The Exorcist | | Cast : | Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair | | Director : | William Friedkin | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 26, 1973 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 2004 | | Language : | French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | The Most Scariest Movie I've Ever Friggin Seen! And I Am Only 13! | Content
 | Oh My God, It turned from my and my friends looking for a stupid scary movie to see on halloween, when my friend saw this and said, "Look at this, some three year old is the devil" Well we all started to laugh so then we said "oh let's just rent it" Turns out it was scarier than we thought. We went from "This movie is so stupid, i'm surprised it's not on disney now" To "OH MY GOD, DID HER HEAD JUST SPIN" My Friend threw the popcorn in the air when she started too talk in that deep voice and threw stuff at people without even touching it. If you are looking for a scary movie that you want to scare the silly out of you then forget friday the 13th, forget nightmare on elm street, forget halloween, and all of the other famous thrillers you have heard about and get this one, not only is it a must watch, but a must have! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | Excommunication ... | Content
| Basically, some archaeologists find a statue of the Babylonian demon called Pazuzu. The evil spirit of Pazuzu travels out into the world and decides, for some unexplained reason, to inhabit the body of a young girl named Regan. What winds up happening is a whirlwind of "scary" occurrences as Regan's mother (Ellen Burstyn) calls upon some priests to perform an exorcism on her daughter. Sound preposterous? This movie was actually based on a best-selling novel, which was Allegedly Based on True Events (just like "Amityville Horror" and "Mothman Prophecies" years later).
Now, I came of age in the late 1990s, the so-called "Blair Witch" era (which is still going on today), and by own personal standards this movie isn't all that shocking or scary. There are senses of anxiety, tension and anticipation hanging in the air as you watch it, but ... for those of you that were born AFTER 1980, don't buy into the whole "scariest movie of all time" thing. I don't exactly know what the scariest movie of all time actually is; I don't pretend to be an authority on the matter; the preceding was my own interpretation, mind you.
Just the same, the book and the movie were both huge hits. The movie wound up receiving ten Oscar nominations, though I don't think Ellen Burstyn warranted enough screen time to receive her citation for Best Actress. By early 1970s standards "The Exorcist" IS a technical masterpiece, and established a benchmark for horror movies well after the film's theatrical run.
By the way ... if anyone wants to see what Ellen Burstyn was REALLY capable of, check out 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" or 2000's "Requiem for a Dream." |
| Rating | | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | Powerful and Intense | Content
| This is about a riveting supernatural experience that is full of suspense with a corresponding ominous build up. Simply a classic, basically in a realm of its own. I feel the extras are fairly horrible, (I mean that in a 'good' way).
I believe that someone must comment to an extent in it's defense toward certain types of reviews that the Catholic church isn't necessarily the whole 'Christian church' as far as the majority of Protestants are concerned and drownings, burnings at the stake and inquisitional-type tortures were not meant to exorcise away demons as much as gain a confession and/or punishment. How absurd is a theme that is supposedly based on a true story, while embellished with head spinning and buckets of slime, etc., are hardly a recognised psychiatric disorder,(and not intended to give that appearance). Of course this is not the proper place for a discourse on the percieved merits, faults or even past hypocrisy of the Catholic church's practices and I DO NOT want to do a spoiler here in any way, so...just consider something rarely mentioned about this unique movie but rather contoversial at the time-
---was the exorcism successful or not?
Still gives shivers-a sheer terror! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 23, 2005 | | Summary | THIS IS THE DEFINITIVE VERSION! | Content
| Simply put, the scariest movie ever filmed. People talk about the "dated" effects, and the "impossible" story, but it's the unexplained that really can grab you.
Personally, I prefer the "on location" effects, live in front of the camera. Digital effects can be nice, but they are missing something. Those effects happened in front of the camera as you see them.
(spoiler)
Probably the most frightening scene in the whole movie, involved very little in the way of special effects; I'm talking about the scene where the two doctors came to the house, and the girl is having a seizure in her bedroom. That just freaks me out, it's the most horrifying thing to see - someone with no control of their body, the thrashing and flailing, and the screams for help. That is 100% believable; someone in my family went into diabetic shock in front of me once, and it scared me to death. The similarities were uncanny. This film blends the credible with the incredible, and , this many years later, it is STILL the most terrifying film ever made, along with the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Watch it. Experience it. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 16, 2005 | | Summary | Comically Horrifying | Content
| When I first saw this film by director William Friedkin as a child in 1980, I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of its plot and theme. The notion that psychiatrically deranged peoples are somehow possessed by evil spirits and need the blessings of a witch doctor to be healed seemed ridiculous even then.
Apart from its preposterous theme, the film's plot is a nonsensical sequence of outdated shock images and little else. First of all, Pazuzu is a Babylonian diety that has nothing to do with biblical lore other than the Christian Church demonizing it to make itself look saintly and paganism evil. Even if Pazuzu were a demon, why did he choose to incarnate himself into Linda Blair: was she to be a new saint or the new Virgin Mary? These questions are never brought to light because William Peter Blatty never had any competence to adapt a coherent plot to film in the first place. As far as Blair's mechanical head twirling around on its motor, I've seen more convincing effects at Disneyland's Haunted House or in the Pirates of the Carribean tours. As for the levitation tricks, one just needs to go to a David Copperfield show where they won't see dangling cables and the like. On the bright side, Jason Miller and Max von Sydow played their roles well as the priests and Ellen Burstyn convincingly portrayed a skeptical but desperate mother.
The unfortunate thing about the film is its portrayal of ignorant religious mumbo jumbo rituals as being an effective way of curing what are obviously serious psychiatric disorders. Perhaps the film should have also shown how religious entities successfully performed exorcisms in the past by drowning, burning at the stake, and simply torturing to death "possessed" peoples to chase the demons out: peoples such as Joan of Arc whom the Church apologetically cannonized almost five hundred years later. Indeed, we must remind ourselves of the very reliable scientific methods of the Church in exploring the mind as a spiritual vessel. Such methods were very effective in convincing countless peoples for centuries (through regular threats and acts of excommunication/ostracism, death, and/or torture of course)that the Earh was only 10,000 years old, flat, and at the center of our solar system. The movie should also show the success rates primitive societies have in curing medical conditions with similar rituals and the life expectancies of their inhabitants. With such an insight, the idea of exorcisms as cures will be the only thing to be seen as horrifying in horror films such as this one. If the power of Christ compels me to do anything with this film, it's to turn it off and throw it into the trash can where it properly belongs!
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