Extreme violence, gore, and psychological torture. Upon demonic possession, a main character kills someone off-screen and repeatedly punches and slaps others. Grotesque appearances include bulging and darkened eyes, sores, and extreme scarring. There's projectile vomit, and a character crawls upside down along a flight of stairs, rotating her head completely around. A character harshly and repeatedly stabs her crotch with a cross while laughing hysterically. Verbal abuse targets characters' traumas and insecurities, and two positive characters die -- one by falling out of a window and rolling down flights of stairs, blood pooling.
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A little girl taken over by the devil doesn't hold back in the swearing department: "F--k," "f--got," "c--ksucker," "c--t," "s--t," "bastard," "ass," and "hell." Characters say "Christ" and "Jesus" both in religious contexts and also as exclamations.
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Father Merrin demonstrates immense courage by sacrificing his own life to save a possessed girl. He perseveres through the evil force's insults and assaults and never stops trying to defeat it. The younger priest, Father Karras, also sacrifices his life to save an innocent one. Chris shows courage and love by standing by her daughter throughout these trials.
Diverse Representations
a little
All characters are White. Father Merrin and Father Karras portray Catholicism in a positive light, selflessly fighting evil. Elder priest Merrin is a guiding light in this otherwise dark film and mentors the younger Karras. Chris shows courage and love by standing by her daughter, Regan, even when Regan can no longer recognize her. But extreme violence against women, seen through Regan's horrifying self-harm and abuses thrown at her mother, victimizes rather than empowers them.
The film hints that faith can save and redeem people, but in general, violence prevails in a dark world.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Exorcist is a terrifying 1970s horror film about a young girl who becomes demonically possessed and violent. Expect extreme gore, grotesque effects (bulging eyes, sores, etc.), and scares, and two important characters die. A girl repeatedly stabs her crotch with a cross and crawls a flight of stairs upside down, turning her head completely around. She also frequently says "f--k," "f--got," "c--ksucker," "c--t," "s--t," "bastard," "ass," and "hell." Though the film generally shows darkness prevailing, it hints at hope, and characters demonstrate positive strengths such as courage, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
Any parent should keep this movie away from kids. It may be a classic, but it’s a mature classic. This movie is very complex when it comes to religion, but also incredibly scary to some people to this day. When I saw it, I found it shocking after seeing it and thinking about how both the story and the horror develop slowly, bit by bit, which makes it more scary to many audiences. Regan’s look gets worse and worse throughout the film, but what’s more scary is the sound. The demons inside Regan sound scary and Regan even talks to one of the ministers in his mother’s voice, who died during the film. This is one of the incidents that makes it not for the faint of heart. What makes it scary most of all, though, are the scenes involving Regan possessed and lying in her bed not moving or saying anything. The audience members don’t know what she’s going to do next: just talk quietly, make noises, or go on a loud rant. However, it is dated, being from 1973, and therefore may not be exceptionally scary to today’s audiences. The film is very well-made, especially for a early ‘70s film, but it is not for everyone, and it is not like any other film I have ever seen, not only because of its mature and complex themes and the fact that it took a lot of time to get scary and to the story, but also because it is extremely unpredictable.
Very scary to much sex too much swearing to much voilence to much drinking
What's the Story?
In THE EXORCIST, Linda Blair plays Regan MacNeil, the bright 12-year-old daughter of successful actress Chris (Ellen Burstyn), who can afford to raise the girl in a nurturing atmosphere with live-in cooks and nannies (Regan's absentee father is written off as self-absorbed and oblivious). The first signs of trouble include Regan playing with a Ouija board and claiming she's communicated with a ghost she calls Captain Howdy. Then the girl begins behaving abnormally, urinating in front of party guests and foretelling death for Chris' film-director boyfriend. While Regan suffers grueling medical exams and gets progressively worse, the story line simultaneously follows Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a Greek American Catholic priest with some doubts about his religion. When medical science fails to cure the howling, obscenity-spewing, uncontrollable Regan, doctors point Chris to Father Karras, whose background in psychology includes the now-rare rite of exorcism. Karras summons another priest to help, the wiser and older Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), and together they begin to do battle with Regan's occupier.
This shockingly violent film was reported to have made audience members faint when it first came out in the 1970s. Director William Friedkin defined the modern horror genre with The Exorcist, using perversion and brutality as key traits. Thanks in part to Blair's wrenching, Oscar-nominated performance, the film was a huge hit, earning 10 times its $10 million budget -- a then-lavish sum for a horror flick. Movie historians cite it (along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as the conclusive end of old-school spook shows featuring Dracula and Frankenstein and bobbing rubber bats. The moans, snarls, and profane words from Regan (most are actually the dubbed-in voice of a well-known older actress, Mercedes McCambridge) amount to some of the most chilling audio ever done for film. And the infamous effects of projectile vomit and blood, blaspheming, and general obscenity remain as disturbing today as ever.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the film's religious and scientific overtones. Does Father Karras regain his religious faith in The Exorcist's finale?
How does Father Merrin demonstrate courage and perseverance? Is it worth it for him to sacrifice his life for his faith?
Why do you think The Exorcist stands the test of time as one of the best horror films in Hollywood history?
Is the film's violence and language on par with what we see today? How do you think the film impacted audiences when it first came out? And how has the horror genre changed over the years?
Which characters demonstrate courage and perseverance? Why are these important character strengths?
MPAA explanation:
horror elements, violence, profanity and intensity.
Last updated:
May 18, 2024
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