Boring (a few spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2002)

Its hard to accurately judge this movie, as it has become so engrained in our culture that even people who have never seen this movie know many of the key scenes (the pea-soup scene in particular).
Time has changed an audience's tolerance of horror. When "The Exorcist" was originally made, movies were nowhere near as explicit in their violence as they have become. Unlike modern horror films, "The Exorcist" relies more heavily on psychological terror in its attempt to build tension.
Even if its a little dated, its a stylish and intelligent movie. Its greatest drawback, however, is that it is incredibly, incredibly, unremittingly, unimaginably boring. Its a stifling movie which crawls along at a snail's pace, where everyone, with the exception of the cast, knows exactly what's going on.
We are presented with a child with a mysterious illness, that no one can seem to figure out. Her mother takes her to doctor after doctor, trying to figure out what's wrong, meanwhile, everyone in the audience is screaming "SHE'S POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL." Ok, these days, the movie is an institution, and there was probably no one in the audience who didn't know that Linda Blair was possessed by the devil. Even when it came out, though, I'm guessing most people already knew that. I mean, its called "The Exorcist", it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that demonic possession is involved in some way.
There is tension related to this movie, but its the wrong kind of tension. As you see this remarkably slow movie trudge inexorably onwards, as her mom tries to find out what's wrong with little Linda, you're on the edge of your seat, not anxious to see what happens next, but anxious to find out when everyone is going to realize that "SHE'S POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL." Granted, this wouldn't be on my top-ten list of possible ailments afflicting my child, but you'd think the writer could sacrifice a little bit of realism in favor of plot development.
Then, once they finally figure it all out, the actual confrontation with the devil is one of the least satisfying things I've ever seen. Almost no explanation as to why this child, of all the people in the world, was chosen as a host for the devil. The confrontation wasn't exiting or particularly scary, its was mostly just gross and scary. By the end of the movie I had no particular empathy for any of the character, and found myself no caring one bit who lived or who died.
A vastly over-rated movie.