Yes, It's Still The Best

Rating: Null/10 (7 April 2001)

I think the Exorcist is a masterpiece, and quite possibly the greatest horror movie ever committed to film. Maybe the problem the younger crowd has with it is that a):Religion,especially Christianity, has come to be regarded as a vague superstition at best...there is no God, therefore there can be no Devil and b): after 20 years of slasher/hacker/blood and guts type movies, this one probably looks pretty tame and wimpy by comparison. As for those who think it's too "slow"...get an attention span! The devoted fans of Friday The 13th/Halloween/Scream/etc. must be a bit baffled by the presence of actual intelligent conversation that lasts for,golly, minutes! The idea that a quarter hour can pass by without a beheading,boiling,burning or topless starlet must be the sign of an inferior movie. I saw the Exorcist on it's original run in 1973. I love horror movies and this is the only one that really put a scare on me. I think what spooked me was that this was about a true story...Blatty based his story on an actual incident that occurred in Maryland in the late 40's. It involved a young boy, and of course a lot of the details were different...but there were some very big similarities. I think the most frightening, primal part of it all was the concept of monstrous evil inhabiting the body and soul of the most innocent and vulnerable. But of course that's just my opinion...