A Deeper Look Into "The Exorcist"
Image from 1973 film The Exorcist
In 1973 one movie scared the living crap out of it's audience and took the world by storm, That film was The Exorcist. The first film of it's type and the first horror film to gain notable interest both from audiences and critics, winning it 2 Oscars, 4 Golden Globes, several nominations, and forever becoming known as "The scariest movie ever made!" The film was based off of a novel of the same name and is followed by two sequels.
Now that we've got the basic facts out of the way let me give you a little information on my relationship with the film. I avoided this film for years due to it's graphic and somewhat blasphemous content and I'm sure it's no surprise that as a young child and even as a young adult my parents would not allow me to watch the film, practically threatening to disown me if I ever brought it home. Recently however out of curiosity, both for the film and the subject matter portrayed in it, I finally sat down and watched the directors cut of The Exorcist.
This film is great, decades ahead of it's time and in my opinion beats out "The Shining" as the best horror film of the 1970's but like any film it has it's problems and I'll get to that in a second. The film, as you probably know centers around an actress whose daughter inexplicably starts exhibiting strange and increasingly violent and vulgar behavior and after every doctor and psychiatrist fails at figuring out the cause of her daughters affliction she seeks the help of a young priest whose faith is shaken after the death of his mother. As I said before the film is based on a novel that was inspired by a supposed true account of demonic possession, I don't really know exactly how close the story is to the true story. I will say this when it comes to the medical aspect of the film you can tell that the filmmakers did their research very well, as for the supernatural element, not so much but considering this is the first exorcism movie I let it slide. Just know this is definitely a Hollywood movie and don't take notes.
The movie could of almost been used as a scare tactic for churches to get people to the altar if it wasn't for the constant vulgar language and one rather disturbing and semi-blasphemous scene that I don't want to mention aloud, luckily the scene lasts only for a few seconds and isn't drawn out. The only other issue I have with the film is that the ending is very dramatic and unrealistic in terms of how exorcisms actually go down. The movie truly is a great horror drama and I would call it the "Godfather" of horror films, but as a man of faith it's not as fulfilling as films like The Exorcism Of Emily Rose. I definitely recommend it for film fanatics who haven't seen it but for Christians seeking scary yet thoughtful entertainment I don't recommend it for the content and unrealistic nature of the exorcism scenes. Still the film gets a 5 out of 5 and will always be the blueprint from which great horror films are made.
On a side note April 20th "The Devil And Father Armoth" hits theaters, a documentary from William Friedkin who directed the The Exorcist that promises actual footage of an exorcism performed by a Vatican-approved exorcist.