daily scream: is there someone inside you?
1973’s *The Exorcist* is on Max in the US, BBC iPlayer in the UK (but leaving soon)
The Daily Stream becomes the Daily Scream for spooky season!
You probably don’t need me to tell you that the classic 1973 horror flick The Exorcist makes for excellent Halloween viewing. But you might need me to alert you to the fact that, for those readers in the UK, the film is streaming free (as long as you have a TV license, of course) on BBC iPlayer for 11 more days, so almost till Halloween. (It’s streaming on Max, the former HBO Max, in the US.)
Half a century old now, this tale of a young girl (Linda Blair) possessed by a demon is spookier than most of what passes for horror these days — this was true when I first reviewed the movie 23 years ago, and it’s even truer today. Recently deceased director William Friedkin leisurely and deliberately builds a tower of fear in a way genre movies no longer have the patience to attempt. Very little blood is spilled: instead of lingering on the disgusting and gory, Friedkin allows us only quick glimpses of the unearthly, which is infinitely more frightening. Indeed, the horrible medical tests Blair’s Regan is put through, in search of a scientific explanation for her affliction, are as awful as the grotesque effects of her possession. Also shocking: watching a doctor light up a cigarette in a medical facility. Terrifying. (Read my 2000 review.)
US: stream on Max (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on BBC iPlayer through October 29th; rent on Curzon Home Cinema; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See The Exorcist at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
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I remember seeing this for the first time around Halloween in my freshman dorm; a bunch of us piled into someone's room on my halls, cut out the lights, and put it on. I was nervous because I didn't think I liked horror films, having only been exposed to bloody slashers with jumpscares, but the peer pressure led me to watch anyway. I'm so glad I did; the spookiness, the discomfort, the true horror of the film doesn't need or rely on gore and easy scares, and it made me realize this is a genre I could actually appreciate at least some of.