R, 2 hr. 2 min. Directed By:
William Friedkin.
Release Date: Dec 26, 1973. DVD Release Date: Dec 1, 1998.
This is one of those movies that
stuck with me the first time I saw it. I
still remember the scenario: I was in
high school, and more than one of my friends had recommended the movie to
me. I had spent the weekend working, so
there’d been no fun at all, and I had a bit of homework that was looming over
me. It was late, the wee hours of the
evening, and my parents had gone to bed at their usual 9:00pm, so the house was
both dark and quiet with the exception of my dad’s breathing. It wasn’t a snore so much as what you see in
the cartoons when someone is feigning sleep:
a loud inhale followed by an explosive exhale, without any of the back
of the throat rattling that would characterize a snore.
I was creeped out by the time the
music started. You know what music. Even now, like hmmf fmfh years later, the
music still creeps me out, something it shares with the Halloween music. The Exorcist also remains the only one
of these demonic possession movies that’s managed to scare me even a
little. Last night, I turned this on as
dusk was approaching. Twenty minutes
later, it was full dark, and I hadn’t turned on a single light in the
house. Then, there was the noise I
heard, and then all the lights were on.
There have been pretenders, copycats that have tried and failed to
capture the spirit of this movie.
Recently, that’s included The
Rite and well, I can’t remember the one that just came out. I’m probably blocking the name because it was
so terrible. The Rite had an incredible cast, and probably was the best of the
pretenders, by which I mean it still sucked.
All these years later, and this is
still a good time, despite the movie’s faults.
I’ve never understood why the “young priest” involved in this is older
than me… either that or he’s attempting to pull an Andrea Zuckerman. At a guess, I’d say Jason Miller was pushing
40 when he did that movie, putting him a few years my senior… and that’s not “young.” I also find Linda Blair’s performance
disturbing. I’ve commented a few times
that there are child actors who get involved in things that maybe they’re not
old enough to be involved in, and this is one of those performances that
supports my thoughts: the things that
Blair does and says while under possession are things that no girl her age
should be saying or doing. It’s why the
movie is creepy, but I’m thinking it kind of tanks her innocence.
I have problems with some of the
character development as well, notably Blair’s.
She’s a key player, if not the lead. And I would have liked to have seen
some transition between little girl and demon-possessed monster. Usually when a movie hits the 2 hour mark, I
start looking at possible places to cut, but this is a movie where I would have
liked to have seen the moment of weakness when the Devil or demon or whatever
could have snuck in and taken that little girl.
If you haven’t seen The Exorcist, you probably should. I don’t throw around the term “modern classic,”
but this is one. Every cinephile should
have this in their repertoire.
