The Furniture: The Exorcist's Possessed Bedroom

Daniel Walber, new contributor, with the first episode of a weekly feature on production design. Every Monday morning we'll take a look at memorable sets and props, from classic Oscar nominees to the best new releases.

The Exorcist is a movie about a single room. Sure, it starts halfway across the world, on an archaeological dig in Northern Iraq. It’s true that Father Damien has a memorable, upsetting trip to a mental hospital in New York. And those iconic steps lurk just outside the house. Yet all of the violence, all of the vomit, all of Mercedes McCambridge’s legendary profanity issues forth from little Regan MacNeil’s tiny bedroom...

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Eva Green's Peculiar Children and Geena Davis Returning to TV

Laurence here with a couple of juicy actress news tidbits. After a string of well-cast disappointments, we're all hoping for a return to Tim Burton magic this year with his new film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. We finally have some images from the film, which has what might be Burton's most formidable (live-action) cast since Big Fish, including Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson, Allison Janney, Terence Stamp, Kim Dickens and Rupert Everett. Whoa.

Most importantly, though, here's Eva Green in the title role. [More...]

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Happy Birthday, Linda Blair!

Happy Birthday to horror legend and Oscar nominee, Linda Blair! The actress and activist's signature role as Regan in The Exorcist is as iconic as it comes, but she never landed another role as significant. Later years saw her winking at and spoofing her legendary demonic turn, but we will always be terrified by her icy stare behind the makeup.

Blair's Best Supporting Actress nomination remains one of our youngest nominees (though she was defeated by the even younger Tatum O'Neal) and one of the few honored performances in a horror film. Her Oscar chances were sidelined due to perceptions of Mercedes McCambridge's vocal contributions to the possessed Regan, but put the film on mute and Blair still stuns. The performance is as terrifying as it ever was - primal, physical, and unflinching. (If you missed last year's Smackdown which really dived into her work, check out the Smackdown and its companion podcast.)

Here's to one of the rare Oscar-approved Scream Queens!

Curio: Movie Amigurumi

Alexa here with some film craftiness. Amigurumi, those Japanese, uber-cute, anthropomorphic crochet dolls have been popular now for long enough that I thought they'd be jumping the shark already.  But damn if I don't find some interesting ones that catch my eye: I geek out on a frequent basis and make plans to buy movie-themed ones, or decide I will learn to crochet to make my own.  Then I promptly forget about it.  

Available for purchase here.

Maybe they have jumped the shark: this Exorcist pea-soup scene amigurumi set might have reached maximum amigurumi. In any case, after the jump you can see my favorite film-themed amigurumi, in case some of you are inspired to go gift shopping, or take up the crochet needles yourself...

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Curio: Jason D'Aquino's Matchbook Miniatures

Alexa here with your weekly film craftiness. Jason D'Aquino is an artist with a gothic sensibility who works in miniature.  With the help of magnification goggles and architectural drafting tools, Jason draws pop-culture-inspired pieces on found ephemera, usually no larger than an inch square.

His matchbook series is perfect for this time of year: creepy graphite portraits tucked inside front-strike matchbooks, with many taken from classic horror movies.  (I particularly enjoy his use of vintage bone screw packaging for Frankenstein.) Here is a selection...  

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