The Exorcist [R]

Famous film star and divorcee, Chris MacNeil, lives with her almost-pubescent daughter and a houseful of Help. Suddenly Chris’ daughter, Regan, begins to act strangely, beginning with predicting guests’ various deaths and then urinating in front of them. Soon her strange behaviour gets even stranger as she begins using constant profanities and inflicting harm on herself, which lands her in hospital undergoing various psychological tests. But when the tests come back with no results, Chris is forced to consider that there may be something else wrong with her daughter entirely and she seeks the help of an exorcist. 

Oh this was some freaky shit! Even though it’s made in the early 70s, The Exorcist is a classic horror film that still inflicts thrills, chills, and stomach convulsions to its audiences. Changing the genre of horror forever and being the most highly speculated blockbuster horror, getting the most pre-release hype in history and even drawing headlines away from the Watergate scandal for a while, The Exorcist is fucking freaky stuff, scared the shit out of me at any rate. 

Famous film star and divorcee, Chris MacNeil, lives with her almost-pubescent daughter and a houseful of Help. Suddenly Chris’ daughter, Regan, begins to act strangely, beginning with predicting guests’ various deaths and then urinating in front of them. Soon her strange behaviour gets even stranger as she begins using constant profanities and inflicting harm on herself, which lands her in hospital undergoing various psychological tests. But when the tests come back with no results, Chris is forced to consider that there may be something else wrong with her daughter entirely and she seeks the help of an exorcist. 

The Exorcist did many things for the genre of horror. Firstly, based on the true case of a Maryland boy, the story written by William Peter Blatty based on his novel, brought an entirely new brand of horror to the screen. Where before there was botched scientific procedures, psychotics, and slasher maniacs, now there is also a string of religiously terrifying movies as well as films that star possessed and demonic children, something else that had not really been seen all that often on the screen. This film opened a lot of doors in that way, broadening the genre’s horizon, which I suppose is something worth mentioning. I don’t know, I’m still not a real horror fan. 

I wish to also draw special attention to the makeup achievements of this movie. At a time of primitive computer effects, the real stars of shows such as these were the people who made the demons up all ready for their close-ups. The makeup in this film was superb, very frightening and will definitely give me one or two nightmares. 

We must also applaud Christopher Newman who received the Academy Award for his achievement in the sound editing of this movie. Half, if not two thirds of the film’s clout is achieved through the use of sound, in particular the multiple voices that come from the possessed girl, as well as the various growls, yowls, and snarling. Ooh hoo that was some scary stuff! 

Starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair, and filled with violence, blood, harsh words and sexual references, properly fitting for an R rated movie, emotional drama, science, and religion, The Exorcist is a bloody freaky movie, one that successfully scared me greatly and remains to this day an iconic film that greatly influenced the genre of horror.