The Power of The Exorcist Compels You To Watch it!

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2010)

Almost 40 years has passed since "The Exorcist" was released and it still is a haunting, exciting, thrilling and frightening horror movie. Lists after lists are made to elect the best horror movie of all time and this film always manage to get to the Top of almost every single list. Not only that: it's also an very complex dramatic film with a compelling story. A story of a devoted mother to save her teen daughter of a strange possession.
After finishing the filming of a movie the actress Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) finds herself with an awkward situation after her adorable daughter Regan (Linda Blair) starts to behave differently. She is taken to all the best doctors but nothing is found and doctors suspicion is that the kid may have a brain tumor. But after all the medical treatment fails and when Regan's starts to move frantically Chris is told to get a bigger help: a priest to exorcise what possessed her daughter. Father Karras (Jason Miller, incredible acting in his film debut) is called, but he himself is a tormented man, who has recently loss his elderly mother, almost faithless and with few skills to perform an exorcism. Even with all that he agrees to see the girl who has increasingly gone worst. She vomits, masturbates with a crucifix and says countless bad words and profanation. Karras's verdict: she's possessed by Pazuzu, a mysterious and powerful demon. But this demon has a weakness and this weakness is Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow in a very aged makeup), or better saying The Exorcist.
Father Merrin knows everything about exorcisms and demons and he knows how to fight it. Even with all this knowledge (as it is showed in the beginning of the movie when he's in Iraq investigating an occurrence) you can feel that he has some fears, (his hands shaking) but he'll do everything to kill the demon and save the poor girl. The last 40 minutes with Karras and Merrin together performing the exorcism in that freezing and haunting bedroom is priceless, scary and the best horror moment of the 1970's.
I must salute director William Friedkin for his efforts on present us a movie greater in its genre different of everything seen before. He was mean with actors to create realism but he get what he wanted and the audience was terrified by those images (Ellen Burstyn's face when she was thrown to the floor; Jason Miller's face after the vomit comes right into his face which wasn't supposed to happen). On the technical side of "The Exorcist" an interesting thing must be noticed: all the horror moments are shown without music. This works really great, it's not a manipulated movie where a soundtrack must be added to create tension. And without the music it was much more scarier and fun to watch, listening to all the strange sounds created by the sound group (Won Oscar). Makeup effects and visual effects are stunning and many of it it's not dated or old-fashioned. Impressive! About the screenplay: William Peter Blatty writer of the original book and the film's writer created a whole new thing here. The drama, the horror and even some humor are perfect. Although I think that some scenes, characters and clues aren't well explained, there's too much mystery. For example, we heard that the film director (Jack McGowran) died on the long stairs. This scene isn't showed and if it was it would be too frightening and unforgettable. After that the movie lover detective Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb, very good and funny) starts a investigation about the event. Then he gets some clues about many things he didn't even saw. The public may wonder how did he get to that evidence or clue. Two moments I would like to see or questions to be answered: Who puts the crucifix under Regan's bed? And what happened to Father Merrin in that bedroom after he leaves Karras and exorcise the girl alone?
Not only the technical team worked well. All the actors have fantastic performances: Burstyn, Cobb, Miller, Sydow, Blair, even not professional actor the Reverend William O'Malley has a great performance here, and at last Mercedes McCambridge who plays the devil's voice (one thing I hated in the Portuguese dubbing version is that her voice was made by a man). Even being the biggest blockbuster of 1973 it only won 2 Academy Awards (Adapted Screenplay and Sound), and it deserved the award of Best Picture cause it was greater than "The Sting". And it must get a higher rating on IMDb's Top 250 list. This movie is awesome, one of the very few horror movies to still shock me, to not be dated or cheesy.
If you haven't watched yet or didn't find time to watch it run and buy it if you can. The power of this film compels you to watch it now and over again. Must see film for horror fans and for movie lovers just like Lt. Kinderman. 10/10