Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Exorcist

USA 1973
produced by
William Peter Blatty, Noel Marshall (executive) for Hoya Productions, Warner Brothers
directed by William Friedkin
starring Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Rev.William O'Malley, Barton Hayman, Peter Masterson, Rudolf Schündler, Gina Petrushka, Robert Symonds, Arthur Storch, Rev.Thomas Bermingham, Vasiliki Maliaros, Titos Vandis, Wallace Rooney, Ron Faber, Donna Mitchell, Roy Cooper, Robert Gerringer, Mercedes McCambridge (voice), William Peter Blatty, Eileen Dietz
screenplay by William Peter Blatty based on his novel, theme music: Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, special effects by Marcel Vercoutere

Exorcist

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro


Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) can't help but noticing that her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) acts a tad strangely, and her health seems to deteriorate - especially her mental health -, but doctors are simply unable to find any kind of cure and suggest a healthy diet of tranqulilizers and electro shocks in the controlled enviroment of a looney bin - something Chris is not too fond of. But when she takes her daughter home with her, her boyfriend dies under mysterious circumstances while looking after Regan, and to Chris it becomes more and more clear that Regan is possessed by something or other - Regan herself at one point claims it's the Devil - so she asks father Karras (Jason Miller) for help, a priest and psychiatrist who happens to be the expert on all things possession around.

Karras, who is your typical priest who has lost his faith, at first doubts that Regan is really possessed, but when the girl, who is by now horribly disfigured, digs into his mind and plays on the guilt he feels about his mother's death in an asylum - something the girl simply couldn't have known - he comes to the conclusion that an exorcism actually would be for the best of the girl and everyone around her. So Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), one of the last official exorcists in the USA, is called in to perform the rites - but whatever possesses Regan is stronger than a few drops of holy water and puts up a fight, ultimately once again picking on Father Karras' guilt - which is when Merrin sends him out to come to his senses, but while Karras is out, the demon that possesses Regan has its way with Father Merrin, who suffers from a heart condition, and before you know it Merrin has died from a heart attack.

Now Karras has had enough, and he tries the hands-on approach against Regan's demon by simply strangling the girl - to a point where the demon leaves her and instead possesses him - at which point Karras throws himself out of a window to his death ... and Regan is saved.

Lee J.Cobb plays an investigating cop who has surprisingly little to do with the actual plot ...

 

The Exorcist is, of course, a legitimate milestone of horror history, an unnerving and at the same time intelligent and thought through piece of possession cinema that not only thanks to a big budget is miles away from your usual grindhouse shocker, it's elegantly directed and it's full of scenes that have made horror- and cinema-history all by themselves - from Linda Blair's head spinning around to her puking pea soup and hurling abuse and profanities at priests (in Mercedes McCambridge's voice, actually) to the seemingly randomly interpersed subliminl images.

All that said, The Exorcist also isn't without its flaws, the film's set-up is way too long: It's a full 40 minutes until the first possession scene, and all this time is wasted with introducing the characters in way too great detail, plus an elongated sequence of Father Merrin in Iraq that while looking good adds little to the film's actual plot and could/should have been tossed out altogether. Plus, at times the film tries too hard to be intelligent on many an occasion to a point where the pseudo-intellectual dialogue turns into a tired cliché. And then there's Ellen Burstyn, whose exaggerated pseudo-method acting more often than not misses the point and that at least from today's point of view seems horribly dated and utterly annoying.

Still, the film's fortes outweigh its weaknesses, and even if you are not into horror you might find yourself liking it, and no matter how you turn it, it's a milestone film - but a flawed milestone.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Exorcist
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Exorcist here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Exorcist at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!