The Exorcist stands firmly among the greatest films ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2001)

The Exorcist is widely regarded to be the scariest movie of all time. Personally, I would put it a little differently. Instead of calling it the scariest movie of all time, I think that it would be more accurate to say that it's the best horror movie of all time. These may be just two different ways of saying the same thing, but I think that there is a notable difference.
I just watched The Exorcist again, and I experienced the nervousness and tension and fear that it was meant to cause and I jumped a few times, but I've watched several other horror movies that have caused those same feelings  The Shining, Pet Sematary, The Sixth Sense to a certain extent, even the remake of The House on Haunted Hill had a few quality scares. But I think that the thing that sets The Exorcist apart is that everything was just done right. The acting was great, the story was unique and well presented, the gruesome special effects were skillfully crafted, even the gore and the sickening profanity were put into the film with good reason and with good results. It's so rare to see a horror movie come along (and it gets rarer and rarer as time goes on) that is actually worth watching, and when one comes along that is absolutely ground-breaking, like The Exorcist, then it's a huge cinematic event.
The Exorcist is just as timeless as horror films get, and it should be noted for its style and its effectiveness. There have been so many imitations of this film that have popped up over the years (which is to be expected, because it created so many possibilities), but none of them, not even any of the sequels, even come close to the greatness of the original. Not only is it original and unique, but it also contained some stunning performances, particularly on the part of Linda Blair as Regan, the 12-year-old girl who was the subject of the exorcism. There were some frankly shocking things that she did for the film, and the brilliant special effects and make-up added to that to make Regan's possession amazingly realistic, which is probably the most remarkable thing about the film.
Another thing that was done especially well in The Exorcist was the sound effects. Probably one of the main reasons that the movie is so scary is because it is so unexpected and therefore so unsettling to hear some of those noises come from a little girl. William Friedkin's skillful but relentless directing style clearly played a large part in the convincingness of the final outcome, which stands as one of the definitive films in cinematic history.