Film

The Exorcist

Name: The Exorcist
Genre: Horror
Released: 1973
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb

The film that made horror respectable — a patient, clinical build from medical mystery to full theological siege, anchored by Ellen Burstyn's terror and Linda Blair's genuinely startling transformation. It's less interested in jump scares than in dread accumulating scene by scene until faith becomes the only weapon left. Still shocking, still serious, and still the template everyone since has copied.

TMDb rating

7.7

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The other great 70s 'is my child actually evil' film — cooler and more clinical, with a string of gloriously nasty set-piece deaths and a creeping sense that God has simply stopped answering.

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If you want the demonic-possession formula played as a pure, well-oiled fairground ride, this is the best modern version — confident camera work, real dread, and none of the ambiguity.

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