The Exorcist

The Exorcist was released in the US fifty years ago today. Which makes it a Boxing Day movie. This seems like a bizarre choice to me in terms of its mood despite its obvious intrinsic religious overtones.

Said to be among the scariest films ever, I avoided it until I was safely over the 18 certificate age (which was easy as it was unavailable legally on video here for some time) and it still feels strange seeing it on TV and it not being treated like a big deal with Mark Kermode documentary introductions, but it could never quite live up to its reputation - I wasn’t raised Catholic and I don’t have kids so I was off the ideal target - but I could absolutely appreciate the craft.

Though not director William Friedkin shooting into the air and slapping actors to get startled reaction shots.

The never-matched founder of a horror subgenre, followed by mostly shaky sequels as well as so many knockoffs. Exorcist II is one of the legendary WTF sequels of all time. The brooding atmosphere and The Best Jump Scare in Exorcist III and the recent TV series being notable exceptions. The two different versions of the fourth/fifth film can make for a fascinating Film Studies course subject, but the new “ignore everything except the original” reboot by the people who did that for Halloween (for the second time in that case) is... alright.

It’s not really game-friendly, being emotionally rough even without involving a child and the exorcism actually coming in quite late and being pretty low-key on the side of good. Later takes on exorcism where it’s a regular thing and not nearly as gruelling could work.