Top 25 Greatest Halloween Films: #4 – ‘The Exorcist’ (1973)

#4: The Exorcist (1973)

The proof of the immortal power of director William Friedkin’s triumph is that nearly 40 years after its debut, the story of an innocent twelve year-old girl possessed by Satan remains as bone-chillingly shocking and powerful today as it was then. If this Best Picture Oscar-nominee (and well-deserved winner for adapted screenplay and sound design) has aged a day that’s only because, like a classic painting, the craftsmanship that went into the creation feels like a lost art. Furthermore, though many have tried, no film produced since has equaled the raw experience of this roller-coaster of terror. There’s just something unique about “The Exorcist,” and I think that something is that, creatively, it’s the most successful horror film ever. Storytellers always have a target in mind, and the best of them aim to make their audience feel a certain way. In this regard, there are only a handful of hole-in-ones in all of cinema, and “The Exorcist” is one of them.

More importantly, this explicitly disturbing, pedal to the metal, shock and horror extravaganza, is also one of the single most beautiful and moving expressions of what it means to be a Christian put on film in the last forty years.

Based on a true story that occurred in Silver Spring, Maryland back in 1949, “The Exorcist” opens in Iraq where an elderly Catholic priest, Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), is helping to supervise an archaeological dig that unearths a number of unsettling omens that foreshadow what’s to come.  Meanwhile, in the tony DC suburb of Georgetown, divorced movie actress Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and her pre-teen daughter Regan (Linda Blair), begin to experience a number of inexplicable events around the house that include strange noises in the attic and the violent shaking of Regan’s bed. Soon, and tragically, the events are traced to something gone horribly wrong with the young girl, whose behavior is becoming increasingly erratic and even violent.

A team of doctors and specialists can’t find anything physically wrong with Regan, nor can the psychiatrists. Out of ideas and dealing with an anxious mother who won’t take no for an answer, they suggest the ancient Catholic ritual of exorcism, not because these men of science want to believe in such things, but because there’s a chance it might serve as a psychological way for Regan to find her way back. This leads Chris to Father Damien Karras (a perfectly cast and unforgettable Jason Miller), a Harvard educated priest who counsels local parishioners and is going through a potentially life-changing crisis of faith brought on, in part, by the recent death of his impoverished mother.   (more…)