The
Exorcist
(1973)
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 Hours and 2 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: A+This past weekend, a great horror film, possibly the greatest ever made, was released into theaters. And, no, I am not talking about "Urban Legends 2".
That's right. After twenty-seven years, as Elton John would say, the Bitch is back.
But who is the bitch? Is it Linda Blair? So young, so flexible, so disgusting? Or is it her mother, Ellen Burstyn? A woman who routinely swears at foreign hotel clerks and thinks nothing of it when her daughter tells her that her bed has been vibrating. I can't really say. All I know is that this movie gets under my skin and haunts me more than any film I have ever seen. It is one of the few movies that can actually make my skin crawl. And, even after a quarter of a century, this movie still has the power to shock and the power to unsettle. It is still fresh and vibrant and, well, just damn creepy.
Linda Blair is excellent as the young girl, Regan, who uses a Ouiji board and is then possessed by an entity which may or may not be Satan himself. She is sweet and innocent and fresh-faced. And suddenly she becomes nasty and foul and utterly loathsome. And she does both astonishingly well. It's a shame that she never went on to do anything aside from chicks-in-prison movies and dating Rick Springfield (one has to wonder if she was the inspiration for "Jessie's Girl"). Then again, some people just hit their peak at an early age. A very early age.
Ellen Burstyn does a marvelous job as Regan's mother. A woman who is sensible and cynical, who never goes to church, and yet there is no doubt in her mind that this is the work of something outside our world. No one would doubt her decision to call upon a priest. After all, when your daughter turns her head completely around after masturbating with a crucifix and making a dresser attack you, well, you know it ain't the flu. She's strong-willed and very opinionated, but that just makes her all the more human. Real people can be a pain in the ass.
What more is there to say.
The priest she calls on is played by Jason Miller. His Father Karras is going through a crisis.
He is no longer sure that he believes in God. This couldn't come at a worse possible time. As he investigates the matter, he becomes positive that it is a possession. His faith is strengthened. After all, if there is a Devil, then there has to be a God. He is very natural and realistic and he simply is the character to us because we have never seen him in anything else.
We are not distracted by his star power and, therefore, it lends a weight to the proceedings. Max Von Sydow is also superb as the priest who has been through something like this before (although probably not this bad) and is on hand for another one. He fits into the role like a glove.
Yes, "The Exorcist" is scary. Scarier than anything I have ever seen. Sure, "Jaws" is harrowing. But the shark can only get you when you are in the water. Try hiding from the Devil, see how far that gets you. Plus, most of the movie is set in the little girl's bed. Talk about the perfect place to set a movie to get the maximum amount of willies. A bed. We all go to bed. We all have to sleep. Who knows what might attack us, attack our souls, while we lie powerless to stop it. Creepy thought, that. And there is an intensity in this film that puts about ninety-eight percent of other horror films to shame. Sure, the first half hour is sorta on the dull side, but that actually works to the advantage of this film. It lulls you into a false sense of security and then, WHAM, it pulls out all the stops.
You can try to mock it, you can try to laugh it off, but within an hour, you will be on the edge of your seat. No matter what your faith, no matter how hard you try, you will be sucked in and affected by "The Exorcist". And, unlike a lot of other horror movies, there are issues to talk about, things to think about here. There is food for thought and ideas on display here, real ideas of faith and power and especially meditations on the nature of Evil. And Good, let's not forget that.
And you might not get a lot of sleep afterward either.
P.S. - My review relates to the original version of the film, not the new one which, if all I have heard is true, is a true bastardization of the original, adding such things as unnecessary scare chords and digital effects. "The Exorcist" works as well as it does because of a lack of those things. There are no "Boo" moments where the music hits those scare chords and tells us that we are supposed to be unnerved by what we are seeing on the screen. The filmmakers have done their job so well in this instance that none of those things are needed. We know when to be scared by "The Exorcist".