this movie is scary!!but good!

First time I saw this movie, as a young kid, I started laughing when Regan first becomes possessed and cracked up laughing every time I heard it speak or saw its silly little face.. although my mother, who was born in 1947 spoke of this movie at my private Christian elementary school as if viewing it were as horrific as being a Vietnam vet or something... so I think how "scary" you find this has a lot to do with how scary you find pretty much everything. Like the mailman and fuzzy bunnies. Most modern-day kids (those born in the 90s and after that period) are almost certainly not going to be freaked by this. Unless they are raised by helicopter parents, in which case they're going to need therapy anyway, so you might as well show this to 'em.

As one who does not believe in demons and heaven and hell, I still find this film well executed for sheer escapism. Despite its date, the film still delivers what it was supposed to deliver decades ago. A good way to spend a couple of hours. Definitely not for kids and the faint-of-heart.

This innovative film, along with "Rosemary's Baby" in '68, spawned a rash of 'demon child' horror flicks in its aftermath (e.g. '76's "The Omen"). The special effects were startlingly realistic and graphic to the unaccustomed mainstream audiences of '73 -- virtually nothing of its caliber had been seen before. It holds the distinction of being the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture. A well done, cinematic milestone.

It scared the shit outta me when she crawled down the stairs...but otherwise it was really boring

Aside from the intentionally disturbing nature of this film, I found this story about a "possessed" girl to be somewhat confused and only half-baked..... Well, what could I expect?..... The makers of The Exorcist surely weren't aiming for plausibility here. No. Their goal was to gross the audience out like it had never been grossed out before and make a huge pile of money in the process. As I'm sure that we can all agree, they certainly succeeded very well on both counts.... What I learned while watching this movie was that when it comes to performing an exorcism using words (even "holy" words from the bible) are an utter waste of time. It seems that in order to perform a truly successful exorcism you must use brute force to drive the demon out. In other words, you must pulverize the "possessed one" relentlessly in the face with your fists like Father Damian did to Reagan, and that, I guarantee you, will convince the "unclean one" to clear the hell out..... Hmmm. I wonder if this sort of approach comes straight out of the official manual on exorcisms, or what?

i wanna cry

Very scary movie.

It explored a bit of history on the existence of the devil, devil possession and the exorcism process. Skip if no interest in far-out supernatural themes or looking for blood and gore; but it was a break through film in the early 70's.

A++ movie