The Exorcist

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Watching this movie for the first time. By myself. So far so good, but I'm less than an hour into it.

Anyone who's watched this movie, how bad did it freak you out?

So far, the worst scenes have been in the hospital (needle phobia ).

Consider me to be strange. I actually laugh at this movie. I know it is supposed to be very scary...but the situation to me is funny, until the last scene. How terrible. I won't give it away though.

i had a cab driver once who talked just like william friedkin. it was scary.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I had heard so much about how The Ring was the scariest movie ever and then I watched it. The only "scary" thing about it was they had an unnecessary jarring noise at the start of every scene. I wouldn't even have jumped at those if I hadn't had so much caffeine beforehand.

I also find it pretty funny that the girl got prescribed Ritalin, since I got misdiagnosed with ADD before I got my real diagnosis.



Thanks!

Two of the coolest things in The Exorcist are the subliminal visual effects. One occurs in the dream sequence in which Father Karras is seeing his mother at the subway - if I remember correctly, just as his mother's head explodes into a burst of light. I can't remember where the other one is, but watch carefully for them and you can get a better look with your freeze-frame. The subliminal images add an extra touch of melancholy and despair to the already eerie and depressing parts of the film, and without freezing them, you'd never know they were there.

Anyone who says they laughed at it wasn't really watching it. I'm not saying it'll make you pee your pants, but if you watch it alone and really get involved in it (which you can't do while posting on WP - good movies are not for multitasking), it is an extremely disturbing film that will have you jumping at squeaks in the dark for weeks.

The author or the book, William Peter Blatty, wrote and directed the true sequel to that film many years later and it's excellent, too. The book is called Legion, I think the film is just known as Exorcist III (forget Exorcist II, that's an all-time TURKEY).

Firstly... the Exorcist is about atmosphere... not something you'll get unless you dim the lights and switch off the internet....

Let us know when you're finished...

Also.. which version - the recent adjustment or the original? Is there a spiderwalk down stairs scene?

I love horror, but this is one the few that really got to me. That spider walk, good grief! That was disturbing!

^^agreed about the spider walk, it was super freaky. the first time I watched the Exorcist that scene was cut out because it was considered too disturbing, but some years later they added it back.

it's a really good film.

I saw this movie in 1975 at the college movie club. We started with a full theater of 500 people and by the end of the movie it was 1/3 empty

Vanilla_Slice

I love that movie, have it on old school video, it doesn't freak me out at all! To be honest I get bored during the first bit and love it once Regan starts getting possessed cos it's way more interesting
I agree with the needle phobia thing, didn't like those scenes.
The subliminal messaging of Pazuzu's face is very interesting and clever.
The spider walk was awesome, but I saw it on youtube before I saw the whole movie, but the head spin is a bit dated and it's clear it's a doll

The spider walk freaked me out as well because it looks so unnatural, but it's humanly possible to do that. Watch Madonna's video for Hung Up. There's a contortionist who does it, albeit slower. It took away some of the freakiness factor for me. I have to go find freakiness elsewhere now. That movie scared me so bad when I first saw it and some of it still makes me uneasy, probably because I was raised a strict Christian.

The original was brilliant...
Surprisingly, the "version you've never seen" is much better...

The documentary that came with the original on DVD was awesome. The things that director William Friedkin did to his actors and actresses are startling...
- Making them work in extreme cold
- Having Ellen Burstyn pulled so hard that she hurt her back
- Hiring a real priest to do the final scenes then making him do several retakes at 4am before slapping him across the face.
- Randomly sneaking up behind actors and firing a shotgun to capture their "surprised" looks

Most of the fear in that film is real.

Or maybe we simply react differently than you. I first watched the Exorcist when I was 12-13, and as a horror lover I can assure you that I paid attention. I didn't find it scary then and I don't now. I found it kinda boring. I thought it was a little sad that the priest died, since I thought he was cute back then, but that was the extent of my reactions. For the record, I didn't laugh, I yawned.