Recently I saw that Amazon in France was selling The Exorcist for 2.99 euros. I’d not seen it for decades, and wanted to see how it held up. Also, the numerous times I’d watched it previously were on US television, heavily edited and pan-and scanned to fit the square TV screens at that time. I thought it would be fun to revisit.
I was absolutely horrified and disgusted and terrified! What a searing, potent film. Yes, some of the effects are a bit wobbly in our age of perfect CGI, but oh my god this is highly effective horror. I literally could not bear it.
On broadcast television I used to be bored by all the medical scenes and the initial consultations with the priest, etc. But re-watching now as an adult in a pristine high-quality stream on a large television I was totally absorbed.
I’d say that it’s in my top three horror films of all time, easily. I’ve read the novel and know the “true” case upon which the story is based, had seen edited versions likely a dozen times–but still I found the tension and the tragedy of the film difficult to endure. I love the hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking priests, and of course Max von Sydow was a force of nature in everything he ever did.
Interesting to notice how much influence The Exorcist had on other movies–particularly there are several scenes or shots completely ripped off by Spielburg/Lucas in Raiders of the Lost Ark. That initial sequence introducing Father Merrin in the desert is re-used substantially to build Indiana Jones’s character.
Funny a couple days after watching The Exorcist to receive in the mail the current issue of Harper’s Magazine. The cover story is about a surge in exorcisms performed in the USA of late. Old Scratch is busy as ever possessing the economically dispossessed in Appalachia.
I should also note that the previous owner of our building in France had an exorcism performed to clear away a malevolent female spirit he encountered several times, including one instance where he was physically attacked. I asked him what the ceremony entailed, and he said “love and forgiveness and total acceptance of the entity.”
Mysterium Coniunctionis 