Linda Blair Movies
Although many people assume that The Exorcist (1974) was American actress Linda Blair's film debut, she had actually been working in commercials since age six. Blair was chosen from a field of 500 hopefuls for Exorcist because of her resemblance to the film's star, Ellen Burstyn. To the casual viewer, the film, which dealt with the Devil's possession of an innocent preteen girl, was hardly the sort of fare that any responsible parent would allow their child to appear in. But the Exorcist's director, William Friedkin, was careful to prearrange the special effects (head turning around, bloody body wounds, vomiting green bile) with the least amount of danger or trauma for Blair. From all reports, she handled the assignment like a trouper, though she balked at having her hair messed up for the purposes of the plot. Blair was nominated for an Academy Award for her Exorcist work, but this campaign was scuttled when it was learned that, not only had the girl been extensively doubled by a dummy, but her horrendous "Satan" voice, explicit obscenities and all, had been dubbed by adult actress Mercedes McCambridge. A major celebrity at 15, Blair was able for a while to parlay her Exorcist work into a series of demanding film and TV roles, most of which cast her as a much-abused victim. Her rape scene in the TV movie Born Innocent was so graphic that the network was forced to cut the scene when the film was rerun. In other appearances, Blair played a teen alcoholic, a kidnap victim, a heart-transplant patient on an endangered airliner, and her Exorcist role again in Exorcist II (1977). By this time, Blair was unable to maintain the equilibrium of her career, which degenerated into exploitative crime or girls-in-prison films. More recently, Blair was seen in Repossessed (1990), a ham-handed spoof of the film that made her famous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 2001
Los Angeles' Miss USA 2000 Pageant is a beauty contest with a difference -- while in many ways it seems like a typical pageant, complete with contestants competing in evening gown, swimsuit, and talent categories, and celebrity judges weighing in on their presentations, the participants in Miss USA 2000 are all drag queens, with the men posing as women and also posing as representatives from different nations from around the world. Queen of the Whole Wide World is a documentary that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the annual event (which in 2000 raised close to a quarter-million dollars for AIDS-related charities), with the participants speaking both "in character," as they prepare for the gala event, and out of costume about their personal lives. Linda Blair and Julia Louis-Dreyfus both appear briefly as judges at the pageant. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Lane
- 1985
- R
Linda Blair plays Chris Carlson, a U.S. college student who gets thrown in an East German women's prison when she happens to be found with a defector. She's in Germany to meet her U.S. serviceman fiance, and when he finally figures out where she is, he organizes a commando rescue squad to free her. Prison scenes show a dreary prison life where everything's forbidden and survival is the top priority for most inmates. Sylvia Kristel plays a tough and hardened inmate who rules the prison roost. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Sylvia Kristel, (more)
This is almost a follow-up to its relative The Exorcist, since it stars Linda Blair, also the leading lady in the '70s head-spinner tale. In Repossessed, a grown-up Blair plays a housewife who becomes possessed by the Devil while watching TV. Leslie Nielsen plays Father Mayii, who gets called to exorcise the intrusive being. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Leslie Nielsen, (more)
This lively film was made to cash in on the roller skating craze that swept Southern California in the late '70s. The story centers upon a poor-little-rich-girl runaway who heads for the Venice boardwalk to join the other hipsters on wheels. She and her new friends then team up to keep an avaricious developer from razing the local roller rink and putting a shopping mall in its stead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Jim Bray, (more)
- 1975
Fresh from her success in The Exorcist (and several years away from her tenure as queen of the women in prison flicks), Linda Blair stars in this searing TV movie. Sarah (Blair), a normal teenaged girl, begins drinking socially at high school parties. She soon finds that she can't stop--and even worse, she can't keep her boozing a secret. After a near-tragic baby-sitting episode, Sarah decides to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, but soon she's back on the hard stuff. Only when Sarah causes the death of a horse does she strengthen her resolve to remain "clean and sober." Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic tempers the more sensational aspects of the subject matter with some unforgettably poignant vignettes--including the A.A. testimony of a boy who's even younger than Sarah. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- R
Ostensibly starring American actress Linda Blair, who actually only spends about ten minutes on screen, this exploitation film was originally a Spanish-Italian exploitation film (Orinoco-Prison of Sex) that was re-edited with the new Blair footage inserted periodically to make it appeal to American audiences. The story (originally starring exotic European sex symbol Ajita Wilson and Anthony Steffen) is set within the horrific confines of a South American women's labor camp that forces inmates to slave in an emerald mine. Daly (Blair) is a former slave, who gets revenge upon the camp owner, a successful American gem broker. After a long search, she finally finds him, corners him in an office and while holding him at gunpoint with an Uzi, begins describing in detail the ordeal she and other inmates were forced to endure. This flashback segment is comprised of the original film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Anthony Steffen, (more)
Heather (Linnea Quigley), the deaf-mute sister of Brenda (Linda Blair) is gang-raped in a drawn-out, violent scene at the beginning of this routine vengeance movie, a scene that provides the motivation for Brenda's rampage through the rest of the film. Dressed in a special outfit that bares enough skin to suit the standards of this genre and armed with a crossbow, Brenda goes after the young punks in the "Scars" gang who raped her sister -- with predictably gory results. Surrounding this miniature Charles Bronson is a society burdened with parodies of "good" people: the school principal who is only superficially tough, and the upper-class teens whose thought processes were arrested shortly after kindergarten. Stereotypical and transparent, this teen movie is interesting because it does promote a woman in a "hero" role, but the subject matter and violence will not appeal to everyone. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, John Vernon, (more)
Scream is at once a slasher film and a tongue-in-cheek position paper on the "dead teenagers" movies of the late 1970s/early 1980s that plays as half-parody, half-tribute. Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is having a rough time lately: she's still getting over the brutal rape and murder of her mother a year ago, and now one of her friends (Drew Barrymore) has been killed by a lunatic who harassed her with terrifying phone calls, then stabbed her to death while wearing a Halloween costume. Soon Sydney is receiving similar phone calls, quizzing her on the arcane details of such films as Friday the 13th and Prom Night, and is attacked by the same cloaked maniac. With her father missing, she has hardly anyone on her side except her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowan) and Tatum's brother Dewey (David Arquette), a half-bright cop. As for the murderer, it could be any number of people: Syd's father; her cute but overly intense boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ullrich); Tatum's goofball boyfriend Stuart (Matthew Lillard); or Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who works at the local video store and seems to like horror movies just a little too much. Much like Halloween, Scream spawned a series of sequels and inspired a large number of similar films -- its original working title, Scary Movie, became the title of the 2000 parody film by Damon Wayans. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette, (more)
- 1988
- R
When his partner on the police force is murdered by the former CIA agent Kendrick (Gustav Vintas), Sam (Sam J. Jones) sets out to avenge his friend's death. He teams up with Jun Kim (Jun Chong) and kendo expert Bernard (Phillip Rhee) to rescue a scientist kidnapped by Kendrick. The villain hopes to use his victim's knowledge for the purposes of chemical warfare. Linda Blair plays Sam's sweetheart Sara, with former Playboy model Rebecca Ferrati as a seductive villainess in this well-crafted action feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Jones, Linda Blair, (more)
- 1994
- R
In this dark tale of eroticism and the supernatural, Larry (Larry Poindexter) is an attorney rising through the ranks at a prominent law firm. Larry's wife Erica (Julie Strain) loves her husband very much and would do nearly anything for him -- which takes on a whole new meaning when one discovers that she's a witch with a firm command of her darker powers. Larry is in line for a promotion, but instead the senior partnership is given to Howard (Edward Albert), and Erica is just as upset as you might imagine; using both her sexual allure and her magical powers, Erica takes her revenge on Howard, leaving him in a wheelchair. However, it seems that Howard's wife Amelia (Linda Blair) is also a witch, and she's not about to allow the crippling of Howard to go unpunished. Sorceress also features Michael Parks and a cameo appearance from noted exploitation director Fred Olen Ray. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Edward Albert, (more)
Notable as an early effort from renowned horror filmmaker Wes Craven, this made-for-TV occult thriller was loosely adapted from a novel by Lois Duncan. Star Linda Blair -- whose film career had taken a detour into TV-movie territory after her legendary bow in The Exorcist -- returns to the demon-possession genre as a teenager who can't seem to convince her parents that her visiting southern-belle cousin (Lee Purcell) is an evil witch. Purcell's diabolical meddling seems focused entirely on the innocent Blair, who loses both her prize horse and her boyfriend to the scheming sorceress before the rest of the family catches on. Though Craven's well-known extremism is curbed by the limitations of television, his talent at generating high-intensity suspense is still evident, making this a modestly entertaining horror item. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this made-for-television drama, a fugitive mental patient kidnaps an illiterate girl from a nearby farm and forces her to go to a lonely mountain cabin. There he teaches her to read and, ultimately, how to love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Originally titled Gamma 693, The Chilling emulates Night of the Living Dead, but falls somewhat short of that horror classic. In exotic Kansas City, several corpses lie frozen in a morgue. Comes the inevitable thaw, and the city is overrun with zombies. And, yes, they subsist on human flesh. Troy Donahue, Linda Blair, and Dan Haggerty are among the Z-picture perennials appearing in this messy meller. Ostensibly a 1989 release, The Chilling gives evidence of having been made much earlier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Dan Haggerty, (more)
Novelist William Peter Blatty based his best-seller on the last known Catholic-sanctioned exorcism in the United States. Blatty transformed the little boy in the 1949 incident into a little girl named Regan, played by 14-year-old Linda Blair. Suddenly prone to fits and bizarre behavior, Regan proves quite a handful for her actress-mother, Chris MacNeil (played by Ellen Burstyn, although Blatty reportedly based the character on his next-door neighbor Shirley MacLaine). When Regan gets completely out of hand, Chris calls in young priest Father Karras (Jason Miller), who becomes convinced that the girl is possessed by the Devil and that they must call in an exorcist: namely, Father Merrin (Max von Sydow). His foe proves to be no run-of-the-mill demon, and both the priest and the girl suffer numerous horrors during their struggles. The Exorcist received a theatrical rerelease in 2000, in a special edition that added 11 minutes of footage trimmed from the film's original release and digitally enhanced Chris Newman's Oscar-winning sound work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, (more)
- 1971
- R
This exploitative melodrama is set in northern Michigan where an exclusive private hunting club is located. There some of the country's richest, most powerful men come to relax and get closer to nature. Unfortunately, that means that they become engaged in debauchery and become brutal, amoral killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- R
In this drama, a Madison Avenue advertising executive has a mid-life crisis and leaves his wife and daughter to embark upon a series of love affairs. Among his conquests are a professional dancer, a television executive, and a married ex-girl friend. None of them are particularly satisfying, but this is small consolation to his wife who is devastated by the affairs and decides to get a divorce. The husband, looking for comfort, returns to the arms of the dancer who ends up having a mental breakdown. He then turns to his ex-girl friend, but she is too busy with her home life to bother with him. The husband suddenly feels tremendously relieved and decides that he doesn't need women as much as he thought he did. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicholas Pryor, Linda Simon, (more)
- 1988
- R
In this comedy, a reporter (Linda Blair) poses as a homeless person in order to write a piece about the street people of Los Angeles. When the reporter befriends a couple of the people she meets on the street, she ends up getting emotionally involved in her work. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Murray Langston, (more)
- 1976
Within months after the spectacular July 4, 1976 rescue of hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport, there were two competing TV movies on the subject. The longest (and least) of the two was Victory at Entebbe, hurriedly shot on videotape. The story begins when Arab terrorist capture a civilian airliner and force a landing at Entebbe. Ugandan president Idi Amin (Julius Harris, substituting for recently deceased Godfrey Cambridge), struts about at the airport, insisting that he can do nothing--but apparently siding with the terrorists, especially when the Arabs begin separating and mistreating the Jewish passengers. A surprise Israeli commando raid masterminded by defense minister Shimon Peres (Burt Lancaster, who more than compensates for his miscasting with an excellent performance) rescues most of the hostages, though at least one of the passengers (played by Helen Hayes with a Jewish accent that wouldn't convince a duck) is apparently killed out of retribution while en route to hospital. The teleplay's bad dialogue, and the producers' Airport-like decision to use only big stars in the major roles (Richard Dreyfuss, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas et. al.) tends to trivialize one of the most auspicious acts of selfless heroism of the 1970s. A far better dramatization of the incident, Raid on Entebbe, was telecast a few months later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Based on Mel Ellis' novel, The Wild Horse Killers, this Canadian film follows the quest of young Hank Bradford (Linda Blair) as she struggles to save a herd of wild horses that are scheduled to be killed. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Michael Wincott, (more)
In this horror film, a group of people travel to an old hotel in a remote part of New England, where they incur the wrath of an evil witch (Hildegarde Knef). As the hotel guests begin to die off in gruesome ways, a young photographer and his girlfriend struggle to find a way to defeat the witch. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Hasselhoff, Linda Blair, (more)
The sequel to Zapped!, this comedy follows the wacky events that occur when a mysterious formula endows a geeky high school boy with telekinetic abilities. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Todd Eric Andrews, Marie McCann, (more)
