All time greatest horror film...

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2004)

Voted "The scariest movie of all time" by movie critics worldwide, and numerous film institutes, and also banned by bible thumper Billy Graham who declares there is an actual demon in the films celluloid, this shocking horror movie based on the novel by William Peter Blatty made waves in the seventies causing loads of controversy with audiences, religious organizations, and even spawned a mystery when strange accidents began occurring throughout the filming. This tells the story of young Reagan Macneil, a beautiful little girl who lives with her single struggling actress mother. The two have lost faith in life and god until weird incidents start to occur within their house and young Reagan's personality begins to rapidly change when she begins muttering Latin and becomes increasingly violent. Desperate, Reagan's mother seeks out the help of a young priest who has also lost faith in god due to a hard life, and along with an experienced old winded reverend, who has finished a hard battle with the devil years before, the two will attempt to discover if Reagan is possessed by the devil and battle for her soul and their sanity. Shocking, terrifying, and aggressively character driven, this is arguably the greatest horror movie of all time by horror fans. With the incredible dark direction from William Friedkin, he supplies an incredibly scary horror movie which was boycotted by religious groups in the seventies. The movie takes its time by introducing the likable vulnerable characters slowly and develops the plot with ease making way for the shocking finale which will literally put chills down the viewers spines. There are some rather incredible special effects that were ahead of its time and rather influential being used again and again in latter day horror flicks. There are a lot of memorable scenes in the film including when Reagan is floating from her bed, the scene where her head spins, and the infamous vomit sequence. This spawned two sequels, and inspired much research into the occult, this is an excellent film and as a hardcore horror fan, this is my all time favorite horror movie.