The Exorcist (Film Review)

1973 Warner Bros.
Directed by: William Friedkin; Written by: William Peter Blatty
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 122 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 10/10

Little Regan MacNeil is cute and kind, frequently hugging her mother and telling her how much she loves her, until suddenly one day, her head is spinning round, she's levitating, and the only thing nastier than the frequent green puke coming out of her mouth are the naughty words. The doctors can't figure it out, and her mom is at her last straw, until she decides to look for a priest to perform an exorcism. A demon-possessed child is bad luck enough, but even worse is the fact that the first priest she comes across, the psychiatry-focused Father Damien, has lost his faith. However, little Regan might be just be the green barf-paved road to him getting it back.
The Exorcist is a dark, bleak film. Even scenes of Regan receiving medical procedures before she's fully-blown possessed evoke tension and nausea. Director, William Friedkin, is certainly up for the challenge of framing his film as the ultimate battle of good versus evil, with darkness and light clashing clearly in his lighting and framing. The reason The Exorcist works so well, though, is patience, and a willingness to create a "normal," so that when it is disturbed, the situation feels more dire, and the stakes hirer. Early scenes make it quite clear how pure and innocent Regan is, and how loving her relationship is with her mother, making it all the more tragic when she later blasphemently desecrates her own body. Likewise, Father Damien's loss of faith, and the reasons causing it, are clearly drawn. A more contemporary film would likely skip all of that detail work, diving right into the possession, and maybe just mentioning in passing that Damien has lost his faith. A film must earn its moments, and The Exorcist puts in work that pays off. As young Regan, Linda Blair, puts in a virtuosic performance, naturally believable as a cuddly adolescent, but believably terrifying as the writhing, rage-filled possessed child. Ellen Burstyn is great as her desperate mother, and first-time-film-actor Jason Miller feels like a natural in the Damien role. However, the film's pillar is Max von Sydow as an older, exorcism-experienced priest who must guide Damien through the ropes. Von Sydow plays a man twice his age here, a miracle of both make-up and performance. The scenes of him and Miller performing the Roman Rite together are insanely moving, an inspiration for anyone of faith, and a showcase for any fan of film. By the time it's all over, the viewer, or at least this viewer, was exhausted, but grateful to the film-makers for such an overwhelming experience. The Exorcist may exist in the public's collective conscious as cinema's scariest offering, but as scenes of Miller and von Syndow standing together against a buffeting, supernatural wind can attest, it should also as one of its most powerful.