Very good and misunderstood

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2002)

I just saw the re-release of this incredible movie on DVD with the added scenes and the commentary by the director and think it is one of the best movies I have seen. When I first saw this movie years ago I found it goofy but that was because my first exposure to it was in a spoof by Mad magazine. Well years later I rented the movie again and and that time I was spooked. It's a great story that I think is totally misunderstood.
Now I haven't read the book, though I'm planning on it, but I believe the main character of this movie is Father Damien Karras. The movie is really about his loss of faith in God.
(!!SPOILERS!!) With his mother's death, and all the other problems he faces daily as a priest, he no longer believes that God is there or, if God is there, that God cares about us. The possession of Regan is supposed to return his faith in God.
At first he doesn't believe in the possession as the scientific side of him wants to go along with the doctors and chalk it up as a psychiatric problem. Slowly though he begins to see the signs that this child is indeed possessed. He believes it so much that in the end he is willing to sacrifice himself for the child.
(--end of SPOILERS--)
If you've seen this movie, re-released or otherwise, and weren't scared or thought it was awful, please see it again not for a gruesome horrorfest that many believe it to be, but for a stimulating journey of belief and for psychological terror. I rate it a 9 out of 10.