“Everything that I read about The Exorcist over the years, just as a movie fan and that I heard about from people who watched the movie, everything about it was about how shocking it was, how scary it was. But no one ever told me how good it was. This is a movie that, quite frankly, is a masterpiece in movie making.”
Screened in tribute to William Friedkin (1935 - 2023)
When young Regan (Linda Blair) starts behaving strangely (levitating, speaking in tongues, etc) her worried mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), seeks medical help, only to hit a dead end. However, a local priest, Father Karras (Jason Miller), thinks the girl may be possessed by the Devil and makes a request to the church to perform an exorcism, the church sending him Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) - the eponymous exorcist… Hugely controversial at the time of its release - and a huge blockbusting hit - the cultural conversation around the film helped it become the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and saw it being banned in the UK for many years. It is now regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made and, along with The French Connection, one of William Friedkin's twin masterpieces.
