Scary in its day, perhaps?

Rating: 4/10 (23 September 2001)

I just finished a screening of this slow-moving, ponderous and uninvolving "horror" film. The opening sequences in Iraq, which drag on interminably, have nothing to do with what comes after. When we finally arrive at the locale of the action, a lot of nothing ensues very slowly and to no frightening effect. It's hard to see what it was about this film that scared so many; perhaps it was simply the shock of the sacrilegious comments coming from a little girl's mouth. Truly, "The Exorcist" commits the worst two sins a horror film can; it bores and it fails to frighten. That said, it is still a well-made film with intelligence and a nice visual style; it just fails totally as a horror film.