May the power of over-hyping compell you! May the power of over-hyping compell you!

Rating: 3/10 (19 March 2001)

Channel 4 screened the Exorcist last night, after 30 years of its banning. I've seen this film before, a few weeks after it was released from its ban in 1998, and wasn't too amazed by it. But maybe I missed something. This so-called `classic' is undoubtedly the most hyped up horror in movie history. The daunting thing is, they screened the `making of' documentary two years before anybody was allowed to see the actual film.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the warning before the film started: `Warning: this film is strictly for adults, and contains scenes of horror, strong violence, demonic possession, and very strong language.'

The start of the film is absolutely incredible. People are digging in the sand, and discover some strange items beneath, jewellery, and small demonic statues. The imagery conjured up here is powerful and sets the mind racing of what is to come. The scene where the exorcist looks at the huge demonic statue in the blazing sun, with dogs fighting in the distance, is a beautiful piece of film. Unfortunately, the setting changes to an North American home where a mother and her delightful daughter Regan are visited by the devil via a ouija board. Regan is the victim of a rather unique `illness' which causes her to speak in different voices, have flaky skin, and enables her to turn her head 360 degrees at will.
Regan is demonically possessed. What's more, she's possessed by Satan, the devil himself. Ooer! That just took the biscuit I'm afraid. Whereas I've been brought up to believe the devil is one mean mother, you would have thought he'd be capable of a bit more than squirting pea soup and screaming schoolboy obscenities. What, the devil has an Yorkshire accent? `Did you see what she did, your c***ing daughter?' Quite laughable really. Why not just a demon? Another problem with this film is the dubbing. As the devil, you would have thought his voice was a little more terrifying. When his voice comes from the girls mouth, it appears to come from all directions  did he install some speakers in the room? And what wattage were they?

As a mother, she really must do more to help her child. In one scene she opens her daughters bedroom door to find the window open, gale-force winds blowing through, the room at sub-zero temperatures. Does she do the right thing and help her warm up in front of the fire to stop her freezing to death? No, she just closes the windows and pulls her blanket up. Also, what was the purpose of the demonic items that were found? Satan was supposed to have been summoned up from a ouija board, so why were they ever introduced? One of the characters finds one at the bottom of the steps, but there is no explanation as to how the evil managed to find its way into Regan.

As for all the profanity in this film, coming from a non-so peaceful area myself, I hear worse `mother' jokes coming from peoples mouths every single day. I have seen more shocking things then the cunnilingus scene. Look around the Internet and you will see far more sicker things today, people who take pleasure in killing animals, torture, self-harm, mutilations, suicide. And those are REAL. Of course, I highly object to all of these things, but it certainly would have made this film more grotesque and disturbing. Animal cruelty always disturbs the audience. In Hellraiser we saw a man eating crickets, and rats being hammered to the walls by nails through their heads. This was far more shocking then any of the things I saw in the Exorcist.
Bless my heart, I really did try to be scared by this film. I tried to put myself in the mothers shoes: `What if it was my daughter that did those things?' Is it just the religious types that are scared by this? Why are they offended by a four-letter word rhyming with `puck'? Why are they offended by sex? To me and you, religion is man-made and was only used by people to take care of their tribes. But the imagery of the devil in a small child was too unbelievable to be taken seriously. I want Satan to do something truly terrifying. Here he did nothing but open and close a few drawers. Yes, ever done anything that scared anyone before? Hell, during the exorcism everyone seemed fearless, as if they could take the devil lying down. But at least one person died due to the devils work, but we don't actually get to see how. We could have had the devil actually appearing and having everyone scarper. We didn't get that either.
Don't get me wrong, I think this could have been THE most terrifying movie of all time. It has the atmosphere there, it builds it up, but in the end, I was left thinking `Is that it?' It really does make me laugh when I hear people talking as if the Exorcist is the best horror movie ever made. It is not. These people have not seen enough horror movies, because there are certainly more terrifying pieces of work out there. This is strictly average viewing if you are not taken in by the hype.