The Scariest Movie from the Scariest Book of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2003)

In 1973 when The Exorcist premiered, I was studying comparative anatomy as a sophomore in college. There had been great media fanfare about the movie leading up to it's release, and during the opening weekend it was reported that thousands of people across the country had left the theater during the movie, some becoming so ill as to need to regurgitate. Whether those reports were true or not, there certainly was buzz about this movie. I decided to read the book the night before I went to see it, and stayed up the whole night reading. As it happened, I had a cat cadavear as did my three roommates which I was studying for anatomy class and it was stored in the entry hall to my suite dorm room (two rooms with four students connected by an small entry hall in the front and a bathroom in the back). When I was approximately half way through reading the book, I heard a crashing sound in the entry hall which scarred the bejeezus out of me. It was about 3:00am and everything was totally dark and silent. I went to investigate and discovered that my cat, and only my cat, had fallen from the top shelf where all of us kept our specimens and was laying on the floor, staring straight up at me with its paws extended toward me. Spooky stuff, considering the book was terrifying and brilliantly written. I went the next day to see the movie with my roommates and was blown away. It was one of the few times that a film adapted from a novel equaled the brilliance of the novel. Ellen Burstyn was fantastic as the mother of a child who had apparently been possessed by the devil. It was her fear and desperation to save her child that drove the movie. Miss Burstyn was nominated that year as Best Actress at the Academy Awards, but lost due to the controversial nature of the film. She did win the next year, however, for Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, and I've always believed that it was really for her performance in The Exorcist. And by the way, another movie Ellen Burstyn was in for which she was nominated for Best Actress and lost because hardly anyone saw the movie (these were the days before videos could be sent to the Academy members) was Resurrection. If you haven't seen it, don't miss it.