Day 15: The Exorcist (1973)
“ What an metformin weight loss children excellent day for an exorcism.”
“ You would 500mg metformin weight loss like that? ”
“Intensely.”
“But wouldn’t that drive you out of Regan?”
“It would bring us together.”
“You and Regan?”
“You and us.”
When we originally brainstormed the 31 Days marathon, there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to wrap it up with The Exorcist. Few movies can claim the title of “scariest movie every made” where it wasn’t just a marketing ploy. William Friedkin’s The Exorcist isn’t just a classic, it’s notorious, infamous, and legendary. Ironically, we can thank the Catholic church for that when they adamantly denounced the film upon its release, causing a massive surge in interest in the movie. Who knows if we’d be talking about this movie today if it hadn’t been for the uproar from the Church.
It reminds me of The Blair Witch Project‘s hype leading up to its release. It would have remained unknown if it hadn’t become the talk of the town in the late ’90s. Now, it’s the movie that helped pioneer contemporary viral marketing and handheld horrors. Its quality and “gimmicky” premise may still be in question, but its impact won’t soon be forgotten; however, The Exorcist‘s influence on the genre makes Blair Witch‘s look like a blip on the cinematic radar.
Until Silence of the Lambs scared up the Big 5 at the Oscars after its release in ’91, The Exorcist was the only horror film to ever be nominated for Best Picture. The film racked up ten Academy Award nominations including Best Director, Best (Lead and Supporting) Actress, Best Supporting Actor (Jason Miller’s Damien Karras should have taken the prize here), and Best Editing, and ended up scoring two wins for sound and writing. The screenplay may be the standout performance of the movie, and its win at the Oscars was well deserved that year.
Honestly, The Exorcist may be the most cleverly crafted scary movie I’ve ever seen, because of how it’s paced, how it builds, and how it isn’t just a shallow story about a demon possessed little girl. The script piles layer upon layer of story until the progression just feels right. The pacing is methodical, but not quite as slow as something like Alien, rather, it never drags or feels long. We’re introduced to a handful of main characters that will have major parts to play in the back-half of the film, and their development never feels rushed.
Normally, you wouldn’t expect a horror movie to spend almost half of its running time trying to find out why Regan MacNeil is sick, why she’s getting worse, and why her 88 doctors can’t solve the case, whom, by the way, end up suggesting that the MacNeil’s seek out a crazed, unfounded ritual called an exorcism to “cure” Regan. The approach is compelling, because we see Regan slowly taken over. The movie doesn’t open up and instantly Regan’s eyes glow red because now she’s possessed, nor do we spend the next 2 hours watching characters researching demonic possession and Regan killing people. That’s far too stereotypical. The Exorcist works because there’s a chance that Regan is just severely, mentally ill and the devil’s hand is not at work. Throw in the subplot of a priest in search of his lost faith only to rediscover it in the worst way imaginable and you have a story that’s — dare I say — gripping.
