The Exorcist

When a young girl, Regan McNeil, begins exhibiting strange behavior, her mother takes her to a series of doctors. After the doctors fail to recognize what is happening, strange phenomena surrounds Regan her mother is left with one option – To enlist the help of 2 priests, one who questions the existence of god and another who is haunted by an archaeological dig from his past which foreshadows this confrontation.

I haven’t seen this movie in years so I felt it was necessary to check it out again in my adulthood since this movie really is a classic by all accounts but is it really what many call “The scariest movie of all time”?

In short, no…Not even close. I respect what the movie did for the horror genre back in the 70s – It raised the bar for horror movies by which all aspire to be but ultimately fail in. The Exorcist was (from what I’ve been told) terrifying in it’s day, they showed things that had never been done before – Who thinks to have a 12yr old girl stab herself in the genitals with a crucifix all while blasting out obscenities to “the All Mighty” or the green pea soup vomit fest (I still chuckle at that scene cause it reminds me of Scary Movie). What about the head spinning?

***Yawn***
The makeup effects are something special though and I admit that Regan looks positively amazing and I can see how she’d look positively terrifying back in the 70s.

The movie is slow and plodding – which quite frankly put me to sleep a few times…This should be Day 17,18,19 and 20 but that would be a huge cop-out. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that I’m not into but I just don’t feel like this movie holds its age very well. If you’ve never seen the movie, you should probably check it out just to say you watched “The Scariest Movie Ever” and laughed or fell asleep because of boredom – That would make you wicked awesome but it’s hardly the end of the world if you decide to take a pass on this one.