orphanage, too - she plays a sort of "red light/green light" game with the ghosts, and then they all suddenly show up around her and it's a very creepy visual.) The fact that there is no real "solution" to the evil in Sinister does make it feel a lot more threatening. Ah, Event Horizon. That's another one that I really like, but fair point about it not being one to watch when you're in the wrong headspace for it. Apparently I really should rewatch Exorcism of Emily Rose, because I know I saw it, but it left like... zero lasting impression on me, which doesn't match up with what everyone else says about it!
I liked the first Insidious and this last one, but don't remember the middle ones terribly well. I feel like I liked one of them, and at least one of them bored me, but I couldn't tell you which ones were which, lol.
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I seem to remember Devil being fairly okay. I only watched it once, and don't know if I'm likely to watch it again, but wouldn't refuse to either.
I think the Warrens were con artists who used their "investigations" for the dual purpose of gaining their own publicity and as a form of evangelizing, because they always struck me as a LOT more interested in proving that demons (and therefore their god) was the only form of real spirituality as opposed to actually doing any good for the people they claimed to be helping. That seemed to be the motive (to me) in the "Devil Made Me Do It" case - if they can LEGALLY "prove" that the devil was responsible for this, then the world (or at least the US) is tacitly admitting that the christian god is also legally real. And the more flashy and sensationalized cases they can try to be a part of, then the more people they get to preach to.
If they managed to help some people along the way, that's still a good thing, and I know there are people who say they feel what the Warrens did was a genuine help. (But there are an awful lot of people who say that many, including some of the most famous cases, were deliberate hoaxes, or feel that the Warrens were exploiting people with very non-demonic problems.)
There's a lot of cultural and spiritual practice that's very much not well-understood, especially by colonizers and missionaries and such who go in with the intent of conversion or death. I think it was a fairly common position that "foreign/pagan gods" were actually demons. So someone channeling one of their deities? I can absolutely believe that would be the source of a "possession" belief.
I forgot the girl in the first Ouija movie had been in Bates Motel, ha.
My grandmother has an old spirit board that she uses as a lap desk, ha. Not branded a ouija board... I think it says "mystical oracle" on it or something. It's from the 30s or 40s, I think.
Ouija boards are SUCH a common horror trope, and always in such predictable ways, lol. So not realistic!
I didn't see the Doctor Strange movies (my brain slid off of the MCU stuff long before that) but I remember hearing it was fairly good.
I did really like The Black Phone. It definitely didn't feel like a retread of anything else, which was refreshing.
Yes! Sinister is very creepy. (That scene of them following him down the hall reminds me of one of the scenes I found creepiest in The Orphanage, too - she plays a sort of "red light/green light" game with the ghosts, and then they all suddenly show up around her and it's a very creepy visual.) The fact that there is no real "solution" to the evil in Sinister does make it feel a lot more threatening.
Ah, Event Horizon. That's another one that I really like, but fair point about it not being one to watch when you're in the wrong headspace for it.
Apparently I really should rewatch Exorcism of Emily Rose, because I know I saw it, but it left like... zero lasting impression on me, which doesn't match up with what everyone else says about it!
I liked the first Insidious and this last one, but don't remember the middle ones terribly well. I feel like I liked one of them, and at least one of them bored me, but I couldn't tell you which ones were which, lol.
I have seen Haunter! That's a good one!