The Exorcist: Even after twenty years, it's scary.

So why review a well known film that a person could safely assume everyone has seen? Well, the truth of the matter is some people have not seen all the movies that most film nuts would consider classics. I don't know how many times I've ran across someone who looked at me funny when I started discussing how the scenes between Yoda and Luke on Degobah changed my life (some of you are probably giving your computer screen that same look right now). Classic films can still work their magic 20 or so years after their theatrical release, and The Exorcist is certainly one of them.

Based upon the novel of the same name The Exorcist tells the story of how a young girl named Regan, daughter of a famous film actress, comes to be possessed by the devil and the attempts of her mother and two priests to rid her of the possession.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the film was the possession of Regan and the way she behaved after it happened. Aside from being able to spew more curse words than a sailor, she physically assaulted those people, such as her doctors, nurses and her mother, that were trying to help her. She also performed some acts that are too horrifying to discuss in this text. The fact that all of these things were being done, by and to a little girl, made the film all of the more intense. All of the actors gave terrific performances considering the subject and content of the film, especially Linda Blair as Regan. She had the toughest task to go from little girl to possessed hellion but she pulled it off. Director William Friedkin did an excellent job of building the tension and making the audience wonder whether Regan was just physically sick or if something more sinister was taking place. Even though the novel from which the film was made was based upon a real life event, the audience was left to ponder if what the film presented could happen. And that made The Exorcist all the more frightening.

Grade: A