Devils

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2001)

Spoilers herein.
This is absolutely the most terrifying film ever made dealing with supernatural evil. Forget `The Exorcist,' that's kid stuff. Forget the hundreds of `jumping out of the dark' gore pictures. `The Shining'? effete. This has guts like the old horror radio shows used to because I can imagine something worse than anything you can make up and show with rubber and catsup.
And surprisingly, this film has aged well, even improved as the hippie era is now long gone.
Mia is preciously delicate, open. Her commitment to this film makes it real. One can feel her taking personal risks and this reflects on her character. Roman almost goes too far here, after `Repulsion,' walking the edge of suspense, slowly building, relentlessly restrained. He so eclipses Hitchcock in his camerawork; he so stamps this with a East European mystical surrealism that I wonder why this film is not more celebrated.
When `The Exorcist' came out five years later, the publicity machine made much of supernatural happenings on the set, in an attempt to make the film seem more real. But this film is damned creepy when you look at its history.
Many people were students of magick in those days, as part and parcel of spiritual exploration. Mia gets into this film rather by accident, has an affair with Polanski during it. Divorces her husband the singing thug and finishes the film. Goes to India with the Beatles, Donovan and Beach Boys to meditate, during which John and Paul write thirty songs based on Kabbalah. Inspired in part by Crowley.
This album inspires Manson to kill Polanski's wife, mistakenly thinking the house was occupied by someone close to the Beach Boys. Lennon takes up with Yoko directly on returning from India. Her interest in the occult leads her to the Dakota, where they keep their home until John is killed. During which period, Yoko has a parade of occultists and mystics, even the largest private US collection of Egyptian artifacts.
Polanski meanwhile makes the most powerful `Macbeth' ever filmed because of its emotional take on evil anarchy. Then he is exiled from the US. After a long dry spell and much preparation, makes `The Ninth Door.' which shows incredible understanding of the occult tradition in art, and his own role -- his current wife plays the supernatural agent of semiotic art. Pacing and direction refers to `Rosemary,' but is less confident, more frightened.
Jesus, scary enough for me.