Has held up quite well over the years.

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2017)

This was the ne plus ultra of horror in its day and deservedly so. The devil is always scary of course, and when properly combined with the ancient ritualistic mysticism of the RCC a real gem can result - and that's what happened with both the book and the movie.
It looks quite dated now. The gore, violence and special effects of current movies make the Exorcist's most ghastly scenes look tame. And there have been so many spin-offs, spoofs and extrapolations a younger generation probably has a hard time taking it seriously. It's kind of sad when a well-done movie becomes a stale cliché but sometimes that's the price of notoriety.
For the current generation, only those who have an eye for extracting the quality of the work from the limitations of the era would find it compelling. But for those of us who saw it fresh, particularly after reading the book, it still packs a punch.