The Greatest Films #8: The Exorcist
Background:
This isn’t so much a background but a “since then”. Since The Exorcist I can count on my fingers how many American movies that actually can be classified as scary. Silence of the Lambs and some Lynch movies come to mind. But other than that American movies are products of fanboy gore and misogyny. Now let me be honest, for the most part I love gore flicks…it is how I got into movies, but I’d never take the position that I was actually scared by them.
Movies that are celebratory of gore can’t really be scary at the same time. Just like my argument that movies which are celebratory of violent war can’t be sad at the same time…but that’s another article all together.
The Exorcist stands firmly as one of the scariest movies of all time. It came right on the cusp of the slasher-genre boom and America has had a lot of trouble actually making a scary movie since. While the rest of the world is having a horror film renaissance of sorts, America’s major horror hit is a PG-13, low-budget, ghost movie shot on video.
Hmm.
What it is about:
If you don’t know, here’s a quick crash course: An actress (Ellen Burstyn) begins to notice bizarre behavior from her daughter, which quickly turns into paranormal behavior. At the same time a priest in the area is having faith issues but is called upon to investigate the bizarre behavior in case she is possessed.
Why it is a great film:
First off, it starts with Linda Blair as Regan. Most directors offered a project like this would say that its impossible because it’s based around a child performer. Sure, there a lot of special effects and voice manipulation, but at the end of the day Regan is the villain.
I forget that. One of the most effective monster/villians of all time was played by a thirteen year old girl. This is the most important thing to take away from the movie.
Next is Ellen Burstyn. The movie would never have worked without her giving weight to a performance that could have shlocky. Her screams and emotional devastation seem genuine. She has little to do with the outcome of the film besides hunting down a priest to do the exorcism, but she is the weight that holds down the movie as it slowly makes it way toward the final scene. Lastly, the final scene might be one of my favorite of all time, but what makes the film work is everything leading up to it. A lot of people my age consider The Exorcist a slow film – they might have a point. Director William Friedkin’s career never again reached the influence he had in the very early seventies. His two films French Connection and The Exorcist transformed their respective genres. However, in the final scene of Exorcist he created one of the great set pieces of all time. This is not to take away from the rest of the movie. He placed much of the action of the film in the last few minutes, he had to lean on things like film technique, music, performance, and great writing, to carry the film in an effective way. If the movie was just stale for an hour and half and then he pulled out the last scene, the movie would be unwatchable.
-Collin
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