I saw it when it first came out, when I was about 14. A crowd of us from school went to see it, although you were supposed to be 18 to get in. At the time I thought it was hilarious and wasn't scared at all. They had St John Ambulance personnel standing by in the cinema in case people needed medical attention.

I also remember that at school we had a visit from a local vicar and who gave us a Very Serious Talk about the dangers of the occult, ouija boards, séànces, etc, the kind of thing that hold a fascination for 14-year-old girls.

Seeing The Exorcist again a couple of years ago, it scared me witless.

It still scares the piss out of me, thirty-odd years down the line. I first saw it when I was about 12 or 13 and it was bad enough then, but it's even spookier now.

≡ Click to see image ≡
'Your mother's in here with us, MeCha....'

We may have to sleep with the light on tonight.

First time I saw it was under the influence of...well, let's just say I don't do those things any more, kiddies.

I do remember being a young teen when it came out and just like Essexjan, they had ambulances, etc. and quite a bit of controversy over it.

Oh, and this was definitely a Hollywood exorcism. A real exorcist would never permit headspinning or pea soup. ;-)

bunny, I know that you're some flavor of Protestant (no offense intended), I don't know if this movie has quite the same impact for you that it does for us Catholics. I could be mistaken of course.

I was young, Irish, and Catholic and one of my mentors was the only Church qualified exorcist in the South of Ireland.

This film was utterly scary but his other experiences were even more so

perhaps because they were more subtle........

Since I don't take my marching orders from the pope, this movie could never frighten me. But those stairs, man, those fucking stairs! They're even scarier in real life.

I don't take my marching orders from the pope, only my beverage orders. Fraulien, zwei weitere Weinstephaners! Danke! Prost!

Well, in my circles you don't have to be a priest to evict critters. (My terminology.) But I would imagine an experienced priest would do the job just about like a Protestant would-firmly without a lot of fuss.(The exorcists I know, that is. Like anything else church related, ymmv.) Demons like attention, and will kick up a fuss if you let them. Hollywood lets them.

I don't know, bunny. Movies like this (and the occasional spectacular Oklahoma City/9-11/Columbine type of event) aside, it's woth remembering what a wise woman once said: Evil is Banal.

Skip the second one, but you might like the third. The second Exorcist movie's garbage, but the third one's quite a piece of work, all in all. Not as good as the first, but damn good. George C. Scott spends half his time chewing the scenery. Also memorable for this line:

My wife's mother is visiting, Father. And Tuesday night, she's cooking us a carp. It's a tasty fish, I've got nothing against it. But, because it's supposedly filled with impurities, she buys it live and for three days, it's been swimming... up and down... in my bathtub. Up... and down. And I hate it. I can't stand the sight of it, moving its gills. Now, you're standing very close to me, Father; have you noticed? Yes. I haven't had a bath for three days. I can't go home until the carp is asleep because if I see it, swimming... I'll kill it.

Demons like attention, and will kick up a fuss if you let them.

Platitudes about children stretch so easily to platitudes about demons, who knew! I wonder if demons respond well to the cry it out method.

Now, with all these cameras focused on my face,
you'd think they could see it through my skin.
They're looking for evil, thinking they can trace it,
but evil don’t look like anything.

I think The Exorcist IS the cry it out method...heh.

I don't know, bunny. Movies like this (and the occasional spectacular Oklahoma City/9-11/Columbine type of event) aside, it's woth remembering what a wise woman once said: Evil is Banal.

Yeah, most of the time it surely is. And the rest of the time it's downright icky.

Exorcist scares the ever-loving shit out of me, to this day. And yeah, Exorcist III is actually pretty frightening as well -- there's one long shot of a hospital hallway (I won't say anything else, in order to avoid spoilers, but anyone who's seen the film probably knows which scene I mean) that made me SCREAM MY GUTS OUT.

Fun trivia: I work with the woman who provided the demon's voice for Exorcist II. She also worked with Pee-Wee Herman in his early days, and once appeared on The Gong Show as a member of a fake Swedish pop trio who played ashtrays for instruments. (Yes, by god, I love L.A.!)

The Exorcist is right up there, definitely. I still have nightmares with Linda Blair chasing me around in them.

"You're gonna dieeee up there...."

there's one long shot of a hospital hallway (I won't say anything else, in order to avoid spoilers, but anyone who's seen the film probably knows which scene I mean) that made me SCREAM MY GUTS OUT.

LOVE THAT SCENE! Probably the best moment of the whole movie. It's really a decent little horror movie, overall.

As for the original Exorcist: when the director's cut version hit theaters in the 90s, I took two of my co-workers to see it: one a Jamaican woman about my age, who had seen it before, and the other a squeaky-clean Brazilian dude about ten years younger than us who had never even seen a real horror flick before. Both of them very Catholic, natch.

To this day I still give the Brazilian guy shit about the fact that he actually screamed in a theater full of people. More than once. Heh heh.

When I was eleven someone I had thought was a friend told me she was having a sleepover on Halloween, but I wasn't invited because they would be watching it after they went trick-or-treating. I asked if I could come along for the t-or-t and she said ok. When I called to ask what time I should meet them, I heard her telling one of the other girls: "don't worry, I won't let her come". I went out by myself. Later, the little cunts had the nerve to show up at my place and my mother knew what had happened, but she still gave them candy.

Many years later I saw the Exorcist at the New Beverly...and it didn't disturb me that much. Maybe the discussion in Subliminal Seduction had something to do with this.

I was twenty-one or two. Fist date with a guy who managed a video store (not such a bad gig, that time of decade and our ages). Pick out any movie you want, he said. I picked it. You sure? He said? Yes, I said. We smoked wacky weed. Watched. I was so effing scared I had to sleep on his couch. Needless to say, last date, but to his credit, very understanding about it, nice guy. Next morning, coming home, I had just moved into a group house in Mt. Rainier, MD. I told my tale. New housemate dude said, well you know the empty lot up the street? Yeah, I said. That's the lot where the events that Blatty based his book on took place. The church owns it and razed the house. No, I said. Yes, he said, and got a scrapbook out to show me from when their parents were congregants there. I slept on the couch for a week.

On Halloween, and some other times, goth kids would pilgrim to the empty lot and cavort. Yipes.

Scariest movie ever. There is something about being you, but not being in control of yourself that is terrifying.

I tried to watch it again once, but only made it twenty minutes in before collapsing and running with the heebie jebbies real real bad.

And The Third IS good - watchable, not terrifying, but campily horrific - More like Campy The Shinging.

Gah. Exorcist. I advise anyone (Yes, esp. those like me raised Catholic) to not watch it if they have never seen it.

Gaaah. Terrifying.

I saw The Exorcist 35 years ago when I was 21. Today, the special effects may seem tame compared with technology enhancements since 1973, but at the time the special effects were state of the art and had not ever been seen in cinema before. I did not get a good night sleep for at least a month after seeing that film, and have purposely never watched it again since.

You should watch this tomorrow night.

True to form, I read the book before I saw the film, and it's etched indelibly into my memory because I was home sick from school, reading on the couch under a pile of blankets... and let me tell you, The Exorcist + Fever + Dreaming + 12 or 13 Years Old = OMG AAAAARGGGH.

I am ashamed to say I have never seen The Exorcist all the way through. I've only seen bits and pieces. I'm going to tape it. For some reason I was thinking about The Entity with Barbara Hershey the other day. I actually watched every bit of that movie when I was around 14 or so.

Never understood the fuss about this film. I saw it with a friend when I was about eighteen and we both found the whole thing so overblown and ridiculous we laughed pretty much the whole way through it. I saw it again a few years back and this time I was more bored than anything else. The only thing I found shocking was the atrocious editing.

I find the average Hammer movie more scary than this farrago of hysterical silliness.

I've seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it.

I saw it when I was 14 or so, on TV, and, yeah, it was scary, but it didn't totally freak me out or anything. Next day, I was home alone, and a woodpecker found its way into our metal-flued chimney. Now, that was a scary combination.

Years later, I saw it at the theater, a re-mastered version with great stereo sound and such. Very cool.

IRFH = Beetlejuice

I love scary movies, including The Exorcist, but the mister isn't a fan (he's a scaredy cat).

I hate being scared, hate suspense, so horror movies are torture. I grew up Catholic, and seeing the Exorcist in college horrified me. I still had way too much Catholic mythology in my brain. Even now, the idea of watching it again gets a firm "no way."