Starting the '31 Days of Macabre Movies' with a classic! I loved this film already, but I must admit last week that I had the ADDED superior experience of seeing it in a graveyard! I can’t even tell you how cool that was! But let's get on with the review:
1973's The Exorcist is now a classic of the horror genre. Showcasing a very real incident with fictional characters that are developed in such a way that you can't help but believe the whole thing is real!
This film has a beautiful pace, if you just skipped or jumped to the 2nd "More memorable" half it simply wouldn't mean as much. This is what lots of Hollywood types (and horror fans for that matter…) don't understand! Cut to the 'good stuff' and you miss out on the stuff that really matters! (the really good stuff!)
Also I was amazed at how well the special effects hold up! A lot of them are simple tricks and involve cutting away so that you can't get a good look at something but all this works so that it almost leaves a haunting "ghost image" in your mind of what you think you saw, leaving you thinking about those quick images probably for the rest of the evening!
Here's another one I can't really say too much negative about. And truthfully I feel like I'd be reaching and nitpicking.
If there's one word I would assign to this movie it's "creepy." This movie is genuinely creepy, and that's not the easiest thing to do… many films try and go down burning in flames. But this movie sits with you. You'll be thinking about specific shots or things the movie said for days after you see it. Horror movies of today could learn a lot from this movie.
I think this movie's strongest point (especially in comparison to today's films) is it's characters. Father Damien the clergy/psychologist is probably the most memorable, I love how they take the time in the beginning to show you who he really is and spend a lot of it showing you the real strife he faces in his life. But all the characters are really interesting, The mother Chris MacNeil who is a popular actor who may or may not have a thing for her director, The detective who is obsessed with movies and even the sweetheart Reagan played by the talented Linda Blair who has a love for drawing. All of these feel like very real people. And the fact that the movie takes the time to develop them makes you really care for them when things start to get crazy.
And lastly I wanted to mention the way the story unfolds. The first time you watch the film is really going to be the best. The story unfolds in such an interesting way that it's not until at least the 2nd half that you're really sure poor Reagan is possessed. The film drops enough clues against her being in need of an exorcism as it does in favor of one. This is really smart because it keeps your viewer on the edge of their seat following the events as they unfold!
To conclude, I always worry about recommending movies like this to people. Technically this movie is amazing (as hopefully I've illuminated above) but movies have changed so drastically since the 70s, and horror films are basically unrecognizable comparatively. The truth is this is a slow film, there's nothing wrong with that and I would argue that this adds a lot to the character development and the way it reveals the plot, but if you go in expecting Saw or some other movie that passes as "horror" these days you will be sorely disappointed. However, that being said I recently saw a screening of this with four friends who had never seen it before and they all enjoyed the film, so yay! Great films win over expectations again!
Why is 1973's The Exorcist still relevant? How about because Hollywood still finds it relevant! These days everything from Scary Movie to Constantine to Paranormal Activity references it, and that's not even mentioning every exorcism film that has come since then! There's 3-4 Pre/sequels, and countless other films about exorcism it's basically created an entire subgenre of horror. And all these films are trying to do the same thing but none of those movies do it right. The amazing thing is The Exorcist is a movie that most people in their twenties haven't even seen it! It's considered one of the scariest movies ever made, I'm not sure that means the same thing these days but I would reword it to the CREEPIEST movie ever made.
So to summarize: 5/5 stars. GO SEE THE EXORCIST. K? Thx, bye.
