The Exorcist

William Friedkin’s full-throttle adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel works because it fuses the extreme and the everyday.

Through technical virtuosity at every artistic level -- including the brilliant acting debut of playwright Jason Miller as the doubt-filed priest who assists Von Sydow in the exorcism -- The Exorcist becomes more than a shocking movie: a film with a strong, positive force.

This truly terrifying film version of the best-selling Blatty novel is far superior to the book.

Here, in paranoid, bad acid trip form, is the real birth of girl power. [2000 re-release]

Just as some of the footage deepens what is already there, additions in final reel, though closer to Blatty’s wishes, restate the obvious or add a feel-good patina which pushes the film closer to our own audience-pleasing period than the more daring early ’70s. [2000 re-release]

The Exorcist is provocation at its ugliest.

11 minutes longer than the original, and 11 minutes worse. [2000 re-release]

The Exorcist is, without a doubt, the most intense film that I have ever witnessed at the movies. The theater was packed, quiet, on edge. You could feel the tension in the room. The dramatic scenes were met with screams, gasps, and growls from the audience that I had never heard before or since. A couple of ladies ran out of the theater. I felt dread every time the camera panned toward the room where the girl was staying. After the movie, the patrons exited the theater exalting their experience. It took me a while to watch "The Exorcist" again. It remains the scariest horror film of all time.

I laugh well, the demon is such a prankster, I recommend it to everyone for getting acquainted with the history of cinema

The Exorcist isn't short of shocking or memorable scenes but they don't quiet come together to make for a truly satisfying movie experience.

If this is considered a landmark film, then there is a problem here. The movie is utterly worthless and excruciating to sit trough. Endless dialogue about nothing, and scenes that go on and on and on for no apparent reason. Was there even an editor for this movie?!

Considered one of the scariest movies of all time left me laughing at how corny and stupid the film was. Combine that with a first hour that is more boring than watching a black screen, The Exorcist is not only a bad horror film but a terrible film altogether.