'What an excellent day for an exorcism.'
The Demon
One of the touchtone tropes of spooky staircases, especially in horror films, is their function as a portal to either Heaven or Hell. To reach Heaven, you must ascend, going to Hell, means a terrifying decention. Goodness rises, evil falls. There are so many horrifying moments in film which include a flight of stairs. One in particular came to mind when I saw this series from photographer Bob Burkhardt.
Last month, I featured images from the second shoot between bob and the incredibly hot, and clearly incredibly limber Victor. (HERE:) When I was going through the images Bob sent on, I put these aside knowing they'd be perfect for the spooky season. Now, I'm pretty sure that neither Bob nor Victor planned this series as either horror, or Halloween themed. They're creative goals more about pose, and showing off one of Victor's most magnificent body parts.
'The climbing up the stairs was my idea and the climbing down was Victor's. He really wanted to feature his butt in the last session and I was happy to comply. The climbing down shots were not easy for Victor given the physicality of the pose. I was especially happy with the descending shots.'
'The stairs idea came about when I came across these shots by photographer Erick Monterrosa. I loved the unique posing of the model against the environment - they were very seductive and I especially liked the view that draws attention to the backside. Bob was very receptive to trying the idea too. Although we weren't quite able to recreate it to a tee because the layout and stairs were different, it was still a fun experimentation.'
As heavenly as Victor looks sitting on the stairs, and as enticing as he and his butt look climbing up them, I was having more demonic thoughts when I saw the series. The images, especially the last two below, with Victor descending the steps on his hands reminded me of a terrifying scene from 1973's The Exorcist.
I love 1970's horror, and when I first saw this movie, I was just a kid, watching it on television at a friend's house. I remember my friend's mother laughing at how scared we were, and that the viewing sparks at least a month's worth of nightmares. If anyone remembers the 'stair' scene, it featured a possessed Regan descending a staircase with a demonic spider walk with her head upside down. (you can watch the scene on Youtube HERE:)
The images below of Victor's 'spider walk' are certainly more seductive than sinister. Victor's unique poses however, and angles Bob captured, certainly conjured for me, so many scenes of demons and monsters descending a spooky staircase, one specific iconic scene in particular.
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