More_Badass
Member
It's only recently that I realized I had never seen this movie. I knew of it and its famous lines, had seen most of its famous moments, had heard my mom say for years that she's never ever watch the movie again. But I had never actually seen the entire movie
Thankfully it's on Netflix
When you watch this, especially after the countless imitators and myriad series that have come since, you realize how The Exorcist does its horror so effectively and other movies tend to feel generic and typical. For one, there aren't any jump scares. How many possession movies have you seen when the protagonist is stricken by visions or forces that really just are there so they can shock the viewers with sudden apparitions or creepy changes in scenery? The Exorcist doesn't have that. The horror is kind of akin to The Witch; it doesn't really scare you in the jumping-in-your-seat sense but you feel scared for Regan. It's unsettling and disturbing to see her change throughout the film. The make up and effects look sickly, disgusting, oozing sores and rotting teeth and bloody wounds and rattling breath and covered in that green vomit. Compared to the common eyes go black, pale skin, etc. that tends to happen in more modern movies. The possession looks painful.
The build-up works too. We're basically watching this girl worsen and worsen for two hours. We know those treatments aren't going to work, so the intended help comes across as unnecessary suffering that makes her situation more dreadful and fucked up for the audience.
