Masterpiece of a horror story

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2014)

The Exorcist has often been called the greatest horror movie ever made, and for a good reason. It was revolutionary during its release and the passage of decades has not dulled its impact in the slightest. It's still an uneasy film in the best possible meaning of the word, tapping into several sources of fear simultaneously, while still telling a coherent, captivating story. You get the creepy atmosphere right from the start as we follow an old priest in the desert and find out with him that something wrong has slipped through the cracks into the world of man. Something old and ancient, something that does not belong.
But we've seen many creepy films since then and if that was all the movie had, if it was all promise and no payout, it wouldn't have earned its reputation. Luckily, the film is more rounded than that. Many "horror" movies nowadays rely on jump scares, easy wrights that momentarily spike our adrenaline levels without scaring the mind. It's physical, instinctive and ultimately leaves no impact. This movie and other films like it, however, do utilize shock value as a mean to create horror, but the imagery they use goes deeper than something that merely looks scary or unsettling. The sight of Regan (Linda Blair) being slowly corrupted by a demon is jarring on an emotional level. It touches the nurturing side within us. It's wrong, it's taboo and because of that it's something we will remember, something we automatically oppose. It's adult fear, to use the technical term, something quite different from being afraid of the monster under the bed.
Furthermore, it's a film that shines in execution as well. All the actors do a magnificent job of portraying ordinary people that have to face the unthinkable, the impossible. The movie doesn't shy away from reality in order to make the story seem more plausible. Rather it freely acknowledges the implausibility of the situation, contradictorily making it a more believable film. Add in brilliant sound design, masterful use of music to create atmosphere, stunningly effective practical effects and great lighting and you have a film that quite effortlessly convinces you that yes, a small girl can become possessed, easily in fact.
I don't think it's out of line to say you're not a true fan of horror before you've seen this film. It does so many things right and gets so little wrong that it's no wonder people still flock into theaters to see reruns of it, that people still talk about it, discuss it, lose sleep over it. Greatest horror movie of all time? Quite possibly. At the very least it's right up there at the top.