Deserved Best Picture Award of 1973

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2000)

A mindboggling feature that beautifully mixes physical and psychological horror. It was well directed by William Fredkin. This came on the heals of his award winning film for Best Picture, The French Connection(1971). The director had made a drastic shift from doing an action crime flick to making a horror picture. The new director's cut released this year adds a little more to the film's frightening images.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about the director's cut is the new ending. The Exorcist(1973) is based on a true incident. The Exorcist(1973)'s success would spawn numerous knockoffs(the best would be Richard Donner's The Omen-1976). Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair give the performances of their life. At one point, Exorcist 2 director John Boorman was offered to do the first film.

The scene where Max Von Sydow stands at one corner and a statue at another corner is reminescint of the chess match from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal(1957). Jason Miller does wonders as a priest who is tormented and has lost his faith. One reason The Exorcist is a classic compared to The Blair Witch Project is that when Regan starts swearing its shocking because she's a sweet faced young girl who turns nasty(The swearing in TBWP is irriating because the characters like some humans are stupid). The scenes of the exorcisms and the desperation to cure Regan are related to the darkness of the human soul. The infamous spider walk is one of the film's shocking moments.

Its pathetic that The Exorcist(1973) was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won only two. This proves that the people who pick for Best Picture have no clue in what they're doing and that the best film never gets nominated or wins the Best Picture Award at the Oscars. The director pushed his actors to the limits and tested their human spirit. The author of the book does a good job in translating it unto the big screen. The Exorcist(1973) is a serious horror film that is nothing to laugh at.