> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://there-might-be-cupcakes-podcast.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Dollopween 25: Faculty of Horror: The Power of Christ Compels You - URL: https://there-might-be-cupcakes-podcast.ghost.io/dollopween-25-faculty-of-horror-the-power-of-christ-compels-you/ - Published: 2016-10-25T22:57:34.000Z - Updated: 2025-02-03T15:56:15.000Z - Author: Carla Pettigrew - Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1738597973835, #Import 2025-02-03 15:53 Podcast and Podcaster: Faculty of Horror: Episode 31: The Power of Christ Compels You–The Exorcist, Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West Why I chose this one:[ The Exorcist](http://amzn.to/2f5uaTb) is one of my favorite horror films, and one of my favorite movies, period. [The novel ](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061007226/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061007226&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=0a5081e3045ec79bae0df687fe10d5e7)and its followup, [Legion](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765327139/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0765327139&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=2883d7f6f16b32749ee7d26a55192adb), are stupendous. The fantabulous movie based upon Legion, with the best long-shot jump ever, is celebrating an [anniversary Blu-Ray release today.](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I4C1ZJK/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01I4C1ZJK&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=c2a91ed85fb8222ff6b124d929448552) Notice I am pretending [Exorcist II: The Heretic](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M9W8HN4/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00M9W8HN4&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=0e9f405d610ca6307307a47de333f9a1) (1977), does not exist. Doing so is proper horror etiquette, unless you enjoy so-bad-they-are-good movies, and we are not having that discussion today. Also, The Exorcist, novel and movie, have tremendous historical context in America.[ The movie](http://amzn.to/2f5uaTb) opened on December 26, 1973–yes, the day after Christmas, William Friedkin has a strange, arch sense of humor–and immediately had both true stories and urban legends attached to it. What kind of true stories? Well, in true Dollop vernacular–people lost their *shit*. > In San Francisco a deranged patron charged the screen in an attempt to kill the demon; in Harlem a priest attempted to exorcise drugs from his neighbourhood; in Boston a woman was carried from the theatre murmuring: ‘it cost me four dollars but I only lasted twenty minutes’. > …lurid accounts of viewers being driven to breakdowns and suicide.([historytoday](http://www.historytoday.com/nick-cull/exorcist)) I personally remember a persistent story from childhood about moviegoers suffering heart attacks. Blatty also firmly intended for The Exorcist to have a historical context, from its very first page: > Blatty’s novel is explicit about the manifestations of evil in the modern world. On its opening page he juxtaposed an epigram from the gospel of Luke, in which Jesus confronts a demon, with a succession of quotations showing contemporary evil at work. These include an extract from an [FBI](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/tag/FBI) wire tap in which a gangster jokes about torture and [murder](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/tag/murder); a graphic account of [Communist](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/tag/communism) atrocities against priests, teachers and children from the writings of [Dr Tom Dooley](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JEH2QW/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000JEH2QW&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=78985e54844f6b421669e69163cf02eb), an American doctor who worked in [Vietnam](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/tag/vietnam-war) in the 1950s; names that evoked [the Nazi](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/episode-34-smollop/) extermination of European Jews: Dachau, Auschwitz and Buchanwald, a subject that was at last being addressed by American thinkers. Within the body of the book, Blatty selected an epigram that alluded to a further topical manifestation of evil: American conduct in the Vietnam War. ([historytoday](http://www.historytoday.com/nick-cull/exorcist)) Recommended reading: - [The Exorcist](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061007226/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061007226&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=0a5081e3045ec79bae0df687fe10d5e7) \* William Peter Blatty - [Legion](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765327139/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0765327139&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=2883d7f6f16b32749ee7d26a55192adb) \* William Peter Blatty - [The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571199968/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0571199968&linkCode=as2&tag=bibliothera01-20&linkId=5323293281d1041145ade3d8877019ff) \* David J. Skal [What is Dollopween?](http://theremightbecupcakes.com/dollopween-2016-intro/)