It’s 4:30 AM and I’m watching the Exorcist. Actually I am watching the director’s commentary on the two versions of the Exorcist I own. I have the 25th Anniversary Edition and the slightly longer extended cut released a few years later. The writer Peter Blatty also has a commentary on the older version that is very interesting. The problem is that I find this film terrifying. Even the director’s commentary track can give me he creeps just seeing the visuals of the film. This film scared the living bejeezus out of me when I saw it on HBO as a lad. I saw many classic films of the 70’s on HBO. Cable was new when I was 10 or so, and HBO was something ofa miracle. Movies were available uncut by flipping a box on top of the TV while watching channel 3. HBO used to show burlesque and r-rated softcore european sex films along with studio films which were rated R. HBO wasn’t a 24 hour channel at first. In fact, it was only on during prime time. Eventually, daytime programming was added, but no HBO mini-series or original films were on, and R films were only shown at night. I saw such bleak 70’s cinema as Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Hardcore, Scanners, The Deer Hunter, Deliverance, and the Exorcist. These films don’t have happy endings or corporate sponsor ideas. They, are bleak, violent, and not for 10-year olds. I have never been as scared by anything as I was by the Exorcist. Not even by Ned Beaty’s anal rape in Deliverance. Some great movies were made in the 60’s and 70’s. Some damn scary flix. Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Phantasm all scared me as a kid, and I can still enjoy them to this day. So what am I doing at 4:30 AM? Not sleeping is what. I’d call myself an insomniac, but I’m not sure if that is a proper diagnosis. I can sleep. But after 2:00 mostly. Trying to get to sleep at a decent hour to get up and sieze the day, but it doesn’t happen. Tonight I tried to go to bed at 11:00, b ut at 2:00 I still wasn’t asleep. I was listening to the commentary on the Exorcist on a portable DVD player via headphones. Trying to relax. I was awakened maybe a half hour later by a nightmare. It makes it hard to hold a conventional job when you can’t sleep a full night. Maybe I should put on a Marx Brothers film. It might be easier to sleep after that.