Okay, so The Exorcist isn't necessarily a cult film because it had a HUGE theatrical opening and pretty much everyone in the world saw it when it came out and proceeded to pass out, freak out, and then run to their nearest church to repent their sins. It did follow the cult film strategy though, albeit at a sincerely rapid pace. It only took one viewing at one theater for everyone who saw it to tell all their friends about it. And before you could say "Your Mother Sucks Cocks In Hell" theaters across America began to be overrun with people dying to view what was then labeled as the scariest film ever made. And that's a hard statement to back up because scary movies were a dime a dozen and it would have to take a really scarier-than-shit movie to live up to that kind of competition. Well, it did. People ran out of the theaters screaming, and people were fainting in the aisles and lobbies, but this only made more viewers flock to the local cinema in enormous crowds, waiting in line for hours to see what all the fuss was about.
I think the truly scariest aspect of The Exorcist is that it took you off guard because it involved a child, an innocent-looking little girl (brilliantly played by Linda Blair) who transformed into the most vile thing people could have possibly imagined. Possession and exorcism weren't a new concept by any means but had been restricted to rare cultures in Third World countries and the only time it was ever talked about in the United States was by elderly Catholic priests who considered it an embarrassment to religion in general, kept it in the closet and regarded it as a simply a mental health issue that belonged more in the realm of medicine than religion. A belief that still exists today even though the topic of exorcism has spawned more horror movies now than ever before, mostly attributed to movies like The Exorcist. Ever since it was released in 1973, there have been more copycat films dealing with the topic of exorcism than anyone could possibly count.
The basic story sort of makes a circle, basically ending where it began. A tired and reclusive priest named Father Merrin is in Iraq overseeing an archaeological dig when he comes across a statue of a demon named Pazuzu. After unearthing this find, he notices dogs violently fighting, clocks suddenly stop, and is almost run over by a horse-drawn carriage. The story then travels to the other side of the world and ends up in Georgetown Washington D.C. where a famous actress named Christine McNeil lives with her young daughter Regan. Christine begins hearing scratching on the walls, and mysterious sounds in the attic, and her daughter begins complaining that her bed keeps shaking.
Slowly, Regan's condition begins to worsen. In front of a bunch of people at one of her mother's celebrity parties, Regan comes downstairs, rambles a little, and then lets loose a stream of green slime from between her legs. Christine and her friends look mortified and Regan is rushed upstairs to the bath. Shortly after this incident, when Christine thinks Regan is finally settled into bed for the night she suddenly hears her daughter screaming. Upon opening the door, she sees her daughter's bed violently shaking up and down with no explanation for it. She takes Regan to a doctor but he is dismissive of her despite her insistence that her daughter couldn't possibly have been solely responsible for the bed shaking. The doctor convinces Christine that the problem is in Regans' head and not her bed.
Regan is then put through every grueling medical test known to mankind, with the doctors finding no explanation for her behavior which has by now become increasingly violent. Regan is brought home because her mother has flat-out refused to institutionalize her, even though that's basically all the doctors can offer. When a few of Regan's doctors are examining x-rays of an arteriogram of Regans' brain, finding nothing wrong at all, a frantic call from Christine comes through, begging the doctors to come to the house as Regan's behavior has exceeded violence and is now completely unreal. Regan spews profanities in a deep voice, is slapped across the face by unseen hands, and is basically getting the shit beaten out of her by something that no one else can see. She's promptly sedated and the doctors continue to try and convince Christine that it's all in Regan's head, even though it clearly is not.
There are a tremendous amount of scenes in this movie that are quite disturbing. Regan is found stabbing herself in the crotch while a deep voice coming from inside her keeps telling her to "Let Jesus Fuck You" while poltergeist activity begins occurring and random objects are thrown about. Regan forces her mother's face into her bloody crotch and then proceeds to slap her so hard that she flies across the room. A heavy dresser begins moving towards Christine all on its own, a chair flies against the door, blocking help from entering and in a completely shocking moment, Regan's head turns to look backward without breaking a single bone, and with the voice of Christine's friend and film director who has recently died while babysitting Regan, says "Do You Know What She Did, Your Cunting Daughter?"
There's a side story about a detective investigating a desecrating vandalism at the local church and the mysterious death of the movie director that Christine is currently working with, but the main side story is about a priest named Father Karras who is gradually losing his faith, mostly due to the death of his elderly mother. When all else seems lost, Christine contacts this priest because she is now convinced that her daughter's condition is not medical, but rather demonic in nature. As much as he really doesn't want to help her with this situation, he agrees to at least see Regan and give his advice because he is not just a priest but a doctor as well.
Upon arriving, he sees that Regan is worse than ever. She only speaks in a deep growling voice, uttering phrases in Latin as well as other languages, Poltergeist-like activity is still happening, and when Holy Water is sprinkled on her she reacts violently and before long she vomits directly in his face. He feels that exorcism may actually be needed after all and brings this to the attention of the church but is deemed unfit to perform the exorcism himself. This brings us back to the beginning with the elderly priest Father Merrin, who is located and brought in to perform the exorcism with Father Karras as his helper. Apparently, Father Merrin has performed exorcisms before and is seen as the perfect person for the job even though he's basically 108 years old, has heart problems, and the previous exorcisms he has performed have nearly killed him.
The exorcism is performed while Regan continuously vomits more green slime, levitates, and performs amazing feats of strength, all climaxing with her head rotating completely around in a circle in a scene that will live in infamy among horror films forever.
While both priests are taking a break, Father Merrin tries once more on his own to exorcise the demon, who then suffers a heart attack and dies. Father Karras becomes completely enraged when he sees Regan laughing at Father Merrin's death, so he beats her, strangles her, and begs the demon to enter him and spare this child from any further torment. We see his eyes begin to change to the rancid green that Regan's eyes have been since her possession. Knowing he is becoming possessed himself, he flings himself out of Regan's bedroom window and down a flight of stairs where he lands in a pool of blood and dies.
Regan begins crying for her mother in her own voice and Christine rushes to her side, who then sees instantly that Regan is "back" and that the vile demon possessing her has gone. Wanting to make a fresh start now that Regan is better, albeit pretty scarred from her ordeal, they both leave Georgetown and never look back.
I'd call this the end but it wasn't. An endless amount of attempts were made at having a successful sequel, including its immediate follow-up, Exorcist II: The Heretic. Exorcist III was only somewhat of a success, but only because it was based on a direct sequel to the book by William Peter Blatty who hated the theatrical sequel with a mad passion so he wrote his own sequel and they just used this newly written sequel as the screenplay for Exorcist III. Part IV was made, but deemed a disaster by all who were involved in making it, so it was basically remade with a more predictable ending, but still sucked beyond belief. A TV series was made, and now a direct movie sequel is coming out soon, starring the original main actresses Ellen Burstyn (Christine McNeil) and Linda Blair (Regan). It remains to be seen whether it will fall victim to the "shitty Exorcist sequel curse".
This movie has more trivia behind it than I could ever possibly list, literally HUNDREDS of juicy items could be discussed. Many people associated with its filming were either badly hurt or even died. Sets caught fire, actual paranormal activity was supposed to have happened, etc. And even though the movie was banned from being shown in different places all over the world and nearly acquired an X-rating, it still went on to win two Oscars and became Warner Brothers' highest-grossing movie ever made (when adjusted for inflation). Given the amount of exorcism/possession movies that have been released since, rewatching The Exorcist these days may not have the traumatizing effect it used to have, but when it was released in 1973, nothing like it had ever been seen before and it really was absolutely terrifying!
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