Spike Lee names his most memorable horror movie scene
Spike Lee might not be the first filmmaker to come to mind when we think of horror directors, but he has explored the genre various times throughout his career. Earning praise for movies like Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Malcolm X in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Lee has since expanded his cinematic sphere and explored a variety of genres.
From crime dramas and thrillers such as Crooklyn, Summer of Sam, and Inside Man to straight-up horror movies like Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and Tales from the Hood (which he executive produced), Lee seems to have a penchant for exploring the darker sides of life. Thus, it is unsurprising to learn that Lee is a big fan of horror movies, citing Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter as his favourite scary film.
While the 1955 film serves as a constant source of inspiration for Lee, he also has some firm horror movie memories that have stayed with him throughout his life. One of the most memorable for the filmmaker came when he was a teenager, lucky enough to catch The Exorcist in the movie theatre. “I’m gonna date myself, but I remember standing on line in ten degrees for two hours to see The Exorcist at the Paramount Theater, which is no longer here,” he said via Empire.
Released in 1973, the film, directed by William Friedkin, was not intended to be a horror movie, but it turned out to be terrifying nonetheless. It has since become a cult classic, considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Centring around the demonic possession of a little girl, the movie shocked many with its depictions of violence, sexual transgression, and grotesqueness.
Lee will never forget his experience of watching films at the cinema. He recalled: “People were freezing. This was the place to see it in New York, right there on Columbus Circle. When Linda Blair’s head started turning around, people were screaming. This was when I was in high school.”
In one sequence, the head of Blair’s character, Regan, turns around, something that was achieved by clever special effects. However, at the time – before horror as we now know it was such a huge phenomenon – viewers reacted wildly to what they were seeing on screen.
Lee echoed a similar sentiment about his experience of seeing Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien, too. “I waited on line to see Alien, too. When that thing jumped out of my man’s chest, people went berserk. He continued: “I was too young to see Psycho in the theatre, but I remember specifically The Exorcist and Alien. There was none of that ‘order your ticket in advance’. They weren’t playing the movie on nine screens. We weren’t there yet.”
The director remembered the days of having to actually wait for a movie if you really wanted to see it. “There were one-screen theatres and your ass had to wait on line, and you were happy to wait on line because you knew you were about to see some shit. Those are the films where you can feel the electricity, the energy in the theatre.”
