William Friedkin’s tale of demonic possession is widely recognized as one of the most terrifying horror movies ever made, and its use of subliminal imagery only makes The Exorcist more unsettling. The demon Pazuzu – nicknamed ‘Captain Howdy’ by Regan – can be seen in a few frames scattered throughout the movie, but its appearances go by so fast that some audience members may never even be aware that they saw them. For those who did manage to spot the pale-faced Pazuzu, the fact that the demon’s horrifying face is only visible for a fraction of a second is far more frightening than a drawn-out close-up.
There have been countless examples of people finding sexual imagery hidden in the frames of Disney movies, and not every one of them is convincing. But one film that definitely has a sexy subliminal secret is 1977’s The Rescuers. The animated adventure about two mice on a quest to find a kidnapped girl has a not-so-innocent image inserted during a sequence where Bianca and Bernard are flying on the back of Orville the albatross. A topless woman was superimposed onto two of the windows flying past during the movie’s post-production. This discovery of the image in 1999 led to Disney issuing a recall of 3.4 million home release copies of The Rescuers – but thanks to the internet, it’s still easy to find the clip.
The first of two entries from Alfred Hitchcock on this list, Psycho is full of smaller details that make it worth watching the movie over and over again – including a brief cameo from Hitchcock himself. During one of the final shots of the movie, as Norman Bates is sat in the police station after being arrested, Hitchcock subtly superimposed the image of Mrs Bates’ mummified skull onto actor Anthony Perkins’ face. To make things even creepier, not all of the theatrical prints of the movie included this detail, so audiences in the 1960s could spot the skull in one screening and then find it gone in another – leaving them to wonder if they’d ever really seen it at all…
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