It would be hard to place William Friedkin’s “The Excorcist” in the horror category. Mainly because all the horrors that I’ve seen and the ones that come out nowadays mostly suck and “The Exorcist” does not suck. I would think it’s safe to say that “The Exorcist” is the “Godfather” of the horror genre. The movie doesn’t rely on cheap pop-out tricks. Instead , Friedkin uses clever lighting and cinematography and the occasional subliminal scary face that flashes in the dark to set a mood that is creepier than any cheesy Japanese horror remake.

“The Exorcist” easily deserves the title “scariest movie ever made”. When it was first released in 1973, people lined up for blocks and audience members fainted or left the theaters in tears. Even a miscarriage was attributed to the film.

Unlike the shallow victimized characters in every horror movie you’ve ever seen, the characters in “The Exorcist” are deep and are involved in a story that actually means something other than a chainsaw wielding psycho in a hockey mask out to get you. Jason Miller’s outstanding performance as Father Damien Lewis is in a sense what drives the story forward. As a priest specializing in psychiatry, he’s been exposed to more crazy people than he can handle. And when his mother dies in an insane asylum, Father Lewis seriously begins to question his faith. He is then asked by Chris MacNeil to look at her possessed daughter, Regan. (this sentence is a fragment, could you maybe put something a little more )

“The Exorcist” is a timeless classic and is one of those movies that has to be seen before you die.