The Exorcist

                                          Blog 3 – The Exorcist

The Exorcist, though scary and disturbing in its time, is no longer scary or disturbing to the modern teenager or adult. The exorcist used different special effects and scare tactics that were new and frightening for the time, but no longer have the same effect. The exorcist came out in 1973, 37 years ago. For their time, the special effects used were extremely realistic. The styles, the voices, the fashion, the settings, and the plots were all very realistic. The settings and everything in the movie matched the times, so it if the people watching the movie in 1973 could have been the possessed little girl, or the mother, or the priest. All the style and settings from the movie however, are completely out dated. The fact that we cannot relate to the people and the setting in that sense, takes away from the idea that we could be in that same situation, therefore taking away from the terror its self.

The fashion, style, and settings for the movie were not the only thing that modern teens and young adults cannot relate to, or the only thing that would take away from the scariness. The special effects were also very un-frightening. Regan’s exorcist face was not scary at all. It is a classic face, don’t get me wrong, and when you watch a YouTube video and it pops up at the end with a scream or it pops up on television, it will give anyone the chills, and even frighten them a bit, but it is not the type of face to stick with you and give you nightmares. The rough voice from the possessed girl was also very much not scary. It of course added to the effect of the fact that she was possessed and the devil or whatever, but it still didn’t leave you hearing it in your head or frightened by it.

 (the scary face from Exorcist that once created fear in people, but has lost some of its scariness.)

There is more even still, that added to the truly not scary effect of The Exorcist. The epic scene, and one of the most famous and reused scenes, the spider walk down the stares. The spider walk I have seen before. The spider walk has been used in more modern films such as Stay Alive, Arachnophobia, The Brood, and many more. I have seen the spider walk done by other little girls, old ladies, little boys, even a dog once, but each time it gets scarier and scarier, so the original spider walk losses its touch. The spider walk from the Exorcist is a very short scene in broad day light, with many people around, so extra things in the scene that may have been able to add some scare to it, were not added, leaving it simple and over used in more modern films.

 (spider walk from Exorcist)

The vomiting of the pea soup, the raspy voice, the spider walk, and many other things from the movie, truly do not have the power to scare. It has been 37 years since the original Exorcist. All the things that originally scared people and made the movie so epic and timeless are now, outdated. For the movie go-er who is not used to scary movies, or easily scared, this movie does still have some power to scare. However, the Exorcist used special effects and concepts that are no longer new and chilling. Today we have much more gruesome, raunchy, horrific effects and ideas that make the Exorcist seem simply not scary. The Exorcist will always be know for what it did to inspire many, many more horror films and idea for the next 37 years and counting, but the film itself I feel, has lost the epic touch it once had and is no longer scary at all, and simply does not work.