Wow! You are obviously such a cool and sophisticated person. I'm so impressed with you. Hey everybody, aren't you impressed with SandyR too? They're so cool, that they find The Exorcist to be a comedy!
shareNot comedy, but I did find the girl's filthy talk funny and entertaining and that probably wasn't the intention of the film makers.
shareI reckon that when this came out, horror movies were a new concept and people had not seen thousands of them before watching this.
The Exorcist III: Legion is scarier, IMHO. I think it redeems the original and completes it.
I guess people were fed up with Frankensteins, Draculas and radioactive monsters by the time The Exorcist came out.
shareI don't think it redeems the original so much as it redeems the franchise after the shockingly bad second one. The first is fine on its own as a standalone film, and still holds up well today compared to the average horror movie being churned out. I really like the third one and it is scary in places, but also has a few silly moments.
shareI'm still laughing at the person above who got upset because I insulted his/her/their favorite movie.
shareIt was their favourite movie? No way!
shareWhy would you laugh because you upset some stranger who likes a movie you do not...?
Why would you make a stupid, bad faith comment like that? (Apologies if your question was serious and you're just dim)
shareI am serious. It seems really grotesque to enjoy upsetting a complete stranger on a question of taste.
To my mind the worst communication on the internet falls into two categories: Pure nastiness and insincere posting (Lies and trolling). If that makes me dim... OK.
"The Exorcist" won the Oscar for BEST Picture of the year so your opinion is irrelevant. You probably don't understand the significance of that award, though.
shareWell, I may not understand the significance of that award, but I do know enough about it to know The Exorcist most certainly did not win Best Picture.
Do some research before posting comments like that and you'll save yourself some embarrassment in the future.
Is IMDB lying about The Exorcist winning Best Picture, or are you just an ignorant dumbass who can't do research?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/awards/?ref_=tt_awd
It was a best picture nominee, not a winner.
shareGuitar King,
This is the page you want to look at...
Scroll down a little ways and you will see the best picture nominees and the winner will be highlighted. It was The Sting that won BP that year. The Sting is a pretty good movie though, but I liked TE more.
https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000003/1974/1?ref_=ttawd_ev_1
But in regards to the OP's question.. I don't think stabbing yourself in the crotch with a crucifix is very funny. lol... it's just terrifying, to be honest.
You might think this is funny but we true fans know better.
I'd imagine that if you were a teen in 1973 that it would be frightening, but if you're a teen now (where everything is given to you online) it would be ho-hum.
shareI suppose that's supposed to be a backhanded comment. I'm not a teen, though the first and only time I watched the movie I was in my early 20s. That could have something to do with it. I also didn't go to church when I grew up, so possession by the devil seemed like a silly idea to begin with. Of course, seeing what the world has come to, I'm willing to reconsider my opinion on whether or not half the population has been possessed by some sort of demon.
shareDespite being on the tail end of the Gen X generation, this movie was a bit before my time and I’ve only recently watched it.
It’s a great movie that still holds up well, but it’s not particularly scary. It almost feels like we watched a base template of a movie from which all future horror films built off of (which is likely true).
I have say that the obscenities in the film are still crude even by 2023 standards and it’s crazy how this movie made its way into theaters like this in the early 1970’s. There is no debating this film’s impact on popular culture.
Good points. I was too old and jaded when I saw it, so it didn't have the same impact on me that it did on a lot of people when it was new in the theaters. This is a movie I bet "couldn't get made today" because it would offend the right-wingers (the left-wingers love this satanic sort of stuff).
shareI know that movies are subjective but what movies do you consider scary?
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just curious.
I'm betting OP is younger. Most young people of today only find jump scare scenes scary. Anything on a deeper, more psychological level of horror doesn't cut it with them. It has to be the simple "BOO!" level horror. They spend much of any movie looking at their phones and the deeper stuff escapes them.
shareDon't quit your day job. Your skills as a gambler are quite lacking.
The scariest movie I ever saw in the theater was Halloween, back in 1979. I've not heard people scream like that before or since. It was traumatizing (and yes, I know young people don't find the movie scary at all).
I'm not the OP, but my scariest movie experiences have been Halloween (1978) and The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi's original). Saw them on VHS in the 80's. The Exorcist came a bit later after I had numbed myself with a bunch of horror movies, so it didn't have a huge impact on me. I found it entertaining, but not scary.
shareSee my answer to Kenny Rogers, below.
shareI’ve only become a recent moviegoer in the last several years as an adult. As a child or teen, we just didn’t have to resources to movie watch, so I’ve become used to the modern effects of contemporary horror movies. The Conjuring is a movie where I can’t really recall the specifics plotwise, but recall how I felt watching it and I was scared. Not pissing-in-my-pants scared, but emotionally uncomfortable and uneasy, almost wondering why I decided to watch it in the first place.
BTW, younger people may not find it scary because watching more modern horror films desensitizes you to older films, whose effects may not look as modern. Maybe some young ppl may be on their phones, but for most others, it’s just a matter of less advanced special effects.