A Disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (8 September 1998)

Since its release, "The Exorcist" seems to have played a very large role in the popular culture. Even 25 years after its original opening, references to projectile vomiting or someone turning their head all the way around immediately recall this movie. So, when I finally sat down to watch this film, I had high expectations. Sadly, these expectations were not met. The effects were very well done, and the movie was quite scary in places (more so than silly slasher flicks like "Friday the 13th", anyway), but the plot and character development left much to be desired. Ellen Burstyn's character, the mother of the possessed girl, is one-dimensional at best, and is frequently very annoying, while Max von Sydow's Father Merrin seems almost totally undeveloped despite spending a fair amount of time on the screen. The only human character with any interesting development at all is Jason Miller's Father Karras. The most important character, though, and the one whose development is perhaps most lacking, is the Devil himself. He possesses this little girl, and does all sorts of disgusting and violent things with her, but his motives in doing so are totally unexplained. In this regard, the climax of the film also seems terribly silly. Frankly, if the sort of stuff shown in this film is the best that the Devil can do, I wouldn't be too terribly scared of him.
Overall Rating: 5 (out of 10), or 2 stars (out of 4)