The Exorcist (1973)

What a terrible movie. It's because of garbage like this that I very rarely watch horror movies.

For those that don't already know, this film talks about the demonic possession of an adolescent girl which requires an exorcism to be performed. While the plot is simple enough, the film tries its hardest to make in confusing. The first 15 minutes depict a priest, who is also an archaeologist, who we later find out has conveniently performed an exorcism, in Iraq. He discovers a coin which is shown at the end of the film but really has no significance at all. Perhaps a second viewing and this might make more sense, but as far as I can see, the first 15 minutes of this film are completely worthless. The next 20 minutes or so go all over the place and accomplish very little. Finally at about the 45 minute mark the girl starts behaving somewhat strangely. Even here nothing much happens and this is all a bunch of garbage. After an hour the plot begins.

The actual plot which takes an hour to begin is as bad as, if not worse than, the first hour. The girl has something wrong with her and we spend quite some time trying to figure out what to do. As this film is titled The Exorcist it's quite obvious that an exorcism is going to be performed. Overall, the plot is just dreadful.

The acting in this film isn't much better. The mother's mom, played by Ellen Burstyn is just terrible. Her performance is way over-the-top especially early on in the film when her daughter's problems appear to be rather minor. Her daughter, played by Linda Blair, doesn't really do much in the film. While she is the central character in the film, almost everything she does is just special effects and most of her dialogue is demonically-possessed being dubbed over by another actor. Basically all she does is spends the entire film strapped to a bed. The film has a bona-fide star in Lee J. Cobb, but his role isn't that significant and the side-story involving him is completely irrelevant.

The only good thing this film has is its special effects which were quite impressive for 1973. Most of this is just done for shock-value and these effects do nothing more than establish a new low for grotesque special effects. This effects were reasonably impressive at first, but became less so as the film progressed. The film seemed to rely on effects and nothing more and that's the recipe for a terrible movie.

While I suppose this could be scary to some viewers, I did not find it all that frightening. Since nothing all that unpredicted happens, the viewer isn't really startled by anything. The grotesque nature of the effects may scare young or squeamish viewers, but that's about it. In fact, I found this film almost comical since it portrayed a 12-year-old girl using quite a bit of profanity.

To continue my previous statement as to why I hate horror films, this film has 2 sequels and 2 prequels to run the franchise further into the ground. As this film is the "masterpiece" of the franchise I can't even begin to imagine how terrible the rest of the series is.

In short, this is just terrible and surpasses The Birth of a Nation as the worst film I've reviewed. The film has no redeeming qualities and should be avoided by all.

25/100
F

UP NEXT: Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot

Perhaps the problem with this is how unrealistic it is. I'm not intending to offend anyone, but a film that revolves around demonic possession is something I find very unrealistic. Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs could easily happen and The Shining is at least somewhat realistic if you ignore things like the blood in the elevators.

And for SoulRat...feel free to watch this. It's not scary and I watched it alone with the lights out. The only thing scary is how bad it is.

You should watch the exorcism of emily rose. It was better and more believable if I remember correctly. It's all based on actual court documents too.

kharmon wrote:

You should watch the exorcism of emily rose. It was better and more believable if I remember correctly. It's all based on actual court documents too.

This movie turned me off to exorcism movies and horror films. While I still regard The Shining, The Silence of the Lambs, and especially Psycho as brilliant films, I have no desire to see any more horror films at this time.

I Should make you watch a horror movie marathon with me sometime. Heather says "HI!"

kharmon wrote:

I Should make you watch a horror movie marathon with me sometime. Heather says "HI!"

So long as it's Psycho, The Shining, and The Silence of the Lambs in any order I'll do it. Those are all great and I'd have no problem watching them again. Hell, if I'm really adventurous I'll watch the remake of Psycho which is nothing more than a shot for shot remake in color. Vince Vaughn attempts to play Norman Bates so you know it has to suck!

There's actually 3 sequels to Psycho all of which have horrible reviews. I wouldn't mind seeing those or the sequels to The Silence of the Lambs which also have terrible reviews.

Oh, and hi!

catbox_9 wrote:

And for SoulRat...feel free to watch this. It's not scary and I watched it alone with the lights out. The only thing scary is how bad it is.

Uh.. no

kharmon wrote:

You should watch the exorcism of emily rose. It was better and more believable if I remember correctly. It's all based on actual court documents too.

I seen that, it was pretty good

SoulRat wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

And for SoulRat...feel free to watch this. It's not scary and I watched it alone with the lights out. The only thing scary is how bad it is.

Uh.. no

Smart choice. Like I said... The film has no redeeming qualities and should be avoided by all. That's 2 hours and 8 minutes of my life gone forever

Well, when it scared the out of me, I was like 10 :haha:

SoulRat wrote:

Well, when it scared the out of me, I was like 10 :haha:

It scared the out me because it was so bad.

If I ever wanted to try another horror movie, how is The Thing?

Oh I liked that one

SoulRat wrote:

Oh I liked that one

I'll watch it in the next 6-8 months.

watch The Stuff.

the exorcism is goood but if y6ou wont somethign better i would watchh the exorsim of emily rose its not the best movie in the world but it is pretty good.. i give it like a 7 out of 10