The Exorcist (1973)
"When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter."
- IMDB
Max von Sydow and Jason Miller may be the faces of the most iconic scene in the film, but its Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair that carry the film. Ellen as the mom is more of the emotional drive of the story as she's a desperate mother who want's her little girl back and perfectly portrayals the devastation of this totally realistic scenario. Linda Blair.... woah fam. Linda broke boundaries with her portrayal of Regan. I honestly can't think of a child performance to compare this to. She was insanely good.
The film itself has a bit of a slow build up as we get to know the characters. There is a bout 30 minutes before the spookiness starts and the possession starts off with weird behavior and minor incidents. It all escalates when Regan pees on the floor... The demon quickly takes over Regan entirely shortly after and the Exorcist truly begins. It's all sorts of scary fun but really you do start to feel sympathy, even saddness for the mom and daughter. If it were a real mental illness explained by science and/or pseudoscience, this would be a devastating story.
But then Reagan climbs bent over backwards hssing and spewing out blood and we're all like "nah, nope, nopety nopy, yeet" because that's is literally the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. And we're kindly reminded that this is a horror film, not sad story about psychology. We then see the part of the movie that everyone watched the Exorcist for. Once Fathers Kerras and Merrin join the team the real party begins and it all leads up to the infamous Exorcism, a scene that lasts about 15 minutes. While both priests die, it's a happy ending for Reagan as her and her mother leave this experience behind.
The legacy the Exorcist has to film, to 70's culture, and to the horror genre is magnificent. It's disgusting. It's bold for it's time. It's not for the faint of heart. And it's still truly scary on some level. The Exorcist is a classic Halloween film with iconic lines and is the standard for all possession movies.
My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆
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