I don't get it. It's almost like 2 movies. It starts out focusing on the mom's acting career and then Linda Blair get possessed out of nowhere. For my money, The Omen and Psycho are scarier.

My theory, i think the way the movie was advertise. I mean the when they remade it, it was stated as the world scariest film. I got there with my cousin and we were laughing our asses off. At one point an old lady told us to settle down. Also isn't there alot of like urban legends sorrounding that movie? I've personally found our great lord satan(haha) that scary, but im guessing people the mere thought of being penetrated by a malevolent spiriti is down right fritgheting, to me, it would beat the daily banality of day to day.

when it came out,

there was NOTHIN LIKE IT...

so now it just has a sentimental value

scare. just like "the omen" which was

the next best thing...

now adays you see heads gettin blowed off

in a comedy, so the scare factor is different.

now to scare you all it would take is you bein

shown the process of someone gettin robbed

for a kidney or a liver and how easily it could

happen to you...

KingBAD said:

when it came out,

there was NOTHIN LIKE IT...

so now it just has a sentimental value

scare. just like "the omen" which was

the next best thing...

now adays you see heads gettin blowed off

in a comedy, so the scare factor is different.

now to scare you all it would take is you bein

shown the process of someone gettin robbed

for a kidney or a liver and how easily it could

happen to you...

TD3 said:

KingBAD said:

when it came out,

there was NOTHIN LIKE IT...

so now it just has a sentimental value

scare. just like "the omen" which was

the next best thing...

now adays you see heads gettin blowed off

in a comedy, so the scare factor is different.

now to scare you all it would take is you bein

shown the process of someone gettin robbed

for a kidney or a liver and how easily it could

happen to you...

x2

I was a kid when I saw clips for the first time.. It took me well into my adult years before I could sit and watch it all the way thru... Its not scary to me any longer, but like King said, its sentimental and its also a very well made movie...

I also think a HUGE part of it being scary for me was at the times I was a good little catholic girl and it seemed "wrong" for me to watch this kind of movie, which added to the scariness of it... Now, Im like BRING IT ON!

I havent found a movie EVER in all my years that has scared me since... Well, The Entity freaked me the hell out cuz that was based on true events!!

I honestly think you need to have grown up Catholic (or at least Christain) to truly get scared by this movie. Back then, it was all about the fact it might happen to you. When I watch it now, its not really scary anymore, but I still think its an effective, well made movie about the supernatural and the occult. The swearing has always cracked me up...I mean is the devil trying to scares us by saying the priests mother sews socks in hell? Oh wait, that is the TV version...lol...

But SCARY? no...there are a few classics that can still get me ...Jaws, Psycho, Salem's Lot, and Halloween.

Poplife88 said:

I honestly think you need to have grown up Catholic (or at least Christain) to truly get scared by this movie. Back then, it was all about the fact it might happen to you. When I watch it now, its not really scary anymore, but I still think its an effective, well made movie about the supernatural and the occult. The swearing has always cracked me up...I mean is the devil trying to scares us by saying the priests mother sews socks in hell? Oh wait, that is the TV version...lol...

But SCARY? no...there are a few classics that can still get me ...Jaws, Psycho, Salem's Lot, and Halloween.

Nah I am pretty sure KingBAD covered it. Back then, there was nothing like this movie. Nothing.

Part of the reason people find it scary is the movie presents a framework and environment that is dead serious and expertly acted. It makes the supernatural stuff seem more real.

It also presents the idea of a little girl under the influence and power of an evil spirit rooted in both eastern and western religious details doingg such horrifying things as stabbing her vagina with a crucifix and saying "Let Jesus Fuck you" then pulling her mom's face into her crotch and saying "Lick me".

That stuff hit hard in 1973. People were abosultely terrifies because it didn't seem like a movie, with that kind of content, it seemed as shocking and disturbing as real life.

Actually you don't see that in movie too often even today. Not big budget Hollywood movies with Academy Award winning actors and directors.

Don't watch the directors cut. It's awful: with special effects thrown in that are stupid.

ufoclub said:

Part of the reason people find it scary is the movie presents a framework and environment that is dead serious and expertly acted. It makes the supernatural stuff seem more real.

It also presents the idea of a little girl under the influence and power of an evil spirit rooted in both eastern and western religious details doingg such horrifying things as stabbing her vagina with a crucifix and saying "Let Jesus Fuck you" then pulling her mom's face into her crotch and saying "Lick me".

That stuff hit hard in 1973. People were abosultely terrifies because it didn't seem like a movie, with that kind of content, it seemed as shocking and disturbing as real life.

Actually you don't see that in movie too often even today. Not big budget Hollywood movies with Academy Award winning actors and directors.

Don't watch the directors cut. It's awful: with special effects thrown in that are stupid.

let's not forget the MUSIC behind the scenes

that fuckin "TUBULAR BELLS" fucked with me the whole time too.

i swear it had a kenetic affect on me, like voo doo music or some shit

scriptgirl said:

I don't get it. It's almost like 2 movies. It starts out focusing on the mom's acting career and then Linda Blair get possessed out of nowhere. For my money, The Omen and Psycho are scarier.

Shiit, Omen is suspensful and sad. Exorcist is scary because of that murdering, vile, demon-possessed girl. Have you only seen this movie on TV? That's why I think some people find it not that scary. They haven't seen the theatrical version with the unedited footage. All I know is I could kill Damian easy but that Raven child? Hell no. Need an army of Priests and Black Ops to take her ass out.

I didn't see it til I was grown folks talked about it so much, now all the scary was lost on me. Now the Omen was a different story, saw it as a teen when it was fresh, almost an obsession, now pretty much roll my eyes and walk away.

ufoclub said:

Part of the reason people find it scary is the movie presents a framework and environment that is dead serious and expertly acted. It makes the supernatural stuff seem more real.

It also presents the idea of a little girl under the influence and power of an evil spirit rooted in both eastern and western religious details doingg such horrifying things as stabbing her vagina with a crucifix and saying "Let Jesus Fuck you" then pulling her mom's face into her crotch and saying "Lick me".

That stuff hit hard in 1973. People were abosultely terrifies because it didn't seem like a movie, with that kind of content, it seemed as shocking and disturbing as real life.

Actually you don't see that in movie too often even today. Not big budget Hollywood movies with Academy Award winning actors and directors.

Don't watch the directors cut. It's awful: with special effects thrown in that are stupid.

THIS!^

KingBAD said:

ufoclub said:

Part of the reason people find it scary is the movie presents a framework and environment that is dead serious and expertly acted. It makes the supernatural stuff seem more real.

It also presents the idea of a little girl under the influence and power of an evil spirit rooted in both eastern and western religious details doingg such horrifying things as stabbing her vagina with a crucifix and saying "Let Jesus Fuck you" then pulling her mom's face into her crotch and saying "Lick me".

That stuff hit hard in 1973. People were abosultely terrifies because it didn't seem like a movie, with that kind of content, it seemed as shocking and disturbing as real life.

Actually you don't see that in movie too often even today. Not big budget Hollywood movies with Academy Award winning actors and directors.

Don't watch the directors cut. It's awful: with special effects thrown in that are stupid.

let's not forget the MUSIC behind the scenes

that fuckin "TUBULAR BELLS" fucked with me the whole time too.

i swear it had a kenetic affect on me, like voo doo music or some shit

That song wasn't right back then and it ain't right now. creep factor.

I still find this movie very scary. Not in the same way that movies are today, but if you think about the concept, it's horrifying. The scene (from the director's cut) when she's coming down the stairs backwards, still creeps me out to this day.

[Edited 5/17/12 15:58pm]

scriptgirl said:

I don't get it. It's almost like 2 movies. It starts out focusing on the mom's acting career and then Linda Blair get possessed out of nowhere. For my money, The Omen and Psycho are scarier.

It's not scary. It's probably the most overrated, overhyped movie I've ever seen.

I think it's one of those kinds of things were people make it out to be more than what it is because of that hype and because of the universal hysteria that accompanied the movie's release at the time.

TD3 said:

KingBAD said:

let's not forget the MUSIC behind the scenes

that fuckin "TUBULAR BELLS" fucked with me the whole time too.

i swear it had a kenetic affect on me, like voo doo music or some shit

That song wasn't right back then and it ain't right now. creep factor.

Is it wrong that I have it on my iPod

Anyway I think it was scary then but now it's just meh in comparrison. Like most horror films from around that time (I.E: Texas Chainsaw Massacre) the overall idea is scarier then the result

KingBAD said:

when it came out,

there was NOTHIN LIKE IT...

so now it just has a sentimental value

scare. just like "the omen" which was

the next best thing...

now adays you see heads gettin blowed off

in a comedy, so the scare factor is different.

now to scare you all it would take is you bein

shown the process of someone gettin robbed

for a kidney or a liver and how easily it could

happen to you...

Yeah, this is an argument that I see older people make alot and it doesn't hold up. I could rattle off plenty of movies that have little to no graphic violent content like that, that I find way scarier than "The Exorcist"; "Alice Sweet Alice", being one of them. That movie just disturbs me on so many levels...

"The Exorcist" was just boring as hell, I ended up having to make myself focus in order to finish the movie, my mind kept wandering during it.

Dren5 said:

KingBAD said:

when it came out,

there was NOTHIN LIKE IT...

so now it just has a sentimental value

scare. just like "the omen" which was

the next best thing...

now adays you see heads gettin blowed off

in a comedy, so the scare factor is different.

now to scare you all it would take is you bein

shown the process of someone gettin robbed

for a kidney or a liver and how easily it could

happen to you...

Yeah, this is an argument that I see older people make alot and it doesn't hold up. I could rattle off plenty of movies that have little to no graphic violent content like that, that I find way scarier than "The Exorcist"; "Alice Sweet Alice", being one of them. That movie just disturbs me on so many levels...

"The Exorcist" was just boring as hell, I ended up having to make myself focus in order to finish the movie, my mind kept wandering during it.

You found Alice Sweet Alice to be scarier than the Exorcist? That's hilarious to me. Alice Sweet Alice is so cheeseball to me, like a Dario Argento movie... very silly to me and my friends.

It think it boils down to what you think about during a movie. Details in The Exorcist like the demon feeding into the guilt of him putting his mother into an old age home, or echoing the words of a homeless person she could not have seen him near are masterful and scary, But if you don't think about the implications of that stuff and relate it to real life, you won't be scared. The Exorcist is paced like a very serious drama, and it's sound design is ingenious. But if you don't get into those kind of things, it won't work as movie for you.

It was also a best selling novel before the movie was released.

aardvark15 said:

TD3 said:

That song wasn't right back then and it ain't right now. creep factor.

Is it wrong that I have it on my iPod

Anyway I think it was scary then but now it's just meh in comparrison. Like most horror films from around that time (I.E: Texas Chainsaw Massacre) the overall idea is scarier then the result

Next Wed. when I go to bible study I'm putting you on our prayer list.

It's been a while since I've watched the Exorcist so I can't say if it has stood the test of time but I think so. I approach a film this way, does it tell or build upon the story well. As KingBad said, this was something different, new and fresh. There had been several movies already made about the devil and/or demonic spirits but this movie dug a tad deeper. Til this day the Catholic Church doesn't acknowledge the perform exorcisms. For me the supporting cast kinda stole the show, Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras, who was burned out and faithless was superb. I thought the supporting cast was great and of course the haunting music score.

=============================

[Edited 5/18/12 15:45pm]

scriptgirl said:

I don't get it. It's almost like 2 movies. It starts out focusing on the mom's acting career and then Linda Blair get possessed out of nowhere. For my money, The Omen and Psycho are scarier.

i missed this part of whut you said before,

when you look at 'Psycho' and the 'Birds'

we are talkin SUSPENCE and in those days

that was just as scarry/ horrorfyin because it

dealt with un-knowns with high probabilities.

kinda like whut they did with 'the hills have eyes'

the shit that scares you in that movie are just grusome.

the 'omen as i said earlier was the NEXT in line for

scarry, just on cenimatography alone...

ufoclub said:

Dren5 said:

Yeah, this is an argument that I see older people make alot and it doesn't hold up. I could rattle off plenty of movies that have little to no graphic violent content like that, that I find way scarier than "The Exorcist"; "Alice Sweet Alice", being one of them. That movie just disturbs me on so many levels...

"The Exorcist" was just boring as hell, I ended up having to make myself focus in order to finish the movie, my mind kept wandering during it.

You found Alice Sweet Alice to be scarier than the Exorcist? That's hilarious to me. Alice Sweet Alice is so cheeseball to me, like a Dario Argento movie... very silly to me and my friends.

It think it boils down to what you think about during a movie. Details in The Exorcist like the demon feeding into the guilt of him putting his mother into an old age home, or echoing the words of a homeless person she could not have seen him near are masterful and scary, But if you don't think about the implications of that stuff and relate it to real life, you won't be scared. The Exorcist is paced like a very serious drama, and it's sound design is ingenious. But if you don't get into those kind of things, it won't work as movie for you.

It was also a best selling novel before the movie was released.

"Alice Sweet Alice"? Hell yes, I found it disturbing as fuck...

I didn't grow up Catholic, so all the heavy Catholicism in the beginning of it...kinda brought this heaviness and this darkness to it, I remember finding the ceremonies kinda creepy...and then the scene where the sister is actually killed and set on fire IN the church...

Alice's fascination with roaches and how she kept some as 'pets'...

The creepy gigantic neighbor lurking around all the time... who tries to make a pass at Alice, the underaged girl...

The scene with the aunt getting the shit stabbed out of her outta nowhere and her eerie blood-curdling screams and watching her bleed out all over the pavement and then seeing her deathly-white face in the hospital...

The daughter getting a polygraph test and then the guy saying later that she liked him touching her chest...

Plus in general, the entire tone of the film, it's something about the way it was shot that just makes the whole thing feel really ominous and plodding and heavy...and the fact that, for most of the movie, another child (I was a kid when I first saw it) was the primary suspect in a murder and an attempted murder...

That whole movie just freaks me the fuck out. I watched it in the last few years and still didn't feel 'right' during. It doesn't beat you over the head with 'scariness', it's just a lot of little subtle things that are just are really really unsettling after awhile in totality.

That movie is way more sinister and disturbing than some fake demon-vomit and some director ordering a kid to simulate jamming a crucifix inside herself, will ever be to me.

The little boy in The Omen was so adorable. He wasn't scary but the nanny was. Oh...and the rottweiler.

That spider crawl and bed flipping that Linda Blair did was off the chain. I read that she suffered damage to her spine from all that flopping on the bed. They fixed her up with some type of harness and slammed her back and forth on the bed which didn't even have a real (and soft) mattress on it. I also read they made her family sign some sort of medical release form so that she couldn't sue the studio later on.

Anyway, the head spin and the green puke and the biting the psychiatrists nuts always get me. I won't watch that movie alone at night.

Empress said:

I still find this movie very scary. Not in the same way that movies are today, but if you think about the concept, it's horrifying. The scene (from the director's cut) when she's coming down the stairs backwards, still creeps me out to this day.

Yeah, it's just a great, well acted film.

I bought the dvd a few years ago that includes the "Spider Walk" down the stairs scene. When that popped up it did scared me because it came out of nowhere and I found it pretty freaky.

KingBAD said:

ufoclub said:

Part of the reason people find it scary is the movie presents a framework and environment that is dead serious and expertly acted. It makes the supernatural stuff seem more real.

It also presents the idea of a little girl under the influence and power of an evil spirit rooted in both eastern and western religious details doingg such horrifying things as stabbing her vagina with a crucifix and saying "Let Jesus Fuck you" then pulling her mom's face into her crotch and saying "Lick me".

That stuff hit hard in 1973. People were abosultely terrifies because it didn't seem like a movie, with that kind of content, it seemed as shocking and disturbing as real life.

Actually you don't see that in movie too often even today. Not big budget Hollywood movies with Academy Award winning actors and directors.

Don't watch the directors cut. It's awful: with special effects thrown in that are stupid.

let's not forget the MUSIC behind the scenes

that fuckin "TUBULAR BELLS" fucked with me the whole time too.

i swear it had a kenetic affect on me, like voo doo music or some shit

That's my ringtone.

What the hell is alice, sweet alice about?

noimageatall said:

KingBAD said:

let's not forget the MUSIC behind the scenes

that fuckin "TUBULAR BELLS" fucked with me the whole time too.

i swear it had a kenetic affect on me, like voo doo music or some shit

That's my ringtone.

scriptgirl said:

What the hell is alice, sweet alice about?

Basically there's two catholic sisters and one of the sisters, Alice, kills the other one, Karen while wearing a creepy drag queen-esque mask in jealously. Afterwards she basically becomes a psychopath. That's basically the just of it. There's a big twist that I won't go into though. Catholicism plays a huge role in the movie.

I nearly died of fright reading the book, the movie not so much because my imagination is FAR worse than what is possible to put on a screen in the 70s.

aardvark15 said:

scriptgirl said:

What the hell is alice, sweet alice about?

Basically there's two catholic sisters and one of the sisters, Alice, kills the other one, Karen while wearing a creepy drag queen-esque mask in jealously. Afterwards she basically becomes a psychopath. That's basically the just of it. There's a big twist that I won't go into though. Catholicism plays a huge role in the movie.

Thank you.

Saved me the effort of explaining it looool.

It shits all over "The Exorcist".