The Exorcist (1973) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on The Exorcist

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 85 · The Punters 94 · Spore Score 87 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters rate it higher than The Pros

More than fifty years on, The Exorcist still frightens people, and The Punters reward it for that with 94. The Pros are a little more measured on 85, and the Spore Score is 87. Critics have always admired it, but some find its shock tactics blunt and its religious seriousness heavy going. Audiences tend to judge horror by one test: did it scare me? On that test it remains near the top of the pile.

What it does well

William Friedkin came to the film straight from The French Connection, and he shoots possession like a documentary. Twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) starts to change, and her mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn), an actress filming in Washington DC, goes through every doctor and every test the modern world can offer before turning, in desperation, to the Church. That slow, clinical first half is what makes the second half so frightening. The medical scenes, with their needles and machines, are almost as hard to watch as anything the demon does.

The performances keep it human. Burstyn's panic feels real. Jason Miller plays Father Karras, a priest losing his faith and grieving for his mother, and Max von Sydow is the weary Father Merrin, whose arrival outside the house in fog and lamplight gave the film its famous poster. The sound design, which won one of its two Oscars, is a horror lesson in itself, and the use of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells made a prog-rock record into one of the most recognisable themes in film.

Where The Pros have a point

It is slow by modern standards, and the most notorious moments, the spinning head, the crucifix, the language, can tip into shock for shock's sake if you are not caught up in the story. Its Catholic framework is taken completely seriously, which some viewers find powerful and others find preachy.

Who it is for

Horror fans who want to see where so much of the genre began. Not for anyone who struggles with disturbing images involving children. It is rated 18 in the UK.

Context

William Peter Blatty adapted his own 1971 novel and won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The film opened in the US on 26 December 1973 and was the first horror film nominated for Best Picture. In the UK it had a long, strange afterlife: it was unavailable on home video for more than a decade until the British Board of Film Classification passed it uncut in 1999, which only added to its legend. The Georgetown steps where the climax plays out are now a tourist attraction.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, with a Spore Score of 87. Still the benchmark for possession horror, still genuinely unsettling, and much better made than its imitators. Watch it with the lights on, and side with The Punters.