It seemed like Calder was able to fight from being completely possessed, while all the other characters got totally taken over by that green goop. Calder held on to part of his original soul for longer than anyone else. Does anyone know why this is? Does John Carpenter talk about it on the special commentary on the DVD, or anything like that?
Who's... laughing... NOW?!? BZZZZZZ (hack hack spurt spurt) HA HA HAAA BZZZZZ HA HA HAAA
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howdy DemonicDan!
Didn't it seem like he fought it, a little?? Eventually it got him, definitely, no question. But remember, he was singing that hymn for awhile, in a very miserable, half-possessed way, I thought. I think it was Amazing Grace.
Even when he was laughing, the fact that he was laughing crazily at least SORT OF implied that he still had a little of his original Calder consciousness left in him, enough to go insane because he could see the absolute hopelessness of trying to fight against this evil force. This is unlike some of the others, who were so totally possessed that they couldn't even have an insane sense of humor about it. They were just vessels of Satan. Like, the Susan Cabot character, who got possessed really early and was always walking around, had such a totally evil expression on her face she scared the living daylights out of me. She would never laugh crazily at the hopelessness of it all, she was just totally evil, she had no sense of perspective or sense of humor about her evilness.
Maybe I have this all wrong, but this is how it looked to me... I'm going out for a jog now, but will look at this thread again later.
Who's... laughing... NOW?!? BZZZZZZ (hack hack spurt spurt) HA HA HAAA BZZZZZ HA HA HAAA
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That's interesting I'd not thought of his singing "Amazing Grace" as a mockery of God. But that does make sense.
I think that Calder didn't fight it as much as he wasn't affected completely by the evil...right away. We see this often in devilish horror films; it affects everyone differently.
An example of this is the original "The Amityville Horror". The evil didn't affect George Lutz in the same way as it affected Sonny Montelli.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
I, too, perceived Calder as "fighting it." He never harmed anyone else, if I recall correctly. "Amazing Grace" is sung at funerals; the lyrics, I think, are about being "saved." His singing it and then attempting to kill himself may have indicated that he was basically pleading with God or Jesus to save him from the evil. And then when the suicide attempt didn't work, he basically spent the rest of the movie crying.
Also, he was one of the first ones to believe what the priest was telling them, and he said something like, "This could be THE ANSWER!" I suspect he was religious (meaning Christian) to begin with.
So yes, I'd say that he was fighting it.
I thought the evil made him kill self so it could take him over completely.
shareI always thought he was fighting it. The slow singing, the crying pleading eyes and then the attempt to kill himself.
I guess Carpenter was trying to show that his faith was acting (albeit temporarily) as a blocker to the possession.
"Small moves Ellie, small moves"
He was fighting it. Blacks are largely Christian. He slit his throat because the juice was forcing him to madness. Once he did that he is open to the darkness.
shareI did not get the impression he was fighting anything.
sharei got the impression that there was a war going on inside him, at times he was laughing like a looney but then his eyes would be screaming and i felt he was tormented cause he was really powerless, out of them all i felt that he was still in there.
shareIt's subtle, but Calder wore a crucifix in the first part of the movie. He quietly took it off after the revelation of what was in the basement. He also sided against leaving.
I think he was a Christian and so he had a higher resistance to the evil than the others who were either agnostic or atheist in their beliefs.
I can think of two reasons why he was singing loudly during which:
1) That was his way of warning the others that he was about to turn.
2) It's quite common for people to fall back on their faith when they know they're about to die (or transform in his case). Which leads me to believe that his faith was stronger than the other survivors. Hence why he briefly fought it off.
"You have to have faith, for it to work. Mr Vincent!" 😁