Movie Notes: 'The Exorcist' (1973)

The Exorcist is based from the last known sanctioned exorcism of a boy in the United States. In the movie adaptation the boy was replaced by a female character a girl named Regan (Linda Blair) who is a daughter of a movie star, Chris Macneil (Ellen Burstyn). When she felt no amount of medical intervention can heal her daughter's extreme behavior she sought the help of the Church through Father Karras (Jason Miller). The priest recommends that they need the help of Father Mirren (Max Von Sydow) to exorcise the entity out of her daughter's body. 

It turns out that the young Regan is possessed by an ancient demon named Pazuzu whom Mirren have defeated a few years back. The exorcism will ensue with horror and struggle not only for Regan but for the priest as well.

MOVIE NOTES

Released in 1973, the movie was very effective in horror and was considered groundbreaking in its time. This movie has inspired a slew of movies about demon possessions and the supernatural. The narrative was good up until the end and the performance of its actors was amazing. The 360 head turn, green vomit and the actual exorcism were considered one of cinema's iconic scenes in horror.

I can say that it has a charm because it tells the story of the fight between good and evil for people who believe. On its subtext, it is also a symbolism of the struggles of a pubescent girl and the drastic changes she is currently experiencing in her life and body. Adding to these changes is the separation of her parents, rational diagnosis would say that Regan was just seeking attention and her behavior is a rebellion to everything happening to her. 

However, some of us who have not lived before this movie was shown will not be able to appreciate (we may even laugh at how absurd some of the scenes appear to us) and be truly be scared of it. This is understandable because our generation have been used to the scare methods: jump scares, gore, tensed background music, monsters, and all sort of gross and squeamish special effects.  They have become a cliche so to speak.

But back in the day of its release in the 70's, people were not used to this sort of stuff and the Exorcist made people scared out of their wits with its profanity, sacrilegious scenes, twisted plot points and shots of a possessed Linda Blair. It worked back then and in the process has been replicated in later films. This might explain why it works less effective now that we have been bombarded by all these films with a parallel themes and methods of horror.

This movie still remains a classic horror and a seminal work in the horror genre for me because despite the

I give this movie 4 out of 5 and listing it under my list of AMAZING movies.

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This is a part of Fright Cinema 2015, a list of the best horror movies handpicked in no particular order by The Wandering Klutz. It features ten (10) films every year just in time for the scariest season of the year.