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October 8, 2013

The Exorcist and the South’s love of “devil movies”

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I avoided William Friedkin’s 1973 movie until the extended “version you never saw” was released in theaters in fall 2000,
but about an hour into that, I started to feel mildly panicked, and left the theater. When I finally watched the revised Exorcist on DVD a year later, I did so during the daytime, with bright lights on and curtains open. All the while, I felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t—as though at any moment, the ground was going to open up and I was going to be consumed by the fires of hell. - - / The Dissolve

Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 8, 2013 9:40 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Psycho, The Exorcist, and The Shining are true horror films, even the music is spooky. Not much else in the genre besides trash.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at October 8, 2013 1:21 PM

I made light of this movie as a teenager when it appeared on HBO. I laughed at the R rating prior to its beginning. I ignored it and went about my business until I was told to come see.
Once I saw her head spinning and spewing profanities while stabbing herself, I was petrified and never experienced such fright. I remember to this day how my heart was pounding out of my chest and I couldn't sleep. This is one of many that came about during that time (Omen, etc.). They don't make em' that way anymore. Music alone gives you the creeps.

Posted by: scottst at October 8, 2013 7:50 PM

This is the only movie I ever came out of and had to go immediately to a bar for a good stiff drink. It was everything I ever learned about hell from the nuns in parochial grade school coming to life on the screen in living color 9 years later.

Posted by: drdave at October 8, 2013 9:21 PM

Remember the controversy?

I was in high school when it came out, and avoided it even though "I didn't believe in that stuff". A few years later I was with friends and had taken "something". We were stuck in the barracks and it was be shown at movie night. I lasted about ten minutes.

Posted by: Will at October 9, 2013 4:03 AM

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