Posts

NEW POST

The Offering (2023): Pazuzu Got Some Competition

-
When I started reviewing  The Pope’s Exorcist  and then  turned the review into a comparison  between it and  The Exorcist: The Beginning , I also complained about how I felt that movies featuring demonic shenanigans were becoming stale. Well, my prayers were answered by  The Offering  (2023), whose Orthodox Jewish setting was an even bigger departure from the usual Catholic fare. Warning:  SPOILERS . Art has returned to New York with his non Jewish wife Claire, who’s pregnant with their first child, in the hopes of reconciling with his disapproving father, Saul. He also hopes to convince Saul to let him use his house/funeral home to be able to keep his and Claire’s new home, which is at risk of being taken away by the bank. To an already tense situation, the movie adds Heimish, a friend of Saul’s who doesn’t trust Art’s intentions, and a corpse with an engraved knife and a mysterious pendant. As the living argue, an ancient malignant force sneaks around, making them see and do things,
Read more

TV Review: Dororo (2019)

-
We weren’t quite sure where to put this, but since it has demons and this blog is where the demons are, we put it here. And what is ‘this’? A review of 2019 anime series  Dororo . We posted about it on social media while watching, but then we felt it deserved a longer review. Since we haven’t read the original manga or watched any previous adaptation, we’re going to focus only on this specific series. Needless to say, there will be  SPOILERS . Dororo  follows Hyakkimaru, who travels the country looking for demons to kill, and Dororo, a resourceful orphan who tags along after being saved by him. However, Hyakkimaru isn’t hunting demons out of a sense of duty - he wants the rest of the body that was taken from him at birth, 16 years ago, when his father, Lord Daigo Kagemitsu, made a deal with 12 demons as a way to fulfill his ambitions. As Hyakkimaru gets closer to his goal, the closer he gets to his family, a reunion that will be anything but happy. And that’s not the only problem - the
Read more

Scrapbook: Cultists!

-
Image
Scrapbook is a new thing we're doing on the main blog, but we couldn't resist doing it here, too. We're not gamers and this isn't a recommendation, we just think the idea of a game from the cultists' POV is funny. Besides, religious horror is one of the post categories in this blog, so it kinda fits.
Read more

Authentic Human Freedom (And How You Should Use It)

-
Since our feed across social media platforms is even more full of American political content (seriously, we live in a different continent , we shouldn’t know who Lauren Bobert is, FFS) due to the ever approaching Biden VS Trump Round 2, I thought it was the perfect time for a review of Peter Thiel’s infamous The Education of a Libertarian .
Read more

The Pope's Exorcist VS The Exorcist: The Beginning

-
As you may have noticed, I’ve recently written a review of The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), and not long before that, I had written one of The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen . Around the time I was writing the more recent review, I finally got to watch The Pope’s Exorcist (2023). I had been wanting to see it since I’d watched the trailer. Sure, there was a possessed kid again, but there were hints of something more. At one point the demon tells the titular exorcist that he had been played and it cuts to… the Pope himself! I was ready for some demonic Vatican intrigue, but unfortunately, the movie had other plans. (Needless to say, there will be SPOILERS ) The Exorcist: The Beginning and The Pope’s Exorcist may look very different, but they suffer from the same big problem - the inability to move beyond the tired possessed child scenario. It’s not that they couldn’t have done it if they had wanted it. Both movies have interesting elements that could’ve easily been turned
Read more

The Exorcist: When Merrin Met Pazuzu

-
As promised , here’s my review of The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004). Warning: SPOILERS . Also, I was feeling extra snarky when I wrote this, so if this is your favourite movie, you probably shouldn’t read this.
Read more

Ezra Would Like a Little Less Apocalyptic Mass Destruction, Please

-
Ezra is back and he still wants to talk to the manager! This time, not only is he much more insistent, but he also gets some proper VIP treatment, which includes a meeting with God + a tour of Heaven and Hell, with a special appearance by the Antichrist. I’m of course referring to the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra (the Jewish version was reviewed here ). According to the edition I’m using, it dates from before 200 AD, and it’s a combination of several texts. By the way, this translation is also from the Scriptural Research Institute, so if there are any issues, you know whom to blame. THE GREEK APOCALYPSE OF EZRA Cry, all you saints and you righteous, for me, who have pleaded much, and who is delivered up to death. Cry for me, all you saints and you righteous, because I have gone to the pit of Hades. The book begins with Ezra suddenly asking God to see his ‘mysteries’ . That seems a little too forward of him. No preliminary praise, no groveling, just Hey, God, show me stuff! Luckily for hi
Read more