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But when you bring up the word “Exorcist” your spine tingles just at the sound of it. At a time when “Night of the Living Dead” was still the scariest movie of all time, it’s almost like directors were being challenged to make one scarier. And the strange thing is it wasn’t a horror film director that accepted that challenge.
Coming right off his Oscar-winning “French Connection” William Friedkin was one of a host of directors that read the material for the film. Because of its graphic content, all of them were unwilling to make, save one. Friedkin, known to use anyway possible to get a scene perfect, was signed on, and thus the most frightening and disturbing film of all time was created.
This is the classic good vs. evil concept. What sets it off from all others of this type (other than armies and battles) is its vulgarity and its entrepreneurialism in technique and execution – in how everything was put onto film. This is by far one of the most disgusting and graphic horror films of all time. It took the audience to a place that was not to be seen, making for a kind of entertainment that really wasn’t entertaining as it was horrifically scary. If you’ve seen the footage of people crying or vomiting as they left the theatre, you know what I mean.
“The Exorcist” however is so much focused on effects as it is story, which is another thing that makes it great. We have a story and a way of telling that story that is so solid that it makes this all too believable. We even hear them say it in the film – that exorcisms would be considered common if they were in the 16th century. They establish the events’ out datedness, but we altogether forget that simply because the story, setting, acting, and (obviously) the effects were extremely personal and maybe too involving.
As this is without a doubt one of the greatest horror films of all time, I can’t help but state the obvious. I was offended by much of what I saw, such as the scene with the crucifix (as I’m sure many others were). I understand that the filmmakers wanted realism, which they quite powerfully accomplished, but some of it made me cringe. And that, friends, is not an easy thing to do.
“The Exorcist” is a film that set a bar so high, that others are afraid to try to raise it higher. It is simply put, a tour de force in horrendous power, maddening vulgarity, and terrifying gore. As a moviegoer that is nearly impossible to get frightened by any film, “The Exorcist” goes beyond the impossible and sweeps us up in a world that I, personally, will never care to go back to again. *** ˝