Is this the best horror movie of all time?

Is this the best horror movie of all time?

Yes.
Especially at that time. I watched it a few weeks ago again and I got shivers. The part where the mother of the priest sits on the white bed is haunting.

It's also one of the first of that genre, has a great build-up and a memorable finale.

>Also some people working on the movie died during filming, if I remember correctly.

Its one of the only "horror classics" that actually deserves its admiration and perceived importance.

Its wonderful to look at, has brilliant sound design, an excellent cast and a perfect ending.

Friedkin was fucking killing it in the 70s.
For me The French Connection, The Exorcist and Sorcerer is probably best 3 hit combo any director has ever managed.

The crucifix scene makes me want to puke from horror. Probably the scariest part of the movie for me desu

sex + demons is weirdly terrifying

>puke
Woman detected.

did you really waste your time posting such a stock reply?

Viewing from a modern lense, it doesn't frighten me in the traditional sense of the word (in fact a lot of it is somewhat funny w/r/t the Regan demon scenes), and I find that the early world building drags a bit (which doesn't lend itself to viewings with people who get easily distracted).

That said, the cinematography is excellent, the lighting is great, the film has a great sense of building dread and maintaining pace once things get moving. And the cast is fantastic!

Finally, scrubbing from Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was a fantastic move, it fits the mood excellently.

The three questions to really ask are
1. which version of the film is superior (I prefer the longer "version you've never seen")?
2. Is Blatty or Friedkin more responsible for the film's greatness?
3. Which is best, The Exorcist, or The Exorcist III (I'm split, as I love Brad dourif in three but the poor shoehorn in of the ending gives the original the edge)

Seriously, woman fucking detected.

I admire it because it doesn't rely on jump scares or scary music.

Hell, the opening scene with Father Merrin and the clock stopping, the dogs fighting and the image of Pazuzu is far more frightening than 90% of the movies produced in the past 20 years.

Exorcist 3 has one of the best jump scares of all time though.

I can only answer the first one:

I find the original best.
The added opening scene with Maria statue with text "Exorcist" seems off.
When I watched the original first time a year ago, I was amazed by the opening. The first words you hear are "Allah Ackbar" and you see the desert.
That makes the first Tubular Bells much more haunting when it starts to play for the first time when the Mom is walking on the street in daytime, instead of it playing straight from the start.
From that moment, you know some shit is going on. It feels like there's really some ancient demonic presence in the environment, even more than in Regan's room..
Second of all, the spiderwalk scene broke what I liked most about the whole film:
The Room.

It was great seeing how the horror was kept in that room, and the priest and the mother could live their normal lives while knowing that there's something fucked up upstairs. It makes it more "realistic" (heh).
Spiderwalk scene breaks that dragging the horror outside from that room.

>1. which version of the film is superior (I prefer the longer "version you've never seen")?
Yeah, that's the better version.
>2. Is Blatty or Friedkin more responsible for the film's greatness?
Combination of both, but Friedkin is to thank mostly.
>3. Which is best, The Exorcist, or The Exorcist III (I'm split, as I love Brad dourif in three but the poor shoehorn in of the ending gives the original the edge)
Exorcist by far, but Exorcist III is still a fine movie.

*Meant that ancient demonic presence in the desert, not in the city.

posting it as a gif just underscores how critical music is to the scare/sting.

>eww girls are icky

>eww crufix fucking is icky

That's how I knew you're a semen demon.

>Hell, the opening scene with Father Merrin and the clock stopping, the dogs fighting and the image of Pazuzu is far more frightening than 90% of the movies produced in the past 20 years.

Fucking this!
regards this guy
I'd say it's the most unnerving scene of the film. The Dogfighting scene really added up the tension.

Not the same poster. Now don't fucking reply to me again.

>i'i-m not the same poster p-please believe me uhhhh *hides behind couch

Does anyone else find father Carras's storyline, namely his guilt of not having pursued a more lucrative profession which could have saved his mother, far more compelling than the ooga booga shit that the movie is known for?

It's a good scare too because the scene build up goes almost for too long and you kinda get relaxed and lower your defenses when it hits you.

>Friedkin was fucking killing it in the 70s.

Yep. He really hit the right notes at the right time in terms of the mood of the country.

Look at how all of the movies you mentioned deal with corruption in some manner (legal, spiritual, or moral) and look at how they're set against the backdrop of a corrupt government/ruling class with dark secrets.

The French Connection - Charnier and his US contact talk over their drug deal right in front of the Capitol. The whole movie is about a seedy underbelly that lets the big time criminals get away with it.

The Exorcist - It's set in Washington, on Halloween, and has a couple of people who seem to treat religious belief as a sort of appendix (the mom's repeated use of "Jesus Christ!" when frustrated/angry) until it stares them in the face.

Sorcerer - the banquet prologue, in particular, with Bruno Cremer's character, who is the son of a fisherman but is ashamed of it even while he's in this restaurant full of rich people gorging themselves on seafood.

You can also toss in Cruising, which is explicitly about a double/hidden shameful identity (gay S&M) and To Live and Die in LA, which opens with a Ronald Reagan speech and is all about counterfeiting money and counterfeit identities.

I find the terror that Regan experiences while undergoing medical experiments to be possibly the most horrifying part of the film.

Man, the 70s were really a magnificent era for cinema wasn't it

Don't forget Self Control

is the tv show worth a watch?

>1. which version of the film is superior (I prefer the longer "version you've never seen")?

Like said, the one that starts in Mosul is the best opening.

Knowing that all of those archaeological sites have since been destroyed by ISIS, which to me is the same sort of real-life evil that people try to rationalize away until it's unavoidable, makes it that much spookier.

>2. Is Blatty or Friedkin more responsible for the film's greatness?

50/50. Blatty's choice of location (Georgetown) and perspective as a Catholic are vital to the the movie. Friedkin's directing style and sense of how to fit Blatty's story into the '70s zeitgeist is crucial to the film being effective.

I think that the combination of practicing Catholic writer and agnostic Jewish director was the key to its success.

>3. Which is best, The Exorcist, or The Exorcist III (I'm split, as I love Brad dourif in three but the poor shoehorn in of the ending gives the original the edge)

Haven't seen III but I want to.

II is garbage, and Burton was clearly doing it for the vodka money, poor guy.

I don't think Carras feels guilty about not making enough money to support his mother, he feels guilty because he stood by while she was taken to a place with awful conditions for old folk.

its not as bad as I thought it would be but its not that interesting either.

Its a passable 6/10 but nothing special.

They really were, and it bugs me that the transition from New Hollywood to '80s Hollywood is depicted as this sudden, good-vs-evil change when it was really more of an evolution that lost some things but gained others.

>Serpico

GOAT Mikis Theodorakis soundtrack, too. Same goes for Z and State of Siege.

Eh.

It's not terrible. It's boring.

Way better than "Dominion" or "Beginning"

I would say it's both, as the latter is the result of the former. If he had studied to become a doctor or something she would not have been taken to a place like that and wouldn't have died in such conditions.

Check out "The Candidate" as another great '70s movie. Robert Redford and Peter Boyle.

Also The Seven Ups with Roy Scheider if you want more gritty police action.

I've seen The Candidate, great movie. Will check Seven Ups out. Thanks.

Never watched exorcist III, i wonder if is should. Is it really good, of just good compared to bullshit that second was
I loved the first one.

>Second of all, the spiderwalk scene broke what I liked most about the whole film:
>The Room.
Holy shit, this. It's exactly why I prefer the original too. Keeping thing restricted to Regan's room only helps with the tension a lot

No , the pacing is painfully boring

and not just by current movie standards , even for the 70s its slow as fuck

When it is good its good, but it takes forever to get there

It's good.It's a direct sequel to the first one. It's obviously nowhere near as good but it's the second best thing labeled with "Exorcist" or "Exorcism" ever made.

Please don't ever mention the Exorcist II. I get flashbacks.

In the 70s Coppola made Godfather, the Conversation, the Godfather II, and then Apocalypse Now. That's unstoppable desu.

True. Considering the Devil could shake the whole room and all, why didn't it just remove the straps and leave the room?

I think keeping her only in the room makes it like I said, more "realistic", but also it makes the demon less powerful than you'd think. That makes you doubt whether she really even is posessed, or whether she really even is the demon.
Like it's discussed, one of the main themes of the film is belief and disbelief.

Sounds good enough for me, will watch this soon.

>why didn't it just remove the straps and leave the room?
That's much too vulgar a display of power, user.

pretty shitty flicks m8

God those scenes are seriously horrifying. The whirring of the machines and especially that fucking blood spurt from her neck is just unsettling as all fuck. It manages to make you feel very uncomfortable but also sorry for Regan, that mix of feelings it incites just makes my stomach turn.

What did the Demon even want? What was the endgame?

Corrupt Reagan, what else.

Then what?

Why did Pazuzu leave Regan's body and decided to take Karras' instead?

What was the point of the Ouija board?
She clearly got the demon from the statue.

Have a pint.

Because Karras willingly accepted the demon, whereas Reagan did not.

I honestly fucking love Exorcist III.

Agreed 100%

It's great, but no.

Why did Regan kiss the priest at the end if she couldn't remember being posessed?

But wouldn't a demon get a kick out of slowly breaking an unwilling soul?

Because she felt a strong spiritual connection to him.

Same connection believers get when praying or going to church.

This.

Maybe, but Pazuzu sure was enjoying fucking with Karras since the beginning. So maybe it saw an opening to truly make Karras miserable forcing him to kill a perfectly innocent girl.

thanks for the rec boii.

just finished watching it, was fucking dope

>she felt a strong spiritual connection to him.
Why?

>Because she felt a strong spiritual connection to him.
Was this actually explained in the book?

Seriously? She found God.

I mean come on.

the movie is also perfectly shot, literally one of the best movies ever, not just horror

...

It hasn't aged as well as The Thing or The Shining. It is a classic horror film though.

Could you imagine William Friedkin watching Paranormal Activity?

I watched it first time when i was 9, literally i came crying to mom after spider walk scene.

You just answered my initial question, actually. I'd completely forgotten that posessed Karras immediately tries to estrangle Regan, but then he manages to overpower the demon momentarily and throws himself out the window.

It's not particularly scary these days, but it's a superbly made film. Definitely a classic.

Exorcist 3 deserves recognition as well. It's a brilliantly moody bit of horror. It's one of the few horror films that actually gives me the creeps in places.

Kill her

"Until she rots and lies stinking in the earth." The demon says.

The spiderwalk scene involving the tongue is far more creepier than the one where she just bleeds from her mouth.
Something animalistic and disturbing in the tongue one

What a piece of shit. What good does Demon get from killing.

Only slightly, it's just the same as in the film, she notices the cross around his neck when she's being led out of the house.

WHO DIS NIKKA

He just took a fucking demon out of her body. It's pretty safe to say that kind of experience creates a strong spiritual bonding between all involved.

its the mom

What a perfect ending. There is no reason horror shouldn't have a (relatively)"happy" ending.
Usually it's always some twist that the demon is still alive or whatever shit. Fucking hell Sinister ended on a jumpscare. Way to go.

I much prefer the theatrical cut without the spider walk. Having that scene happen so early in the movie only to be followed with more humming and harring over whether or not she's possessed doesn't make any sense.

>He just took a fucking demon out of her body.
No he didn't. It's a different Priest.

>What a perfect ending. There is no reason horror shouldn't have a (relatively)"happy" ending.
It's one of the few concerns I have with The Exorcist III. Because Karras is still alive, so his "sacrifice" meant nothing

Oh shit I thought you meant Karras. I misfollowed the reply chain, my bad

...

No, this is.

>What did the Demon even want?

The ruin of souls.

He wants to cut Regan off from God and His love for the rest of eternity.

>He wants to cut Regan off from God and His love for the rest of eternity.
sounds familiar ...

>same cut to heavily painted face in To Live and Die in LA

It's like pottery. Is Friedkin the supreme kinographer?

And here I was ready to call you crazy until i clicked on the image.

The story was written by a conservative Catholic, filmed at the oldest Catholic university in the US, and the priest who she hugged was played by an actual Jesuit priest.

Come on, man. It's /popekino/

>Apocalypse Now

I don't get why this movie gets all the praise.

I love that movie.

To me this demon face is the scariest thing in the film, and I don't really understand why. I think it's because it's very subtle, it's a dude with makeup that in the light of day would be clownish, but somehow the subtle glimpses of the face in the darkness my brain just believes 100%. I guess that's one of the real strengths of the film: subtlety. Having had a few spooky ghost experiences, it approximates the psychological horror of a haunting or possession in the closest sense to my experience.

>and I don't really understand why.
That's why.

IIRC the theatrical release ended on a slightly more ominous tone, though. That little lighthearted exchange between Kinderman and Father Dyer was cut, with the film ending on just Dyer gazing at the spot Karras had died.

This. I fucking love the cinematography desu

It had a similar effect on me. I too watched it for the first time around that age and had nightmares for a fucking week

oh gosh :3

I was like 13 but i made it to the end, traumatized and not being to sleep with the lights off for a week.

All in all, a magnificent idea.

Because it's fucking amazing.


for me, at least. it definitely deserves the praise imo

My reason for liking the original best is both what you said and what some other user already pointed out, keeping all the horror in the room actually makes the whole thing even scarier.

Is The Heretic really that bad?