Is the Exorcist still scary Reddit

My friend says it's so scary that I should never watch it, but I highly doubt it's that scary. I've known for years what Linda Blair's character looks like when she gets turned into a demon (thank you, Scary Maze Game), and I'm familiar with the whole head turning scene and the vomiting of the acid.

Honestly, I think my friend is over emphasizing how scary this movie is and I should just watch it (hell, I'll watch it alone at night with the volume up real high). After all, my friend found The Texas Chain Saw Massacre really scary whereas I did not, so I feel there's a strong chance that I won't find The Exorcist as scary as he found it to be.

I have been telling my wife for the ten years we've been together that someday I'm gonna show her The Exorcist. I have put it off for ten years and finally last night it happened.

I'm 27, she's 26. As a kid, my dad was a huge horror freak and I was horrified as a kid hearing the horror movies playing and my dad showed me parts of The Exorcist which scarred me for life. So I technically never watched it in one sitting because it bothered me so much.

So last time I really got to sit down and see it as a whole and show my wife it for her first time. There is no movie that makes me feel that terrified, that uncomfortable. The acting, the music, just everything. It still bothers me just as bad as it always has and it is a masterpiece.

I've put off showing my wife also because of the fact that she isn't so into movies as I am. I'll get excited to show her something and she's very "meh" about it. She thought the movie was incredible and terrifying but she definitely made a good point.

She said she understands why today people wouldn't be too terrified of it for the fact that everyone is so desensitized to it. Everyone's basically seen everything. Everything has already been made and back when The Exorcist came out, there was nothing like it. Now days there are hundreds of possession films, hundreds of zombie films and more and to a lot of people it doesn't affect them the way it really should.

To me, The Exorcist is and always will be the scariest movie ever made. I can't stop thinking about it. I absolutely love it.

I think so! I watched it a few months ago in the dark, by myself. I was more unsettled than scared, per se, but I still think its story and development are second to none. Nothing jumpy or slashy. Just deep, dark, psychological fear built up over the course of the film. I can see how it was ahead of its time, and how it must have affected those who are strongly religious.

Edit 2: "Scariest" does not equal "best" or "most well made"! The Exorcist is undeniably one of the best horror films ever made largely due to its cultural influence. But just because it's a great horror film doesn't mean it's a scary one! If someone is asking you for a really scary film, and hasn't seen The Exorcist before, they probably won't find it very scary, even if it's very scary to you personally. Recommend something that would scare a modern viewer, not something that would've scared them if they were able to see it in theaters almost 50 years ago.

My whole life I've seen The Exorcist touted as "the scariest movie ever made/of all time", and I had always avoided watching it until I felt I was emotionally prepared for it. I watched it this winter with a friend and I was utterly underwhelmed.

I understand that this movie is over 40 years old and that at the time it was made, it probably truly was the scariest thing one could see in theaters. I also understand that this was during a time when culture was more religious as a whole and much more believing in and fearful of demons/evil spirits. I would also imagine that its status has been perpetuated by young kids who see it on a list of scariest horror movies, find a copy, and watch it at a sleepover which scars them all their friends.

But watching this movie in 2022 as an adult, I don't think I was actually scared by this movie for a second. The scariest part was probably the spinal tap scene because it looked horribly painful. When the credits rolled, my friend and I turned to each other and just went: "That was it?"

Don't get me wrong, it was an excellent movie. The pacing, the story, the emotion, was all fantastic. But it just wasn't scary. And I'm not one of those people who aren't scared by the supernatural. Usually haunting/possession movies really freak me out, since I was raised very religious and for most of my life truly believed in demonic possession. The Conjuring movies kinda traumatized me out when they came out, those are probably my personal "scariest of all time", but I recognize that in a few decades there will probably be objectively much scarier films.

So what are your thoughts? It's a fantastic film, but is it the scariest movie of all time? Personally I don't think it's even the scariest movie of the 70's.

Edit 1: I forgot to mention, I still see The Exorcist on "scariest movies of all time" lists on various websites, and on this sub, quite often. That's what brought this whole thought up in the first place, someone here asked for recommendations of the scariest movies around, and surprisingly the most recommended movie in the comments was The Exorcist. I was rather surprised, and would like to know what the general consensus is.

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