It’s hard to write about THE EXORCIST. What’s left to say? It is, even over fifty years later, probably the most popular horror movie ever made. Much like JAWS with sharks, a possession film simply cannot be made without being compared to William Friedkin’s celebrated masterpiece. You can tell that some people tend to include it in “best of” lists out of obligations, because how can any grouping of the greatest horror movies ever made be complete without it? Not me, though. I promise you, I’m putting THE EXORCIST in the Hall of Fame because it simply is that good.
I often see people say that they feel you need have faith to enjoy it, and you know, it's subjective and everyone's experience with art is different, but I feel that less with THE EXORCIST than almost any other possession movie. What I love so much about that film is that it is at its core just about a mother at her wit's end doing whatever she can to help her sick kid.
The first half of the movie is basically just that. She exhausts everything before exorcism is all she's left with as a possibility. And then, coupled so perfectly with a mother's unwavering love for her daughter, you have a priest who's lost his faith, who is spiritually beaten down, who has almost Rocky-esque moments as if he's training for the fight of his life against the embodiment of evil itself and doesn't even know it.
This man who has developed such a bleak view of both himself and the world around him is willing to put everything on the line, his reputation, his soul, even his life, to help this child he doesn't even know.
And the scares build so perfectly along with the movie, it starts SO small. (I think a good many haunting/possession movies tend to lose that particular aspect now) We just get candles igniting and Ouija boards moving at the beginning and build our way to 360 head spins, levitation and pea soup by the end. I know it's not a hot take to say the single most celebrated horror film in history is good, but man, I really love it.