Opinionated Thought

INFAMOUS SLAP from THE DEMONIC POSSESSION

Last Updated on Friday, 30 October 2009 19:38
Written by Clifford Scott Carson Thursday, 22 October 2009 13:08

Entertainment - Movies

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THE SLAP IS REAL. Recorded as we shot it. Interesting backstory to this mean ass vicious slap. There was a period in the movies from the late 30's to the late 60's when slapping peoples faces in movies was a standard thing to do. It usually occurred in a scene when a character became hysterical or insulted someone. I believe it was the character of SCARLETT O'HARA in GONE WITH THE WIND that made this trend popular. Her character in that movie slapped 4 people. Usually the ones who got "out of hand" or didn't agree with her. Today in movies, you don't see alot of people getting their face slapped. It's considered "not the way to handle a situation" and typically the action backfires on itself. When I was a kid the film THE EXORCIST was THE BIG movie. So big in fact that my buddy, noted cinematographer, BILL BURTON and I set out to make our own version. The original title was MALEDICTION, later changed to THE DEMONIC POSSESSION. We made the film on Super 8 sound and with NO PARENTAL SUPERVISION or CENSORSHIP. Bill and I had the type of open minded liberal parents who didn't interfere with our creativity or filmmaking. The result was a wild little shocker that still freaks people out to this day who watch it. Whenever anyone sees this film they all say the same thing, "how in the world did you get away with THAT? ".

The problem was as a kid I thought all face slaps in movies were real. I had no idea what fake face slapping was in films or how to position the camera from over the shoulder to make it look like the slap connected with the cheek when it didn't. I didn't know anything about dubbing in the sound of the slap afterwards of anything like that. I thought a good actor took his face slap from his fellow actor if the scene called for it. The idea of having a scene where two characters slap each other before a fight I got from the campfire party scene in Walt Disney's THE PARENT TRAP with Hayley Mills. That movie had a few vicious face slaps in it which I thought were completely real when I was a kid. Now as an adult I see that it is quite obvious the characters are miles apart from even connecting the hand with the face. It's all done with jaxapositioning the camera from behind the shoulder. The sound is laid in afterwards for maximum effect. Walt Disney was not the type of man who would ever allow his actors to be really slapped.

When the time came to shoot this pivotal scene in THE DEMONIC POSSESSION which signals the possession of the character I play in the movie, I was prepared for the other kid in the scene, SCOTT BROWN to really give it to me. I also thought that the slap had to be real and LOUD in order to pick it up on the recorder. We filmed Scott's over the shoulder shot of me getting slapped first. Scott barely touched me, as you can tell in the film. Just a light tap on the cheek to which I overreacted to. Apparently he knew something about stage slaps that I didn't know. When the time came for my over the shoulder shot of me smacking him, Scott had no idea the force in which I was going to hit him. In my mind I kept thinking of all those LOUD mean slap scenes in ALL those old movies I had watched on TV and in the movies. This was my movie, my scene and I wanted my slap scene to be every bit as good as anything I ever saw on TV. The cinematographer yelled action and I hauled off and really smacked the hell out of Scott. Believe it or not, even I didn't realize the force in which I hit him. After the slap Bill stopped the camera immediately and everyone in the room was STUNNED. Immediately I said, " OH MY GOD, I'M SORRY". Scott glared at me with that "what am I doing in this movie, I hate you" look. Whatever trust he had in me before was now entirely GONE. After that shot and only one take I might add, we went through the process of setting the camera and lights up in a different angle to shoot the fight scene. Scott was instructed to react to the face slap in the last show when the camera rolls. Bill said, what side of the face was that on? I said, "um, I think it was the left side. Yeah, it was the left, I remember it ", in which Scott replied, "yeah, I remember it too".

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