THE OCTOBER PROJECT Part 27

"What an excellent day for an exorcism."

THE EXORCIST  (1973)

Directed by William Friedkin

Of all the movies on this list of 31, this is the one that frightens me the most. This is the one that makes me turns the lights on when it's all over. This is the title that I prefer to not think about when I'm trying to fall asleep at night. So, I'm very glad to be able to write about this film and explain exactly what it is I find so unsettling about this film.
I don't believe in the Devil, or devils. I don't believe in possession. I don't believe that evil is a force that exists outside of the human mind. This Catholic stuff basically rolls right off my back. I find "satanic" subjects no more disturbing than any other kind of scary story. (Actually, I think "The Omen" is kind of a hoot.) So it's none of that.
What is it then? It's simply this. Over the course of two hours we watch the very convincing transformation of a sweet innocent child into the most horrible, profane creature imaginable. It is this physical manifestation of all things horrible and malignant that I've never been able to shake off. Demon Regan gets under my skin like nothing else in the movies. The combination of Linda Blair's performance, Mercedes McCambridge's voice work and Dick Smith's extraordinary make-up unite to create the most profioundly disturbing onscreen monster known to me.
Of course, it helps that director William Friedken and screenwriter William Peter Blatty take their time establishing an everyday naturalistic world filled with recognizably human characters in the film's first act. This makes it all the more disturbing when the full blown horror of the possession kicks in at around the halfway mark.
Interestingly, modern audiences don't react to this film the same way. On it's last release it was reported that younger audiences, perhaps un-used to a straight-faced non-ironic approach to horror material, often laugh during the movie's most intense moments. Well, that's one way of dealing with the challenge of  "The Exorcist."
All I know is, this is the film that makes me, at least for the duration of it's running time, believe in evil. Pure, unadulterated malicious evil.