I hate hate when conspiracy theorists are depicted as correct. It'll be something like one lone guy who is convinced there are aliens or swamp devils, the scientists brush him off, but then the town is overrun. I hate when scientists are depicted as these smug, unconvinced people who never believe in the monsters until the second they're getting eaten.
In every alien invasion or robot glitch apocalypse movie there's always one everyman who stands up to some pretentious scientist, and then the scientist is later brutally killed. Or if it's a lady scientist, she gets seduced by the muscular hot male everyman hero.
Similarly, I hate when movies portray exorcists as correct, or anything involving realistic portrayals of spiritualists or psychics. A ton of modern horror movie will have a psychic like you'd find in the yellow pages in real life, except instead of being a con artist, they're genuinely magical . I despise the Insidious movies for this. The Warrens were real people and blatant con artists.
Its probably not single-handedly responsible, but The Exorcist might actually have a body count by how much more popular exorcisms became after its release, several wiki pages specifically track exorcisms increasing starting the year after its came out.
Its a well made film still but knowing it had such an impact makes it a lot harder to watch and enjoy(Not to mention the very real abusive and negligent practices during filming).
Edit: Actually double checked on the filming stuff and no one fucking told me that both the actresses for Reagan as well as her mother suffered permanent spine injuries on set due to the shit that was pulled. The mom fractured her tailbone being thrown to the wall which left her unable to film for two whole weeks and on crutches for the rest of the filming, followed by unspecified lifelong problems. And Linda Blair developed scoliosis from filming scenes of her rocking back and forth in the bed when the rig for it fucked up and didnt secure her properly.
Ive heard both those stories told before but there was never a mention of lifelong injury, also the director has been accused of spreading the rumor of a "curse" because of these incidents and a bunch of other workers being injured or dying due to his negligence and extended shooting schedule.
Well there's a case to be made that these movies had such an impact because of specific material conditions. There's a good reason these copycats were focused on abusing young women with illnesses or giving an excuse to dudebros who want to prove their masculinity, instead of perhaps examining Catholic abuses or examining self-destructive dudebro behavior.
Like Squid game and Parasite are huge cultural successes, and yet I haven't seen them instigate any mass uprisings against the rich. Instead I've seen them inspire rich idiots to create their own little Squid Games.
Jurassic Park didn't cause widespread skepticism of corporate authority over stuff like patents or encroaching into wildlife. Instead it caused a kind of benign interest in dinosaurs and the impact of computer graphics in films.
You're probably right that cultural forces do shape how people behave, but what particular messages they took from these movies and what they did about those messaes was very much informed by their material conditions.
I hate hate when conspiracy theorists are depicted as correct. It'll be something like one lone guy who is convinced there are aliens or swamp devils, the scientists brush him off, but then the town is overrun. I hate when scientists are depicted as these smug, unconvinced people who never believe in the monsters until the second they're getting eaten.
In every alien invasion or robot glitch apocalypse movie there's always one everyman who stands up to some pretentious scientist, and then the scientist is later brutally killed. Or if it's a lady scientist, she gets seduced by the muscular hot male everyman hero.
Similarly, I hate when movies portray exorcists as correct, or anything involving realistic portrayals of spiritualists or psychics. A ton of modern horror movie will have a psychic like you'd find in the yellow pages in real life, except instead of being a con artist, they're genuinely magical . I despise the Insidious movies for this. The Warrens were real people and blatant con artists.
Its probably not single-handedly responsible, but The Exorcist might actually have a body count by how much more popular exorcisms became after its release, several wiki pages specifically track exorcisms increasing starting the year after its came out.
Its a well made film still but knowing it had such an impact makes it a lot harder to watch and enjoy(Not to mention the very real abusive and negligent practices during filming).
Edit: Actually double checked on the filming stuff and no one fucking told me that both the actresses for Reagan as well as her mother suffered permanent spine injuries on set due to the shit that was pulled. The mom fractured her tailbone being thrown to the wall which left her unable to film for two whole weeks and on crutches for the rest of the filming, followed by unspecified lifelong problems. And Linda Blair developed scoliosis from filming scenes of her rocking back and forth in the bed when the rig for it fucked up and didnt secure her properly.
Ive heard both those stories told before but there was never a mention of lifelong injury, also the director has been accused of spreading the rumor of a "curse" because of these incidents and a bunch of other workers being injured or dying due to his negligence and extended shooting schedule.
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Well there's a case to be made that these movies had such an impact because of specific material conditions. There's a good reason these copycats were focused on abusing young women with illnesses or giving an excuse to dudebros who want to prove their masculinity, instead of perhaps examining Catholic abuses or examining self-destructive dudebro behavior.
Like Squid game and Parasite are huge cultural successes, and yet I haven't seen them instigate any mass uprisings against the rich. Instead I've seen them inspire rich idiots to create their own little Squid Games.
Jurassic Park didn't cause widespread skepticism of corporate authority over stuff like patents or encroaching into wildlife. Instead it caused a kind of benign interest in dinosaurs and the impact of computer graphics in films.
You're probably right that cultural forces do shape how people behave, but what particular messages they took from these movies and what they did about those messaes was very much informed by their material conditions.
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i do like the opposite trope of charlatans being called in to solve actual supernatural stuff and get clowned on. that's hilarious
The scene at the beginning of the Casper movie is very funny. Where the ghosts run off a priest and a Ghostbuster (with Dan Akroyd cameo)
Also Whoopie Goldberg in Ghost being shocked she's actually a psychic after being a charlatan for years
Wow, the Guido Sarducci cameo in Casper. I almost forgot that one. I’ve never figured out the SNL connection to that movie.