h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Exorcist is billed as the scariest movie ever made. How terrified did it make you?

I didn't find it that scary. The last half-hour was rather freaky, but the bit that scared me most was the injection brain scan bit, and that wasn't really meant to be scary, was it..

My girlfriend is a horror fan, and she remembered being deeply disturbed by The Exorcist eons ago. I did too, and so we rented the filsm a few weeks ago. We were both bored silly. It seems that we have either become much harder to scare since our childhood, or movies have evolved to a point that we can recognise it now as the B film it is.

Saw the director's cut version at the cinema on Sunday. It certainly has dated over the years, and raised nothing more than a few bored giggles from the rather young audience in attendance (who were probably watching it for the first time). The dialogue seems very 70s - mind you, the re-inserted profanity was a bit of a shocker eg "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" (hey, direct quotes are kosher!) Who would've thought they knew this kind of language back then?

Unfortunately the effect of this language (among other things) brought Exorcist into direct and humourous comparison (at least in my mind) with other more recent action-oriented knockoffs. Eg Father Karras has to dash back to Georgetown University to pick up Father Merrin's cassock and other exorcism paraphernalia. I was thinking "if this was a Schwarzenegger movie, he'd have looted this stuff from the backroom of a Christian bookstore on the way over - cut to shots of pearl-handled crucifixes being thrust into twin belt holsters, vials of holy water being fastened to a bandolier belt like grenades and a studded white dog collar being yanked tight around his neck"

There are still the odd flashes of class - character development (anyone old enough to remember that?), and a pretty intense performance by 12 year old Linda Blair. Plus the fact that there isn't a computer effect in sight has to be a good thing.

It's no longer scary in this day and age (really have to wonder when was the last time you were genuinely scared by a movie), but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a B-movie. The two movies that followed it however....

Speaking of which, Exorcist IV - no joke, it's planned for 2002 and guess what? It's a prequel - chronicling the activities of Father Merrin in Africa (referred to in Exorcist).

Not scary but very
good
cant discus the best lines
'cus they would just be cencoured

It occured to me while I was watching it that they could be engaged in character development. Then I realized that the characters weren't actually doing anything, that the dialogue was trite and pointless, and that I didn't really care for any of the characters. I wasn't supposed to like the demon, though, so that made me feel a little better.

I liked the demon: he had attitude

I saw it at the cinema when it first came out, and I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. People were reported to be fainting and being sick when they saw it. Nobody in the cinema seemed the least bit bothered when I was there. I think that was when I first understood what hype is.

I liked the demon too.

It didn't scare me at all - I've never seen it

Yeah, very hyped. But people with nervous tendencies would find it terrifying I spose..

I watched at about 6.00 in the summer with a crowd of people. It was hilarious!