Latest / Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide / FEED DROP - Meet OctoberpodVHS - The Creekfield Woman

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FEED DROP - Meet OctoberpodVHS - The Creekfield Woman · Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hey there, dear listener.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if this episode is finding you cozy with a cat on your lap and maybe belly full of carbs before the winter months hit.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're on the treadmill trying to work off a couple extra months, stickers bar.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm right there with you.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I have a fanny pack because I'm doing my hamstrings when I was accompanied on a couple weeks ago.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: My neighbor pad has been putting me back together like I'm DWS, which is partly why I reached out to my podcast later to have my back during this run-up season.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: And today you are in fourth of the Ford October is the premier storyteller out there.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: He has an amazing YouTube.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: I've been lucky enough to be a voice on it.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: He also is on every podcast green.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: So if you enjoy the listen, and I can't see how you will use so good at what he does, please give him some love.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And until next week, day curious, I love you.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Hit it, Edward.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm Edward October.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: The sound you hear is a breath of late summer wind blowing down a moonlit stretch of the Virginia creeper trail that winds through Taylor's Valley.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: This is the start of Octoberpod.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Tonight we journey to the ancient and mysterious Appalachian Mountains of Virginia in search of the Creekfield woman.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: Who is she?
1:54
SPEAKER_01: That is one of the many mysteries surrounding this spectral figure.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: Witnessed by many over the years, she inspires both fear and curiosity.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: Why does she walk the Virginia Creeper Trail?
2:07
SPEAKER_01: Why does she appear headless?
2:11
SPEAKER_01: What does she want?
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Let's find out.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: But tread cautiously, travelers.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps she wants you.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: In Search of the Creekfield Woman, written and researched by Whitney Zahar, narrated by Edward October with Amelia, co-host of the podcast Pitney and Amelia's Bitchin Boutique.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: Let us set the scene as we allow our imaginations to carry us to the fog-shrouded, verdant hills and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: They range from Newfoundland, Canada to central Alabama, with the famous off-typed Appalachian Trail cutting through them from Maine down to Georgia.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: The mighty stone beneath our feet and the outcroppings looming overhead are known to date back as far as the Precambrian period, powerful witnesses to millions of years of life and death.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: There are many stories in these mountains, but let us make our way to Southwest Virginia.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Here, this 550-mile rugged backbone of stone, valley, and river was hunting and fishing grounds for the Manahoac, the Iroquois, and the Shawnee.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: Other tribes included the Cherokee, the Chisca, and the Schwala.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: In 1669, German explorer John Lederer reached the mountains.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: During the 18th century, the indigenous peoples ceded their lands to British colonists through treaties which, we all know, were exploitative to put it mildly.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: The Iroquois showed great reluctance to give away their lands.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Who can blame them?
4:24
SPEAKER_01: It was their home.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: But did they know something the British did not?
4:30
SPEAKER_05: The version my granny told me was that it was a woman who was going to get married and got decapitated by a wagon.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: Now come along to Taylor's Valley, not far from Abingdon, Virginia.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: There is Fork Mountain to the west and Laurel and Chestnut Mountains to the east.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Out here you can hear the wind without the chatter of humans.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: It's uh quiet here, especially off the popular Virginia Creeper Trail.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Listen.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: Can you hear it?
5:10
SPEAKER_01: If you trek down the holler off Chestnut Mountain Road, you'll find it.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: There, there it is.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: A waterfall.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: They call it the Creekfield Woman Gorge Falls.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: Let's sit here for a while.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you the story of the Creekfield Woman.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: Deep in the woods of Taylors Valley, Virginia, when railroads crisscrossed the country, there lived a mister and misses Creekfield.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: He was a stout, handsome man, and she well, she was a beauty, with long hair as black as midnight.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Mr Creekfield did his best to make his wife happy, making sure that she didn't want for anything.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: But times were hard and work was scarce.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Desperation is a powerful thing, and it can make monsters of the most unassuming folk.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: It can make monsters of the best of us.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: And Mr Creekfield well he grew desperate.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: We don't know the exact moment he decided to turn to a life of crime, but the desire for money, and an easier life for him and his bride, consumed him.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: I guess it's easier to steal money than it is to make it honestly.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't go assuming that Mrs.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield was an innocent party.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: She threw in her lot with her husband, much like Bonnie and Clyde.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: During one heist, Mr and Mrs.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield made out with gold and silver, but the law was hot on their heels.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: They jumped aboard the old Virginia, North Carolina Railroad, one of those creeper trains, but it was fast enough to get away from the law.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: However, the law was the least of their problems.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: You see, during the course of their crime spree, Mr.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield began to think that Mrs.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield was going to betray him.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: Take the money and run, as the old saying goes.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: So he began thinking of doing away with the raven-haired beauty and keep all the money for himself.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if there were some hard words between them, but I'd like to think that Mrs.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield stood her ground and tried to fight back.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: But Mr.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield was too strong for her, and the result was bloody.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: He threw her beaten and bloodied body from the train, which got caught beneath the wheels and was crushed.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: Her head was severed clean off.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: It's a gruesome tale, and it appears Mrs.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield has her reasons for haunting this landscape.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: But let's go deeper.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: If you've never heard of the Creekfield woman before, and believe me, I've asked around, that might not be surprising.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes stories remain in pockets, becoming part of a community's bedrock, and never venturing further than that.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the Virginia-North Carolina Railroad didn't cut through these parts until the late 1880s to 1890s.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: News traveled slowly here, and the communities remained tight and isolated.
8:47
SPEAKER_05: I lived in Damascus until I was about 11 or 12.
8:52
SPEAKER_05: But my Mima lived in Taylor's Valley all her life.
8:56
SPEAKER_05: There were certain places in Taylor's Valley where she was reluctant to drive to at night.
9:02
SPEAKER_05: There's one bend in the road in particular that really spooks her.
9:07
SPEAKER_05: If she ever has to drive down that section of road at night, she'd always pull over outside the nearest church or anywhere there was a cross or something like that on the side of the road.
9:17
SPEAKER_05: She'd pull over and open one of the car doors for a few seconds before driving the rest of the way home.
9:23
SPEAKER_05: One time I asked her why she did that, and she said she was just letting that old woman out of her car.
9:30
SPEAKER_05: That old woman she was talking about was the Creekfield woman.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Another version of this ghostly lady's story took place in the years of the American Civil War.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: and Mrs.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield built a life together, working hard in this rugged terrain.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: When he was called to serve the Confederacy, he had no choice but to go, and she had no choice but to remain behind to care for their land and their home.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: During the Civil War, and especially in Taylor's Valley, news and letters were hard to come by.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Over time, Mrs.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield believed her husband had been killed.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: What was she supposed to think or do?
10:11
SPEAKER_01: She had made friends with a young man who was part of some kind of community patrol, and later they began an affair.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: However, one day she opened her cabin door, and there stood Mr.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield before her, alive and whole.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: Well not quite whole.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: The man who returned certainly was not the same person he had been before.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: Today we know a lot more about post traumatic stress, but it's still difficult to fully understand.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: During the Civil War, it was a complete mystery.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: All misses Creekfield knew was that her husband drank more alcohol and perhaps acted more sullen, trapped in the quicksand of sorrow and rage that she would never understand, and perhaps he didn't either.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: He knew she'd been unfaithful in his absence, but he never reproached her.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: After all, she thought he was dead.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: There came a day when others noticed that Mrs.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield wasn't around anymore.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: If they asked Mr.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield, he said she was unwell and left the mountain to stay with her family.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: Nobody questioned it, even if they gossiped about it behind closed doors or glanced at Mr.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield with uneasy eyes.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps while the couple was doing chores around the house, chopping wood, misses Creekfield let her guard down, and in a sudden fit of rage or dissociation, Mr.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield swung the axe and chopped off her head.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: For decades it was said that Mrs.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield rested in the ground near her house.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: It was common for families to bury their dead on their own land.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: A woman from the community, a woman versed in herbs, midwifery, and more, known as a granny witch, said that so long as the land remained undisturbed, Mrs.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield would rest in peace.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, the ground was disturbed when the railroad came.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: They called it the creeper because it was so slow.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: Railroad workers shared stories of a ghostly woman in white with long black hair carrying a lantern.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: She drifted along in no rush, appearing to be waiting for something or someone.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: Despite her slow pace, she effortlessly kept pace with the trains.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: The railroad was decommissioned in 1977 and later reopened as a rail to trail system known as the Virginia Creeper Trail.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: It's full of bicycles and hikers.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful out there.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Damascus and Abingdon frequently greet explorers on the Virginia Creeper Trail.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: I used to walk it myself back when I lived in the area.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: I know people who still walk it.
13:05
SPEAKER_05: When we were little, we used to go out in the evening and chase around lightning bugs trying to catch them.
13:11
SPEAKER_05: One time we was out and there was one that was lit up differently than the other lightning bugs.
13:17
SPEAKER_05: The light was a little bigger and a little greener.
13:20
SPEAKER_05: Seemed to float off in the distance instead of, you know, blinking on and off like a lightning bug.
13:25
SPEAKER_05: We followed a ways up onto the creeper trail when we saw it.
13:28
SPEAKER_05: It was right around twilight, and there was just enough light in the sky to make out the figure of a woman with long black hair standing back among the trees.
13:39
SPEAKER_05: The light wasn't a lightning bug.
13:41
SPEAKER_05: It was from a lantern she was carrying.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: Many similar communities, especially in North Carolina, were inundated by the flood waters.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: In the aftermath, when people came to clean up and offer support after the disaster, one forest worker from out of town saw the Creekfield woman still wearing her white dress, still with long black hair, still carrying her lantern and her head.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: The Creekfield woman's story is hard to untangle.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Was she a bank robber, the bonnie to Mr.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield's Clyde?
14:34
SPEAKER_01: Shoved from a train because he was afraid she would double cross him?
14:38
SPEAKER_01: Was she a wife from the Civil War trying to make her way the best she could, losing her life to her husband's instability and alcoholism?
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Is it a cautionary tale of abuse, isolation, and women's agency, or lack thereof?
14:55
SPEAKER_01: As you can imagine, I've heard my fair share of spook stories and have heard plenty of woman in white ghost stories.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: We've even adapted a few for Octoberpod.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Women in white appear all over the world, their legends casting them as harbingers of death, tragic characters of doomed romance, or victims of suicide or murder.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Some of them haunt waterfalls, such as the Dame Blanche, and Montmorency Falls, near Quebec, Canada.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: There are the Caraposa of the Philippines, the most famous of which is the one in Quizon City.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: She sounds similar to the hitchhiking Resurrection Mary in Chicago, who also appears in white.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: In England, there are stories of white ladies who were killed before they could reveal the location of a buried treasure.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: Is the Creekfield Woman another version of a trope of doomed women?
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Or perhaps her haunting is her way of opening our eyes to a different truth.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: Let's try this one on for size.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Mrs.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield chose to leave.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: She didn't want to be a victim.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: She didn't want to become lost.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: So she left Mr.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield and went to live her own life somewhere else.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps she died sooner rather than later.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps she lived a full life.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: But she lived and died on her own terms.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: Rather than tell anyone that she left him, Mr.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Creekfield chose to metaphorically kill her.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Maybe she wasn't decapitated after all.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: Maybe she wasn't even murdered.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: And that was just added to heighten the scares when the story was told.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: Because as we sit here by this waterfall, it's peaceful and quiet.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: We're alone here.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: But it's not frightening.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: No one reports feeling threatened by the Creekfield woman.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: And yet she is present in this land.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: A sentinel, a watcher.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps she wants us to tell a different story.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: So Creekfield Woman.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Gold and silver?
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Or are you just alone?
17:52
SPEAKER_01: Here she is, standing in her white dress, but her head is down, her long dark hair obscuring her face and torso.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: So long and wild, like a living creature, she reaches for a belt around her waist and removes a brush.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: Her hand rises and sinks in a gentle rhythm as she brushes her hair.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: Now she raises her other hand and beckons with her pale fingers.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Shall we see what she wants?
19:38
SPEAKER_01: You may have heard of Glow, the glamorous Ladies of Wrestling, but today on Oktoberpod, we're talking about Glow, spelled G-L-O-H, the goriest ladies of horror.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: And there is perhaps no other figure of female fear more iconic than Reagan McNeil, the fate that launched A Thousand Nightmares in the Exorcist.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: Given the runaway's success and notorious reputation of The Exorcist, a sequel was inevitable.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Enter John Borman's Exorcist II the Heretic, a film that takes its place next to Halloween III Season of the Witch, Alien III, and The Book of Shadows of Blair Witch 2 on the Mount Rushmore of hated and misunderstood horror sequel.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: It perhaps the most cuckoo banana crazy pants sequel ever made.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, and William Friedkin, director of the first film, both hated, hated, hated it.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: I once read, and this may be an urban legend, but it ought to be true, that upon seeing the disastrous theatrical cut of Exorcist II, William Peter Blady called up the studio and offered to team up with Friedkin to recut the film as a comedy.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Blady's idea was to do what Woody Allen did with What's Up Tiger Lily and to redub all of the actors' lines to create a whole new story and turn the film into an intentional fart.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's do a brief rundown of the plot.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: Here's how William Friedkin, who always referred to the picture as the hairy tick, once summarized it.
21:22
SPEAKER_03: So I went in the screening room and I see some guys writing on the back of a bumble thing or something or real.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: And I and I I left.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: And Father Kerr, who does not really.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Factor into this sequel in any meaningful way.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Exorcist III will make up for that in spades.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: In the course of his investigation, Lamont must get some information from Reagan McNeil, now a tap-dancing teen with vaguely defined psychic abilities, who is undergoing psychotherapy at a cutting-edge facility run by Dr.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: Tuscan, played by Louise Fletcher.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately for Father Lamont, Reagan has no memory of her possession or her exorcism, and can only discuss the ordeal through the use of some strobe lighty hypnosis gadget that sinks her brainwaves up to the brainwaves of the person questioning her.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: Along the way, we see flashbacks of Father Marin's first encounter with the demon Pazuzu, meet a demon fighter named Kokumo, James Earl Jones, and go bug fuck with swarms and swarms and swarms of locusts.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: The plot is ponderous, trippy, and more than a little silly.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: But you've got to admire its moxie.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: If you've never seen it, especially if you've avoided it for its bad reputation, pause this podcast right now and watch it, because I'm likely to spoil the hell out of it from here on out.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: Though it is hard to spoil a picture that doesn't make a lick of sense.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, Exorcist II almost works better as an ambient mood piece, a collection of sights and sounds to wash over you, rather than as a narrative taking you from point A to B within a story.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: But boy howdy, what sights and what sounds?
23:42
SPEAKER_01: There are surreal visuals and expressionistic compositions of plenty.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: The action takes place from the opulent halls of the Vatican to the sun-baked plains of Africa, from the shimmering skyline of New York City to the wet, grimy streets of Washington, D.C., and from an ancient church, precariously carved into a cliff face, to various nightmares and dreamscapes in between.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: The oral landscape of the film is dominated, as it should be, by a thoroughly gonzo score from Il Maestro himself Ineomorcone.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: Cues infused with tribal vocals and percussion, like magic and ecstasy, avant-garde choral pieces, Afro-Flemish mass, the discordant whipcrack rock anthem Pazuzu, and the floating ethereal Reagans theme all perfectly complement the surreal, sick in the head happenings on screen.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: Thanks to Morricone and British director John Borman, also known for Deliverance, Excalibur and Zardoz, the picture with its international scope boasts a decidedly more Baroque European aesthetic than the original.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: As an aside, I'm using the second meaning of Baroque here, characterized by grotesqueness, extravagance, complexity, or flamboyance, as per Miriam Webster.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: I was once mocked for using this term by someone who assumed I was erroneously referring to the 17th century artistic movement, so, just for the record, I know what the fucking word means in this context.
25:20
unknown: God.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: This has been stuck in my crawl for decades now.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: But getting back to the goriest ladies of horror, Exorcist 2 does have a mysterious lady hidden in plain sight.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who the hell is playing Possessed Reagan in this picture?
25:43
SPEAKER_01: Linda Blair's ordeal making the first Exorcist, at the tender age of 13, playing a character that's 12, was something bordering on child abuse.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: A story for another time.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: For many of the possession scenes, that's really little Linda, under all of those Dick Smith prosthetic makeup effects.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: But stand-ins and stunt performers were used when shooting age-inappropriate material, see the famous crucifix scene, if you know you know, or dangerous slash physically demanding stunts, such as the deleted spider walk sequence, which required a contortionist.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: Beyond that, they still required two additional actresses to make the character come to life.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: One was Mercedes McCambridge, who Morrison Wells once called the greatest living radio actress, and who can be seen portraying the Bull Dagger, their term, not mine, in Wells's film noir, A Touch of Evil.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: McCambridge chainsmoked and abused her vocal cords to provide the voice of Pazuzu, the demon inhabiting and defiling Reagan's body.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: The other was Eileen Dietz.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Dietz was not only Linda Blair's stand-in for the crucifix scene, among others, she also portrayed the pale face of Pazuzu in various frightening cutaway shots.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Now, flash forward to Exorcist 2.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: Blair is a little older and a little wiser about the business, and she refuses to perform under any heavy makeup.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: I guess Hollywood is a town that forces you to grow up fast, which leads director Borman and returning makeup effects designer Dick Smith in a pickle because the script includes flashbacks and hallucinations of Possessed Reagan as both a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Linda Blair's only new appearance as Possessed Reagan is one brief, cringy sequence during which the character attempts to seduce 51-year-old Richard Burton's father Lamont.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: For this, she appears only to be wearing some special contact lenses.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: All of the other Possessed Reagan scenes were performed by an obvious double, and dubbed by an actress named Karen Knapp, not Mercedes McCambridge.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Veteran Canadian actress Colleen Dewhurst would take on voiceover duties for Exorcist III.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: A stroke of genius, if you ask me.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: The body double is not credited in the completed film.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: Now, most folks assume that this double is Eileen Dietz, Blair's double from the first film, though it really doesn't look like her.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: Making matters more confusing is anecdotal evidence from fans on Reddit stating that during convention appearances, Dietz will claim that she is the Exorcist II body double, even going so far as to autograph and sell production stills from that film.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: Deets was reportedly furious at Warner Brothers for leaving so much of her performance on the cutting room floor.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Depending on who you ask, she appears on screen for about 13 to 28 seconds in the completed film.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: But she's always advocated for the studio to give her more credit for her contributions to the film and its success.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: In fact, her feud with Warner's probably ensured she wouldn't be allowed within a league of an Exorcist set ever again.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: With that in mind, kind of makes sense that she'd try to take credit for a performance she never gave.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: By all accounts, she's a lovely lady, so no shade intended.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: And so any footage of either Linda Blair or Eileen Dietz as Possessed Reagan in Exorcist II are shots recycled from the first film.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: But the mystery remains.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Who is the face of Possessed Reagan in Exorcist 2?
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Do you know the identity of this mystery woman?
29:49
SPEAKER_01: If so, sound off in the comments and enlighten us.
29:53
SPEAKER_04: No, he's mine.
29:56
SPEAKER_04: He's chosen me.
29:57
SPEAKER_04: Azuzu's Reagan is the only Reagan.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: We like to call her the good locust.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: She was evolved to resist the brushing.
30:13
SPEAKER_04: No.
30:14
SPEAKER_04: Once the wings have brushed you, you're mine forever.
30:17
SPEAKER_04: She'll break the chain.
30:20
SPEAKER_04: Kill her.
30:21
SPEAKER_04: We command you.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Exorcist II, the Heretic, never really worked.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Upon release, it was mocked by critics, the harshest of these being Friedkin and Blady, the fathers of the original film, and either laughed at or ignored by audiences.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: Warner's produced numerous cuts of the film to try and salvage it, but to no avail.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: There's the 117-minute premiere cut, the 110-minute cut, which pairs the film down to a more conventional horror film and adds some expository voiceover narration, as well as a sorted home video and international cuts of various lengths.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I've seen two, maybe three different cuts of this picture, and they're all equally flawed in their own ways.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: For my money, they all live and die by those strobe-light mind sink scenes, which are too long, too dull, and not very cinematic.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: They grind the narrative to a halt in every single cut of the film.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: There's even a community of fans out there producing unofficial fan edits of the film, which pick and choose the best bits from different cuts in an attempt to cobble together the ideal Exorcist II experience, because they, because we know that there's a brilliant film in there somewhere.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: We just need to tease it out.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: As one might tame a swarm of enraged locusts.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: Act two of October Pod starts now.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Excerpts from Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, Volumes 1 and 2, by Charles Montgomery Skinner.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: Narrated by Edward October.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Lake of the Dismal Swamp.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Drummond's Pond, or the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, is a dark and lonely tarn that lies in the center of this noted Virginia morass.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: It is, in a century-old fashion, the sticks of two unhappy ghosts that await the end of time to pass its confines and enjoy the sunshine of serener worlds.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: A young woman of a family that had settled near the marsh died of a fever caused by its malarial exhalations, and was buried near the swamp.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: The young man to whom she was betrothed felt her loss so keenly that for days he neither ate nor slept, and at last broke down in mind and body.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: He recovered a measure of physical health after a time, but his reason was hopelessly lost.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: It was his hallucination that the girl was not dead, but had been exiled to the lonely reaches of this watery wilderness.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: He was heard to mutter I'll find her, and when death comes, I'll hide her in the hollow of a cypress until he passes on.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: Evading restraint, he plunged into the fin, and for some days he wandered there, eating berries, sleeping on tussocks of grass, with water snakes crawling over him, and poisonous plants shedding their baneful dew on his flesh.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: He came to the lake at last.
34:00
SPEAKER_01: The will o' the wisp played along the surface. 'Tis she, he cried.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: I see her standing in the light.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Hastily fashioning a raft of cypress boughs, he floated it and pushed toward the center of the pond.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: But the eagerness of his efforts and the rising of a wind dismembered the frail platform, and he fell into the black water to rise no more.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: But often, in the night, is seen the wraith of a canoe, with a firefly lamp burning on its prow, restlessly urged to and fro by two figures that seem to be vainly searching for an exit from the place, and which are believed to be those of the maiden and her lover.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: Incidentally, if you go back and listen to the Oktoberpod episode Ghosts and Haunts of Untamed America, you'll hear a story written by our very own Whitney Zahar that's inspired by this legend.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: Siren of the French Broad Among the rocks, east of Asheville, North Carolina, lives the Lorelei of the French Broad River.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: This stream contains in its upper reaches many pools where the rapid water whirls and deepens, and where the traveler likes to pause in the heats of the afternoon and drink and bathe.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: Here, from the time when the Cherokees occupied the country, has lived the siren, and if one who is weary and downcast sits besides the stream or utters a wish to rest in it, he becomes conscious of a soft and exquisite music blending with the plash of the wave.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Looking down in surprise, he sees, at first faintly, then with distinctness, the form of a beautiful woman, with hair streaming like moss and eyes looking into his, luring him with a power he cannot resist.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: His breath grows short, his gaze is fixed, mechanically he rises, steps to the bank, and lurches forward into the river.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: The arms that catch him are slimy and cold as serpents, the face that stares into his is a grinning skull.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: A loud, chattering laugh rings through the wilderness, and all is still again.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Spooks of the Hiawassee.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: The hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with haints.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: The people of the region, illiterate and superstitious, have unquestioning faith in them.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: They tell you about the headless bull and black dog of the valley of the Chitata, the white stag of the Sequahatchie, and the bleeding horse of the great smoky mountains.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: The last three being portents of illness, death, or misfortune.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: Other ghosts are those of men.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Near the upper Hiawassee is a cave where a pile of human skulls was found by a man who had put up his cabin near the entrance.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: For some reason, which he says he never understood, this farmer gathered up the old bleached bones and dumped them into his shed.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: Quite possibly he did not dare to confess that he wanted them for fertilizers, or to burn them for his poultry.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: Night fell dark and still, with a waning moon rising over the mountains.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: As calm a night as everyone slept through.
37:53
SPEAKER_01: Long toward the middle of it, a sound, like the coming of a cyclone, brought the farmer out of his bed.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: He ran to the window to see if the house were to be uprooted, but the forest was still, with a strange, oppressive stillness.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: Not a twig moving, not a cloud veiling the stars, not so much as an insect chirping.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: Filled with a vague fear, he tried to waken his wife, but she was like one in a state of catalepsy.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: Again the sound was heard, and now he saw without a shadowy band circling about his house like leaves whirled on the wind.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: It seemed to be made of human shapes with tossing arms, this circling band, and the sound was that of many voices, each faint and hollow by itself, but loud in aggregate.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: He who was watching realized then that the wraiths of the dead, whose skulls he had purloined from their place of sepulcher, were out in lament and protest.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: He went on his knees at once and prayed with vigor until morning.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: As soon as it was light enough to see his way, he replaced the skulls, and was not troubled by those haints again.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: All the gold in America, said he, would not tempt him to remove any more bones from the cave tombs of the unknown dead.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: In a wood near Hopkins Hill, Rhode Island, is a boulder four feet in diameter, scored with a peculiar furrow.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Witch Rock, as it is called, gained its name two centuries ago when an old woman abode in a deserted cabin close by and made the forest dreaded.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: Figures were seen flitting through its shadows.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Articles left out a nights in neighboring settlements were missing in the morning, though tramps were unknown.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: Cattle were afflicted with diseases, stones were flung at windows by unseen hands, crops were blighted by hail and frost, and in stormy weather the old woman was seen to rise out of the woods and stir and push the clowns before her with a broom.
40:24
SPEAKER_01: For a hundred yards around which rock the ground is still accursed, and any attempt to break it up is unavailing.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: Nearly a century ago, a scoffer named Reynolds declared that he would run his plough through the enchanted boundary, and the neighbors watched the attempt from a distance.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: He started out well enough, but on arriving at the magic circle, the plough shied, and the wooded landside, or chip as it was called, came off.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: Directly there came from the north a crow that perched on a dead tree and called.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: John Hopkins, owner of the land, cried to the bird, Squawk, you damned old Pat Jenkins.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: And the crow took flight, dropping the chip at Reynolds' feet, at the same moment turning into a bell dame with a cocked hat who descended upon the rock.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: Before the men could reach her, she changed into a black cat and disappeared in the ground.
41:24
SPEAKER_01: Hunting and digging came to naught, though the pursuers were so earnest and excited that one of them made the furrow in the rock with a welt from his shovel.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: After that, few people cared to go near the place, and it became overgrown with weeds and trees and bushes.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: One day in October 1827, Reverend Charles Sharpley rode into Alfred Maine and held service in the meeting house.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: After the sermon he announced that he was going to Waterboro to preach, and that on his circuit he had collected$270 to help build a church in that village.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: Would not his hearers add to that sum?
42:30
SPEAKER_01: They would and did.
42:32
SPEAKER_01: And that evening the parson rode away with over$300 in his saddlebags.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: He never appeared in Waterboro.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: Some of the country people gave tongue to their fear that the possession of the money had made him forget his sacred calling, and that he had fled the state.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: On the morning after his disappearance, however, Deacon Dickerman appeared in Alfred riding on a horse that was declared to be the minister's, until the tavern hostler affirmed that the minister's horse had a white star on the forehead and breast, whereas this horse was all black.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: The deacon said that he found the horse grazing in his yard at daybreak, and that he would give it to whomever could prove it to be his own property.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Nobody appeared to demand it, and people soon forgot that the horse was not his.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: He extended his business at about that time and prospered.
43:28
SPEAKER_01: He became a rich man for a little place, though as his wealth increased, he became morose and averse to company.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: One day a rumor went round that a belated traveler had seen a misty thing under the owl tree at a turn of a road where owls were hooting, and it took on a strange likeness to the missing clergyman.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: Dickerman paled when he heard this story, but he shook his head and muttered of the folly of listening to boys.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Boy nonsense.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: Ten years had gone by.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: During that time the boys had avoided the owl tree after dark, when a clergyman of the neighborhood was hastily summoned to see Mr.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: Dickerman, who was said to be suffering from overwork.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: He found the deacon in his house alone, pacing the floor, his dress disordered, his cheek hectic.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: I have not long to live, said he, nor would I live longer if I could.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: I am haunted night and day, and there's no peace, no rest for me on earth.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: They say that Sharpley's spirit has appeared at the owl tree.
44:39
SPEAKER_01: Well his body lies there.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: They accuse me of taking his horse.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: It is true.
44:46
SPEAKER_01: A little black dye on his head and breast was all that was needed to deceive them.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: Pray for me, for I fear my soul is lost.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: I killed sharply.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: The clergyman recoiled.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: I killed him, the wretched man went on, for the money that he had.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: The devil prospered me with it.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: In my will I'll leave two thousand dollars to his widow and five thousand dollars to the church he was collecting for.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: Will there be mercy for me there?
45:21
SPEAKER_01: I dare not think it.
45:23
SPEAKER_01: Go and pray for me.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: The clergyman hastened away, but was hardly outside the door when the report of a pistol brought him back.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: Dickerman lay dead on the floor.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: Sharple's body was exhumed from the shade of the owl tree, and the spot was never haunted after that day.
45:51
SPEAKER_01: Stick around after the credits for a brief message from some of our favorite podcasters, creators, and friends.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: There may even be some bloopers, outtakes, and bonus material as well.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: You have been listening to Octoberpod.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: Octoberpod is produced, edited, and directed by Edward October.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: The series co-producers are Amber Jordan, Whitney Zahar, and producer emeritus MJ McAdams.
46:19
SPEAKER_01: Additional audio engineering from select segments provided by Kevin of Straight Line Creative.
46:25
SPEAKER_01: Logo and banner graphics by Jessica Good.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: Edward October Character Design by Nick Calavera.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: Select Stock Photography and Illustrations courtesy of unsplash.com.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Thorax, theme from Octoberpod, and Overture from Bigfoot Apocalypse, composed and performed by Nico Vitesi.
46:47
SPEAKER_01: Select Music and FXQs courtesy of freesound.org.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: All other stock photography, illustrations, music, and FXQs, except where noted, were derived from Creative Commons sources or from sources and recordings within the public domain.
47:04
SPEAKER_01: All stories, essays, scripts, and audio plays performed on Octoberpod AM or Octoberpod Home Video are the intellectual property of their creators.
47:15
SPEAKER_01: Octoberpod was conceived, written, performed, and scored by real human creators.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: Generative AI was not used to create Octoberpod, and it never will be.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: For business inquiries or story submissions, email us at octoberpod at gmail.com.
47:32
SPEAKER_01: Follow us on the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter at OctoberpodVHS, on Instagram at OctoberpodVHS, on BlueSky at octoberpod.bsky.social, or on the world wide web at octoberpodvhs.com.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: The man who spoke to you was Mr.
47:54
SPEAKER_01: Edward October.