Two movies about redemption, where lost individuals must decide to change themselves for the better — it's Groundhog Day vs Laggies.
Un-Break My Heart: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo vs The Parent Trap
Two movies about family mysteries with an interesting exploration of gender — it's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) vs The Parent Trap (1998).
Boxed In: Saw vs Red Eye
Under Pressure: Prisoners vs Searching
Anna Elizabeth James | Strong Female Leads
Anna Elizabeth James (writer/director of Deadly Illusions) has revived the psychosexual thriller genre with Deadly Illusions clocking in at #1 on Netflix and she GRACEd me with her presence on the show! Our conversation covered everything I've ever cared about, including how she crafted a thriller with heart, the absolutism of movie critics, and obviously, the milk bath. Deadly Illusions is a FEELING, as is this episode.
Deadly Illusions is coming to all platforms June 1st, including my beloved physical media, but you can watch now on Netflix!
Follow Anna on Instagram | Follow Anna on Twitter | Follow Deadly Illusions on Instagram | Follow Deadly Illusions on Twitter
Pierce the Veil: Memento vs The Tourist
Two movies about creating your own reality and identity, and how malleable those things can be — it's Memento vs The Tourist.
Call of Duty: Ghostbusters vs Mercenaries
Two movies where people work together outside the bounds of polite society and their reluctant involvement turns into true heroism — it's Ghostbusters vs Mercenaries.
Watch Zoë Bell's #BossBitchFightChallenge: https://www.instagram.com/p/COV-Cc9DgWg/
Janet Varney | Strong Female Leads
Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, Country Comfort, Burning Love) is as kind as she is talented. Her conversational prowess is unrivaled, and she made me feel very supported in my secret wish to wear reflective aviators. In this episode, we dive into how wonderful it is to create something with your friends, the downsides of polyester pants in Georgia, and the satisfaction of a well-written sitcom.
Follow Janet on Instagram | Follow on Twitter | Listen to The JV Club Podcast | Watch Fortune Rookie
Justice Isn't Blind: 12 Angry Men vs I Know What You Did Last Summer
Two movies that explore the meaning of justice and how our preconceived notions affect that justice being served — it's 12 Angry Men vs I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Read The Episode
Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two movies that explore the meaning of justice and how our preconceived notions affect that justice being served. It's 12 Angry Men versus I Know What You Did Last Summer.
12 Angry Men
The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
This movie came out in 1957. It has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. On IMDB it is number five of the top-rated 250 movies — basically of all the movies on IMDB, this movie is number five. It was nominated for three Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It lost all those nominations to The Bridge on the River Kwai.
As of 2020, this is the shortest movie in the IMDB Top 10, as well as the only one in the Top 10 to be under two hours. I love that this movie is 96 minutes. That's what I want. We need more movies that are 96 minutes. This movie is an affecting movie that has stuck with us and it doesn't need to be 30 hours long.
It feels like a play, which I enjoy. It's adapted from a teleplay, so it has that vibe of being on a stage. It's mostly taking place in one single room, and the filming was incredibly deliberate. At the beginning, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses, the cameras slip down to eye level. And by the end, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up, and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia. When the jurors leave the courthouse, they're filmed from a wide overhead angle, and director Sidney Lumet claimed that the final shot was filmed through the widest lens used in the movie to emphasize the sense of release.
I feel like the Rural Juror in 30 Rock having to say the word "juror" more than once.
Watching this movie — I had seen it ages ago in class and really didn't remember much. Upon a rewatch, I cannot tell these men apart. I had to take so many notes on where people were seated and what they said, cross-checking with IMDB and Googling pictures. This room is just 12 basically white guys in black and white, just sweating, wiping their brows. One guy has a cold and is blowing snot. I was like, no, this is going to be a nightmare. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a good film.
Let's go around the table clockwise. Juror #1 is the foreman — the man who gets to be like, here's the rules, we're deciding innocence or guilt. I wrote down "has a tie." Also, you can see his nipples more than you see in an episode of Friends. His shirt is so tight. No one respects him and he's mad about it. He's kind of hot in a Twilight Zone main character way.
Juror #2 looks like Bob Balaban but nerdier. Has a whiny voice. Juror #3, played by Lee J. Cobb — I say that because he looks familiar and I couldn't tell if it was because I just watched The Exorcist, which he was in, or because he looks like what I think Marlon Brando looks like if I had to draw a police sketch of Marlon Brando. So I call him Thick-Voiced Marlon Brando Guy.
This guy is our main antagonist. He's like, I used to call my father sir. Okay, cool brag. He's basically like, yeah, you should beat your kids, like I do. And I beat my kid so much and then my kid punched me and I haven't seen him in years. This guy sucks. He's really awful. But he gets his little cathartic moment at the end. He's the one who's like, let's send this kid to the electric chair because sons don't respect their fathers enough.
Juror #4 — paper reader stock guy. Has an attitude. Has glasses. He's like, I do stocks. I'm reading the paper. Juror #5 — this guy's like, I want to pass. He doesn't even want to vote. He's got a gray suit and looks really sad. Eventually when everyone's like, this kid from the slum is guilty because people from the slum suck, this guy's finally like, I'm from the slum. And later: has anyone seen a knife fight? I have.
He has the most upsetting piece of trivia. IMDB says: The death of Jack Klugman, Juror #5, on 12-24-2012 means none of the 12 jurors from the film are alive. So everyone in this movie has been dead for over a decade. Almost.
Juror #6 — I just called Squarehead Guy. He's fine. He's there. Juror #7 is Foom Baseball Tickets Hat Guy. He's like, Foom! Baseball! In the bathroom he says, I made 27 grand selling marmalade. That's not bad. IMDB trivia tells us that would be over $235,000 in 2015. So that's not bad. I don't know if this guy only sold marmalade or if he sold a bunch of different things and marmalade was especially lucrative. Wonder how this guy feels about Paddington.
I was very obsessed with the fact that Tony Danza played this role in the 1997 remake wearing a deep V. Baseball Tickets Guy is just like, I have tickets to a baseball game tonight, I don't want to be here. Let's go, I'll vote whatever. But then it starts raining and he's like, all right, I guess I'll focus on whether or not we send this kid to the electric chair since I can't go to my baseball game.
Juror #8 is our main protagonist. I said he's Window Looking Hot Guy. He's standing looking out the window at the beginning for a long time. Has a little widow's peak. This is Henry Fonda. He produced this movie. He's like, no, this kid is not guilty — slash, the prosecutor didn't meet their burden of proof. And everyone's like, ugh, now we have to stay here and talk about this.
Juror #9 is an old man who is in the bathroom at the beginning for a really long time. The secret ballot — everybody votes guilty except Henry Fonda, then later he's like, let's take a secret vote, I won't vote, and if anyone else votes not guilty we'll keep talking. They get one not-guilty vote in the most old man cursive handwriting ever. Like it is the oldest man handwriting and I immediately think, it's that old man. Later, this old man is bragging about having 20/20 vision. He's calling out the glasses stock reader guy — I have 20/20 vision myself, always have. Okay, cool.
Juror #10 is our other antagonist, a real turd played by Ed Begley. It shocked me to realize Ed Begley Jr. is Jr. for a reason. This old man is racist. He's like, anybody from the slums that's that color is definitely a criminal. And everyone's like, yeah, probably. But then as he gets more and more racist, there's this scene where he's going on this rant about we know how those people are, and one by one everyone gets up and turns around from him, stands to look out the window.
Juror #11 — I call Mustache Suspenders. Juror #12 — Rod Serling Guy. He will not stop talking about his job. He's like, I doodle. This is a doodle of Rice Pops. I sell Rice Pops. I do advertising. This guy is a wannabe standup comedian, so I hate his guts. At one point he's smoking in the background and blows little smoke rings. How? How do people do that? How are you controlling the elements?
I love when Henry Fonda pulls his own knife out in this jury room and compares it to the evidence knife. And then the other guy takes Henry Fonda's knife and stabs it into the table and I was like, that's city property, I don't think you can do that.
A really insane trivia piece: this film is commonly used in business schools and workshops to illustrate team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques. That's psychotic. Everyone in this movie is a maniac!
At the end, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando Guy have this moment because Marlon Brando Guy is the lone holdout guilty by the end. He tears up this photo of his kid and is crying on the table. They vote and everybody walks out and our hero guy gives him his jacket in this very nice, touching gesture — helps him put his jacket on. And I was thinking how if this movie came out today there would be so many Twitter and Tumblr accounts that are like, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando Guy should bone! Why aren't they making out? Look, I drew a picture of them making out.
Final trivia piece: there are no female characters in the film aside from extras in the courtroom prologue, although a woman's bathroom can be seen in the jury room. Cool. That's the same thing. There are no female characters, but there is a female bathroom. Great. Really great.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Four young friends bound by a tragic accident are reunited when they find themselves being stalked by a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.
Came out in 1997, has a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. Kevin Williamson adapted the screenplay from a Lois Duncan novel and made it more deadly. He changed quite a bit from the book. I really love Lois Duncan — I loved her books growing up. I understand why she wasn't pleased with the violence added to the film. Her daughter was murdered in real life and she wrote a book about the experience. So I can see why she'd be sensitive to that. Kevin Williamson had just hit big with Scream, and I feel like this film tonally is a really perfect follow-up.
The cast of this movie is unbeatable, and probably the movie's greatest strength — the powerful 90s energy of everyone in this film.
Jennifer Love Hewitt is our hero, Julie James. I adore Jennifer Love Hewitt. She recently did an interview with Ilana Kaplan for Vulture about Heartbreakers and her career as a whole. She talks specifically about the treatment she got surrounding her body, the creepy comments made by the media. She said she wished she had known how inappropriate that was so she could have defended herself or just not answered those questions. She laughed it off a lot of the time and wishes maybe she hadn't.
Jennifer is someone who has been in the industry for ages and doesn't get the respect she deserves. She's had several successful shows — Party of Five, Ghost Whisperer, 9-1-1. She's a talented singer. She's very funny and dramatic. She was fantastic in one of the all-time best SVU episodes. She can truly do it all and her legacy should not be discounted.
In this movie she is the conscience of the group, the one we follow. Another set of iconic bangs in this film. Jennifer's in the car with three friends when they hit someone in the road. Instead of reporting it, they agree to dump the body and never speak of it again. This secret really weighs on her. When she comes back to town a year later, she receives the "I know what you did last summer" note.
There is a classic scene in this movie. She walks out in the middle of the street and spins around: what are you waiting for, huh? What are you waiting for? Great slasher moment. And the story behind it is insane — Jennifer Love Hewitt explains that this scene was directed by a kid who won a contest. That's already bananas. In the video, Jennifer's like, I don't know where that kid is now. Kid, show yourself. Message me, where are you, kid that directed this iconic scene?
Don't let kids direct your movies or win contests unless it's this kid. This is the only good contest outcome that has ever happened.
Jennifer's best friend is Helen Shivers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. I adore Sarah — Buffy, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, I loved Ringer. This movie has a special place in my heart because a specific question about her in one edition of the game Scene It! was my life's greatest triumph. The question was one of those scrambled pictures that slowly unscramble, and I immediately knew it was a photo of Sarah Michelle Gellar on stage at the beauty pageant in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Maybe none of it had been unscrambled. Maybe a very small portion. It was just a blob and I was like, yes, of course. I hold that victory very dear. Even though it was definitely over 15 years ago, I'm still very proud.
Sarah, like Jennifer, doesn't get credit for her range. When she's competing in the beauty pageant and answering a question: Well, Bob, at summer's end, I plan to move to New York City where I'll pursue a career as a serious actress. It's my goal to entertain the world through artistic expression. Through art, I shall serve my country. Very Denise Richards in Drop Dead Gorgeous — just dark and knowing and perfect. Then a year later, when she's the returning queen sitting on stage wearing the tiara while the new contestants share their skills and one woman is singing horribly, she just goes: Jesus. She's so good at dark comedy, at viciousness in this way that makes me laugh.
Sarah Michelle Gellar in this film in the Letterman jacket with her tiara still on after winning — before they hit someone with their car — is such a good look. I feel like I'm going to do it as my Halloween costume. Do you think someone is already selling Letterman jackets from I Know What You Did Last Summer or will I need to commission one?
Sarah's boyfriend is Barry Cox, played by Ryan Phillippe. Barry is not a Ryan Phillippe name. But okay. Ryan gets super drunk the night of the pageant. Then they all get in his car, but Freddie is driving because he's too drunk. Then they hit the guy. Ryan is the most insistent that they don't tell the police. He's the rich kid — ugh, consequences. Ryan is such a great awful guy that you're still attracted to — much like in Cruel Intentions. He's disgusting, but also he cries a little and I'm like, I could fix him.
I was really shocked every time he said the word "slicker" talking about a raincoat. He kept saying it — some guy in a slicker. Some guy in a slicker attacked me. Did you see the guy in the slicker? I don't like that. It must be a regional thing.
Also, this film has great examples of the female gaze — seeing Ryan Phillippe walk around in a towel and then also a tank top, and Freddie Prinze Jr. in a tank top. These great moments of these guys just looking so good.
Freddie Prinze Jr. is Jennifer Love Hewitt's boyfriend, Ray Bronson. In real life, Freddie and Sarah are a power couple married for ages. They met on the set of this film but didn't date until three years later. I love Freddie Prinze Jr. He has one of the most lovable faces. He's a bit of a red herring in this film — his actions are shrouded in mystery — but one thing that's clear is his love for Jennifer. She just can't look at him knowing what they did together, and that's heartbreaking. They had such love for each other, but she can't live with what they did and he's a constant reminder.
Freddie Prinze Jr. in this movie in his tank top on the docks, helping with fish, is my dream man.
Also in this film: Bridget Wilson-Sampras, who plays Sarah's older sister Elsa Shivers. Is this where they got the idea for Frozen? Elsa Shivers? We shiver in the cold? We need to find out. She calls Sarah Michelle Gellar Little Miss Kroger and that got me. While looking at her IMDB I learned there was a 2007 Mr. and Mrs. Smith TV show pilot with her and Jordana Brewster as Mrs. Smith. I am furious that show doesn't exist. I can't believe this. This is the worst thing Hollywood has ever done.
Anne Heche plays the sister of the man they believe they've killed. Johnny Galecki plays a guy in love with Jennifer Love Hewitt. This is another movie you should just watch. It's streaming on HBO Max.
Shared Themes
12 Angry Men and I Know What You Did Last Summer are about justice and how we perceive it. What equals justice to one person may not be seen as justice by another.
In 12 Angry Men, many of our prejudiced jurors think justice is the accused boy being put to death for killing his father. They're like, look, this kid did it, everyone thinks he did it, and someone needs to pay for this man's death. While our main dissenting juror, Henry Fonda, thinks justice is following the laws set out by the court — sending someone to their death only when there is no reasonable doubt.
For him, the boy actually killing his father is less important than the task before them. And it's not as important to the movie either. We never actually find out if the boy was guilty or not. But we do see that the court did not meet its burden of proof. There were too many circumstantial pieces of evidence, too many explanations for how the boy may not have done it. Some of our jurors have a really hard time with that — the idea that a man is dead and perhaps no one will pay for it. Someone being punished is more important to some of them than carrying out the instructions laid forth by the court.
It's interesting to see how seriously some jurors take their task versus others. Some just want to get this over with. But when they start to listen and realize things may not be as cut and dry — when it's pointed out that the woman who claims she saw the stabbing had little glasses marks on her nose and likely wasn't wearing her glasses when she saw whatever she thinks she saw — the juror arguing for that testimony is like, you're right, she did have little glasses marks, just like me. For some people, it needs to be relatable to them.
For Juror #3, Marlon Brando Guy — he's like, no, I don't care what evidence you have or don't have. Children are terrible, like mine who hates me, so definitely this kid should be punished. At one point he's arguing that the old man witness is infallible. Someone else is like, well, that old man also said such-and-such. And juror three goes, he's an old man. How could he be positive about anything? And you see on his face — he's saying very clearly that obviously this old man doesn't know what he's talking about, but he's also basing his belief of the crime on what the old man said. He brushes right past it. He wants his views to be correct.
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, the conceit is someone knowing the actions of our protagonists and wanting to make them pay — wanting to enact his own form of justice on these rowdy teens. The slasher of the film — spoilers — is Ben Willis, a man whose daughter Susie died in a car crash with her boyfriend David Egan. Ben Willis blames David for Susie's death and enacts his own justice by first killing David and making it look like a suicide. Then, as he's leaving that scene, that's when he's hit by our four teens on their joyride. They dump his body instead of calling for help, and when he comes to, he dedicates himself to going after them.
Our four teens hit this guy with their car and argue over what to do. Jennifer Love Hewitt wants to tell the police. Ryan Phillippe thinks the accident will get them in more trouble because he's super drunk — he spilled alcohol all over the car, it's his car, it'll look like he was driving. Freddie Prinze Jr. is a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks — he worries about his future, thinks justice isn't served by having his life ruined when this guy ran out into the middle of the road. And to be honest, you're right — that doesn't feel like justice.
If I hit someone with my car, I would tell the police. I swear I would. But I see where these people are coming from — it looks worse than it is and all four could suffer massive consequences. They're about to head off to college. Their lives could be cut short. I get it. Of course, because of their guilt, their lives don't go the way they want anyway.
Jennifer keeps insisting it was an accident, police will understand. But you never really know how the police are going to respond to anything. A year later, when the four reunite, the argument over what is right, what is just — it continues. Jennifer considers what they did murder, because instead of getting the man help or telling anyone, they dumped the body. In her mind, that's when it went from accident to crime, to murder. So she broke up with her boyfriend and left.
When she's talking to Freddie about what they've experienced, he says he knows they couldn't stay together because she blames him for driving. She says the most heartbreaking line: I'm responsible for my own actions and I don't blame you, but I don't want to know you either.
Jennifer is disgusted by her own actions, has spent the last year sad and alone, cut off from these people who reminded her of what she did, as she punishes herself as some form of justice, thinking she doesn't deserve happiness after choosing to not tell anyone about what happened.
So much of our perception of justice comes from who we are and our own experiences. It's incredibly subjective. As much as we don't want it to be, as much as it shouldn't be, preconceived notions about the ways of the world are an important part of both of these stories, because they're something we can never really get rid of in our own lives.
Juror #3 hates the accused kid in 12 Angry Men because he has such conflicting feelings about his own kid. He hates his relationship with his son and recognizes in some way that they could have just as easily been on the stand for the same thing — that his son likely wanted to kill him at some point. The racist juror — his racism has him immediately pitted against the accused. His long rant about how people from slums act shows that he believes those different from him are guilty almost immediately. He doesn't need other evidence. And then the juror from the slums is like, whoa, I came from there and I'm not a criminal. Also, I know what a knife fight is and someone wouldn't stab from above. Let me show you how a stabbing would go. He has different information than the other guys — information that helps color his view of the case. He's coming from a different perspective.
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Jennifer Love Hewitt has lived a relatively easy life. She has faith the police will do the right thing, clear them if they say there was an accident. Whereas Freddie, who has lived as a poor guy on the wrong side of the tracks, treated badly — he doesn't have faith that the system will work in his favor because it never has. He feels like he's on a set path for life, that he's not going to get a break. When he becomes a fisherman like his father, it's with a certain resignation.
Ryan has always gotten what he wanted, gotten away with everything because of his privilege. So he believes this instance should be no different. He doesn't need to take responsibility. He can simply sweep this under the rug and go back to his life without a care.
Sarah tells herself the guy was drunk or suicidal, that he wanted to die, that they didn't kill him. She says to Jennifer, it was an accident. Jennifer says, Helen, we killed a man and then ruined the lives of everyone he knew. Sarah says, I don't think we're that powerful, Julie. You're giving us way too much credit. She doesn't want to think about the ripple effect of their actions. She wants to contain it to that one night, that one man. Because she's also never had to face consequences — she wins the pageant, things go well for her, people like her, she's popular. She starts to not like herself. You see that in the way she gives up on her dream and moves back home.
What I Know What You Did Last Summer Did Better
12 Angry Men is the story of 12 angry men forced together to determine the fate of the accused. They had nothing to do with the crime and were brought in on random chance. In I Know What You Did Last Summer, our four characters are brought together by a pact they made, a choice to remain silent regarding the crime that took place.
In 12 Angry Men, by the end, the guys mostly understand their involvement in the justice system. They understand, at least in some small way, the weight in sending a man to die. The process of being on a jury is something any one of us could experience, but it's still theoretical — this threat of a wrongful death. There's an obligation to complete the task and move on. When they vote not guilty, they all leave the courthouse never to see one another again. The old man and the main dissenter exchange last names, but then they too go their separate ways.
Even if they had voted the man guilty, they were just fulfilling their end of the bargain of society. They were called in to serve via mail. They had no idea what sort of case they'd get. The stakes for these men aren't particularly high. They're in a room with people who don't know them. It's not like anyone will know, that guy voted guilty, that guy was a real jerk about it. They will never see these men again. It's a high-minded film of what's right and what's wrong. Like a logic problem, it's theoretical rather than real. It's the trolley problem with no actual trolley.
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, four people have their lives ripped from them because of the choices they made. We see how Jennifer Love Hewitt is affected — at college, she's dead-eyed and pallid, not enjoying life. She's cut off her old relationships, her love for Freddie not enough to overcome what they did. Her affection for Sarah also falling by the wayside in her guilt. She has no one anymore. She's not connected. She's untethered.
We see that Sarah's journey to New York didn't work out — she came back home to work in her father's store with her overbearing older sister. She's not an actress, but a shut-in, reflecting on her past glory, telling herself the man they killed wanted to die. Freddie is devastated to lose Jennifer — instead of heading off to college, he stays home and goes into the fishing life expected of him. Ryan is least affected as far as we can tell, but things aren't going great for him either.
When Jennifer comes back to town, she points out that their lives have been ruined and begs them to reconsider. She says, yeah, but this is insane now, Barry. Look at us. The secret's killing us. He says, I'm not going to the police and you're not either. She says, Barry, please, we could put an end to it and maybe salvage some small fraction of a life. He says, and how do we do that? Huh? There was no accident, Julie. It was murder. Your words, remember? Murder.
Ryan feels they're in too deep and wants to solve the problem of the person taunting them by himself. Jennifer is desperate to reclaim the life she lost. Freddie has continued thinking about what they did — we learn he visited Anne Heche in secret under an alias and had a brief relationship with her before the guilt became too much, because he believed he had killed this woman's brother. All our characters hang on to what happened in one way or another, unable to move past it, unable to live their lives, because they had a hand in it.
The brilliance of 12 Angry Men is that it exists in one space at one time. It's claustrophobic, intense, frenzied, a slice of humanity. But it's a slice that exists outside of a whole, separate from a whole. There's no before and no after. There's no telling how the hours spent in this courtroom will affect the jurors going forward.
Whether the kid committed the crime or not is left ambiguous because whether he did it doesn't affect these 12 men. There can't be consequences for jurors for what they do — otherwise no one would serve jury duty. It would take away the idea that people can weigh in honestly based on what's presented. These men debate about what's right, make their pick, go on their way. It doesn't affect them.
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, four people have to live with what they chose. They didn't report what happened. They didn't call the police with even an anonymous tip. They didn't drop the body outside a hospital. They chose to shove him into the water. They used their own hands to enact it.
Sarah tries to put that choice onto the man they hit, giving him agency to remove herself from the equation. She says, maybe he wanted to die. David Egan — his girlfriend was killed on that same road, July 4th, one year earlier. Maybe he blamed himself. Maybe he was sitting in the road waiting for us to hit him. Jennifer replies: yeah, if that'll help you sleep at night.
Jennifer knows it's a futile hope. Regardless of what anyone else chose to do, regardless of whether that man wanted to die, her choices are her own. And that is what weighs on all of them.
If you're thinking about watching something about justice — you need to show something to a class — maybe think about teaching I Know What You Did Last Summer. An equally thought-provoking film on the concepts of justice and preconceived notions. It's streaming on HBO Max.
Hit me up at @tastelesspod on social media and we can talk about how much I miss late ‘90s slashers, or how incredible it was to see these four people in one film. Perfection.
Gotta Have Faith: The Exorcist vs Enchanted
Two films that explore faith as well as representations of good and evil that endure through generations — it's The Exorcist vs Enchanted.
Read The Episode
Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two films that explore faith as well as the ultimate representations of good and evil. It's The Exorcist versus Enchanted.
The Exorcist
When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
This movie came out in 1973 and has an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. It won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for William Peter Blatty, who adapted the film from his own novel, and it also won for Best Sound. It was nominated for another eight Oscars — Best Picture, Best Lead Actress for Ellen Burstyn, Best Supporting Actor for Jason Miller, Best Supporting Actress for Linda Blair, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing. That's crazy for a horror movie. A genre often maligned for supposed cheap scares and tricks — it's hard to get a horror movie the recognition it deserves.
The Exorcist was a success. It's famous for the reactions it elicited in audiences — people keeling over, passing out, barfing. Very upsetting. I'm glad I didn't see this in theaters in 1973. I knew the basics of this film, but I recently watched it for the first time. The sense of foreboding woven throughout is impressive.
It starts in this desert. This old guy, Max von Sydow — he's Father Merrin, a priest at an archaeological dig who finds a weird little statue of a demon. Maybe don't pick up dusty artifacts. We learned this in The Mummy. Don't pick stuff up out of the sand. Anything that's in the sand, it wants to be there. But then this guy is almost trampled by horses. He's just walking around looking dazed and scared. I felt like the desert was too hot for this old man. Clearly something bad is happening.
Then we meet Ellen Burstyn. Her character Chris McNeil is an actress, but we only see her being an actress for about four minutes at a fake protest scene. Is Ellen Burstyn ever not stressful? Are there movies where she just has a nice time? I haven't seen them. Poor Ellen Burstyn. Her kids are Jared Leto in Requiem for a Dream and the damn devil in this movie. And then Pieces of a Woman seems like a real bummer. And in SVU, she's Elliot Stabler's mom and bipolar and refuses to get help. Ellen Burstyn never gets to just chill.
In one scene, the lights flicker off and Ellen is just darting her eyes back and forth. Really good moment. She portrays this trembling inner fear so well she makes the viewer feel nervous, even though she has the same haircut as Danny in The Shining. Very upsetting.
Of course, this film's exorcism is centered on Ellen Burstyn's daughter Reagan, played by Linda Blair. Linda was in this great weird 80s horror movie called Hell Night. She also played an obnoxious reporter, uncredited, in Scream. I love when someone leans into their career. Linda raises money for the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, an animal welfare organization, by selling autograph prints and memorabilia. She has used this thing she's so known for, for good, and I love that.
The role obviously skyrocketed her to fame. And it's upsetting how much was stacked against her. According to the Exorcist Wiki, the agency representing Linda Blair recommended 30 other clients for the part but not Linda, and Linda's mother brought her in herself. Then, due to death threats from religious zealots who believed the film glorified Satan, Warner Brothers had to hire bodyguards to protect her for six months after the film's release. People are insane.
Linda Blair received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. But William Friedkin really pushed that she was the only person who portrayed this role because he wanted realism. But Mercedes McCambridge provided the voice of the demon. When she wasn't credited, it caused controversy. They couldn't take back the nomination when that was found out, but it really killed her chances of winning.
Mercedes insisted on swallowing raw eggs and chain smoking to alter her vocalizations. She had problems with alcohol in the past and wanted to drink whiskey to mess up her voice and create the crazed state of mind. At William Friedkin's direction, McCambridge was also bound to a chair with pieces of a torn sheet at her neck, arms, wrists, legs, and feet to get a more realistic sound of the demon struggling against its restraints. Then Mercedes had to sue Warner Brothers for credit as the voice of the demon.
Basically, Linda Blair is this kid. The production of the movie has nothing to do with her. And the director is like, yeah, she did it. And she's just like, yeah, I did it. And then people are like, how dare you take credit? It just sucks.
She's possessed by a demon that claims to be the devil. The bed is shaking, she's screaming. At first I'm thinking, okay, get off the bed. But then I realized that when an earthquake happens, I just stay on the bed and assume I'm dying. I can't really judge.
Her mom takes her to doctors, to multiple doctors for different tests. One test is just blood shooting out of a throat hole. Very normal test. One of the first ones they do. They put a hole in your throat, have some blood shoot out, and go, okay, blood's coming out, that's good. Apparently it was a relatively accurate version of this test and William Friedkin claims students have used it to study the procedure, but it is a shocking scene.
Burstyn's like, okay, I guess we get a priest because I don't know what to do. The doctors are like, there's some alien intelligence, a spirit if you will. These scientists are ridiculous. Reagan is straight up purple and green and talking in this demon voice and scientists are like, uh, maybe something's weird with her brain? I don't know.
So Ellen Burstyn gets Father Karras, played by Jason Miller — a priest who has been doubting his own faith and whose mother is having a hard time and ultimately dies. He's kind of like, I don't know that exorcism is what we should be doing. And the scene where Reagan projectile vomits at Father Karras only required one take — the vomit was intended to hit Jason Miller in the chest, but the plastic tubing misfired, hitting him in the face. His reaction of shock and disgust is genuine, and he admitted he was very angered by this mistake. If a demon threw up on me, I would not be able to continue my life. It would be done.
Then we get back to Father Merrin from the beginning, Max von Sydow. He's called in because Karras is like, all right, maybe we do an exorcism. And the higher-ups are like, okay, we've got to get the big guns. This guy, Father Merrin, he'd done one before and almost died. Let's get him. And it's so sad because he's out in the woods hanging out and some other priest comes up and gives him this paper, which clearly says, hey, you've got to come do an exorcism. And he just looks at it and it's like: God, fine. I guess I'll go die doing another exorcism.
My final review: this movie has too many fluids coming out of too many holes. But it's definitely worth a watch.
Enchanted
A young maiden in a land called Andalasia, who is prepared to be wed, is sent away to New York City by an evil Queen, where she falls in love with a lawyer.
This movie came out in 2007, has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Enchanted was nominated for three Oscars — three Best Song Oscars. They had a 60% chance of winning with "Happy Working Song," "So Close," and "That's How You Know." Lost to "Falling Slowly" from Once. Honestly, very unacceptable.
This movie is a mix of animation and live action. We start with the animation — animated Amy Adams running into animated James Marsden. They're both singing. They decide to get married the next day, but then she's sent by a witch, Susan Sarandon, to a place where there are no happily ever afters — aka modern-day New York. Amy is of course confused by this loud, bright new world. She lands in Times Square in her giant wedding dress. The imagery, the cinematography in this movie is so striking.
Amy Adams is incredible. To pull off this level of cartoonish bigness and not be annoying — she's so naive, so earnest. Yet I have no cynicism towards her. I'm rooting for her from moment one.
Let's talk Amy Adams roles for a second. Arrival should have gotten her an Oscar. At least a nomination. She has six Oscar nominations. Junebug was her first, one of her earlier roles. Doubt was her next — her and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep dealing with scandal in a church setting. The Fighter she was so good in. The Master she was so good in. American Hustle, Vice.
Other movies she should have been nominated for: this one — Enchanted. Big Eyes. Trouble with the Curve. The movie Her. The Muppets. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Sunshine Cleaning. Her episodes of The Office, her episode of Charmed, her episode of Buffy. Talladega Nights. Cruel Intentions 2. All of her scenes in Psycho Beach Party. Drop Dead Gorgeous. All things she should have been nominated for Oscars for. Am I just screaming her IMDB? Yes, I am. Amy Adams should have 200 Oscars.
Everything she does, she is a joy to watch. She's such a talented — workhorse feels like an offensive word, but whatever she is in, she is making it better. She was working for ages before hitting it big. She put just as much heart and humor and reality into the small roles as the big ones. I mean, Talladega Nights — she's the mousy assistant that winds up with Will Ferrell at the end. It's so good. She can do so broad, so specific. She gets dark humor. She gets drama. She can make you cry. And not only can she portray any role, she can sing like an angel.
"Happy Working Song." Brilliant. The pigeons and rats and roaches come and help her clean up because basically it's the classic Disney song — she calls all the forest creatures to come help her clean. But the forest creatures of New York are pigeons and rats and roaches and they help her clean and it's amazing.
When she steps out of the shower and the birds put the towel around her body, her wide-eyed grin — it could easily be insipid, but it's not. It's utterly charming. She makes a dress out of curtains. She nails every single layer of comedy and rings every funny moment out of a scene in a way that doesn't chew the scenery and that only enhances the work of her co-stars.
When Amy Adams lands in modern-day New York, she tries to find her way home and climbs up onto a billboard that looks like an enchanted castle. There, Patrick Dempsey and his young daughter find her and try to help. Patrick Dempsey is the stereotypical love interest grump. I hate fun. I have floppy hair but a rigid personality. He is perfect for this because Amy's head-in-the-clouds nature needs a little grounding to get used to New York. Who better than a single dad who helps couples get divorced and doesn't really live life for himself?
Although he does become the true villain of the movie when they're walking through the park and she's eating something — like a donut or a cinnamon bun — and she's like, this is so yummy, nibbling. And he goes, you all done? and takes it from her hand and throws it out. She wasn't done, there was still some left, Patrick Dempsey.
When they're walking in the park, we hear another of the Oscar-nominated songs, "That's How You Know." This is another fun movie moment where you're sucked in, everybody's singing and dancing. Patrick gets the classical musical moment of being like, wait, how does everyone know this song but me? I know I'm banging on him, but if I was with someone and they started singing in the park, I would be distraught. I'd be like, why do you all know this song? Why are you doing this to me?
Amy, with Patrick Dempsey, explores nuance — different emotions other than just excitement, happiness, true love. She gets to feel anger for the first time. That feeling disconnects her from her prince, James Marsden. James doesn't feel anger — he feels just dopey happiness at all times. When he and Amy are reunited, they don't click in the same way. James Marsden — perfect for this role. Handsome prince. Not fair that he can also sing. He comes to rescue her. He really does want what's best for her, but he doesn't grow or change. And she does.
She's obviously starting to fall for Patrick Dempsey. He has a girlfriend: Idina Menzel. Now, the one knock against this movie — it is a full Disney musical with Idina Menzel and Idina does not sing a note. Absolutely insane. Why? Why would you put her there and not let her sing?
Susan Sarandon comes to town — she's the witch, James Marsden's stepmother. She comes to get Amy Adams to eat a poison apple. She rises up in Times Square in a plume of green smoke from a sewer. She's so evil in the most cartoonish, amazing way. She sneaks Amy an apple. And that's another cinematography moment — Amy is looking at the apple and her face is reflected in it. She takes a bite. And of course she dies, or passes out and will die if she doesn't get revived by midnight.
James Marsden is like, I need to kiss her. True love's kiss. He kisses her. Nothing. And then he's like, hold on, Patrick Dempsey, you should kiss her. You're probably her true love. Patrick Dempsey is like, I'm kind of dating Idina Menzel. And Idina Menzel is like, just go ahead, Patrick. Just kiss her. Because even she is like, obviously you should be with Amy Adams. What a secure, wonderful woman.
Then we get the great moment of Amy saving Patrick from the evil dragon. Giselle — that's Amy's name in the movie — is like, is this a habit of yours, falling off of stuff? And Patrick says, only when you're around to catch me. I love that they turned it on its head.
Then James Marsden and Idina Menzel hop into a storm drain. I would hop into a storm drain with either of them to go live in the fairy tale land and have their own wedding. And the movie ends with a shoeless family dance, which I love just as much as I loved it in Matilda.
I haven't even talked about Nathaniel. Nathaniel is great — the henchman, played by Timothy Spall, who's a perfect henchman. IMDB's bio for him is: short, roly-poly, pudding-faced Timothy Leonard Spall was an award-winning classical character actor. Short, roly-poly, pudding-faced Timothy. That is so rude.
Shared Themes
Good versus evil is a big, broad concept — one that's at the core of most movies, of most stories. A good guy and a bad guy. The Exorcist and Enchanted are two representations rooted in a certain way of thinking: The Exorcist in religion and Enchanted in fairy tale and the world of Disney. These films tap into the types of stories we are told that are meant to shape how we perceive the world — whether that's religious lessons and doctrine or fairy tales with morals at the end. They're stories that endure in our lives across generations.
The Exorcist taps into our fears about the devil, demonic possession, an entity that is stopped only by holy water and the utterances of a priest. A pure evil, one that overtakes a child for no other reason than it can. Reagan has done nothing to deserve what happens to her. She hasn't brought it upon herself in any way. And that's an important part of the story — that she's an innocent and yet this is able to happen. The only people who can fix it, or attempt to, are those closest to God. The priests who speak from the Bible and fight off what has taken root in poor Reagan.
Ellen Burstyn is upset to find a crucifix in Reagan's room at one point, not wanting to admit that it may save her daughter — that something repelled by the presence of a crucifix could be inhabiting her child's body. People watching the film passed out, walked out, because of how intense the imagery was. Yeah, some of that was all the bodily fluids, but some of that was also tapping into this dark, primal fear we have within us.
What allows people to turn to religion in times of need is also what can be the downfall. We look back on exorcisms in olden times as barbaric and inhuman, but if we were unsure of how else to help someone we loved, I think many of us would at least give it a shot. In our bones and the stories passed down to us, we've been told that true evil can be fought by those who have been deemed worthy, blessed with the title of Father.
In modern times, religion is still a piece of who people are, still taught and learned and expressed. But we now also have the cult of media. The images we're presented every day in the art we consume, the stories we read, the bedtime stories our parents told us. Less often about demons and more often about princesses and princes, dragons and castles. These stories shape our morals and our expectations just as much as religion has. It's just a more in-touch, modern way of getting those lessons across.
Enchanted has its happy endings and its fun tropes, but it can be watched as a deconstruction of the Disney-fied idea of happily ever after that we've been fed by the media for decades.
These more modern depictions of good and evil show beautiful princesses who fall for a man who will take care of them. The princess marries him, lives as this bride. Evil are the older women jealous of the heroine's good looks, her youth. The messaging that lies under every rom-com, it's in Disney, it's in the muted fairy tales adapted from the more violent Grimm's stories — that a woman's value is in getting the attention of a man and supporting him, while a man must be the ultimate protector.
In Enchanted we explore these tropes, these extremes. We see Amy and James meet and decide to get married the next day. Then Amy meets Patrick Dempsey and realizes she has choices. But we see how she must fight that initial urge to do as she's told, do what she thinks she's been taught to do. Yeah, at the end of the day, the Evil Queen is evil. She poisons Amy. She's very rude to her little henchman guy. Susan Sarandon is awful to Nathaniel. There is still that black and white of evil and good. But in Enchanted's even more modern version of morality tales, we get to see choice — the henchman doing what is right, Amy exploring her own path, making choices for herself.
The Exorcist and Enchanted raise questions of faith — faith our characters must have in themselves and in their actions to defeat their foes.
In The Exorcist, faith is the central focus and exploration. Father Karras is a religious man but aligns much more with the scientists who repeatedly check Reagan for brain lesions, seizures, psychiatric problems. He questions his faith as he watches his mother suffer. He runs scientific tests on Reagan — flicking her with what he claims is holy water that she reacts to by screaming, and he later says it was only tap water. He also thinks to be possessed you need to speak in another language, and maybe she is, but then he finds out she's just speaking backwards and is like, she's a faker.
Father Karras's speaking backwards is kind of impressive and very scary, especially because she says the name of Merrin backwards — and it's like, how did she know he was coming? But Karras embraces what must be done with Father Merrin, and he completes the ultimate leap of faith when he demands the demon take his body instead of Reagan and then throws himself to his death.
There's something interesting to what bearing faith has on the physical. The psychiatrists Ellen Burstyn visits prior to linking up with Father Karras tell her to look into exorcism. Ellen says, you're telling me that I should take my daughter to a witch doctor? They don't think it's a demon, but they think Reagan believes that. So perhaps going through the ceremony will work through whatever inner turmoil is causing her to lash out. Basically the placebo effect.
This movie is scary if you believe in the possibility of demon possession, of exorcism. And it's scary if you don't — because someone does. On the mostly harmless side, you see people who believe in the Holy Ghost passing through them, flinging themselves around on the ground. On the scarier side, you see people who do awful things because they think some other entity is controlling them. Whether they claim a demon or Grand Theft Auto, they're ascribing their actions to something else. Their faith in that thing controlling them is what determines the outcome.
It comes down to what you believe. If you are not Catholic, you are less likely to believe you need an exorcism. People thinking they are possessed are most often Catholic or raised Catholic or associated with that faith more so than any other. There is something spiritual about this film, something that makes you question your own belief.
The film's production suffered its own events some call cursed. The set caught on fire. Ellen Burstyn had her spine injured being ripped on a wire — she said about William Friedkin that he's so dedicated to getting the shot right that some other considerations fall by the wayside. She was ripped back, landed on her coccyx, has a permanent injury. Actors Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros both died while the film was in post-production — they also played characters that died in the film. Televangelist Billy Graham stated there is a power of evil in the film, in the fabric of the film itself.
At one show, a woman was so frightened she passed out and broke her jaw. She later sued, suggesting subliminal messages caused the accident. Warner Brothers settled. One subliminal message scholar believed such imagery to be authentic and not created by the filmmakers — therefore he deemed the film itself was possessed. But when he talked about it, the subliminal images he described were not actually in there. He imagined them. This movie sends people off the rails. It's what you are willing to let in. What you have faith in affects what's going to happen to you in a weird way.
In Enchanted, Patrick Dempsey keeps telling Amy she doesn't know what she's talking about. He tells his daughter that Amy is confused when she talks of this magical land of Andalasia. He thinks she's just a super weird non-fairy-tale human instead of a fairy tale woman plucked from her realm and unceremoniously dropped in Patrick's world.
But when Amy has been poisoned by the Evil Queen's apple, she only has until midnight to be revived. After James kisses her and nothing happens and the clock ticks forward, everyone turns to Patrick saying he can give true love's kiss and bring her back. He hesitates — no, no, I have a girlfriend. Even his girlfriend is like, just kiss her. And when he kisses her and she remains still for a moment, he is disappointed — because in that moment he believed it would work. He believed he would revive her. And then suddenly she is awake.
Whether the kiss was true love's kiss doesn't matter as much as having that faith. He needed to believe it was real because that's what gave him the magic to bring her back to life. He willed her back into existence with his love. He poured all of his love into her, hoping it would be enough.
He is so much happier when he lets these beliefs in. When Amy was just a crazy person, someone he wanted kept away from his daughter, someone who was a burden — he was like, this sucks, you're ruining my job. But when he believes she is who she says she is, it allows him to see the best parts of her. Her optimism and kindness are no longer naive but instead charming. It causes him to look at the world differently — approaching his job as a divorce lawyer not with cynicism but wanting what's best for the person in front of him.
Amy also puts her faith in true love — not in the way she thought. At first she's worried love has led her astray because when she's reunited with James Marsden, they're not having a good time. But she feels she owes him something because they're meant to be. She's bored of him, not challenged the way she is with Patrick. But she has faith things work out as they should. And when Patrick gives her true love's kiss and she reawakens, she's just as quick to put her faith in the love between herself and Patrick.
Although she's lived in a world where she's the damsel, she has faith she can protect this love. She rescues Patrick from the dragon and succeeds. She puts belief in herself as the hero in a way that changes who she is. And that's what makes her an incredible character and role model — this faith she has in herself and in the goodness of others to do the right thing.
What Enchanted Did Better
While The Exorcist played into the extremes of our beliefs, Enchanted purposefully brought its story into a world without magic to shatter those extremes, to ground them.
The Exorcist with its overabundance of fluids spraying around the screen, its subliminal imaging, its disgusting sexualized demon in the body of a young girl — it's all worst-case scenario, truly awful, meant to terrorize you. The demon takes on Father Karras's mother's voice to taunt him from beyond the grave. It flings people to their death. There's no subtlety and that's what's so frightening. The worst thing a mother could ever think of happening to her daughter is happening right in front of her. The movie's tension is ratcheted up and up and up. I understand why people keeled over — there's no respite, no time to take it in. You're hammered with aggressive imagery for over two hours.
It's effective. But I find it so intriguing on revisiting Enchanted that it takes these big ideas, these fairy tale characters, and mostly neuters them. The wisecracking chipmunk can only do little chipmunk peeps in the real world. Instead of gorgeous bluebirds, Amy is helped to clean by roaches and rats and pigeons — everyday animals. She fashions the apartment's curtains into a dress instead of wearing gorgeous fabrics made by a rabbit with some thread or whatever.
Enchanted evokes magic in the everyday, an intrigue in things closer to home. It takes the magical and makes it part of real life — instead of taking real life and making it extreme.
I think it's easier to evoke the emotion you want if you are just hammering the same note over and over, as The Exorcist does effectively. But I like the rises and falls of Enchanted.
The Exorcist leans into its stereotypes and religious mythos. Enchanted holds a mirror up to the romantic ideals, Disney-type stories that have been set forth in pop culture and turns them on their head. The Exorcist terrorizes viewers with its depiction of good and evil. It puts a real fear of God into people, fear of the devil. It came down on the side of the possession being real, giving the viewer every reason to believe Reagan's body had been taken over. The author took a real story about possession and adapted it.
Enchanted brings fairy tale archetypes we know to life, but then dismantles them, which is what makes the film so interesting. The Exorcist is about an exorcism — it's exactly what it says on the tin. Enchanted is about things not being enchanted at all, but how that's not what matters. It gives us a new lens through which we can view similar films, yet also captures the same joyful emotions that a more typical Disney film captures.
A kid can watch this movie and feel just as thrilled, have their imagination provoked in the same way as when they watch Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. The fairy tale is the jumping-off point, but the movie fights against any expectations you set for it. It's what makes the film so charming and why it holds up now and will hold up in the future. It questions what we've been told by stories. The Exorcist enforces our deepest fears from stories. Both are valid approaches.
The Exorcist deserves a spot as one of the best all-time horror movies, as something that changed the landscape of horror. But Enchanted becomes something that can take on a life of its own across genres and can be taken at face value or looked at as something deeper. There are elements you see coming — you know she's going to end up with Patrick Dempsey. But that extra little twist of her saving him after he kisses her is what keeps me coming back.
I don't know that The Exorcist is something I need to revisit again. I think I got all I needed. So if you haven't seen either movie, I'd say watch them. Maybe don't watch them together like I did. Actually, you know what? Watch them together. Start with The Exorcist, then Enchanted, so you can go to bed less scared.
I'm going to go back to just repeatedly watching "Happy Working Song" on YouTube for the next 10 hours.
Hit me up at @tastelesspod. Tell me your favorite Amy Adams role. Or how we can get Ellen Burstyn on a nice vacation.