“What an excellent day for an exorcism”.
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair
Plot: Little Regan MacNeil begins to show signs of demon possession… there’s only one thing to do: call in the Exorcist!
It’s my honest opinion that the best horror movies are the ones that don’t merely exist to scare the s**t out of their audience through constant jump scares or gratuitous shots of blood and guts. No, the best horror movies (like so many we’ve previously discussed in this year’s THN HalloweenFest) are the ones that have more to them then just gore and screaming blondes.
Take William Friedkin’s sublime 1973 effort, THE EXORCIST, easily one of the most engrossing and interesting horror films ever produced, as well as being one of the scariest. Based on the equally brilliant novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty (who adapted the book himself), THE EXORCIST is a slow but powerful freight train of a film. Building carefully and cautiously for the first hour, the film wisely chooses to focus on its characters first and foremost. We have Father Karras, played by the excellent Jason Miller, who imbues the character with vulnerability and underlying sadness, making him near impossible to dislike. Joining him is Father Merrin, the titular exorcist, played here by the excellent Max von Sydow, a man who must have been born with gravitas. And then there’s poor little Regan, who begins as the loveliest little girl in the world, before coming down with a bad case of demonic possession. This is the key to the film’s success – by giving us time to get to know each character, it’s all the more hurtful when any kind of harm befalls them – a conceit lacking in so-called ‘horror’ films such as the SAW and HOSTEL franchise, films that only exist to display unlikeable folk getting dismembered in every kind of grotesque and conceivable manner.
What really makes THE EXORCIST so great, though, is its focus on or attitudes towards religion – from Karras’ loss of faith following the deterioration of his mother’s health, to Chris MacNeil’s desperate resort to exorcism in order to save her daughter’s life, the movie challenges how we view religion with not only devotion and hope, but also suspicion, derision, and even fear. It’s this exploration of both religious hysteria and the great unknown that truly give the film its fear-factor: vampires and werewolves can be studied and understood. Heaven, hell, and all that possibly reside within each of these realms cannot. What’s scarier? The horror we can see, or the one we can’t?
A well directed classic, bolstered by great performances and superb special effects, THE EXORCIST is a horror film that makes one think, before sending multiple shivers up the spine. Slow but never dull, it’s a clever, tension building masterpiece, and one that should never be underestimated as just another horror film!
Horror Highlights: Projectile vomiting! Heads turning 360 degrees! The floating Bed! Regan’s horribly croaky demon voice! The shaking Bed! THE EXORCIST is jam packed with scary and iconic moments.
Best Scare: The crucifix masturbation scene is ten times as uncomfortable to watch as is it is just to mention here in this very sentence. A horrible, nasty and spine tingling moment that both shocks and repulses. Yet it’s the moment the words ‘Help Me’ rise up in the form of scars on Regan’s abdomen that is the biggest and scariest part of the whole film.
Check out the rest of THN’s HalloweenFest here
