I watched The Exorcist last night. I remember staying at my cousins’ house in the 80s and them wanting to rent it because it was the scariest movie ever. I guess if you’ve seen parodies like Repossed and SNL’s comedy sketch, you tend to laugh at some of the meant-to-be scary scenes. Years ago that movie would have given me nightmares. Now I expect the priest to yell “The bed is on my foot!” in true Richard Pryor fashion.
The movie was a bit disturbing in some respects. Maybe it was the disturbing feeling how you knew the little girl was going crazy, but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. And I completely missed the stair falling scene….and deleted it from my Tivo before I realized it.
Do I believe Demon possession happens today? I don’t think God allows us to be tempted more than what we are able to bear. There are people with certain psychological problems which compel them to sin without being able to control easily their actions. I really don’t think we see demon possession like what we saw in the Gospels.