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The Exorcist Movie Review

The Exorcist is a 1973 horror film directed by William Friedkin and starring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair. It’s not as amazing as many say, but it is definitely influential.

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“Stick your cock up her ass,

you motherfucking worthless cocksucker“

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When a 12-year-old girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her. This was a groundbreaking movie when it came out as it was the first truly brutal, R-rated horror movie released, but it has gone down in history as being particularly influential on the supernatural horror subgenre, in particular the exorcism stories.

The story is actually quite well crafted. We get to see the doctors and their role in this whole process, and then the priests themselves. The whole Catholic angle was definitely intriguing, and it will certainly prove scarier for the believers than the atheists. The film is well made and definitely engaging throughout, but I wished to have seen the backstory behind this demon and who he is. This is something that ‘The Conjuring’ did much better as that story was definitely more complex.

Ellen Burstyn is truly fantastic as the girl’s mother. She is put into such an extreme ordeal, and the actress delivered in every single scene. Whether traumatized, heartbroken or determined to help her kid, Burstyn elevated her role effortlessly. Linda Blair also needs to be commended for her iconic turn as Regan and the kid just might be one of the most memorable children in cinema history. Jason Miller as Father Karras also needs to be praised for his great Oscar-nominated performance in such a heroic, admirable role.

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That entire ending with self-sacrifice was just incredible. There are many scenes here that are instantly iconic, including that spider walk sequence that is super creepy, albeit all too brief. The demon cursing all the time bothered me upon first viewing ten years ago, but now I’d come to appreciate it as this is exactly the point – seeing a little girl spitting such horrendous curses is horrific, meant to disturb all viewers, and it does just that, though it did get a bit repetitive later down the line.

Probably my biggest gripe with The Exorcist is the editing. I did not appreciate it in the least. I get what they were trying to do, but to me it was counter-intuitive to cut so frequently and so quickly away from each and every big horror sequence. I was fascinated by every appearance of the demon, but so many of these appearances felt abrupt as they were quickly edited out and we were turned toward the much less interesting conversational scenes that overwhelm the film. The dialogue is good, but thematically speaking, the movie is nowhere near as sophisticated as this dialogue-heavy approach demanded it to have been.

The Exorcist is technically superb. It is extremely well shot, so well acted and greatly directed by the terrific William Friedkin. Everything besides the editing and pacing was excellent here, including the production design with that house, stairs and the whole street being quite iconic. The emotional intensity is evident as you really feel for the mother’s pain, but more development could have been given to others. Overall, I’d come to appreciate this film much more upon second viewing, but I still think that it falls short of greatness due to some flaws that I have illustrated above.

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