Prototype "blockbuster" a dazzling cinema achievement

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 1999)

That The Exorcist is among the most imitated films of its kind should be evidence enough of its lasting power and value as a motion picture experience. But what so many of those pretenders fail to offer is what Exorcist expert Mark Kermode points out in his BFI study and the 1998 documentary that accompanied the "special edition" DVD release of the film: Blatty and Friedkin made a movie that intelligently and thoughtfully examined possibilities that no person, atheist or believer, wants to imagine -- that something evil could desecrate and profane the most basic and precious commodities of our lives: the home and the child. If you are only after cheap thrills, ignore The Exorcist, since what you will find here is a movie that requires you to think about the nature of good and evil.