Classic horror tale

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2008)

This movie is one of the all time great horror movies. Time may have rendered some of the scenes unintentionally funny, but it still provides a terrific template in how to construct an adult horror movie.
There are a few different versions of this movie around - three, I think. The last time I saw this movie (some years ago) might have been with the anniversary edition. You'd do well to avoid the version with the silly subliminal flashes (that might be the extended version of the movie).
Anyway, the movie is about a single parent family...a mum and her young teen daughter (the daughter is played by Linda Blair). The daughter slowly starts acting more and more alarmingly. What is so terrific about the movie is how the mum acts rationally to help her daughter...taking her to doctors in a desperate bid to cure her daughter.
Eventually, the daughter's behaviour becomes so disturbing that she eventually consults a priest in a last desperate attempt to cure her daughter.
The movie contains a lot of graphic language and has some disturbing sexual imagery, so it isn't really suitable for young teens. Also, if you are a Christian, you may find this movie disturbing too.
Like I've said, the movie may have lost some of its power in this secular day and age, and some of the horror that was so shocking for the 1970s seems a tad ludicrous now, but the extremely intelligent way that this movie is constructed is a master-class for modern day horror makers who think that jumping straight into a gore-fest is somehow scary or satisfying.