To think 'The Exorcist' is the least scariest horror ever?

[Sallystyle]

Well, maybe not ever but it is hardly scary is it?

The first time I watched it I was quite nervous because my mum and MIL watched it when they were in their 20's and they both said they couldn't sleep for weeks after. I thought it was quite funny and very tame.

My sister is here and she is now watching it for the first time.

I read something earlier that said it is still rated as one of the scariest films ever made.

[ThePinkOcelot]

I agree. I watched it when I was 11 (at a friends house when her mum was out) and I wasn't affected by it all. I have heard people saying they couldn't sleep after watching it, and wondered why.

[Giratina]

I didn't think it was that scary. I thought the Blair witch project was shit too.

[Sallystyle]

We have been completely desensitised after years and years of film makers trying to push the boundaries.

Yes, that's a good point.

My mum was really traumatised by it. I can't imagine she would be now but she wouldn't watch it again.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

It's very 'of its time' though.

In the late 80s/90s (when it wasn't available on Video unless you had an old or bootleg copy) one of the local cinemas used to show it about once a month (always at 11pm)
I used to drag DH along with me , he'd fall asleep .

In the bit where she's hypnotised, I could suss out the people who hadn't seen it before

The book , of course, is 100% better and it always left me a bit deflated at the end, with the priest and what he does to protect her.

[iklboo]

Didn't scare me at all. I also thought the Blair Witch Project was overhyped tripe. Someone running around the woods at night keeping me awake should be scared of me (I don't like my sleep interrupted)

[SoleBizzz]

The levitation from off the bed..I do not like that bit for the first few seconds.

[beelover]

I watched it as an 18 year old at the cinema when it was first released and it totally traumatised me and I didn't sleep for weeks afterwards. I have often wondered if I would be still be scared now but just can't bring myself to ever watch it again. I am a complete wuss though with a very over active imagination, can't imagine whatever made me see it in the first place. Earlier posters are right, it was a film of its time and totally terrifying, to the point that there were church people in the cinema lobby handing out cards to the queues with a helpline number for anyone who was disturbed by it and needed some help to cope.

[TheHiphopopotamus]

Agree it was of its time. My dm said it scared the bejeezus out of her when it first came out, but when they re released it (in the 90's?) everyone in the cinema where I watched it, laughed at the supposedly 'scary' bits

Didn't help that French & Saunders had recently done a piss take of it though.

[TwitTwatTwunt]

Well, I still consider it to be one of my favourites! Along with The Shining, The Wicker Man and the Omen films. Don't like the modern gore & don't bother watching any horror any more (Blair Witch was seriously shit but that is old now i suppose). I'm soon to be 40 ☺

[Boogers]

The book terrified me. I was dog sitting overnight and I stupidly started reading it in bed and read it all in one sitting because I was so scared, even with two daft boxer dogs to protect me! I didn't even dare leave the bed to go downstairs to the loo!

The film was tame after that, but still one of the best films of its time. Like Arf says, some of the horror churned out today is far more psychologically frightening, and then you've got torture porn in the form of films like centipede and hostel and saw that is just sick. I haven't seen any of those films for that reason, and on another thread I read today about films you wish you hadn't seen it seems a lot of people who have seen them wish they hadn't because they're so disturbingly sick.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Didn't scare me at all. No horror movie ever does.

I'm still searching for one that does

[TwitTwatTwunt]

With the sick shit that is about now, surely we have reached the limit? No more boundaries to be pushed? Or am I being naive? I dread to think what my kids will be watching through their early teens.

[Boogers]

Giles are you Mark Kermode in real life?

[RuggerHug]

Didn't scare me at all, no traditional 'horror' film has. Threads on the other hand.... only panic attack I've had in my life and I wasn't right for months.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

I have no idea who he is

[JellyBelli]

The Shining is still scary, both the book and the film.The Exorcist book is a classic, a good read but not scary. The film is of its time but wouldnt give me sleepless nights.

It and 28 Weeks Later terrified me.

[TheoriginalLEM]

i watched it back in the day and wasn't scared or upset by it. Guess i was about 14.

Now as an adult with children i see it as vile and offensive.

[Ninasimoneinthemorning]

It actually really fucking disturbs me. I can watch most horrors and cringe and laugh but this one really gets to me.

The entity does the same 🙈

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Oh the entity..

Based on a true story!

[PNGirl]

They're doing a remake! Airs in about a month on Fox. Not sure about UK dates.

It scared me; the trailer for the rerelease in the late 90s with the slot of light across her eyes and that voice is horrible. It mainly gets to me because of the excellent makeup and voice acting.

The scariest film I have seen in a long time is REC. We had to turn it off because the dread was building and we didn't want to see what was going to happen! Entire films don't usually scare me but scenes sometimes do (face in bathroom mirror from Amityville, mirrors full of figures in Poltergeist 3).

[Assquatch]

Yabu as I found that out 20 years ago I'm too old

Blair witch is also pants, but so many real life old age horrors are I suppose.

[Boogers]

Giles he's a film critic who has a weekly slot - Wittertainment - on 5live on Friday afternoon, and he did his doctorate on horror films. His favourite film is The Exorcist.

[sandgrown]

It was the scariest film I had ever seen and I could not sleep. I think it would still scare me ! I think it was worse because I had played with an Ouija board!

[StillDrSethHazlittMD]

I love horror films, although never been scared by any. But I find The Exorcist one of the most overrated and I do not get it at all. Seen it on TV and on big screen. I actually fell asleep seeing it at the cinema - only time I've ever done that.

Mind you, I hated The Shining when I first saw it on TV. However, when I saw it on the big screen, I found it far more effective and I could understand why people liked it so much.