Now, it's been known for a little while that I hadn't seen The Exorcist. Honestly it was a small bit of a running gag with the guys over at Essential Scares Podcast (if you haven't checked them out, go give them a look). So immediately that made me want to start this series off with The Exorcist.
I tried my best to find somewhere to stream the film. Nowhere is it streaming. That's something that's a bit of a shame. I ended up tracking it down on Amazon. The only version that they had was Director's Cut. But I made sure it was done right and bought it on blu ray. Yesterday, it arrived in the mail and immediately I threw it into the PS4.
First off, I want to say that I understand The Exorcist is a big film. It's a big cult film. It came out at a time when there was not many other films like it. I saw Cody Leach refer to it as being for the 70s what torture porn was for the 00s. Honestly, that is a really good analogy for it. It was a film that I had heard about while I was growing up. Everybody and I mean everybody always refer to it as the scariest film ever made. Now, that may have been true when this film was released. I get that a lot of people have said it's their favorite film. I respect all of that.
Unfortunately The Exorcist is not really for me. I honestly thought it was a bit meh. If I had seen this when I was younger, it may have been scarier for me. Watching it now after years of watching horror movies, it left the film feeling a little lacking. The pacing of the film is something that I honestly had a big part with. In the first act of the film, we have a section with a priest supervising a dig in Iraq. He discovers some smaller statues of Pazuzu that were buried. But the biggest thing he found was this massive statue displaying Pazuzu in all its glory. Honestly upon first watch it felt out of place and like padding for the film's runtime. Upon a second watch, I realized that the priest is supposed to be Father Merrin from the third act of the film. There's also the story of Father Karras. I understand that his interaction with his mother shows his guilt over putting his duty over family. Maybe seeing time with his mother is supposed to help us feel for him. But for me, I feel like it just takes time away from the story of Regan and her family. Especially when we just discover how Karras feels he's lost his faith and guilt over not being there for his mother in a discussion with Father Dyer.
Moving on we have the story of Regan and her mother. This was something that feels like it needed more to be fleshed out. Her mother is relatively more or less a parent that is a bit absent because of her job as an actress. But the love her mother has for her does come through as she realizes there's nothing she can do for her daughter. And the deep spiral into desperation and madness does come through pretty brilliantly. Least she's there unlike Regan's father. The whole deal with Regan's father being completely absent was something that did hit a little bit for me. Especially when they mention that he's just ignoring any calls from Regan's mother, what a dirtbag. It's something that I'm able to relate to because for my son - I seen his birth father. His birth father was very much a dirtbag in this vein. Only wanting to spend time with him when it was able to somehow help him.
The biggest issue is that it takes so long to get to Regan being possessed. For a film that is about an exorcism, the pay off was lacking. It felt tame by today's standards. All of it coming down to Regan spouting obscenities, thrashing about, or bitch smacking people.
Honestly, I felt like I had already seen the film. It probably is due to the fact that this story is so well known that it's been parodied so many times. That just amplified the parts I didn't know feeling a bit like fluff. I was also left wishing that there would have been more said about Pazuzu. All we basically get is a name and that it wants Regan. That really it.
Ultimately, I didn't care for The Exorcist. I am keeping an open mind. Maybe with more rewatches and digging into the behind the scenes and commentary, I will find more appreciation for it. I am pretty interested in tackling the commentary with the director.
First Watch Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
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