The Girl Who Swallowed Her Hair

Inspired by her love of cinema and the horror genre, Geraldine Javier paints the infamous "Spider Walk" from the 1973 film, The Exorcist. In this scene, the character Regan, played by Linda Blair, shows the first signs of demonic possession by skittering backwards down a set of stairs like a spider. The scene was in the original script by William Peter Blatty and was actually filmed by the director William Friedkin. However, the scene was cut in the original theatrical release because the visuals were thought to be too extreme for the public and, coming early in the movie, detracted from the horror of later scenes to come. For the 25th anniversary of the film, a director's cut was released where the Spider Walk was reinserted in all its glory. 

In the painting, The Girl Who Swallowed Her Hair, (2010), Javier has obscured the girl's face with a vitrine from which strands of tatting lace flow out to mimic the spurts of blood in the original movie. The sculptural element of the tiered platform below the painting distances the audience from the painting, allowing us to see beyond the horror of the scene.

The capacity of horror movies to provide a safe space by which people can release their inner demons and achieve an adrenaline rush is the reason for their continued popularity. But perhaps they also provide an alternative path where those questioning their faith might find answers. As William Peter Blatty explains, "If an investigation were to prove that possession is real, what a help would it be to the struggling faith of possibly millions, for if there were demons, I reasoned, then why not angels? Why not God?"