Post by petrolino on Feb 23, 2018 23:41:36 GMT
'The Exorcist' is a supernatural horror movie based on a novel by William Peter Blatty. The story opens as Catholic Priest Father Lankester Merrin (Max Von Sydow) is unearthing a religious idol on an archaeological dig in Hatra, Iraq that represents the coming of Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu. Meanwhile, in Georgetown, Washington D.C., actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is on location with her 12-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) to shoot an activist picture being directed by radical filmmaker Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran). Regan is visited at their apartment by her new friend Captain Howdy, sparking worry in her mother who comes to believe her daughter is losing her mind. When Regan's physical condition rapidly deteriorates, Chris approaches grieving Jesuit Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a qualified psychiatrist, for help.
In 'The Exorcist', something evil lurks around every corner. Drawing from his experience as a documentary filmmaker, director William Friedkin applies raw authenticity to domestic disturbance as the supernatural is made to look distressingly normal. A striking opening sequence shines a light upon the struggle between a titanic Priest and dormant wind demon Pazuzu. This sequence is photographed out on location by one of Britain's greatest cameramen, Billy Williams. Owen Roizman takes over in America, deploying a multitude of over-the-shoulder shots that energise a growing sense of dread within the nation's capital. There are full close-ups illuminating the faces of believers and non-believers alike, all of whom appear struck by the fear of God and the living spectre of their own mortality. The camera goes high and low, hiding behind objects and foundations, relentless in its grasp of the mechanics of fear.
The sound of vehicles, battery charges and electrical appliances enhances jittery atmospherics in 'The Exorcist'. Tape manipulations heighten tension further before the onset of mania, recordings forming an essential part of one of horror cinema's most evocative sound mosaics. There's experimental music by Jack Nitzsche, Krzysztof Penderecki and Anton Webern used sparingly but the theme synonymous with 'The Exorcist' is 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield, England's progressive shadow master from Reading, Berkshire (Hammer Horror country) who'd go on to compose a raft of sinister pop hits in the 1980s.
Linda Blair is positively chilling as possessed child Regan because she starts out happy in the face of apparent danger. Regan's fear becomes palpable when Captain Howdy stops playing and Pazuzu takes control, leading to an epic deconstruction of childhood trauma from one of the most instinctive child performers in horror history. Ellen Burstyn is enmeshed in worry wrinkles as Regan's mother Chris and grows increasingly irascible, cutting a dejected figure of loneliness when her guardianship is seriously threatened. Jason Miller is raw neuroses personified, a man whose sacrifices are eating him alive from the inside out, and whose constitution is that of an addict. The support cast is led by spiritual heavyweight Max Von Sydow in an iconic piece of casting, with outstanding work from Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran and Lee J. Cobb. Mention must also be made of Mercedes McCambridge's astonishing voice work as Pazuzu.
Like all great horror films, 'The Exorcist' remains as pertinent and challenging today as when it was first released in the early 1970s. It's not an easy film to watch because it deals with some of the most harrowing things our society is facing, including the horrors of child abuse and female genital mutilation, the perils of medical misdiagnosis, the debilitating effects of institutionalisation and the dark histories of religions. As a horror fan, I find it to be one of the scariest motion pictures ever made, as well as being one of the more thought-provoking viewing experiences. Its influence on popular culture has been immense.
'The Exorcist' is followed by 'Exorcist II : The Heretic' (1977), 'The Exorcist III' (1990), 'Exorcist : The Beginning' (2004) and 'Dominion : Prequel To The Exorcist' (2005). Recent plans for a remake have thankfully been aborted but it's inevitable this will be coming down the line at some point.
"You show me Regan's double, same face, same voice, everything, and I'd know it wasn't Regan. I'd know in my gut. I'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter."
Pazuzu
'Gut Feeling - Slap Your Mammy' - Devo
In 'The Exorcist', something evil lurks around every corner. Drawing from his experience as a documentary filmmaker, director William Friedkin applies raw authenticity to domestic disturbance as the supernatural is made to look distressingly normal. A striking opening sequence shines a light upon the struggle between a titanic Priest and dormant wind demon Pazuzu. This sequence is photographed out on location by one of Britain's greatest cameramen, Billy Williams. Owen Roizman takes over in America, deploying a multitude of over-the-shoulder shots that energise a growing sense of dread within the nation's capital. There are full close-ups illuminating the faces of believers and non-believers alike, all of whom appear struck by the fear of God and the living spectre of their own mortality. The camera goes high and low, hiding behind objects and foundations, relentless in its grasp of the mechanics of fear.
"Shallowness that asks to be taken seriously — shallowness like William Peter Blatty’s — is an embarrassment. When you hear him on TV talking about communicating with his dead mother, your heart doesn’t bleed for him, your stomach turns for him. Some people have impenetrable defense systems. You can’t kid around with a man who says that he wrote 'The Exorcist' because “as I went along writing my funny books and screenplays, I felt I wasn’t making a contribution to the welfare of the world.” He says that he looks upon it “quite frankly as an apostolic work.” That the work has made him a millionaire doesn’t make him a liar. Blatty is apostle to the National Enquirer, and to Cosmopolitan, in which the novel was condensed — so those Cosmopolitan Girls could make conversation without looking tired around the eyes. The crushing blunt-wittedness of the movie version, which he produced, tends to bear out Blatty’s apostolic claims. Directed by William Friedkin, who won the Academy Award as Best Director of 1971 for 'The French Connection,' the film is a faithful, adaptation of the Blatty book — and that’s not a compliment. Blatty did the intractable screenplay, so Friedkin may have been faithful in spite of himself. The picture isn’t a gothic horror comedy, like Psycho or Rosemary’s Baby; it has been made as a heavy, expensive family picture. It’s faithful not to the way many people read the book — as a fast turn-on entertainment — but to Blatty’s claims about what the book was intended to be. It’s an obtuse movie, without a trace of playfulness in it. A viewer can become glumly anesthetized by the brackish color and the senseless ugliness of the conception."
- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
"William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel, The Exorcist, was a breakaway bestseller: a horror story that terrified readers while forcing them to consider eternal questions of suffering and faith. While a student at Georgetown University during the late 1940s, Blatty read a front-page report in The Washington Post documenting an alleged case of demonic possession in nearby Cottage City, Maryland. He wrote letters to the exorcist, a Jesuit priest, who couldn’t divulge details but affirmed that the incident was real. Years later, Blatty fictionalized the exorcism and turned the possessed boy into a young girl. The book’s sales took off, and the classic film adaptation remains, adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing horror film of all time. At the time, Blatty’s story was the newest entry in a lineage of critically acclaimed, popular works from Catholic storytellers during the 1960s and early ’70s that transcended genres and styles. They included the comedic and grotesque fiction of Flannery O’Connor, the philosophical novels of Walker Percy, the beat-Catholic rhythms of Jack Kerouac, the flawless short fiction of Katherine Anne Porter, the terse but complex writing of the convert Ernest Hemingway, the parish stories of J. F. Powers, and the farcical storytelling of John Kennedy Toole, whose novel A Confederacy of Dunces would not appear until after his death. Not to mention the affecting novels from international shores by the likes of Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Shūsaku Endō, and Anthony Burgess.
The era of The Exorcist was a time of visible and influential Catholic intellectuals and artists, including two twin prophets of the digital and popular age, Marshall McLuhan and Andy Warhol. Catholic culture of that period was no monolith, though—contrast the conservative William F. Buckley with the more progressive Thomas Merton. The era even saw the rise of culturally Catholic writers, those who retained the language, metaphors, and culture of the church without practiced belief: Cormac McCarthy, Thomas McGuane, and Robert Stone. Hollywood knew that stories suffused with God could sell. Some of the highest-grossing films in the years adjacent to The Exorcist contained Catholic storytelling or themes without being preachy. There was the sentimental and optimistic representation of nuns in The Sound of Music, Sir Thomas More’s devotion in A Man for All Seasons, the lapsed faith of the lead character in Rosemary’s Baby, religious hypocrisy in The Godfather and its first sequel, the hard-nosed urban Catholicism of Rocky, and the devil’s violence in The Omen. Despite this tradition, The Exorcist stands as uniquely memorable for its often shocking portrayal of Catholic redemption through suffering. William Friedkin’s film version of Blatty’s novel is true to its source material, but made full use of the cinematic medium and affected audiences like no other film had before."
- Nick Ripat Razone, 'The Exorcist And The Lost Art Of Catholic Storytelling'
"I have always thought “The Exorcist,” at its most basic roots, is the story of Father Damian Karras losing his faith and reclaiming his soul. I have a close friend who says without hesitation that it is ultimately the story of a mother who would do absolutely anything for her daughter, and therefore a reminder of the infinite well of maternal love. Stephen King, in his book “Danse Macabre,” states definitively that “The Exorcist” is a parable about parents of the World War II generation and their complete inability to relate to the behavior they were seeing out of the children of the sex-and-drugs revolution of the 1960s. (“Every adult in America understood what the film’s powerful subtext was saying,” King wrote. “They understood that the demon in Regan McNeil would have responded enthusiastically to the Fish Cheer at Woodstock.”)
What’s inarguable is that Friedkin made an emotionally charged horror film that hit with the force of a sledgehammer. Some saw it as a brilliant but disturbing thriller with a deep theological subtext, while others saw it as an exploitative potboiler that resorted to perverse stunts to generate fear through shock value – a high-end Herschell Gordon Lewis flick cloaked in religious imagery. Roger Ebert (in a four-star review) and Pauline Kael (in a relative pan) both expressed shock that the film avoided an X-rating, and even by today’s standards they are correct – it’s astonishing that “The Exorcist” was an “R” just four years after “Midnight Cowboy” got hung with the “X.”
- Mike Holtzelaw, 'The Sound And Fury Of The Exorcist'
"For some viewers, the experience of watching The Exorcist proved overpowering. At a preview screening in New York, one audience member had to be helped out after becoming dizzy, provoking a wave of press reports of fainting, vomitings, and other hysterical reactions. By the time The Exorcist opened in the UK, rumours of its traumatising power had grown to such proportions that the St. John's Ambulance Brigade were regularly called to attend screenings armed with stretchers and to minister to the faint-hearted.
Nevertheless, praise for The Exorcist was widespread, from broadsheets to religious publications, with the arch-conservative conservative Triumph magazine publishing a rave review in 1973, echoing Father Kenneth Jadoff's claim in The Catholic News that 'The Exorcist is a deeply spiritual film.' According to director William Friedkin, a copy of the film was supplied to high ranking Catholic Father Pedro Arrupe in 1974 following a favourable viewing and subsequently remained with his offices. Earlier this year, Catherine Von Rhuland of the New Christian Herald declared: "'The Exorcist is surely an explicitly Christian film [in which] the ministry is presented with dignity as an honourable vocation [who] go the full distance with Utter Darkness -- a sleeves rolled up, no-holds-barred fight to the finish between God's earthly representatives and Satan." Such reactions are unsurprising, since Friedkin's movie was written and produced by the Catholic writer William Peter Blatty whose multi-million selling novel was praised by the Vatican literary journal Civilta Cattolica having been described by the author as "a 350 page thankyou note to the Jesuits."
- Mark Kermode, The British Broadcasting Corporation
Max Von Sydow
- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
"William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel, The Exorcist, was a breakaway bestseller: a horror story that terrified readers while forcing them to consider eternal questions of suffering and faith. While a student at Georgetown University during the late 1940s, Blatty read a front-page report in The Washington Post documenting an alleged case of demonic possession in nearby Cottage City, Maryland. He wrote letters to the exorcist, a Jesuit priest, who couldn’t divulge details but affirmed that the incident was real. Years later, Blatty fictionalized the exorcism and turned the possessed boy into a young girl. The book’s sales took off, and the classic film adaptation remains, adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing horror film of all time. At the time, Blatty’s story was the newest entry in a lineage of critically acclaimed, popular works from Catholic storytellers during the 1960s and early ’70s that transcended genres and styles. They included the comedic and grotesque fiction of Flannery O’Connor, the philosophical novels of Walker Percy, the beat-Catholic rhythms of Jack Kerouac, the flawless short fiction of Katherine Anne Porter, the terse but complex writing of the convert Ernest Hemingway, the parish stories of J. F. Powers, and the farcical storytelling of John Kennedy Toole, whose novel A Confederacy of Dunces would not appear until after his death. Not to mention the affecting novels from international shores by the likes of Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Shūsaku Endō, and Anthony Burgess.
The era of The Exorcist was a time of visible and influential Catholic intellectuals and artists, including two twin prophets of the digital and popular age, Marshall McLuhan and Andy Warhol. Catholic culture of that period was no monolith, though—contrast the conservative William F. Buckley with the more progressive Thomas Merton. The era even saw the rise of culturally Catholic writers, those who retained the language, metaphors, and culture of the church without practiced belief: Cormac McCarthy, Thomas McGuane, and Robert Stone. Hollywood knew that stories suffused with God could sell. Some of the highest-grossing films in the years adjacent to The Exorcist contained Catholic storytelling or themes without being preachy. There was the sentimental and optimistic representation of nuns in The Sound of Music, Sir Thomas More’s devotion in A Man for All Seasons, the lapsed faith of the lead character in Rosemary’s Baby, religious hypocrisy in The Godfather and its first sequel, the hard-nosed urban Catholicism of Rocky, and the devil’s violence in The Omen. Despite this tradition, The Exorcist stands as uniquely memorable for its often shocking portrayal of Catholic redemption through suffering. William Friedkin’s film version of Blatty’s novel is true to its source material, but made full use of the cinematic medium and affected audiences like no other film had before."
- Nick Ripat Razone, 'The Exorcist And The Lost Art Of Catholic Storytelling'
"I have always thought “The Exorcist,” at its most basic roots, is the story of Father Damian Karras losing his faith and reclaiming his soul. I have a close friend who says without hesitation that it is ultimately the story of a mother who would do absolutely anything for her daughter, and therefore a reminder of the infinite well of maternal love. Stephen King, in his book “Danse Macabre,” states definitively that “The Exorcist” is a parable about parents of the World War II generation and their complete inability to relate to the behavior they were seeing out of the children of the sex-and-drugs revolution of the 1960s. (“Every adult in America understood what the film’s powerful subtext was saying,” King wrote. “They understood that the demon in Regan McNeil would have responded enthusiastically to the Fish Cheer at Woodstock.”)
What’s inarguable is that Friedkin made an emotionally charged horror film that hit with the force of a sledgehammer. Some saw it as a brilliant but disturbing thriller with a deep theological subtext, while others saw it as an exploitative potboiler that resorted to perverse stunts to generate fear through shock value – a high-end Herschell Gordon Lewis flick cloaked in religious imagery. Roger Ebert (in a four-star review) and Pauline Kael (in a relative pan) both expressed shock that the film avoided an X-rating, and even by today’s standards they are correct – it’s astonishing that “The Exorcist” was an “R” just four years after “Midnight Cowboy” got hung with the “X.”
- Mike Holtzelaw, 'The Sound And Fury Of The Exorcist'
"For some viewers, the experience of watching The Exorcist proved overpowering. At a preview screening in New York, one audience member had to be helped out after becoming dizzy, provoking a wave of press reports of fainting, vomitings, and other hysterical reactions. By the time The Exorcist opened in the UK, rumours of its traumatising power had grown to such proportions that the St. John's Ambulance Brigade were regularly called to attend screenings armed with stretchers and to minister to the faint-hearted.
Nevertheless, praise for The Exorcist was widespread, from broadsheets to religious publications, with the arch-conservative conservative Triumph magazine publishing a rave review in 1973, echoing Father Kenneth Jadoff's claim in The Catholic News that 'The Exorcist is a deeply spiritual film.' According to director William Friedkin, a copy of the film was supplied to high ranking Catholic Father Pedro Arrupe in 1974 following a favourable viewing and subsequently remained with his offices. Earlier this year, Catherine Von Rhuland of the New Christian Herald declared: "'The Exorcist is surely an explicitly Christian film [in which] the ministry is presented with dignity as an honourable vocation [who] go the full distance with Utter Darkness -- a sleeves rolled up, no-holds-barred fight to the finish between God's earthly representatives and Satan." Such reactions are unsurprising, since Friedkin's movie was written and produced by the Catholic writer William Peter Blatty whose multi-million selling novel was praised by the Vatican literary journal Civilta Cattolica having been described by the author as "a 350 page thankyou note to the Jesuits."
- Mark Kermode, The British Broadcasting Corporation
Max Von Sydow
"The 1973 film "The Exorcist," directed by William Friedkin, is about a mother who is trying to save her daughter who has been possessed by the devil. There are many cinematic techniques used to create a feeling of creepiness, but one of the main ones that I will address is the film's use of sound design, because throughout the film there are many instances where the sound design is being used to strike up fear. A method used within the film is the implementation of a reoccurring sound to cause us to unknowingly feel a sense of fear from recognition of this very sound. This is used earlier on in the film when the explorer first holds onto an ancient demon relic. There is this atmospheric, other-worldly, 'hum'-like sound that occurs which is paired with eerie visuals of the man being seemingly entranced. When this sound later reoccurs, there is this involuntary reaction of fear that builds up within us due to our previous connection of bad things happening when this sound is heard.
Another method used within the film was allowing us to hear a noise, but not see the source. A great example of this is when we constantly hear "rats" (or so the mother thinks) in the attic space. Because the audience never gets a chance to see these very rats, we can not help but begin to become skeptical about this, thus fearful of what could possibly be in the attic. Later on, when the mother goes up into the attic space, we have built up a fear for her that is based solely on the sketchiness of the noise coming from the attic- and not on any visuals of what is actually producing the noise in the attic."
- Kira Bursky, 'Film This Film That - The Exorcist : Use Of Sound Design To Create Fear'
"In a post moon landing era, technology was seen as the answer to almost all of society’s problems. However, The Exorcist put these new beliefs up against some very old and terrifying realities. We get to witness the best 1970s medical technology has to offer in trying to diagnose Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) and explain her symptoms scientifically. Suffice it to say, these scenes provide their own horror. When science proves ineffective, the old, “rejected” beliefs of possession and exorcism are reevaluated more as a psychological tool to use in an attempt to heal Regan. There have been some critics that see the film as an attack on science, but this seems to ignore the fact that the protagonists are actually facing a supernatural threat in the film."
- Alex Smith, Rogue Cinema
"There's a sense that horror movies are now legit, in a fun, adventurous way. That certainly wasn't how people reacted back in 1972, when Wes Craven and his producing partner, Sean Cunningham (who later spawned the money-spinning Friday the 13th franchise), released their violent and pessimistic rape-and-revenge debut horror outing, Last House on the Left. The audiences were almost as scary as the movie: "Yeah, it was crazy. Heart attacks, people crying, kids throwing up, people even attacking projection booths and tearing up prints. We had to set up a whole editing office just to restore our prints, because every one would come back chopped up by theatre owners." Danny Peary, in his 1982 survey Cult Movies, recalls with rather sniffy distaste seeing Last House on the Left on its first release, with an apparently rabid audience that loudly cheered the film's many scenes of violent mayhem, including indoor chainsaw battles.
You'd never think that the film's writer-director started life as the working-class product of a deeply fundamentalist, Baptist household, or that he only saw his first movie in his final year of college, at the age of 24, risking expulsion for it. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois, "which had the same strictures - no moviegoing, no dancing, no card-playing, no drinking - that I grew up with. I risked being expelled, but hitchhiked to a town that was, like, two towns away to see To Kill a Mockingbird. I said to myself, I could be expelled for seeing, oh, wait a minute, this film? That kind of did it for me and organised religion."
Craven is an admirer of The Exorcist, but he has never made an overtly religious horror movie. Does his childhood, which he has described as "not happy", insinuate itself into his movies in other ways? "I don't think you can be inculcated that way and not have it banging around some place. Even when the beliefs go out the window, the issues remain. If anything, religion of any sort is a way of looking for meaning beyond just the trivial or the self-serving, for whatever's out there that's bigger than us. It teaches you to ask the larger questions. So in that sense, it's still important. But in pretty much every other way, religion just ruined my life."
Craven is still glad he discovered cinema just when it was reaching its postwar peak, a dozen new masterpieces appearing every month during the 1960s, when he was teaching English literature in college. "Bergman! Fellini! Dick Lester! Something new and amazing every week! God, it was fantastic then." He was impressed enough to filch the plot of Bergman's The Virgin Spring for Last House on the Left, a wonderfully cheeky instance of cultural appropriation. "Ah, but remember," says Craven, ever the prof, "Bergman stole it first - from the medieval minstrels."
- John Patterson, 'Wes Craven : In From The Cold'
"When they asked me if I wanted to come to SXSW (South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas), I said great. I think it's very state of the art and unique. I went to the site just to watch ten minutes of 'The Exorcist,' and I was so excited about all the information that was coming, I ended up watching the entire film. And I've seen that film many times, but I learned a lot of new things."
- Wes Craven, Arrow In The Head
William Friedkin & Jason Miller
Another method used within the film was allowing us to hear a noise, but not see the source. A great example of this is when we constantly hear "rats" (or so the mother thinks) in the attic space. Because the audience never gets a chance to see these very rats, we can not help but begin to become skeptical about this, thus fearful of what could possibly be in the attic. Later on, when the mother goes up into the attic space, we have built up a fear for her that is based solely on the sketchiness of the noise coming from the attic- and not on any visuals of what is actually producing the noise in the attic."
- Kira Bursky, 'Film This Film That - The Exorcist : Use Of Sound Design To Create Fear'
"In a post moon landing era, technology was seen as the answer to almost all of society’s problems. However, The Exorcist put these new beliefs up against some very old and terrifying realities. We get to witness the best 1970s medical technology has to offer in trying to diagnose Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) and explain her symptoms scientifically. Suffice it to say, these scenes provide their own horror. When science proves ineffective, the old, “rejected” beliefs of possession and exorcism are reevaluated more as a psychological tool to use in an attempt to heal Regan. There have been some critics that see the film as an attack on science, but this seems to ignore the fact that the protagonists are actually facing a supernatural threat in the film."
- Alex Smith, Rogue Cinema
"There's a sense that horror movies are now legit, in a fun, adventurous way. That certainly wasn't how people reacted back in 1972, when Wes Craven and his producing partner, Sean Cunningham (who later spawned the money-spinning Friday the 13th franchise), released their violent and pessimistic rape-and-revenge debut horror outing, Last House on the Left. The audiences were almost as scary as the movie: "Yeah, it was crazy. Heart attacks, people crying, kids throwing up, people even attacking projection booths and tearing up prints. We had to set up a whole editing office just to restore our prints, because every one would come back chopped up by theatre owners." Danny Peary, in his 1982 survey Cult Movies, recalls with rather sniffy distaste seeing Last House on the Left on its first release, with an apparently rabid audience that loudly cheered the film's many scenes of violent mayhem, including indoor chainsaw battles.
You'd never think that the film's writer-director started life as the working-class product of a deeply fundamentalist, Baptist household, or that he only saw his first movie in his final year of college, at the age of 24, risking expulsion for it. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois, "which had the same strictures - no moviegoing, no dancing, no card-playing, no drinking - that I grew up with. I risked being expelled, but hitchhiked to a town that was, like, two towns away to see To Kill a Mockingbird. I said to myself, I could be expelled for seeing, oh, wait a minute, this film? That kind of did it for me and organised religion."
Craven is an admirer of The Exorcist, but he has never made an overtly religious horror movie. Does his childhood, which he has described as "not happy", insinuate itself into his movies in other ways? "I don't think you can be inculcated that way and not have it banging around some place. Even when the beliefs go out the window, the issues remain. If anything, religion of any sort is a way of looking for meaning beyond just the trivial or the self-serving, for whatever's out there that's bigger than us. It teaches you to ask the larger questions. So in that sense, it's still important. But in pretty much every other way, religion just ruined my life."
Craven is still glad he discovered cinema just when it was reaching its postwar peak, a dozen new masterpieces appearing every month during the 1960s, when he was teaching English literature in college. "Bergman! Fellini! Dick Lester! Something new and amazing every week! God, it was fantastic then." He was impressed enough to filch the plot of Bergman's The Virgin Spring for Last House on the Left, a wonderfully cheeky instance of cultural appropriation. "Ah, but remember," says Craven, ever the prof, "Bergman stole it first - from the medieval minstrels."
- John Patterson, 'Wes Craven : In From The Cold'
"When they asked me if I wanted to come to SXSW (South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas), I said great. I think it's very state of the art and unique. I went to the site just to watch ten minutes of 'The Exorcist,' and I was so excited about all the information that was coming, I ended up watching the entire film. And I've seen that film many times, but I learned a lot of new things."
- Wes Craven, Arrow In The Head
William Friedkin & Jason Miller
'Shadow On The Wall' - Mike Oldfield
"A teenage girl, horrifically disfigured, sits up in bed and projectile-vomits dollops of thick, green gloop onto the face of a priest. Then, in a stream of appalling profanity, the girl confirms what we already guessed: that she happens to be possessed by the Devil. As plot twists go, it's not exactly clever or sophisticated. But the scene is nonetheless hugely effective: this is, after all, one of the climactic moments of The Exorcist, which in turn is among the most terrifying and brilliantly-executed horror movies. Each year, as Hallowe'en approaches and Hollywood tries to bridge the gap between the summer and Christmas blockbuster seasons by making us scream, I'm reminded of William Friedkin's 1973 masterpiece. With its rotating heads and shaking beds, it's easy to dismiss it as crude and unsubtle; at times, it even teeters on the brink of self-parody. But, when you watch it closely, you realise it's a hugely-accomplished piece of movie-making. That's why it still puts the fear of god into people."
- Guy Adams, 'The Exorcist Uncut : Secrets Of The Scariest Movie Ever Made'
"Though long considered "the scariest film ever made", it's not hard to argue that William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) is perhaps the greatest horror film ever made. 30+ years after audiences passed out or fled theatres in fright, The Exorcist retains its visceral power and, even beyond the shocking effects, the film stands as one of the finest cinematic studies of man and his place in the universe."
- Stacie Ponder, Final Girl
"Seeing what went on all those years ago has reminded me that this truly was, as we have been saying for so many years, the greatest magic act ever filmed. What Billy Friedkin did on that set was magic. That's what I always tell people; there's simply no other way to describe it."
- Linda Blair, The Independent
"Life is such a gift and and yet a mystery, and I don't think we make movies about that stuff anymore and that is what The Exorcist is about."
- William Friedkin, The Hollywood Reporter
Linda Blair & William Friedkin
- Guy Adams, 'The Exorcist Uncut : Secrets Of The Scariest Movie Ever Made'
"Though long considered "the scariest film ever made", it's not hard to argue that William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) is perhaps the greatest horror film ever made. 30+ years after audiences passed out or fled theatres in fright, The Exorcist retains its visceral power and, even beyond the shocking effects, the film stands as one of the finest cinematic studies of man and his place in the universe."
- Stacie Ponder, Final Girl
"Seeing what went on all those years ago has reminded me that this truly was, as we have been saying for so many years, the greatest magic act ever filmed. What Billy Friedkin did on that set was magic. That's what I always tell people; there's simply no other way to describe it."
- Linda Blair, The Independent
"Life is such a gift and and yet a mystery, and I don't think we make movies about that stuff anymore and that is what The Exorcist is about."
- William Friedkin, The Hollywood Reporter
Linda Blair & William Friedkin
'I sleep light
On these shores tonight
I live light on these shores
Elevation, don't go to my head
Elevation, don't go to my head
Elevation, don't go to my head ...'
- Television
'See No Evil' - Television
On these shores tonight
I live light on these shores
Elevation, don't go to my head
Elevation, don't go to my head
Elevation, don't go to my head ...'
- Television
'See No Evil' - Television
"Last week, news surfaced that was mostly indicative of how Hollywood works these days, with Morgan Creek announcing remakes of a handful of movies in their catalog including “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Major League,” “Young Guns,” “Flying Tigers” and “The Exorcist.” Touching the horror classic in particular drew consternation from various corners of the web, including the director himself, who weighed in on the topic. “I completely denounce [the remake]” the filmmaker tweeted, adding that he doesn’t believe Morgan Creek even has the rights to the original movie, just the lesser sequels. For their part, Morgan Creek were quick to tweet “despite what was printed” they won’t be redoing “The Exorcist.” Except that, “what was printed” was based on what the company’s CEO Jim Robinson told Deadline. That’s just a detail I guess ... At any rate, it seems we can all breathe easy about “The Exorcist” being taken down the remake road. At least for now. Because you know at some point it’s going to happen anyway, because that horror brand is too valuable to be left on the shelf."
- Kevin Jagernauth, IndieWire
"The announcement of an Exorcist TV show was met with no shortage of eye rolling, not all of it unwarranted. While the 1973 film is a classic and original author William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III an underrated gem, it’s hard to purge the memories of The Exorcist II and The Beginning. Besides, horror reboots on TV haven’t exactly been a consistent trend. Hannibal was brilliant, but Bates Motel only really found its feet in its final years while the less said about the dreadful Damien the better. Furthermore the first trailers for The Exorcist were bland and appeared to make it clear that apart from a reasonably similar plot, this had nothing to do with the original film, something that alienated a lot of the fanbase (including myself). It was for this reason that, despite the original being a long time favourite of mine, I didn’t get on The Exorcist until late in the first season. Even as the episodes were released there was little to no buzz about any of it. It was only when I noticed the consistently good reviews over on The A.V. Club that I wondered if it might be worth taking a look. After all, it couldn’t be worse than Damien, right?
As it turns out, The Exorcist is the best reboot of a classic horror property this side of Hannibal. From the start it engages us with likeable, well-written characters with believable human flaws and hints to a sprawling, grander mythology. Very quickly the fact that it wasn’t linked to the original film became unimportant; this version of the same old story was creepy and engaging enough to work all by itself. The series centres on the Rance family, specifically Geena Davis’ Angela, who becomes convinced that something is terribly wrong with her daughter. The fact that she jumps so fast to possession as an explanation seems a first a little odd, until it slowly becomes clear that Angela has a very good reason for that belief and, as such, this series is a little more linked with the 1973 film than we initially thought."
- Gabriel Bergmoser, Den Of Geek
"The Exorcist changed the face of horror cinema when it was released in 1973, and there's no question that it remains one of the most influential horror movies ever made. Now, the two-time Academy Award film is being adapted for the London stage as part of a new production at the Phoenix Theatre, which runs from October 21, 2017 to March 10, 2018. Before you see the play then, why not re-familiarise yourself with the franchise by recapping some of the scariest moments from the films."
- Harry Fletcher, The Evening Standard
Ellen Burstyn & William Friedkin
'My suicide child
My suicide child
Cross the mile
On the dirty filthy bathroom tile
Walked on by
I was so high
My suicide child
Why did you die ...'
- The Nuns
- Kevin Jagernauth, IndieWire
"The announcement of an Exorcist TV show was met with no shortage of eye rolling, not all of it unwarranted. While the 1973 film is a classic and original author William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III an underrated gem, it’s hard to purge the memories of The Exorcist II and The Beginning. Besides, horror reboots on TV haven’t exactly been a consistent trend. Hannibal was brilliant, but Bates Motel only really found its feet in its final years while the less said about the dreadful Damien the better. Furthermore the first trailers for The Exorcist were bland and appeared to make it clear that apart from a reasonably similar plot, this had nothing to do with the original film, something that alienated a lot of the fanbase (including myself). It was for this reason that, despite the original being a long time favourite of mine, I didn’t get on The Exorcist until late in the first season. Even as the episodes were released there was little to no buzz about any of it. It was only when I noticed the consistently good reviews over on The A.V. Club that I wondered if it might be worth taking a look. After all, it couldn’t be worse than Damien, right?
As it turns out, The Exorcist is the best reboot of a classic horror property this side of Hannibal. From the start it engages us with likeable, well-written characters with believable human flaws and hints to a sprawling, grander mythology. Very quickly the fact that it wasn’t linked to the original film became unimportant; this version of the same old story was creepy and engaging enough to work all by itself. The series centres on the Rance family, specifically Geena Davis’ Angela, who becomes convinced that something is terribly wrong with her daughter. The fact that she jumps so fast to possession as an explanation seems a first a little odd, until it slowly becomes clear that Angela has a very good reason for that belief and, as such, this series is a little more linked with the 1973 film than we initially thought."
- Gabriel Bergmoser, Den Of Geek
"The Exorcist changed the face of horror cinema when it was released in 1973, and there's no question that it remains one of the most influential horror movies ever made. Now, the two-time Academy Award film is being adapted for the London stage as part of a new production at the Phoenix Theatre, which runs from October 21, 2017 to March 10, 2018. Before you see the play then, why not re-familiarise yourself with the franchise by recapping some of the scariest moments from the films."
- Harry Fletcher, The Evening Standard
Ellen Burstyn & William Friedkin
'My suicide child
My suicide child
Cross the mile
On the dirty filthy bathroom tile
Walked on by
I was so high
My suicide child
Why did you die ...'
- The Nuns