Last night I had a recurring dream and also a dream within a dream kind of thing.
Tim and I are watching a documentary about movies. They start showing clips from The Exorcist, and there's stuff about the woman who played the demon face in the movie.
I'm okay with, at first. But then I start worrying they're going to show the scarier scenes, and I realize I don't want to be watching them. I decide I want to turn off the TV. I go to the TV and try to turn it off but am unable to do so.
This reminds me of the dreams I used to have where I couldn't turn off The Exorcist. I ask Tim to help me, and he's grump and very disinterested in offering assistance. I'm annoyed by his lack of help and also his apparent ignorance about my past issues with the movie.
I've long ago lost my fear of The Exorcist. But I guess I'm still haunted by the idea I won't be able to turn it off. I think this, though, was a new twist. I may be wrong, but I think usually, in the dream, I'm faced with the problem alone. Now I am not alone...physically. But emotionally I am.
Side note: I have confused memories of not overly long ago( I mean within the last decade) of talking to someone connected to the demon face in The Exorcist. I think she was married to an American-Australian who wrote an Australian novel, and I was critical of the novel. And she was critical of my criticism. But who was she?? Was she the actual actress/stunt woman? Or someone connected to the actress?
I want to search my email to see if there are any clues there. But I'm not sure if it was an email or a comment.
OR wait. Maybe what happened is she had the same name as this person, and I thought she was The Exorcist demon face woman. But I just guessed and had no proof.
Well.....
Lord Wiki says the actress's name is Eileen Dietz. She's married to a guy named Thomas Albany. I don't see anything about him writing an Australian novel.
Okay. I did some digging into my emails. I first searched for Eileen and came up empty. Then I searched for Dietz and ended up with an email from a Denise Dietz. I'm not sure how I got the idea she is somehow related to Eileen Dietz.
I shall keep digging. I have to trust that my past self (of 2011) was at least somewhat logical.
Well, before more digging, I should make a correction.
The author (Gordon Aalborg) is NOT America-Australian. He's Canadian-Australian.
Denise Dietz had a website that she linked to in her email. Maybe that's where The Exorcist stuff was mentioned? But now the website isn't working....so not much help there.
Here's an interview with Denise Dietz. I skimmed through; saw nothing about The Exorcist. Maybe 2011 me was NOT logical and had this idea that everyone named Dietz is connected to The Exorcist.
Although that makes no sense, because if you ever asked me who played the demon face in The Exorcist I wouldn't be able to give you the name offhand. I mean Linda Blair...I could that. And Mercedes McCambridge...definitely. That's all common knowledge in my brain. But Dietz? No.
Well....
I just solved it.
I realized the obvious solution would be to simply Google Denise Dietz and The Exorcist. I got another interview, and this one talks about her sister being Eileen Dietz.
Cool.
And I'm glad the mystery is solved.
I guess when she sent me the email, I went to the link she provided, and the factoid was there.
Another thing to note. I just reread the email, and she really was NOT critical of my criticism. It's more like she was correcting my misconceptions. But I think I was sensitive and took it as criticism. Or...more precisely, I worried that I had offended her.
Well...I just reread my email back to her, more carefully, and I mention her sister being in The Exorcist. So I probably should have just carefully reread both our emails before digging around Google. But I'm kind of glad I didn't, because the Googling-to-solve-a-mystery was kind of fun.
Tim and I are watching a documentary about movies. They start showing clips from The Exorcist, and there's stuff about the woman who played the demon face in the movie.
I'm okay with, at first. But then I start worrying they're going to show the scarier scenes, and I realize I don't want to be watching them. I decide I want to turn off the TV. I go to the TV and try to turn it off but am unable to do so.
This reminds me of the dreams I used to have where I couldn't turn off The Exorcist. I ask Tim to help me, and he's grump and very disinterested in offering assistance. I'm annoyed by his lack of help and also his apparent ignorance about my past issues with the movie.
I've long ago lost my fear of The Exorcist. But I guess I'm still haunted by the idea I won't be able to turn it off. I think this, though, was a new twist. I may be wrong, but I think usually, in the dream, I'm faced with the problem alone. Now I am not alone...physically. But emotionally I am.
Side note: I have confused memories of not overly long ago( I mean within the last decade) of talking to someone connected to the demon face in The Exorcist. I think she was married to an American-Australian who wrote an Australian novel, and I was critical of the novel. And she was critical of my criticism. But who was she?? Was she the actual actress/stunt woman? Or someone connected to the actress?
I want to search my email to see if there are any clues there. But I'm not sure if it was an email or a comment.
OR wait. Maybe what happened is she had the same name as this person, and I thought she was The Exorcist demon face woman. But I just guessed and had no proof.
Well.....
Lord Wiki says the actress's name is Eileen Dietz. She's married to a guy named Thomas Albany. I don't see anything about him writing an Australian novel.
Okay. I did some digging into my emails. I first searched for Eileen and came up empty. Then I searched for Dietz and ended up with an email from a Denise Dietz. I'm not sure how I got the idea she is somehow related to Eileen Dietz.
I shall keep digging. I have to trust that my past self (of 2011) was at least somewhat logical.
Well, before more digging, I should make a correction.
The author (Gordon Aalborg) is NOT America-Australian. He's Canadian-Australian.
Denise Dietz had a website that she linked to in her email. Maybe that's where The Exorcist stuff was mentioned? But now the website isn't working....so not much help there.
Here's an interview with Denise Dietz. I skimmed through; saw nothing about The Exorcist. Maybe 2011 me was NOT logical and had this idea that everyone named Dietz is connected to The Exorcist.
Although that makes no sense, because if you ever asked me who played the demon face in The Exorcist I wouldn't be able to give you the name offhand. I mean Linda Blair...I could that. And Mercedes McCambridge...definitely. That's all common knowledge in my brain. But Dietz? No.
Well....
I just solved it.
I realized the obvious solution would be to simply Google Denise Dietz and The Exorcist. I got another interview, and this one talks about her sister being Eileen Dietz.
Cool.
And I'm glad the mystery is solved.
I guess when she sent me the email, I went to the link she provided, and the factoid was there.
Another thing to note. I just reread the email, and she really was NOT critical of my criticism. It's more like she was correcting my misconceptions. But I think I was sensitive and took it as criticism. Or...more precisely, I worried that I had offended her.
Well...I just reread my email back to her, more carefully, and I mention her sister being in The Exorcist. So I probably should have just carefully reread both our emails before digging around Google. But I'm kind of glad I didn't, because the Googling-to-solve-a-mystery was kind of fun.
This is interesting because I'm not just a huge horror fan (books and movies) but also a meta horror fan (why we like it, why things are scary, etc) Seeing you talk about something that scared you, when I found parts of "The Dead are Online" terrifying is pretty groovy, like learning Stephen King is afraid of flying. The concepts and storytelling were really cool. There were times I'd forget which characters were dead, and I think that was the point. I also liked how the "BIG QUESTIONS" were answered by the overall premise, and it was how it affected little day to day things that was the focus. Creepy and fun all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteJeff,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much. I mean I guess I can't really thank you for liking it. But I am thankful that you read it, and I'm very glad you liked it. Not many people have read it, so it's a big deal for me.
Now you have me thinking of what scares me in horror movies and what doesn't. I guess it's different for everyone? I think one of my scariest horror movie scenes is in Fallen where Azazel is passed from person to person by just touching. It's like the idea of a horror that can't be escaped (Like my Exorcist dreams). But then, on the other end of the spectrum, we just saw It: Chapter Two. And I can't bring myself to understand why the creature effects would be scary. When the fortune cookies were opening up, I was very annoyed, wondering why they were all screaming instead of taking out their cameras to capture it all for Instagram.
What type of things scare you most in horror movies/books?
I don't know if I knew about Stephen King and flying. I'm guessing I probably did know it and have since forgotten. Langoliers really scared me. I don't like flying at night...when it seems like everyone else but me is sleeping. I'm pretty sure that fear comes from watching the movie.
I understand. I'm in the same "Hope someone reads this thing I'm spending all this time on" boat. I was raised on horror. The original Dark Shadows played next to me napping in the carriage often. I read the classic Stephen King novels between 5th and 9th grade...and insured I'd spend a half hour checking the tub and all drains before closing a bathroom door for the rest of my life. I read an interview with King where he claims its the fear of people like him that holds the plane in the air. I freak out excessively about travel, except when I'm on the plane. Then I enter into a zen like reading state. I don't sleep and almost never watch anything. I just read and zone out.
ReplyDeleteIts funny, I like really out there horrifying weird stuff, like the Yuzna Lovecraft films, or the Hellraiser pictures...but sometimes just reading the description of a horror film that has no supernatural elements makes me disturbed and freaked out for a while. I guess I relax with fake horror, so I don't want any real horror, or something.
Looking forward to your other works.
The Stephen King bathroom thing...is that from It? The Shining? Or were there other bathtub scenes I'm forgetting about. The reading zen state sounds really nice. I'm using really agitated or antsy on planes. Not really scared (unless at night and everyone is sleeping). I'm not good at sitting for long periods. By horror without supernatural...would that be like slasher films? Although even slasher often has supernatural elements. I guess things like Psycho and Wolf Creek don't. Oh...and then there's the pandemic stuff. I forgot about those.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've seen Dark Shadows but know a little about it. We're watching What We Do in the Shadows. I'm guessing it's probably similar to Dark Shadows.
The Shining had the bathtub scene (room 219, shudder) and It had drains in general. Great combination. Zen reading has worked for me so far. I like Psycho, I guess I mean more like trapped and threatened or tortured without any supernatural elements, just some sadistic jerk. The newest Dark Shadows was a fun TIm Burton comedy horror. The original was a Gothic soap opera with vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts, Frakensteinian creations, time travel, and anything else they could throw in. It was a hoot.
ReplyDeleteThanx again for reading my stuff, and writing your stuff.
More details of the Stephen King connections here- http://dogfoodforchairs.blogspot.com/2012/12/return-to-king.html
Gah! typo, room 217!
ReplyDelete