Review of The Exorcist (1973) by Tony H — 01 Nov 2015

I was just 5 when this horror extravaganza hit theaters back in '73, so unfortunately I was unable to see it upon it's original release. But a couple of years later in '76 my mother and a neighbor went to the Winnetka Drive-In out in Chatsworth Ca.

, and WOW was I in for the shock/scare of my life. My mother thought that I had gone to sleep but I hadn't and what I saw has stayed with me since that night. To be quite honest as I've grown the scare factor has lessened somewhat but as a catholic and an adult with 3 girls myself what remains is a truly emotionally harrowing ride through a little girl (Regan) and her mother's horrifying ordeal with demonic possession.

Max Von Sydow was perfectly cast as Father Merrin as the Exorcist of the title, as was his contemporary Father Karras (Jason Miller). My heart always bleeds for young Regan when she goes through her torment, and because of the Exorcist I have developed a lifelong distaste for the Ougia board, it was because of this board (or a least a similar facsimile to the Ougia) the Captain Howdy took possession of her body.

The Exorcist has been made into many sequals and dozens of lesser imitators, but wheather you take the Exorcist to be the scariest movie or most emotionally harrowing movie of all time, it is still the best film of it's type past, present, or future, HANDS DOWN!!!!