It’s been an interesting week for horror fans, what with Episode 5 of The Exorcist and Episode 1, Season 7 of The Walking Dead. Spoilers await below, obviously.

The Exorcist

The choice to make much of Casey’s attempted exorcism occur off-camera makes sense, because the thrust of the show isn’t the effect of demonic possession on a single family, but a larger demonic plot involving the Pope. This, of course, takes us further away from the text that “inspired” the show. Unlike Merrin and Karras, Tomas and Marcus are ruled by their fundamental weaknesses, and the events of the show bear this out. Tomas can’t keep his libido in check, making him subject to the demon’s glamours, and when he’s thrown out of the padded exorcism chamber the first place he goes is to his crush’s bed. It’s a different way to go than the expected route of making him a homosexual pedophile the way most Catholic priests are portrayed. Marcus can’t control his violent impulses, and despite the SNEC training he got in the previous episode, devolves to hitting Casey across the face in a fit of pique. Perhaps he forgot that Casey’s not in control of her body. In any event, it was gratuitous and cruel. I know that at the end of the movie version, Karras struck Regan and began to choke her, but consider the situation: Merrin had just died and Karras was at the end of his rope. His purpose was to make the demon think he would kill her, and that the only way out was to possess him instead. Hence, “Come into me” and the fatal leap out of the window.

The news that Angela Rance is a grown-up Regan MacNeil was, I’m certain, supposed to be a game-changer for the show, but when you look at where the show’s been going you’ll find that it doesn’t alter anything. There are still multiple demonic possessions going on, orchestrated by someone we don’t know, and the overarching plot of the Pope’s visit to Chicago is still primary. This attempt to connect the show with the original material seems like a Hail Mary pass (so to speak), something to keep you watching for the remembered thrill of the book or movie. How is Angela’s secret identity going to change that?

 

The Walking Dead

I had the episode spoiled for me days before I watched it, but I’m not bitter: many of my social media buddies are horror fans, and people can’t help but talk about things like that. For me, the episode was an unrelieved, 42-minute-long exercise in brutality, with crying and sobbing thrown in to season the stew. Kind of like one of the Hostel movies. I liked Glenn’s popeye and the scrap of scalp hanging from the baseball bat: nice touches.

As bad as I felt for Rick’s crew, I felt worse for Negan’s army. I mean, they had to stand there watching Negan talk and talk and yak yak yak for what probably felt like hours, when what they should’ve done was just kill everyone and move on. There weren’t that many of Rick’s crew left, and they couldn’t escape an ambush to save their lives, literally, so what’s the point of keeping them around? Do they have special scavenging powers nobody else has? And they did murder a bunch of Negan’s crew. Now that Negan beat two of them to death in as cruel a fashion as possible, are the rest of them just going to roll over and be good doggies? No. Once they stop being scared, they’re going to start hating and plotting. And then more of your buddies are going to die. Best off killing them and saving yourself the later trouble.

But if they did, there wouldn’t be a show. Kind of a lame way to keep a show going, but I understand it. Abraham had to die because his character was going nowhere. Glenn had to die because we’d all gotten used to the idea of him dying a few episodes ago under the dumpster anyway. And of course they couldn’t kill Daryl, otherwise 50% of the audience would stop watching right there and then (you know who you are, ladies).

This one was a game-changer. Now Rick’s crew has to work for somebody else. We’ll see how long that lasts. Also, said in a Mr Ed voice, Where’s Carol?