I think I've mentioned before that my knowledge of horror is almost all self-directed, so I haven't seen a lot of the best or most-respected movies, or read a lot of the best books. Until this year, I had never seen this film, usually voted one of the scariest movies of all time. I saw the director's 2000 recut of the film, and it sounds like most of his changes made the movie worse, rather than better.
I don't believe in demons, possession, spooks, haints, ghosts, or exorcism. This is probably the main reason I didn't find the movie particularly gripping or scary. (Sorry, fans of this movie. Nothing personal.) I can usually turn off, or at least ignore, my skeptical brain while watching fantasy or horror movies, but this film's insistence that it's kinda-sorta based on a true story rubbed me the wrong way (also why I have never seen The Amityville Horror). Let's be clear: exorcism isn't real. It does real-life harm to real-life people, and I can't separate that real-life pain from the escapist fun I should have from a genre movie.
With all that said, I did find a lot of the movie unsettling and shocking, even if it didn't scare me. The sedate opening surprised me by its placid slowness, though some of the rougher, later edits unsettled me and surprised me more. Individual pieces of the movie are shocking, and some of them are effective emotional assaults. I couldn't help but feel the mother's pain and frustration during the first part of the film, though the later torturous excesses shut down my emotions. I still found myself responding, from time to time, from my lizard-brain instincts -- a good trick in a good film. Here, I just felt cheated and almost condescended to by the film.
With all that said, I did find a lot of the movie unsettling and shocking, even if it didn't scare me. The sedate opening surprised me by its placid slowness, though some of the rougher, later edits unsettled me and surprised me more. Individual pieces of the movie are shocking, and some of them are effective emotional assaults. I couldn't help but feel the mother's pain and frustration during the first part of the film, though the later torturous excesses shut down my emotions. I still found myself responding, from time to time, from my lizard-brain instincts -- a good trick in a good film. Here, I just felt cheated and almost condescended to by the film.
So many parts of this film have become culturally-known, of course, that I had their surprises spoiled through osmosis. It would be interesting to have seen the movie, not knowing what Father Karras's mother is alleged to be doing in hell, or to be taken aback by the vomit and head-spinning. That is no fault of the movie, of course, but I'm not sure how much more pleasure I could have gotten from those scenes anyway. Would the movie have been more shocking? Yes. Better? Not to me, no.
I haven't yet heard a review of the new TV show based on this movie (though I can't imagine I'd be interested in seeing it). Apparently, this year there's also a house at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights based on this, which is rumored to be more conceptual and sounds at least intriguing. This idea feels (to me) better suited to a jump-scare gross-out theme park attraction than a feature film.
I haven't yet heard a review of the new TV show based on this movie (though I can't imagine I'd be interested in seeing it). Apparently, this year there's also a house at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights based on this, which is rumored to be more conceptual and sounds at least intriguing. This idea feels (to me) better suited to a jump-scare gross-out theme park attraction than a feature film.
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