A Steaming Pile of Demon Puke

Rating: 2/10 (7 June 2007)

A ridiculous and laughable "horror" film about demonic possession. "The Exorcist" is simply terrible. William Friedkin directed with an iron fist, and there isn't the least shade of subtlety to this story. You may feel assaulted, but you won't be scared.
Poor Ellen Burstyn has to wade her way through this crap in the thankless role of mother to Linda Blair's possessed daughter. The two actresses are quite effective in the film's early scenes, when the possession has yet to fully take hold, and these scenes are the creepiest in the movie. But once Blair is relegated to the bedroom, strapped down to the bed and bedecked with caked-on prosthetics, this movie gives up all claims to seriousness and becomes a procession of shameless shock moments. Jason Miller and Max Von Sydow wander around and intone imperiously as the two priests assigned to the exorcism, and Mercedes McCambridge gives the film's most lively performance as the demon's voice.
Disgustingly, Friedkin actually claimed that this film was religiously significant, a ruse that worked, since it became a blockbuster. Times haven't changed. Religious fanatics turned Mel Gibson's bloodbath, "The Passion of the Christ," into a cultural phenomenon, and they've done the same to this. If religiously-themed films have taught us anything, it's that religious people certainly do like their Sunday school messages to come packaged in pain and suffering.
Grade: D