For years, I let this film lay on the shelf. Of course, it is a classic to many people. One bad habit of mine is to always take a while to get to watching classic movies for some odd reason. Also the R rating prevented me from seeing it when I was younger. Now as teenager, my first viewing was nothing less than truly memorable. The Excorcist is a film that is hard to look as a whole because of how different it is and also something you can't not love, and finally a film not to take lightly.
Set in the Georgetown district of Washington DC, it involves a young girl named Regan (Linda Blair) who is possessed by the devil with no luck trying to get rid of it. At the time of it's release, The Exorcist was a very original film that was controversial due to it's subliminal stimuli and also it's plot which involved the devil as a central character.
To say that the director, William Friedkin did get some inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock here is a understatement, at least to me. Friedkin uses a Hitchcock slow approach to start Act One with a lot of purpose and it also gives the film an edge and tension. While I appreciate the technique, at the same it is still something that I have a hard time getting used to and also something I find a little dull.
One reason this film stands up so many years after it's release is because of the plot. We have had recent films like Devil Inside and The Last Exorcism that focused on the devil but compared to The Exorcist, they are really nothing. It uses a setting that still to this day would be different for a horror film with some great possession scenes involving Linda Blair which provide humor and creepiness and are very effective. The cast is good all around, but what really makes this work is the phenomenal performance from Linda Blair who plays the possessed child to perfection. It is very memorable for an actor playing such an extreme role at such a young age and something that I can't ever see being matched again.
4.5/5
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