No Laughing Matter

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 1998)

Much (too much?) has been written about this film so I'll restrict this review to my personal response only. It does have flaws: the opening sequence in Iraq, although beautiful to look at, is ultimately superfluous (although it obviously inspires the similar setting at the beginning of 'The Omen', which is used with much greater relevance); the pacing is very uneven and the young priest couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. It makes up for its shortcomings with a superb performance from Ellen Burstyn as the mother and an unparalleled performance from Linda Blair as the girl. The final scenes of the exorcism are some of the most powerful ever put onto film (and MUST BE VIEWED ON A BIG SCREEN to appreciate their full impact). The film is harrowing rather than scary, with repeated visits into the girl's bedroom becoming just as full of dread for the audience as for the characters. The demon-possessed Linda Blair is one of the most memorable icons in cinema history. Still banned on video in the UK (mainly because of how young Linda Blair is than for any other reason), this is the only example of censorship of a mainstream film that I support. See the film and, for goodness sake, watch it with your disbelief suspended (sorry if this is stating the obvious, but there were people around me in the cinema laughing at various scenes when there is NOTHING REMOTELY FUNNY about what goes on). Finally, although I said I was going to keep this brief, this is roughly double the size of my average review for imdb and I've had intermittent goosebumps all the way through writing it.