The Science of Monsters

In some scenes of The Exorcist we see the actors’ breath when in Regan’s bedroom. To get the effect, four air conditioning units were brought in to cool down the space. How cold does it have to be to see your breath? Here in Minnesota it’s a daily occurrence during the winter months. Temperatures need to be below forty-five degrees for the moisture in your breath to become visible. On the set of The Exorcist the room was reportedly kept below zero. Linda Blair has stated that she dislikes being cold to this day because of that experience.

The death of Father Karras in the movie entails him falling down some stairs. An actual staircase located in Georgetown was used for filming. Although they were made of concrete, the stairs were padded with half-inch-thick rubber to film the stuntman. Could a fall down a flight of stairs kill a person? Absolutely. According to the National Safety Council⁷ over one thousand people die per year by falling down stairs. In fact, stairs are considered the most dangerous part of our homes, particularly for elderly people. To be safe, it’s recommended to have your stairs well lit, not carry bulky objects on difficult stairs, and to make sure staircases are free from items that could potentially trip you. It also helps to not be pushed down a flight of stairs by a demon! There is no data on that science.

What would it take for a medical doctor to call in an exorcist? According to Dr. Luke Hafdahl, he would call a priest if the patient presented with that iconic revolving head. “That’s when I’d know it’s time to try something outside medical science!” Whether you believe in possession or not, the battle between Heaven and Hell rages on in horror cinema. The Exorcist was not the first movie to depict body possession by the devil, and there have been dozens since, including; The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Constantine (2005), The Possession (2012), and The Possession of Hannah Grace (2018). Yet, nearly fifty years later, Regan MacNeil’s violent and shocking body usurpation remains the gold standard of devil versus priest.

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE TINGLER

Year of Release: 1959

Director: William Castle

Writer: Robb White

Starring: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn

Budget: $250,000

Box Office: $2.9 million

Imagine sitting in a movie theater watching a horror film. You’re involved in the plot, feeling a little scared, but then you start to feel something else . . . a tingle. It seems that your whole seat is vibrating. Suddenly a skeleton emerges from below the screen of the theater! The plot of the movie seems to have come to life right there with you. This may sound far-fetched, but it’s exactly the kind of tactics that William Castle used to promote his films.

The 1959 film The Tingler, starring horror icon Vincent Price, focuses on a parasite that attaches itself to humans and feeds on their fear. The writer of the script, Robb White, was inspired by an encounter with a centipede while living in the British Virgin Islands. He likely saw an Amazonian giant centipede which can grow up to twelve inches in length. These animals are carnivores and feed on anything they can overpower and kill. At least one human death can be attributed to these giant centipedes.¹ A nineteenth-century Tibetan poet warned his fellow Buddhists, “if you enjoy frightening others, you will be reborn as a centipede.”² The plot of The Tingler follows that thinking. The movie posits that these centipede-like creatures are part of our bodies and that they feed on our fear. The more fear we have, the bigger the parasite grows. It produces a tingling sensation, eventually crushing its host’s spine. The only way to defeat this dreaded beast is to scream.

Are there examples of creatures that become part of other beings in nature? One such creature is the Cymothoa exigua, or tongue-eating louse. It is exactly what it sounds like in that it eats the tongue of its host and replaces it. This is the only known parasite that completely replaces a part of the host animal. More than forty species of fish have been known to be infected with this creature.³ Cookiecutter sharks were originally known as demon whale-biters and are considered ectoparasites because they attach themselves to the outside of other animals to feed, leaving neat, round bite marks. Because of their preferred environment these parasites rarely come into contact with humans but have been implicated in several attacks. One noted case involved the victim recovering for nine months from the bite after having to get a skin graft procedure.⁴

The Cymothoa exigua becomes the tongue of its host.