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SATAN, SUPERSTAR
DEVIL MOVIES-VIEWAT YOUROWN RISK
by
Keith W. Stump
Hollywood'
S
obsession with the demonic and supernatural
could have some diabolical consequences.
F
or months, movie marquees all
over the country have been
hawking a ghas1ly array of lurid
motion pictures featuring Salan and
his demonic cohorts. Films such as
The Omen, House of Exorcism, The
Devil Within Her. God Told Me To.
and others have enjoyed immense
popularily among the theater-going
public.
And there's much more
to
come.
The mo lion picture industry is
busily preparing a hideous assort–
ment of devil movies lo satisfy the
demand - and cash in on the prof–
its. Twentieth Century Fox plans
three
sequels to its recent hit
The
Omen.
Warner Brothers is putting
lhe final touches on
The Heretic,
ils
sequel to
The Exorcist.
Universal,
MCA. American lnternational Pic–
tures, and other s tudios each have a
number of devi l fticks in the mili.
Your neighborh ood theater wi\1
soon be screening
The Sentinel, Res–
urrection, The Car
(aboul a demon–
possessed aulomobile!) and other
imilations of imitations for you r
"viewing pleasure."
8
The curren! rash of devil movies
was triggered by the 1974 hit
The
Exorcist.
lhough perhaps
Rose–
mary's Baby
( 1968) was the first of
the genre. Quick lo spot a winning
theme. the imilalive motion piclure
sludios - having beaten the "dis–
aster" molif 10 death - jumped on
the bandwagon and began churning
out devil fticks as fast as scr ipts
could be written and casts assem–
bled. The more lurid and gruesome.
the better.
Big Box Office
And who can blame the studios?
The supernatural forces of evil are
dynamjte at the box office. Warner's
The Exorcist
-
possibly the highest–
grossing movie of all time - is ex–
pected to bring in. all told. over
$120 million worldwide. Fox's
The
Omen,
costing less than $3 million
to make, has already grossed nearly
$50 rullion at the box office in the
United States alone. and that figure
may
double
after the overseas
receipts are raked in.
Clearly. there is
demand.
Critics reprove the motion picture
industry for its creati ve im pover–
ishment and penchant for imi1ation.
but in the end it's the
movie-going
public-
ftocking back to lheaters in
record numbers - which is ulti–
mately to blame for the continuing
outpouring of demonic celluloid.
But why are today 's devil movies
so popular. and so Jucrative?
As with the old. not nearly as lu–
crative. vampire and werewolf films
of decades past. there
is
still a desire
on the part of moviegoers 10 be
scared,
to be held in
suspense.
to
receive a
jo/t.
And. as sorne psy–
chologists have suggested. today's
graphic devil fticks may appeal to
people's voyeuristic impulses. Many
come into lhe theater
hoping
for
something gruesome or bloody to
happen.
But there is still another, more
significant factor contributing to the
popularity of today's devil movies.
Studies reveal that popular interesl
in mysticism. wilchcraft. Salanism.
psychic phenomena and lhe occult
is grealer now than ever before. Dis-
The PLAIN TRUTH March 1977