This movie absolutely scared the hell out of me (in common with another poster, it’s the only horror movie I’ve ever seen that gave me nightmares) and I think the reason probably has to do with my own fears of losing control. Some OTHER FORCE has absolute control of this little girl, using her like a robot to physically manifest its awesome evil, and she is powerless to do anything about it… her ‘self’ is utterly gone. Deeply, deeply scary stuff.
The concept of demonic possession is something that totally punches all the freak-out buttons for me every time. I don’t even particularly believe in demons or heaven or hell, but what I do believe in is the power of the human mind to conjure up pretty much anything it wants to, even in a physical state. And so perhaps if you’re afraid of something, you somehow create it. (This is very disconcerting thought when you’re lying awake at 2am after reading something like the ‘Creepy’ thread.)
Having said that, I remember seeing a special on 60 Minutes or something some years back when they showed an exorcism. The girl didn’t seem particularly ‘possessed’ to me; she just seemed like a total wacko. She spoke in a deep voice claiming to be a demon, but it wasn’t beyond the range of her actual vocal chords, nor did she do anything remotely ‘supernatural’. I remember one of the priests saying, ‘If we didn’t have her tied down to this chair, she’d go floating right up to the ceiling!’ Yeah, right. Needless to say she didn’t.
Still, just the idea of it is enough to give me the heebie-jeebies.