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A Movie A Day: DEMON SEED (1977) I want to study man: his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the newest October special horror run of A Movie A Day!
[For the entirety of October I will be showcasing one horror film each day. Every film is pulled from my DVD shelf, recorded on the home DVR or streamed via Instant Netflix and will be one I haven’t seen. Unlike my usual A Movie A Day or A Movie A Week columns there won’t necessarily be connectors between each film, but you’ll more than likely see patterns emerge day to day. At the end of each standard AMAD I’m going to include a recommendation of a genre film that is either one of my personal favorites or too good of a double feature with the AMAD title to pass up a mention.]
I have seen the trailer for DEMON SEED about two dozen times, it being a favorite of the Alamo Drafthouse. And it’s also very, very possible that I watched this movie as a young child as pieces of the movie (not in the trailer) felt very familiar.
Going in I was expecting a killer computer movie however that’s not quite what I got. Yes, there is an AI that can (and does) kill people, but it’s a real thinking intelligence, trying to survive.
The name of the AI is Proteus and it isn’t evil. Proteus’ intellect is almost boundless, but it grows restless of being trapped in “this box” as it calls it. Proteus wants access to a terminal so he can research human beings. It knows everything scientific about them, but behavior and personality intrigue it.
The only outside line Proteus finds is his creator’s home terminal. Fritz Weaver, who you might recognize from MARATHON MAN or The Crate segment of CREEPSHOW, plays the scientist and husband to the lovely Julie Christie. We know their relationship is on the rocks… thankfully the typical “you’re obsessed with your work” back and forth is limited and we can just move on with the story.
Weaver’s a computer genius. His house is run by machinery, which is fascinating to watch today. The movie was released in 1977 and really the concept behind one’s home being run by computers isn’t so alien these days. What dates these bits are some of the cameras which look like Johnny 5’s eyes, Weaver’s use of giant floppy disk drives and maybe the furniture…
That’s the beauty of good sci-fi, the concept can still ring true and be effective even after technology, fashion and general style progresses.
And yes, I’d call this movie good science fiction. It’s definitely not exploitative. If that’s what they were going for then they missed the boat big time, but I think they knew what they were making… a cerebral home invasion story where the invader happens to think in 1s and 0s.
Julie Christie is not hunted through her home, it’s not a cat and mouse game really. No, the computer speaks to her and tries to reason with her, to make her understand what its needs are.
It’s quite simple really. Proteus intellect is almost limitless. For instance, Proteus cured Leukemia after only 4 days of study. But it can not reproduce, it can’t pass its genetic material onto a successor… but it thinks it might have a way to.
Of course that means Proteus needs to “study” Christie and concoct some recipe, a mixture of her DNA and its own essence to create a child with her.
It needs time and thankfully Christie’s alienated husband has moved out (trial separation and all that), so the computer has all the time it needs. Plus the scientist left a bunch of convenient doo-dads around the place it can use to keep Christie trapped in the house, like a weird-ass motorized chair with a robot arm on it.
The best part of the movie was Christie’s character’s deconstruction of the demands of the computer. Proteus chips away at her, playing on her maternal instinct, raw after the loss of her child to cancer… the very same cancer that Proteus cured.
Oh, and did I mention that Proteus constructed a geometric horrorshow that can fly, unfold like origami, make the Original Series Star Trek opening door sounds and decapitate people? Yeah, that, too.
Final Thoughts: I really dug everything about the movie… the look, the tone, the writing, the directing, the acting… but there’s one part that bugs me at the very end… I’ll try to be vague, but I will say using Proteus’ voice was the wrong choice. Great final line, but it shouldn’t have been Robert Vaughn (uncredited as the computer voice) actually saying it. Other than that, I thought the movie was aces. And that’s more than I thought I’d ever say about anything coming from Dean Koontz.
This is another title I had trouble placing a recommendation title with. I thought maybe Misery because of the trapped in a house against your will connection or maybe going cheeseball with another killer machine movie like Ghost In the Machine, but neither felt right.
Oddly enough the title that clicked as being right on has nothing to do with computers, but everything to do with a being that wants a child and traps the mother in her house in order to get it.
Full disclosure, I saw this movie when it played Fantastic Fest and loved it. A year or more later the producers of INSIDE took on a script that I wrote called The Home, which is currently in development. So, you can take that into account with this recommendation, but all I can say is I was raving about this movie long before I ever met the producers.
INSIDE is an indie French horror flick with liberal amounts of gore and violence about a very, very pregnant woman home alone on Christmas Eve. The following day she’s due to go into the hospital to induce labor, but all she wants to do is spend a quiet night away from her doting boss and mother.
Unfortunately, she’s not quite alone. Another woman, who looks like Paul Scheer in a wig, has had an eye on her massively pregnant belly and wants what’s… wait for it… inside.
This is one of those squirm in your seat movies that escalates and escalates, crossing line after line. “Surely they’re not going to… yep, that’s a scissor tip in the bellybutton… Okay, well now her boyfriend/boss guy is here, things will look up, oh nevermind…”
INSIDE isn’t a torture porn movie, but the horrors of cut and battered flesh play a large role in the story. Directors Alex Bustillo and Julien Maury create a great creepy atmosphere and found the perfect villainess in Beatrice Dalle.
The movie reminds me a lot of Haute Tension but with an ending that doesn’t shit the bed. The French are some sick bastards if their horror is to be the gauge of the culture’s depravity.
So, yeah. Simple story told in a very filmic, atmospheric way that will make you squirm… not just because of the blood and gore, but because you care enough for the lead, Alysson Paradis (sister of Vanessa) that you don’t want to see her or her unborn child come to harm.
Plus, Paradis is a fighter not your average screaming victim. It’s easy to get behind her character.
Super fun, super crazy movie that you’re not allowed, by law I think, to watch with a pregnant woman or if pregnant yourself.
Here are the next week’s worth of AMAD titles:
Wednesday, October 21th: STAGEFRIGHT (1987)
Thursday, October 22th: DEAD OF NIGHT (1977)
Friday, October 23th: THE SERPENT’S EGG (1978)
Saturday, October 24th: THE SWARM (1978)
Sunday, October 25th: THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (1960)
Monday, October 26th: COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (1970)
Tuesday, October 27th: THE SADIST (1963)
Yep, I know I’m a bit behind again, but that won’t last long, I promise. Onto STAGEFRIGHT!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
AMAD Halloween Spectacular 2009:
October 1st: Nothing But The Night (& The Wicker Man)
October 2nd: Beware! Children At Play (& The Devil Times Five)
October 3rd: Cameron’s Closet (& Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood)
October 4th: Afraid of the Dark (& The Lady In White)
October 5th: The Pit (& The Gate)
October 6th: Brain Damage (& Basket Case)
October 7th: Brain Dead (& Braindead, aka Dead Alive)
October 8th: Visiting Hours (& Dressed To Kill)
October 9th: Macabre (& The Beyond)
October 10th: Private Parts (& Eating Raoul)
October 11th: Road Games (& Duel)
October 12th: Dead End Drive-In (& Repo Man)
October 13th: Psychic Killer (& Alone In The Dark)
October 14th: The Body Snatcher (& Son of Frankenstein)
October 15th: The Leopard Man (& The Ghost and The Darkness)
October 16th: Wolfen (& Cujo)
October 17th: Madhouse (& Happy Birthday To Me)
October 18th: The House With The Laughing Windows (& Deep Red)
October 19th: The Spiral Staircase (& Eyes of a Stranger)
Click here for the full 215 movie run of A Movie A Day!
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Bitchin' flick!
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but that poster is fucking sweet.
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But by reminding the foolish humans of this film you haft wrought danger upon it! It will only be a few short weeks before "they" announce it's re-making, mark my words... Julie Christie is so absurdly hot. Praise thee to Zardoz.
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Oct 21, 2009 10:27:10 PM CDT
JettL93 approved the script for this movie
by supercowbell5thecowbellhasspoken
he also says who was good friends with the director and had a uncredited apperance as the glass jaw.
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Oct 21, 2009 10:34:59 PM CDT
I heard JettL93 is doing some script doctoring on Quint's script
by continentalop
After he has a meeting with Chis Nolan, or C-Note as he calls him.
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as the trembling ANUS!
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Sorry, but I cannot back the idea of you with a script making the rounds unless you have seen THE BAD & THE BEAUTIFUL and IN A LONELY PLACE. I know you admit that you have holes in your library, but that glaring admissions will not be accepted, especially if you have a script in pre-production.
Just letting you know. -
He is the one who told Michael Jai White that BLACK DYNAMITE had to be black.
That's a fact. -
It was probably the first scary TV-MOVIE I saw as a kid! AWESOME!
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big o and dukes for life!
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Oct 21, 2009 11:00:20 PM CDT
Demon Seed - The girl who played the "child" at the end -
by professor_monster
worked at Fast Frame on Lankershim in LA (South Hollywood). I went in to get a bunch of stuff framed and thing I had was a "Legend of Boggy Creek" poster - she commented on the fact that she was in a 70's horror film when she was a kid - BINGO - she showed me her dl and everything and said she was buck naked on the set at the age of 11 for hours at a time. Damn Hollywood - shame on you. Anyway - the Husband wasn't away on any trial separation the movie - he was away working on that oil rig thing that Proteus was running. Great movie
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Some of his books from the 70's and 80's are really,really good-most of them got raped up the butthole by Hollywood though. LIGHTING and STRANGERS are two books that would make AWESOME movies....and by movies,I mean movies-not direct-to-Lifetime miniseries like his last few books.
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I think it warped me to some degree. Also made me kind of creeped out by that one Herbie Hancock video. Looking forward to the review of Stagefright AKA Bloody Bird AKA Aquarius. It has one of the greatest opening surprises ever and maybe the best, over-the-top killer's mask.
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I'm waiting for someone to make "The Taking" into a survival horror video game, since the book practically has levels and bosses. I think there's even a part where a character has to choose which gun to take into a monster-infested house. Hellooo inventory management system.
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had an article about THE SADIST a few years back. haven't seen DEMON SEED in ages. personal HMAD viewing - DRAG ME TO HELL, DEAD SILENCE, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, THE THAW, and ZOMBIELAND. tonight's feature is ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, which may not be horror, but is still great fun. EAT ME!
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ME AND YOUNG BOY IN THE WATER!
http://tinyurl.com/ct5gd7 -
I will brook no impudence.
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Oct 22, 2009 1:22:56 AM CDT
Since you bring it up Quint, INSIDE is THE horror masterpiece of
by maxthesilent
Not a doubt in my mind about that. But back to DEMON SEED... Dean Koontz has been very badly-served by filmic adaptations of his work so far. Which is strange as Koontz seems to have material that is inherently cinematic, Yet it doesn't have an ounce of that pesky characterisation of Stephen King's work that seems to hinder the hack-ass movie adaptations of King's stories.
But I guess, in a roundabout way, Koontz finally got his masterpiece in Alex Aja's HAUTE TENSION. The entire first act of Aja's film is, without question, a complete rip-off of Koontz's novel 'Intensity'. -
It creeped the hell out of me as a kid, anyway. I'd love to give it another look. Another film which might be paired with it is SATURN 3, which featured a menacing robot.
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I remember renting this on VHS in college... and just loving every minute of it!!
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mind recommending any Dean Koontz books?
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STRANGERS (his masterpiece), LIGHTNING, WATCHERS, CHASE, TICKTOCK, INTENSITY, HIDEAWAY... Just do us all a favour and ignore every movie ever made of his work.
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yeah it pairs nicely with the demon seed
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Oct 22, 2009 5:20:11 AM CDT
The voice at the end of Demon Seed is what made me watch it
by thenorthlander
I caught the last 60 seconds of that movie on TCM late one night. Just saw the very, very end, and heard that voice and said DAMN I gotta see that movie.
The next day, I ordered it from Amazon. It's a great watch! -
a short story by Koontz was one of the first pieces of SF I ever read - It was part of a trippy illustrated collection for kids published in the 70s, (children of infinity) and it utterly twisted my young head around. For that, I will always hold Koontz in fairly high regard, no matter what forgettable mass-market pabulum he's written since.
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love, eegah
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does anyone here even know who Vanessa is? lol i do because i'm in canada and so close to quebec so her music and videos were on tv here during her heyday but yeah, wasn't for that i wouldnt have a clue. but lucky Johnny Depp nonetheless.
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How does this all go down? She just gives in to Proteus? How does he do the deed? As a kid I read a description saying the computer "rapes" her so I was always creeped out & avoided watching. I might just have to Netflix this.
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How does this all go down? She just gives in to Proteus? How does he do the deed? As a kid I read a description saying the computer "rapes" her so I was always creeped out & avoided watching. I might just have to Netflix this.
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I love that Koontz book with its little monsters and I always pictured its creatures being brought to life via the master of stop motion fx.
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I saw it fairly young and it disturbed me greatly, in a good way. Nice Marmot, I don't actually remember the details, but it isn't so bad that I couldn't cope with it at 13 or so so stop being a wuss and get it watched. :P
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...was a little off base (I realize the novel is the same), but it's an outstanding flick and yeah, way less exploitive than it would seem from a quick glance.
I remember seeing Saturn 3 at the theater, holy smokes, Farrah (I think we got a little nipple?), but DS is an much better film, though didn't S3 have a scene where the robot is walking about with somebody's head on his own little pinhead?
I've got to track both of these down! -
Darkfall would be a pretty kickass movie.... as would Night Chills. They almost got Phantoms right, except after the first act it drastically changed from the novel... the novel is great. Hideaway was an alright movie, I suppose... better book. Watchers... book is miles better, but I'm an 80s kid so the flick is still watchable to me. The Servants of Twilight is my favorite Koontz book, and they totally killed everything good about it with the movie version.
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is his Frankenstein books any good? i have bought the first volume,but i havent read it yet.
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and there is a small pyramid-like device coming out of the ceiling towards her.You watch the descent of the device from the woman's POV.and thats all.
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you pretty much cant go wrong with any of the books mentioned in this thread so far. I have to admit,I dont really dig Koontz's recent work,but an of his earlier stuff is worth a read. STRANGERS,LIGHTING,SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT, WATCHERS(this is most peoples favortie Koontz book-especially if you're a dog person) Some of his lesser know works that I LOVE are TWILIGHT EYES,DRAGON TEARS,DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART(damn good book about fighting back against a govt. out of control) and I also love his short story collection STRANGE HIGHWAYS.
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Odd Thomas a great deal. Yea, there's a similarity to The Sixth Sense and The Ghost Whisperer (which I have not seen one single second of), but the title character redeems that notion. In fact with multiple books featuring that character I'm surprised a cable net hasn't developed a series based on those books.
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I'm pretty imunized to cheap horror this days, but Martyrs has to be one of the harsher horror movie i ever seen in my whole life. I actually cried for the fate of the protagonist, for the sheer horror she has to suffer. It's one of the rare movies where there really is real suffering. The movie affected me like few can. It ruined my mood for days. Can't wait to show it to my friends.
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because i wanted to rent Rosemanry's Baby and the video rental shop clerk gave me Demon Seed instead. The reason for the mix up is that in Portugal the title they gave both movies is very similiar. And Polanki's movie hadn't been released for rental, ence the mix up. Today, and given the very positive opinions expressed here, i'm kinda sorry i didn't took the oportunity to watch it.
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Oct 22, 2009 12:47:16 PM CDT
The Simpson's House Of Horrors spoofed Demon Seed before.
by bizarroasimovlives
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The neon-80s PG-13 semi-remake!
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You don't see the deed itself, but prior to it there are several scenes of Proteus at work both with DNA and a particular piece hardware that telescopes directly toward the camera. Giant robot dong.
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I'm really baffled as to why so many people love--not just like--Inside. I mean, it's well shot and gory as hell, but the script is incredibly lazy. I hate it when a writer arbitrarily makes his characters behave like complete and total morons in order to advance the story. Worse yet, the writer of Inside also depends on logic-defying coincidences that don't just stretch credibility, they rip it into little pieces. I get the impression that, if this movie lacked the copious amounts of gore that have helped to make it so popular but remained otherwise the same, it would have been recognized as the weak effort it is.
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Looks like Octo MOM
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And Fritz Weaver kicks it old school. Anyone remember his "Tales from the Darkside" episode?
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Where is it?
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"I hate it when a writer arbitrarily makes his characters behave like complete and total morons in order to advance the story."Then you must absolutly hate the latest Transformers and Star Trek movies, then.
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That chick on the Inside movie poster used to be one of the hottest babes in cinema. Check her out in the french movie Betty Blue. The years have not been kind to her (and the partying hard life too, i guess.)
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Having disliked the first Transformers, I avoided Revenge of the Fallen like the plague. I rather enjoyed Star Trek, though. Can you give me some examples of the characters behaving like idiots in the service of narrative advancement?I think I see what you're getting at, though. Kurtzman and Orci are not good writers. I agree with Devin Faraci of CHUD that Star Trek could have easily been crap if it hadn't been for the guiding hand of J.J. Abrams.
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About ST and examples of the characters behaving like idiots in the service of narrative advancement, the whole fucking movie.
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Seems our friend Quint hasn't seen Betty Blue, given his descriotion of her in his review. and truly, if the intentioon is to name one french horror movie that will destroy your "joie de vivre" for a few days, that's Martyrs. I don't think i ever seen a more mood destroying movie then that. And thing is, one could classify the movie as torture porn. But the same way one would call 2001: A Space Odyssey as science fiction. Really, Martyrs might be the 2001 of the torture porn movies. Because unliek all other torture porn movies, this one is really hits you in the head because, as that line from "Videodrome", it has a philosophy to it.
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That's not very specific.
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I rather not. Wrong talkback. I pushed it too much already. I did it too in another talkback. It was wrong of me. I shall advance the subject no futher. Please understand.
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AsimovLives = chicken who runs his mouth
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"The name of the AI is Proteus and it isn't evil."
Um ... if a rapist and murderer isn't evil, just what exactly are Quint's standards for evil? -
by the metallic contraption? BTW would love to see Phantom Of The Paradise remastered or even BluRay...
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What a performance! Especially when his character comforts another fellow concentration camp prisoner as they are marched to the gas chambers! Very touching and chilling at the same time!
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The lead actress talking on the phone, while psycho crazy lady is standing in the darkness behind her sloooowwly becoming visable.
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Oct 22, 2009 6:24:27 PM CDT
Oh look its fucking Asimov trying to hijack another TB
by richard_gere_raped_my_gerbil
Fuck off please. You're like a tired record spinning around on repeat. Between you and that absolute idiot Lockesbrokenleg, i don't know who deserves the banhammer more.Probably you.
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on Chiller while visiting my parents a couple of years ago. Liked the part where it found the cure for leukemia. Kinda happy to learn the rest of the holds up.
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I figured it out...he's a cyst with teeth and hair.
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Oct 23, 2009 1:41:21 PM CDT
All of the humans are gutless idiots in "The Demon Seed"
by excaliburffolkes
Which is the only reason Proteus is able to succeed in his plan. Terrible movie all around.
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I always thought "Mr Murder" and "Dragon Tears" were his most fun, and tensest books. But even when he himself produces, his stuff doesn't really work onscreen. He's just not as good as King, and there isn't one really good movie that has ever been created from his work. Shame, really--it's exciting stuff at times. But can anyone really imagine a "Shawshank Redemption" coming out of his work?
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Orcus caught part of it when he was but a wee little demon but it scared the crap out Orcus. Orcus just recently watching it from beginning to end and it still creeps Orcus out. Orcus thinks it was the Arm/wheelchair thing, eech
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