I'm sure most of you have heard of or have even see this film, however some of you might not want to see it or haven't seen it, which is alright because it is truly scary and grotesque. And what makes it more scary is that it is based on a true story of a little boy in 1949, but it is much exaggerated, of course. It focuses on a little 12-year old girl who plays with a Ouija Board and soon starts expressing odd and bad behavior. Once doctors and medicine don't do the trick her mother suspects more. The mother calls for a priest and it is soon discovered that her daughter is possessed by a demon and from that moment on all hell breaks lose, literally.
The film is quite terrifying, and disturbing, to watch because of its subject and because of the grotesque things that happen. But first things first, it wouldn't be the iconic film it is if it wasn't for the fantastic cast. First, we have Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil who gives a terrifying performance and will scare you to death once her character gets possessed, there's no question that she deserved the Oscar nomination that she got. We also have Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, Regan's mother, who was also terrific as she gives us a performance that would be hard to do because she displays all kinds of terror as the movie goes on. She also deserved her Oscar nomination. Next is Jason Miller, in his first ever movie role, as Father Damian Karras who again gives us a chilling performance as he shows us that he can play almost two characters, a son who just lost his mother and a priest that is tested. Again, another worthy Oscar nomination here for him. Max von Sydow rounds it out as Father Merrin, who also gives a commanding performance.
The cast is great, but this movie, for 1973, probably wouldn't have been as good as it is if it wasn't for the visual effects. There are several iconic scenes from this film that had to require some state-of-the-art effects. Whether it be the levitation scene, the head turning scene, or the vomiting scene the effects were a character all on their own because they made the film that much more disturbing. I should have mentioned the spider walk scene but that was done by a contortionist with no effects except for the blood, but still a very hard scene to watch and not cringe. And some scenes didn't even require effects, the cold breath coming from the actors in the room set was because they filmed it in a refrigerator, which was clever working from the director.
The director, William Friedkin, also did a fantastic job on this film by giving it a very eerie and just down right disturbing atmosphere, just a fantastic job at scaring the audience. The writing is also wonderful thanks to a screenplay written by William Peter Blatty, which was also based off of his novel. Finally, the sound and editing are both top notch, which was why they got nominated for Oscar's as well. The sound is great as they mix all kinds of noises to make the voice, the bed moving, and the objects flying around the room to make for a more terrifying viewing. The editing adds to that as well. Now, if you haven't seen this film you probably should because it is the only horror film to be nominated for as many Oscar's as it was, including Best Picture. But it is a disturbing film to watch, I myself have only seen it once and probably will only see it once. It's not called the scariest movie of all time for nothing. After watching this movie, try to fall asleep! Happy Halloween!
4/4 Stars.
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