Just watched the exorcist for the first time....

[69wannabe]

Been putting off watching this movie for a long time, we went to a bookstore in chattanooga TN where they sell movies, books, cd's and video game's and the movies are like 2 bucks each unless it really new. I picked up several comedy's and a few action and a couple of thriller's none of which was the exorcist. My wife on the other hand comes out with the ring and the exorcist and a few more. I have never watched the Thing either which my son picked up and was pretty awesome for an 80's flick. We watched the thing yesterday and the ring last night and it was a little rough I thought for PG 13 but it was good. So me and my son been avoiding the exorcist dvd for several days now and we been kinda stuck inside with the crap weather and all the other movies we picked up we have seen already except for that one so we went to town grabbed some pizza and when we got back we stuck it in the player and watched it. Very interesting stuff for sure but the parts that hurt the most to watch was when they were doing all the test on her at the hospital. That looked painful even if it was acting. She had a way with word's that's for sure LOL!!! I can imagine some of the things she was saying really raised some eyebrows in the early 70's. It really sounds like things you would hear these days but not really back then. The spider walk down the steps was pretty freaky but seemed a little early in the movie than it should have been but it still worked. A must watch for sure and it holds up still even 40 years later!!!

[Chargerguy74]

Definately not my cup of tea, but I found this interesting, a little background on the film:

The Exorcist
By: Jason Kovar

People throwing up in the aisles and fleeing the theater, a radical increase in psychiatric visits, and a renewed fascination with the demonic were all scenarios that manifested from the 1973 film, The Exorcist. Known as the occult film that opened the door for the bevy of occult fiction flicks that would follow, Exorcist brought the public face to face with some of the most spine chilling and frightening scenes ever taped.
The story follows a young girl who becomes possessed by Satan and reigns terror on her family, friends and local parish. The film was written and produced by William Peter Blatty and the story of its inception is in itself is as unnerving as the events onscreen. A freak offshoot of what the movie depicts, Blatty came into contact with a spirit during his attempt to pen a story of demonic possession, and credits this spirit for the story. He makes his familiarity with these experiences clear:"The supernatural is really the most natural thing in the world." Blatty's "natural" occult experiences fall into the same bazaar camp as Sixth Sense director, M. Night Shyamalan's. Blatty reports seeing ghosts in his house, hearing rappings, disappearing and reappearing and moving objects, and other completely unnatural phenomena.
Blatty also reports having received messages through using a Ouija board. He believed information was coming to him via its use, and at one point describes that a host of eager spirits were waiting to speak though him at the Ouija. Director William Friedkin and Oscar winning actress, Ellen Burstyn were compelled to follow Blatty's occult leanings. Blatty recalls:
"After dinner, as so many people will do when they are at my home, someone asked if I happened to have a Ouija board. I brought out my board...So Ellen and Billy took control of the planchette...He (Friedkin) wanted to immerse himself in the occult...The planchette soon moved."
As do many of Hollywood's creators, The Exorcist used its creator's experiences as the basis for the story: the Ouija board was used in the movie as the primary means of communicating with the spirit world. This presented the world with an opportunity to become schooled in the ways of occultism. Blatty's contact with the demonic realm empowered his writing of The Exorcist, and as others before him, the script was instantly crystallized in his mind's eye. Author and Interviewer, Charles Higham, observed:
"Blatty's powers of precognition helped him in writing The Exorcist. He found he had imagined the entire work subconsciously, so that the actual writing of it, not consciously preplanned, was simply the discovery of preexisting territory....His problem as producer in making the film was to convey the kind of supernatural experience he had so frequently experienced in visual and - still more important- aural terms. 'We wanted to create in an audience a feeling of absolute terror,' [says Blatty]."

He overwhelmingly succeeded in terrorizing millions and in relating his own "supernatural experience he had so frequently experienced in visual" terms, rolling scenes of demonic rage and fear throughout the plot of the film. The actress whose voice was used for Satan, Mercedes McCambridge, who has also had psychic guidance, admits something was in her during her performance:
" For sixteen years, I sat...hearing about the horror of Evil Incarnate, and now I had to play Evil Incarnate. How?...Satan is the personification of evil...I had been able to conjure up so much demonic personality. It was in me, of course."
The Y2K re-release of the film has allowed a whole new generation to experience the demonic horrors of a supernaturally guided and inspired film. It continues to perform well at the box office and only serves to further the desensitization of people to Satan's glorification of evil.

[500Jon]

I'm not a horror buff myself, but, in 1973 I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
(I am a Christian (C of E) and regularly went to Church as a lad.)
I had just started work in a machine shop as an apprentice.
We had a local multiplex, in a place called Wimbledon (tennis-land).
I was regular visitor back then maybe twice a week...

When I arrive at the Cinema there is a commotion, yep its the 'Exocist' first showing!
There was a riot going on, policemen and shouting, Christian members with placards and hullabaloo...
So I goes into the Cinema with no intention of seeing the Exorcist and guess what?
(Me a spotty 5 foot 7 inch weakling kid) no chance of getting in...
I gets to the desk and the lady asks, "which screen"?
You got it in one, the devil took me over and in I went!!!

Well I wishes I hadn't, gave me Nightmares for years!!!
Probably laughable on a TV set but on the BigScreen, its a shocker!!!

[500Jon]

And then there is 'The Omen'...

I went to a Church of England School in Fulham, London.
Very near to where the Oxford-Cambridge Boatrace is paddled on the Thames.
What's the connection, well its the OMEN!!!

Some of the scenes were filmed in and around our School Church...
Yep the one where the spike kills the Priest!!!

As with alot of 70's Horror Films, the Cast and their Staff were CURSED!!!
And now my School Church was Cursed too...(so I thought)
I never went back in there again, it was bad enough just going past everyday on the way to work.

If you ever watch the Thames Boatrace in London Town, you can see the Church on the Fulham side of the Putney Bridge.
Never walk past on a windy day, you never know what might happen???

[polywideblock]

they pushed the envelope but unless you were  a  churchy       on par with the mummy's hand 

    Freddy( a nightmare on elm street the first one    )  was the first "scary" movie that I saw  in a cinema that  was  really scary 

[Dino]

Ah yes, one of my all time favorite holiday movies.   

I never thought it was scary but found it to be a very interesting and well made movie, one that is just as interesting to watch now as it was 40 years ago.  The stair scene was not in the original, it was a directors cut thing and not something that needed to be added but it gave me a chuckle at least.

The Thing by Carpenter is a movie I watch several times a year and it never gets old.  There's just something about the atmosphere in that movie.

I wish they would make some decent horror movies, too much of them are really disappointing.

[polywideblock]

what about the originals of "the fog " or jack nicholson in  "the shining "   

[stripedelete]

Didn't see it in then theater, but, I remember all the commotion.
Condemned by the Catholic Church.  Along with every other movie back then.

When it comes to '70s terror/thrillers I'm a Jaws guy.

[Dino]

Love The Shining but don't remember seeing The Fog.  I'll have to look it up.

There are more in the genre I like, but there's not a lot. I just wish they would make some new ones that were any good.  It's pretty insane how many horror movies get made yet they don't seem to be able to get it right.  Of course that can be said for any genre.

Jaws was by far one of the best made ones.  Everything in it just works.  Special kudos to John Williams for freaking out millions of people with a few notes.   

[stripedelete]

...........don't seem to be able to get it right.

........freaking out millions of people with a few notes. 

Imo.  Special effects/technology is to blame.   Replaces good scripts and good directing.

Sixth Sense is really the only "recent" one that comes to mind.

The only thing I remember about The Fog is Adrienne Barbeau.

[polywideblock]

    yeah any divers out there that don't hear "that " tune in the back of your head when it gets murky

most peoples ideas of "horror " these days is  guts & gore with little or no story line  

 from newer movies thirteen ghosts wasn't bad       https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EexpNs4cVtk#t=4

[stripedelete]

jack nicholson in  "the shining "   

Classic.  Nicholson does such a great job that you forget it was a Stephen King novel.

[Mike DC]

For horror, I really liked "The Others" a few years back.  But I'm not much of a horror buff in general. 


"Jaws" is probably my favorite movie of all time.  The planets lined up just right for that one.  The producers, director, cast, the resources, the story, the mechanical shark reshaping the direction . . . even Spielberg admits the final result came out better than the way he had wanted to do it.

[69wannabe]

Jaw's is in my top 5 favorite movie's of all time for me. I could watch it everyday and never get tired of it!!!  The shining also awesome and the filming location just seemed so creepy and cool. The THING was a good movie too, don't know how I had never sat and watched that one before until recently. Sam Raimi's original Evil Dead is another of my favorite horror movies!! Die Hard is #1 on my list of favorite movies. I don't really classify between action and horror and comedy's since I like most all movie's. The original texas chainsaw massacre is also a favorite then there's vanishing point and bullitt. Modern movies are cool but not memorable with so much CGI and some of it is tasteful and some of it isn't. I could talk movie's forever!!! LOL 

[Charger4404spd]

I was around 6 or 7 when I saw it, scared the bejeesus outa me!

[polywideblock]

don't  forget the all time classic  ( with a cuda to boot) PHANTASM, 1,2,3,4,and soon to be released 5   

                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9JXLz9AaOo