Everyone remembers the pea soup, the head spinning, the vulgarities spewed from the demon's mouth, the stairs, the infamous cut (now restored) spider walk. However, the Exorcist is still one of the most ambition horror films ever made, because (are you ready for this?) the Exorcist dares to tell a story. Shocking moments that the audience of 1973 could not believe they would ever see on the silver screen (from a major studio, no less.) After 30 years, the movie isn't so shocking because times have changed, and the success of the Exorcist has guaranteed countless imitation in all forms across all boards. The original ambition of The Exorcist was to scare the world with imagery and concepts never before seen in cinema. The Exorcist is a very slow movie that actually features a full blown plot, its characters, and their associated arcs. It's not about that cheap gimmicky scenario of X amount of people isolated from the rest of the world, with a killer/monster/ghost/whatever on the loose. This isn't a movie about that long dark corridor and something waiting to jump out of the darkness and attack (which is always preceded by a false scare featuring a cat). This is not a wall-to-wall, credits-to-credits montage of scary imagery inspired by a mere scenario that's supposed to pass as a plot. I love the Exorcist because it dared to defy my expectations. And all they see is that it is not what they expected (expectations, I might add, that are shaped by the current gimmicks and trends in Hollywood). First of all, there's no reason to compare fright factor of films, so forget that anyone ever called The Exorcist "the scariest movie ever made." Take any movie I don't care what movie and stick a "greatest/scariest/best" whatever tag next to it, and you'll have audiences investing in what they *think* it should be instead of letting the film present itself for what it is.
And even from a die-hard fan I have to admit, I hate hearing "scariest movie of all time" associated with this movie. I love the Exorcist, and after exposure to God knows how many horror films, the Exorcist remains my favorite within the genre. Then on top of that waited years before finally seeing it. Especially for someone born after the film. And with that anxiety comes a lot of expectations and preconceived ideas about what The Exorcist *should* be.
There's a lot of anxiety that goes into viewing The Exorcist, "the scariest movie ever made", for the very first time.
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