47. The Exorcist (1973) (R) USA
Horror
Friedkin
New Hollywood
Aaaaand transition from girls singing songs to a little girl screaming “Your mother sucks ****s in Hell!” Crazy right? The scariest movie I have ever seen. EVER… Makes sense for a good Roman Catholic boy like myself to be terrified by this flick. Still holds up to this day. Unsettling subject matter, atmosphere and mood galore, and Linda Blair was downright terrifying. Many more exorcism films were made after this film, but this is still the best.
You know what's scary? It's as old as me and I saw it only once before you were born. Because I didn't dare to give it another go. And I still don't.
Anyway I agree. It it by miles and away the scariest, and Linda to do that as a kid...but I also agree with Gatsby. It simply isn't my style of horror. It is very Christian (even though Friedkin is Jewish), with good defeating evil and all, but did they really have to do all this?! I've always prefered
Rosemary's Baby, even though it's
anti-Christian in fact. It's even worse. Satan wins, but if you really want a movie that is ...EVIL, I don't know another word, which leaves you in utter despair and kills all hope and everything inside you...But the key for me is Polanski's directing. He's exceptionally subtle, and such a realization is what makes it even creepier. It's the psychological horror, whilst
The Exorcist is the explicit, action-packed, brutal, straight-forward.