very powerful overall story, but somewhat confusing at times

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2000)

The best thing I liked about this movie was that we got to see the work of God's hands, through the priests, defeat an inferior supernatural force: Satan. The scenes of Reagan when she was becoming more and more possessed by the devil are absolutely horrifying; I don't think they can ever be outdated. Those of you who don't think those scenes were scary have apparently had too many encounters with Satan yourselves and are just too used to that sort of thing! Or, maybe you just thought it seemed too fake. But that kind of thing really happens to people - maybe not the distortion of their faces and voices in such a way - but that's why there are so many evil people in the world. Anyway, I've never seen anything so scary but it was awesome watching God, the GOOD supernatural force on the other end of the spectrum, working to protect Reagan and the others in the movie. The only thing that bothered me about this movie that I couldn't get past was that the doctors who first examined her when she was starting to act "strange" didn't seem at all horrified by the way she was acting - and more notably, by the way her voice was changing! They seemed puzzled by it, but that was about it. Only her mother seemed rightly horrified by it, and even she didn't freak out as much as I would expect a mother with a Satan-possessed child to! Other than that, the movie was excellent. A true classic that should be taken for what its message is worth.