Truly scary

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2005)

First I'll start by saying that while The Exorcist is the scariest horror movie ever made it is not the best in my opinion. I rank The Omen and A Nightmare on Elm Street higher. Both movies are fun to watch but neither are scary. ( Well maybe The Omen a little. ) The Exorcist is the only movie ever to disturb me. I watch it these days and I find nothing perturbing about it. However I'm a little more cynical these days than in the early eighties when I first saw it. I was only about fifteen or sixteen when my mother brought the video home not knowing what it was about. The tape was turned off immediately when it came to the crucifix scene. I never saw the rest of the film until 1990 London when it was shown in a theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue. I was glad to revisit it in all it's glory. Having become a non-believer in that space of time I could watch the film for what it was. A very good night's entertainment. One thing struck me though a few years later when I bought the 25th anniversary edition. It's not the gore and spectacle that scare you or remain with you when you leave the theatre. It's the little things. When the clock stops at the start of the film. The rustling noise in the attic. The subliminal flash of a white face. Whenever Reagan says something about Captain Howdy. It still sends shivers up my spine. The blood and the gore don't interest me. It leaves nothing to the imagination. The Exorcist works brilliantly as a psychological thriller and I think that's where the scares come from. I love this film and revisit it every now and then just to get those goosebumps rising.
A very good shocker and no horror movie has scared me since. A testament to it's genius.