Review of The Exorcist (1973) by Kyler D — 18 Sep 2012

Good: Great acting, story, villain, pushed boundaries at the time, good dialogue, everything about this is good, suspenseful.

Bad: Slow, may not be as scary to a newer audience as it was an old.

I have heard many great things about this movie during my life, such as "The scariest movie of all time". Although in today's time this may not be all that horrifying, especially to a younger viewer like myself, I can completely see this being horrifying to an audience of the past. This is a movie that certainly pushed boundaries in its time. The acting is amazing, and especially well done by Ellen Burstyn as Chris Macneil, Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil, Max von Sydow as Father Merrin, and Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras. The story is extremely well done, and the ending has a twist that I did not expect remotely. This ending added shock and emotion to the film, more than it had already. Along with the writing of the story, the writing of the dialogue too is perfect. I found that Chris ManNeil's dialogue is great in the stressful situations, and it exactly how a mother would act when seeing her only child suffering.

The only, and I mean only, thing that I can criticize this movie for is being slow. The film is very slow, especially in the beginning where it spends a great portion of time setting up the plot and characters. However this was not a huge problem for me, and I would not lower my rating just because of this.

In conclusion, this is a must-see film. It is classic supernatural horror at its peak. All of the aspects of the film are good, and even if you do not like a slower-paced film it is well worth the slight wait. To the younger audiences of today this may not be the most horrifying film of all time, but it still remains suspenseful and will leave any viewer involved.