The Exorcist

Bella Bella Bella sweetheart, are we gona fight over this?!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is loads scarier, tho I acknowledge The Exorcist as being in the same ball park as TCM.

I have been watching the exorcist with the grandparents ever since I can remember.... I love the movie, it is a great movie.... but I didn't find it to be scary at all.... It has those parts that will stick in your mind though, but that is about it!

Yes MG, we are.... :wink: Reason being that I've never heard of TCM referred to in the same way as Exorcist.

It was really weird seeing the footage of people after having watched this for the first time back in 1973. Like I said, I've never seen anything like it. People fainting, throwing up, running out of the theater....

Which brings me to my question, why?

How about That Mel Gibson film about Jesus, cant remember its name..Oh The Passion, could taht be seen as a horror movie going on the amount of blood?

I'd never be able to watch it with gramma and grampa...I've never seen it but have heard enough about the Abuse of the Cross scene to know that my grandparents would be horrified and I'd be embarrassed.

My roommate way back when this was a new film -- yeah, back then -- was so scared after seeing this (and she loved scary movies) that I vowed never to watch it.

Scary movies are not really my thing. As a child I thought the Wizard of Oz was terrifying and I still don't like those flying monkeys.

Over the past week or so I've watched Rear Window, Vertigo and part of the Birds during the Hitchcock retrospective. Scary, but not that scary. I spend most of my time looking for the cameo of Alfred.

Here's a beauty tip however; when you're watching something thrilling, use one of those stones to work on the calluses of your feet. Do this only in the privacy of your home!!! It is v. effective.

The music from the Exorcist is very good, it always reminds me of devilish things.

I think that there are scarier movies than "The Exorcist". The reason it had a strong effect on viewers is because it made satanic possession seem very real. Peter Sellers became Roman Catholic after seeing "The Exorcist".

I saw "The Exorcist" when it first came out in 1973. A few months later, I saw "Sisters" which starred Margo Kidder and was directed by Brian DePalma. "Sisters" scared me much more than "The Exorcist".

What about "The Shining?" That's a pretty f'd up movie.

For the time it was made, the Exorcist was really scary when it first came out. I couldn't watch it then.

I watched a couple weeks ago on a DVD, and it was really lame because of the special effects.
There's one part where a demon is supposed to be following the woman in the kitchen, shows just a flash.
I slowed it down and it was just a superimposed frame or two.

But back then, wow, intense stuff!

Scared me silly in 1974. You couldn't put a gun to my head and make me watch it again.

So, perhaps it was the times and we are desensitized. I work in the movie biz, so I know that this was a huge, ground breaking movie that really changed the way we looked at horror films. It spawned modern day horrors like CSM, Amityville Horrors and the Omen. But I think that now, this movie is pretty tame compared to the gore and violence we see in other films.

Peter Sellers really became an RC because of that film? Sheesh.

Shining... also very scary. Rosemary's Baby... creepy scary.

Here's the IMDB.com's list of the 50 scariest films:
Rank Title
1 Psycho (1960) 8.6/10 (59423 votes)
2 Se7en (1995) 8.4/10 (99443 votes)
3 Alien (1979) 8.3/10 (70278 votes)
4 Faust (1926) 8.3/10 (927 votes)
5 Shining, The (1980) 8.3/10 (57300 votes)
6 Aliens (1986) 8.2/10 (70368 votes)
7 Jaws (1975) 8.2/10 (52638 votes)
8 Kabinett des Doktor Caligari, Das (1920) 8.1/10 (4297 votes)
9 Night of the Hunter, The (1955) 8.1/10 (8618 votes)
10 Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 8.0/10 (5417 votes)
11 Onibaba (1964) 8.0/10 (909 votes)
12 Young Frankenstein (1974) 8.0/10 (24793 votes)
13 Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) 8.0/10 (9665 votes)
14 Frankenstein (1931) 7.9/10 (6940 votes)
15 King Kong (1933) 7.9/10 (11755 votes)
16 Exorcist, The (1973) 7.9/10 (38483 votes)
17 Rosemary's Baby (1968) 7.9/10 (13717 votes)
18 Thing, The (1982) 7.9/10 (19814 votes)
19 Unknown, The (1927) 7.9/10 (670 votes)
20 Batoru rowaiaru (2000) 7.8/10 (14762 votes)
21 Spoorloos (1988) 7.8/10 (3226 votes)
22 Shaun of the Dead (2004) 7.8/10 (25029 votes)
23 Scarlet Claw, The (1944) 7.8/10 (598 votes)
24 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 7.8/10 (5858 votes)
25 Innocents, The (1961) 7.8/10 (1782 votes)
26 Testament des Dr. Mabuse, Das (1933) 7.8/10 (867 votes)
27 Repulsion (1965) 7.8/10 (3731 votes)
28 Others, The (2001) 7.8/10 (40551 votes)
29 Yeux sans visage, Les (1959) 7.8/10 (912 votes)
30 Birds, The (1963) 7.8/10 (22111 votes)
31 Freaks (1932) 7.7/10 (4714 votes)
32 Vargtimmen (1968) 7.7/10 (883 votes)
33 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) 7.7/10 (4442 votes)
34 Invisible Man, The (1933) 7.7/10 (2902 votes)
35 Uninvited, The (1944) 7.7/10 (842 votes)
36 Dawn of the Dead (1978) 7.7/10 (15038 votes)
37 Kaidan (1964) 7.7/10 (1039 votes)
38 Holy Mountain, The (1973) 7.7/10 (713 votes)
39 Halloween (1978) 7.7/10 (21570 votes)
40 Dead of Night (1945) 7.7/10 (1056 votes)
41 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 7.6/10 (13785 votes)
42 Peeping Tom (1960) 7.6/10 (2819 votes)
43 Evil Dead II (1987) 7.6/10 (17662 votes)
44 Phantom of the Opera, The (1925) 7.6/10 (2118 votes)
45 Haunting, The (1963) 7.6/10 (5061 votes)
46 Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear (1945) 7.6/10 (556 votes)
47 Locataire, Le (1976) 7.6/10 (2673 votes)
48 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) 7.6/10 (1178 votes)
49 Vampire Hunter D (2000) 7.6/10 (3131 votes)
50 Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945) 7.6/10 (1669 votes)

Uh, not sure being unknowingly videotaped having sex with two guys back in high school counts as "working in the biz."

bella,

What made "The Exorcist" unique was not gore but that it made demonic possession so believable.

My 23-year-old daughter works for the WB network as a production assistant for the series, "Supernatural".

What was the scariest film you ever saw?

Biographies of Sellers mention that he was deeply affected by "The Exorcist" and sought advice from a Catholic priest. He converted to Catholicism a few years before he died.

I'll tell you what....Gabriel's Ladder. Now THAT was scary...

At least that one part where he was in the hospital, getting wheeled down a hallway, and as he went, things just got wierder, and worse, and erie, and terrible.

Anyone see that?

I do not think se7en should be that high on the list. It was not scary. A little creepy yes. But not that scary.

wandeljw, I don't know....I tend to stay away from scary movies. I like psychological thrillers but have never seen any Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm streets or any of those movies. Just never got into the slasher flicks.

I saw a film called Jacob's Ladder, set in Vietnam, starring Tim Robbins, that is a very disturbing film...