"What an excellent day for an exorcism."

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2020)

This is to me one of the scariest films of all time. Before movies about the devil or demons was commonplace or before it may have become comical through imitations and parodies. It all may depend though on whether you believe in God or pure evil.
It is the story of a twelve year old girl named Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) who becomes possessed and her mother Chris' (Ellen Burstyn) fight to get her well. After seeing multiple doctors who are unable to get her daughter better she meets with Father Karras (Jason Miller) who is a psychiatrist. He meets Regan and through his investigation gets Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) who has experience with exorcisms in driving the demon away.
Personally, I think everyone puts in an A+ performance from Burstyn's excellent portrayal as Chris MacNeil to Linda Blair who in the roles I have seen her in never did a better job. I love how when her character is introduced she is in fact asleep. To Jason Miller who I thought hit it out of the ballpark in his role. Max von Sydow is great and memorable as the old-timer priest even though he was in his early 40s. Great what makeup and acting can do. Lee J. Cobb showed his incredible range playing a caring, smart cop and not a grimy villainous character that he generally played.
Directed by William Friedkin who at one time really did make amazing films and was one of the best current (at the time) filmmakers around. He uses the same approach he used in THE FRENCH CONNECTION in trying to make it as realistic as possible even though to some the subject matter may be way out there. Written by William Peter Blatty who grabbed an Oscar and was based on his own novel. The film also has a terrific score which the title theme by Mike Oldfield, which is interesting because it was not written for the film. Rather Friedkin was looking for music and came across Oldfield's newly released record and thought the song would work for his film.
I have seen this one in a movie theatre and loved it! Personally this is one of the greatest horror films ever made and to me a 9/10 rating doesn't quite do it justice, but there are a few things in the film that drop the rating a bit as it is not a perfect film. The one scene that perhaps many people love, but to me makes me laugh is the spider-walk when Regan comes down the stairs and blood is coming out of her mouth. I do not find it scary and to me it seems to be comical and sort of way out of left field.
Anyways, I know after watching this I ain't gonna be buying my kid a Ouija board so that can talk to Captain Howdy! I could go on forever about how great this film is, but you should just watch it instead. Followed by a number of lesser sequels including EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC and it is incredible how bad that one is.