Top flight comedy!

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2001)

Well, come on, the scariest movie ever??!! Without a doubt one of the funniest!
For all the effort he goes into with the initial creation of atmosphere, Friedkin then just seems to have decided to go for a pure, all-out in-your-face shock approach. Which may have been effective in 1973, but I'm afraid doesn't age too well. Audiences today are just too sophisticated (too blase, perhaps) to be shocked enough by flying pea soup, or 180 degree rotating heads, or ever more implausible makeup, to require post-traumatic counselling. That's why the sucessful modern horror movies (the original Blair Witch most notably) succeed, because they don't display the action in all its gore, but leave most of it to the imagination.
Still, credit to Friedkin for a degree of wit. I don't know whether the Devil still has the best music, but he has the best lines in this film. I defy anyone not to giggle at "Your mother sucks..." or "Look what she's done, you ***ing daughter"! And I like the creaking sound effects when Regan does her head-turning act!
The person I feel most sympathy for its probably the cop, a character Friedkin builds up but hardly does anything with. Imagine the paperwork it would take to explain all this!!
Like I said, good fun, but on a scale of hype versus fulfilment it probably ranks alongside Phantom Menace.