"I love to talk film. Discuss, to critique"

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2000)

How then to judge a film? That's a question I found myself asking after reluctantly deciding the Exorcist was worthy of a "7".
I know of people that would downgrade works despite their aesthetic and artistic merit if they include, for example, violence. Though I feel in assessing a film or any other piece of art then one must judge it objectively. And so we get to the Exorcist. Well-acted, by Jason Miller and Linda Blair especially, it cannot be faulted in terms of direction. Though light and shade contrast beautifully in the Georgetown sequences, it is the cinematic vision of Iraq in the prologue that deserves special praise. On a technical basis, the film is not quite as good, particularly the scene where Blair has an obviously artificial stomach with "help me" written on it.
This is a film that was banned for fifteen years in England until 1999. While I would stand against censorship and welcome the release of "A Clockwork Orange" next year (if only to discuss how good it is in this country without fear of being arrested) part of me wishes The Exorcist had stayed banned.
Fans of the movie protest its psychological, and maybe it would have been if the director hadn't removed huge chunks of scenes between Regan and her mother at the beginning. (And what kind of mother would play a game of ouija board with her daughter?) It's supporters also protest that the film is religious, though again maybe this would be the case if a dialogue scene between the two priests hadn't been excised from the final cut. What remains is a depiction of the Devil that demonstrates it's wickedness by defiling a young girl. This is where the film  nicely shot and acted though it may be  falls down.
I do not call a girl's head spinning 180 degrees, spitting pea soup or badly lip-synching to a demon's voice psychological. Creaking in the attic IS psychological. A cherubic young girl lousily miming to someone saying the "f" word is not. Take away the choreography and it's a schlock-horror film just like any other, but with fancy trimmings. Seeing a priest punch a girl three times in the face is not horror but gratuity. In order to show the evil, Regan (Blair) attempts to force her mother (Ellen Burstyn, Oscar-nominated but largely one-note) to perform oral sex on her. Before this happens we have Regan soaked in blood after masturbating with a crucifix. And there lies the crux of my argument.
I don't like minors (Regan is identified as just 12 in the script) being placed into scenes with sexual content or connotation. Seeing a nude girl being scrubbed in a bath or having her top pulled down to be examined is content that would be used for titillation with a much older woman. Lastly we see Regan (actually a 22-year-old body double, but still presented on film as a 12 year old) inserting the metal object inside herself. Think about that for a moment. If you met someone who claimed to have seen a film where a minor is made to appear to be masturbating with metal object and conducting sexual relations with her own mother  faked or not  you'd have them arrested for indecency.
Yet hype tells us we have to regard what really is just a tacky piece of filmmaking as classic modern cinema. The Exorcist  0/10.