The Exorcist - One of the Scariest Film's of All Time ??

DensinoDensino Posts: 3,204
Forum Member
✭✭✭
I thought it was absolutely hilarious! :eek::eek:

I was in absolute stitches!

I think I was influenced because I seen it parodied in Scary Movie 2 before I seen it...

What do you guys think?

Scary or Not?

[news]Digital Spy's Top 25 scariest horror movies: 5-1[/news]
«134

Comments

  • ugglauggla Posts: 1,113
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Our local Odeon had a 20th year anniversary showing in 1993 i think me and about 5 mates went the pub before it was on, from what i remember we nearly got thrown out for all the laughing we was doing.

    its one of the worst films i have ever watched and i have watched alot of crap lol
  • Ted CTed C Posts: 11,730
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    uggla wrote: »
    Our local Odeon had a 20th year anniversary showing in 1993 i think me and about 5 mates went the pub before it was on, from what i remember we nearly got thrown out for all the laughing we was doing.

    its one of the worst films i have ever watched and i have watched alot of crap lol

    It is NOT the sort of film you watch after a few pints...it is hardly a beer and pizza movie. (and 5 beers at that...surprised you didn't fall asleep).

    I hada friend who watched it with me on that 1993 re release for the first time (I saw it when it was first released), and he was not impressed.

    But when the DVD came out, he asked to borrow it, so he could watch the making of documentary (Fear of God, which is excellent). After he watched the doc, he decided to watch the movie again...on his own...at night.

    And he freely admitted it scared the crap out of him.

    Give it another watch sometime...alone at night, sober...you may find it something of a revalation.
  • Gusto BruntGusto Brunt Posts: 12,351
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Well I first watched The Exorcist when I was about 22 (seven years ago) and, my apologies, but I found it funny. Never scary.

    The part where the little girl was cursing and swearing the priests was amusing - no wonder a film parody was made of it.

    I did however find The Omen scary.
  • MurraymarMurraymar Posts: 4,992
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I saw it for the first time when I was 14 and I was terrified, tried again to watch it in late teens same reaction. I was bought up a catholic (very lapsed now) now I'm wondering did that add to my fear. Or else more probably I'm a wuss.
  • EVILSPEAKEVILSPEAK Posts: 980
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I caught it back in the early 80's before it was stupidly banned and it scared the living hell out of me. Even watching it now at night it still has a way of unnerving me and getting under my skin. And as much as I love the film I prefer Exorcist 3.
  • ABCZYXABCZYX Posts: 12,099
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    For me, I think what makes the Exorcist more scary is that the person that gets possessed is not an adult, but a young girl. And at the start of the film, she was a likeable, very sweet and innocent girl. So to her gradually change into someone that blasphemes, curses and says and does the things she does is quite shocking.

    And I can't bear to see the white demon face that pops up during the uncut version. It's too horrific for me to ever see again. If I ever watch the Exorcist again, it'll have to be the version without the white face.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 14,920
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Not scary in the slightest. Even when I was 12 when I watched it the first time.

    Although, when I watched it a couple of years ago for the second time I found it to be awfully dated and thoroughly boring. I felt that my memory had tricked me into thinking it was much better than it really was. Or a 12 year old is easily pleased.
  • porkpieporkpie Posts: 2,548
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It was certainly scary when it came out and in the early years of its initial appearance on video.
    But things have moved on and while some of the effects let it down slightly its still an excellent movie albeit not one you could say was "the most scary".

    Unfortunately these days many viewers rate shite like Saw and Hostel as scary and wouldn't recognise a truly frightening movie if it bit them on the neck.

    As for being boring - its typical of todays viewers that unless someone is mutilated every 10 minutes then a horror film can't be scary .

    The Exorcist requires attention - something the short attention span viewers of today know little about .
    How many of todays horrors are adapted from best selling novels rather than woven round plots that can be summed up in one or two lines?
  • rybevrybev Posts: 1,900
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I love The Exorcist for far more reasons than it being a "horror" film. I love it's 70s-ness, the location, the characters (especially Father Damien).

    It's power to be really scary has diminished over time, especially for younger audiences. People often presume scary has to "in the moment" and has more to do with being on the edge of your seat. The Exorcist is fear of religion, power, death and the unknown.

    For me the scariest moment is when Father Damien sees his mother in the vision at the steps to the subway. It really unnerves me.

    I've always found Rosemary's Baby to be a perfect accompaniment to The Exorcist in mood and style.
  • DynopiaDynopia Posts: 1,645
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I agree OP, I thought it was hilarious (the snippets I've seen)
  • welwynrosewelwynrose Posts: 33,666
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It was scary for its time but I think we've all been desensitised over the years
  • Flamethrower100Flamethrower100 Posts: 14,106
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Are you actually kidding me. I watched the film when I was 12, and it didn't scare me.
    It's over hyped, and the possession of the girl didn't seem real. at all. just a load of swear words. and masturbation.
    those kind of films don't scare me, because if all a demon can do when it takes over a child is lay in bed shagging itself with a crucifix, and walking about the house, then it's a pathetic demon.

    The innocents scared me. no fancy special effects involving green slime. made in the 60's. a very well told ghost story.
  • Flamethrower100Flamethrower100 Posts: 14,106
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    welwynrose wrote: »
    It was scary for its time but I think we've all been desensitised over the years

    I don't think it was ever scary in this time or in any other. it's just that people were so upset by it because it involved a little girl, doing and saying naughty things. they were no doubt freaked out, by what was happening, because films before it didn't involve an innocent child in such a graphic way.
  • Mark AMark A Posts: 7,687
    Forum Member
    I saw it on its original release at a packed cinema in the West End. The atmosphere in the cinema was absolutely electric and at one point a woman stood up and screamed then fainted, crashing backwards over the seat into the row behind, there was all sorts of pandemonium as other women then screamed. Don't think I've ever experienced anything quite like it, either then or since, at the movies.

    I saw it a second time a year or so later with my younger brother who'd unfortunately been drinking and proceeded to fart loudly and then bust a gut giggling over his flatulence. Not surprisingly the atmosphere in the cinema was somewhat different and the film was all but completely drained of its power to unnerve.

    I guess the moral of the story is don't go into the film as a buffoon, or be unfortunate enough to be accompanied by a buffoon.

    One further comment is, I personally had no sense of horror or fear watching it as then, and to this day, I have zero belief in the supernatural, so these types of films never would have real scare ability as I simply can't suspend disbelief enough for them to work. Though I do enjoy would-be spooky movies, I just can't take them seriously enough.

    Regards

    Mark
  • treefr0gtreefr0g Posts: 23,595
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I saw it for the first time in the 80's and felt much the same as I felt when I first saw Alien. Mentally exhausted.

    I find the two movies very similar. Very natural in their acting and from a third of the way in, neither film lets up.

    I would imagine that if a few people in the audience laugh at The Exorcist others will follow but when I saw it at the cinema there was absolute silence throughout and a lot of serious faces when the lights went up.

    I think it's one of those movies where you had to be there.
  • AerickAerick Posts: 1,528
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I think younger people are a bit more jaded and see things differently than those in the 70s and 80s when this film came out and was re released.

    I found this clip awhile ago showing audience reactions when it first came out. I would imagine this was quite accurate according to the time period of 1973 when nothing really was made quite like this. I personally have not seen this film since the late 70s when it went into wide re release. I've not seen it since save for bits and pieces on youtube or on my netflix streaming. Love the Tubular Bells intro and the Iraq portions.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsA3nxzgK-M
  • kizziekizzie Posts: 5,756
    Forum Member
    I see it when it was first released ( I was 14 I think) nuns walking up and down handing out leaflets on what to do if you think your possessed, lots of people had to be taken out after fainting , people were screaming and crying.

    I wasn't that impressed as like films of today it was too full on and left nothing to the imagination.

    I love films like the changeling
    http://www.amazon.com/Changeling-George-C-Scott/dp/0783116926

    Also another film that I can never remember the name of , its where the house is haunted but you only ever see a shadow and the atmosphere is bloody scary

    Full on films and over distributive books bore me as I like to use my own mind to imagine what things are or look like not have someone else's imagination tell me.

    Not sure if ive explained myself very well there
  • Neda_TurkNeda_Turk Posts: 8,447
    Forum Member
    People forget that times have changed and back in the 70s when it was released, some of the thing said and depicted were shocking.

    Religion was much stronger and back then question it or parodying it where just not done. Also the outbursts of language where not usual in film at all. Now it's on X factor every week!

    Also it was a different type of scary movie from what had gone before as horror films: This was not Dracula, Frankenstein or the Werewolf type of horror.

    So at the time the language and doing things with crucifixes where just not the norm and seen as very risky.

    Remember years after that, the church were still trying to ban Life of Brian, so you can see how talking out about the church was a no no. Thankfully you can now say what you like about the church.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 496
    Forum Member
    Its fashionable these days to sneer at this film by people who were probably scared shitless whey they saw it.
    It would be interesting to hear what films these " critics" consider to be scary.
  • Ted CTed C Posts: 11,730
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I guess it's hard for people of todays generation to appreciate the movie. 70's movies were made and paced very differently to what they are now.

    You look at a lot of the classic movies from that era...Godfather, French Connection, All The Presidents Men, The Conversation, Bullitt etc...largely dialogue based, though often with excellent and celebrated action sequences.

    Movies back then were happy to concentrate on story, and to take time to let the story unfold. It was not like today where a lot of movies are about keeping people attention using gimmicks like 3D, having explosions every 5 minutes, endless action sequences, tons of CGI and those cheap tacky 'make-you-jump' moments that seem to proliferate a lot of horror movies these days.

    And that last bit is important, because Exorcist did not indulge in cheap shocks. Yes...it had shocking moments, sure. And you really cannot underestimate how shocking those moments were back in the 70's...that sort of thing had never been put on screen before. It really pushed the envelope of what was acceptable.

    But at it's heart it was a story of good triumphing over evil, and you felt for the characters, the mother, and especially the girl because it took time to establish those characters so that you cared about them. There's no point in subjecting your characters to unspeakable horrors if you have not established them as human and believable in the first place.

    And the problem with Exorcist is that people who have not seen it know it by reputation, the movie about the girl who spits green vomit, sticks a crucifix into her crotch, and it being the 'scariest movie ever made'. So a lot of people go in with unrealistic expectations, and are not willing to consider that it is a film very much of it's time, it was pre cgi, and obviously in a lot of ways it is going to look quite dated.

    And yet you still get these idiots who like to wear this 'badge of honour', by saying 'I wasn't scared...in fact I found it funny' etc. It's almost as though they are trying to hide something, like they don't want to admit they were scared.

    Because I just don't get how anyone can sit through that movie, a movie that is deadly serious and earnest in every respect, and say they laughed. My feeling is either that they watched it half drunk and just woke up for the scary bits, or watched it on dvd and just fast forwarded.

    I would'nt mind if these 'detractors' gave some sort of genuine critique, or some useful observations...but this 'I saw it with me mates after a few beers and we thought it was actually funny' stuff is pathetic.
  • Ted CTed C Posts: 11,730
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Wetherby wrote: »
    Its fashionable these days to sneer at this film by people who were probably scared shitless whey they saw it.
    It would be interesting to hear what films these " critics" consider to be scary.

    I would agree with that...and I guarantee you that the idiot who usually shouts out something 'witty' in the middle of films like this in a cinema is usually the most scared person in the cinema.

    Likewise when a group of guys sit around and watch it after a few beers...the piss-taking bravado is probably just a smokescreen.
  • kizziekizzie Posts: 5,756
    Forum Member
    I was 14, I wasn't scared, the only bit that scared me was the bit in the attic with the flame.

    I laughed when her head spun round as it was stupid. I laughed even harder when I see it again when it was re-released.

    Other bits were scary yes, but not as scary as those other films I mentioned

    I had friends who were scared witless though one rode his motorbike round and round near where he lived till the morning, as he was alone in the house :D
  • Hugh JboobsHugh Jboobs Posts: 15,316
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    First time I saw it I was pretty scared. Actually, the only time I've ever been scared by a "scary" movie.

    Subsequent times, I just found it funny.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 700
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    The first time I saw it i was impressed but not particularly scared. I think it was just too in-your-face, as most William Friedkin films are. It didn't help that I saw it in the mid-nineties after the subtler psychological terrors of Seven and Silence of the Lambs.

    I saw it again at a packed university screening before it came out on dvd. The print was a bit patchy and people were laughing at the green soup and various other over-the-top moments, not laughing out of fear but laughing because it was all a bit daft.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 671
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I watched it when i was 13 at a friends house (in the daytime i might add) i only managed up to the scene where she is thrown up and down on the bed near the begining. I had to leave after that. I had nightmares for weeks afterwards:cry:. I still havent finished it but after reading above comments im thinking maybe it will be fine.
Sign In or Register to comment.