The Exorcist (1973)

Starring - Ellen Burstyn; Max Von Sydow; Lee J. Cobb; Jason Miller & Linda Blair Director - William Friedkin MPAA - R (1973); Rated R for strong language and disturbing images. (2000 re-release) As you can probably glean by the title of the film, The Exorcist revolves around an exorcism -- specifically, the exorcism of a little girl. When little Regan (Linda Blair) starts to behave strangely -- like killing family friends and float in mid-air over her bed -- her mother (Ellen Burstyn) becomes concerned. Add to that the fact that Regan also claims to be possessed by the Devil, and it's obvious that the family has a problem on its hands. Her mother consults every member of the medical profession that she can think of. None seem to be able to help the little girl, who continues to get worse. One psychiatrist suggests that Regan's problems may be more spiritual than mental. Since she thinks that she is possessed, he suggests that maybe an exorcism might snap her out of it. Little do they know, she is really sharing her body with something sinister. A Jesuit priest who works at nearby Georgetown University as a psychiatrist is called in to examine Regan. He decides that an exorcism is the girl's only hope. The rest, as they say, is history. More specifically, the rest of the movie focuses in on the exorcism. At the time, the exorcism scenes were some of the scariest ever shot. First let me say that I would like to nominate Ellen Burstyn for the William Shatner award for overacting. This has got to be one of the worst performances that I've ever seen in a film (and I've seen Pauley Shore movies). Quite frankly, I didn't really find any of the characters in this movie were particularly compelling. Although the performances of the priests (Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller) who performed the exorcism, and Lee J. Cobb, who played the police officer investigating the death of the afore-mentioned deceased family friend, were decent. I have no idea why Linda Blair became a star over this film. I can find nothing great in her performance. The Exorcist looks dated. It was made in the early seventies, and it is really showing its age. Like most other "classic" horror films, The Exorcist doesn't exactly fit my definition of a scary film. What might have been shocking or even frightening nearly 30 years ago doesn't hold up today. The characters spend far too much time talking about Regan's problems, and very little time actually doing battle with the thing possessing her. My estimate is that less than a half an hour is actually spent on things that might have, at one time, been considered frightening. The only redeeming quality about The Exorcist is that it involves the very real procedure of the rite of exorcism. The Roman Catholic Church still practices this ritual to this day; albeit in extremely limited circumstances. Personally, I have always been fascinated by this procedure, so some of the movie I found to be interesting. But I don't generally watch a horror film for the knowledge. Call me demanding, but I generally like a few scares, or at least a high amount of tension. The Exorcist has neither. The only thing that I got out of this movie was a little bit better understanding of the Catholic Church's rite of exorcism. This is hardly a compelling reason to recommend a horror film. 5/10 Reviewed November 16, 1998 by Joe Chamberlain