Horrifying religious horror

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2015)

Having only watched the film during its 2000 theatrical reissue, and once the week before, I read the book (in one day) and rewatched the film to compare it and ... I'm somewhat at a loss for words on this one.
Beautifully grotesque, nearly unwatchable in its extremely graphic portrayal of a young girl who begins exhibiting most bizarre behaviour. Early doctors are at a loss. Psychiatrist cannot figure what is wrong with her. Ultimately a priest is called.....
Film does what it sets out to do, horrify its audience, but there are also deep characters present, with meat on their bones, meaning for being there, not merely taking up space, or appearing just to provide a body count. The sound design is brilliant; in my opinion it is possibly the film's strongest suit, how it plays with silence and subtle, quiet sounds, as well as its haunting, strangely calming theme. Its use of light and shadows, and subliminal cuts add to its disquieting unease.
But for all of those things in its favour, this is an extremely difficult watch, as it centres on a young child's gruesome tortured peril. Yet, that was exactly the point of the book and this subsequent film, to revolt and horrify the audience with its religious philosophical horror.
An extremely frightening, difficult to watch horror, gory, unsettling, so much so, in fact, that I don't think I could ever watch this again.