just solidly made

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2006)

The Exorcist is just solidly madegood tempo, everything tempered perfectlyplot arc, characterization, acting, boldness of photographyall of it making a strong stand but temperedas if to say, we are well aware of the traps around us; we will be a movie that avoids them. It is remarkable that a scene in which a girl's head makes a complete revolution while her body remains stationaryit is remarkable that such a scene avoids being cheesy. I like how dark the movie is, how it does not insult my intelligence with vulgar and obvious scares (somehow the vomit and the girl's iconoclastic use of a crucifix aren't vulgar in this moviewe can take them completely seriously). The movie is horror without being fantastic or folkloric. It enters into the region of our consciousness that houses certain impressions about real life and informs and influences others. It is not allegory or parableit is rather more like a fictitious history, an intelligent and rich account of something that we are able to believe, at least temporarily, might happen or might have happened.