Henry's Top 100: #04 - The Exorcist

Scariest. Movie. Ever.


Imagine you're walking up the stairs, like you've done a hundred times before, up to your comfy bedroom.

The door to your bedroom is closed, there is a slight chill coming from your room (did you leave a window open?), and you open the door...



And that thing is looking at you.

It's an image that has terrified me since I was 11 (give or take a year).

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The Exorcist is a timeless masterpiece. Horror or no, this is one of those rare horror films that completely transcends the genre. And please note - this is a true horror film. People always say that Silence of the Lambs is the "only horror film to win best picture". Silence, as much as I clearly love it, is not a horror film. It has suspenseful moments and some frights, but that is clearly more of a "police" movie.

So very few horror films can be viewed as rising above that label. The Oman doesn't, Texas Chainsaw doesn't...these are great horror films but they aren't great films. Rosemary's Baby, Psycho...these are great films. And the best of them all is The Exorcist.

It is such a skillfully made film. The very deliberate, slow, build-up...the progression of Reagan's...weirdness...and then of course the pure terror of fully poccessed Reagan.

As I alluded to before, the film is filled with some of the scariest images ever put on the big screen...or anywhere for that matter. The Spider-Walk, the 360 head turn, the random flashes of the demon face...shudder....

If you want to never really want to feel totally okay walking into your bedroom ever again - The Exorcist is the film for you. If you wanna see the most disturbing performance by a child actor ever - The Exorcist is the film for you. If you want to see a bizzarely quoatable film...The Exorcist fits the bill. And if you want to see one of the truly great films ever made...the only movie that still legitimatly freaks me out...see the Goddamned Exorcist.

Best Scene: Hm...there are a lot to choose from...I'll go with when Father Karras first meets Reagan.