The Exorcist

Day 5/31 of 31 Days of Halloween 2026 🎃👹🍁🦊🧡 i’ve seen several old horror movies and even more modern ones, and very few have sent chills down my atheistic spine than this half-century old catholic nightmare of a film. the way the demon attacks the most innocent and vulnerable of prey, the way it latches itself onto the most tender parts of its attackers, its bone-chilling. its more than scary though; its heartbreaking. a mother trying everything and anything to cure her baby of her sickness, and an innocent girl taken hostage by this evil entity and is physically and mentally torn apart from it. for this film to be this good how, i can see how it directly inspired the entire 1980s Satanic panic and basically every horror movie after this. i could name you scarier horror movies but i couldn’t name you a scarier one from before or around its time, or a more influential horror film period. zero traces of camp, but some very disturbing beats of black comedy. the lighting is some of the best i’ve ever seen, creating shadowy silhouettes shrouded in darkness, and the acting is disturbing and heart wrenching. the writing also stands out as not very stupid-horror-movie-character-ish, with each character being smart, logical and trying everything option before deviating to a more spiritual, superstitious approach, and even then, they are desperate but unsure of its power. one of the more perfect horror films in existence.