Still One of the Best

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2001)

When I first saw this I was a high school student. I went with my friend Linda and we laughed our heads off through the whole thing (such camp!). Then I went home, went to bed, turned the lights off and...YIKES!...after about 30 seconds that light came right back on and stayed on for the rest of the week. Although I *thought* I no longer believed in the boogey man, I soon found out I wasn't quite as sophisticated as I thought. Since then, I've watched THE EXORCIST many times - it's still a well made movie. It's a mistake to think this is simply a horror movie - it's a story about guilt, regret, courage, fear, loss of faith, maintaining faith when faced with God's inscrutable plan, etc. Some interesting notes: some of the priests in the movie were in fact played by real-life priests; and Max von Sydow was only about 44 when he played Fr. Merrin, just 4 years older than actress Ellen Burstyn who played Regan's mother. Also, The Exorcist was based on an actual incident that occurred in about 1948, but the characters and place settings were changed completely. A made-for-TV movie that followed the actual events more closely (it was a boy, not a girl, who was possessed) recently aired. Just one minor nitpick: why was Fr. Karras a Catholic priest with an obvious Greek background when Greeks are virtually all of the Greek Orthodox religion? BTW, Mercedes McCambridge is an American actress, not British has one poster has commented here.