The best Horror flick I have seen

Rating: 7/10 (2 September 2001)

The scariest Movie EVER", "A Masterpiece", "Film turned my son into devil worshipper" "Gerbil possessed by Devil" (okay I made that one up) - these were the reports and headlines surrounding the film at the time of release. Whether you believe all of the hysteria is up to you. Since I watched the film at the age of 13 - 24 years after it's release it is difficult to comprehend how a film, which is relatively tame by today's standards as far as horror films go, could even be considered scary and have people running from the cinema, being sick and having houses blessed.. But it did, and if you are looking at it as purely a horror film you are going to be disappointed. For the more, religious and more open minded people however, it is a masterpiece.
You get from it what you take to it. If you are looking for a horror film, you get a horror film, it's not particularly scary, but it does enough to make you leave the lights on for a couple of nights.
If you are deeply religious, it does a lot more than that. Speaking as a respectful atheist I can see this in the movie. People say there is evil in the movie, well that's up to the viewer.
It is about God versus the Devil. Pure (or as near as) Good against and Pure Evil. It's not the good guy versus the bad for an entire planet full of stupid unappreciative defenseless people. It is about God and the Devil, and in between this war of Good and Evil is a little 12 year old girl who just made the mistake of playing with a Ouija board.
That's why people don't understand it. I'm not saying for one second that I understand it, lot's of this goes over my head. But I do see why people say this film is a masterpiece, they see it, I see it. Not everybody see's it. You take from it what you bring to it. I took to it an innocent imaginative mind, TV's kinda screwed that up since then, but at the time it was (almost) clean. I think that's one of the things that makes a difference to how you perceive the film. Belief is another, if you're cruel you could say gullibility.
Possession has been reported for as long as people can remember. This was, and to my knowledge still is the only film ever to tackle the story properly and seriously. It doesn't take the easy route and turn itself into a kooky, sideshow horror flick that doesn't take the subject matter seriously.

The book was awful, I don't mean to sound rude, maybe watching the film before reading the book was a mistake but let's face it. The book is awful, yet good. It's both, some is good, some is bad.
The thing about this book is that it never says for definite whether Regan is possessed or not, I mean, in the film Regan is possessed by a Demon, no question. Father Karras half-heartedly attempts to find other reasons for the change in behaviour, but she is definitely possessed in the film. The book however tries to take a different look at it, so it becomes almost a nonfiction read. Everything is disputed, with case after case being used against the suggestion that Regan really is possessed. In the book, okay we may know in our minds, especially if we have already seen the film, that the sweet little 12 year old girl is possessed but the book does at least try to put an element of doubt in the readers mind, that I liked, but Christ it's boring, give me a Wilbur Smith novel anyday.
So the film has finally been released in the UK, this is good, and with a Clockwork Orange getting it's release maybe the censors will realize that films of significance, such as the Exorcist will always be there, and one day the public will realize that we are in control of everything and if we fight enough and battle enough we will get what we want.
NOTE: I have recently bought A Clockwork Orange, IT'S TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How the hell I got banned I don't know! I think we were done a favour actually. Saved the public from that crap for 20 odd years! :)