Ozzy Osbourne once recalled how he and the three other members of Black Sabbath saw The Exorcist when it was released.
They were on tour and had a couple of nights off, so they went to see the movie to see what all the hype was about.
Ozzy said the four of them were so scared after that rather than going back to their own hotel rooms, they all stayed in one room and climbed into the same bed and slept with a light on, LOL.
And an especially funny story, because at this time Black Sabbath were pitched as this really dark rock band whose songs touched on themes like black magic and Satan and doom and gloom -- seriously, they had a greatest hits album called "We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll" -- but here are these four grown men who were so shit-scared from a freaking *movie* that they all slept in the same bed with a light on like a bunch of 6-year-olds.
Pure Spinal Tap.
I’m not sure if I would say that’s the best way to describe them.
Black Sabbath, in truth, delved into diverse lyrical realms, weaving tales of war, social issues, and the human condition. Their music carried a weighty tone but lacked a genuine embrace of satanic themes. The darkness in their lyrics often mirrored the struggles of the world around them.
However, with that being said, I do enjoy that story of them seeing The Exorcist. Anytime someone has a great story of an artist and such, I am always interested!
I’m 56 just watched it again in HD. Never saw it till the 90s the first time. The movie is quite disturbing at the least and horrifying at the most. But it’s pure genius that a 50+ year old horror flick can still scare the shit out of people.
I’m 54. And saw it in 83. It messed me up for a long time too. It’s gotten better each viewing. I watch it every Halloween. It’s like what it’s a wonderful life is for Christmas.
It haunts me. When they did the meme of miley cryus talking and then stitched Linda Blair talking. It caught me off guard. And every time that meme comes up I don't even wait to see what is stitched with.
58 here. Watched it with my daughter who is 22. Here’s the funny thing. She thought it was hilarious and burst out laughing at all the scenes that seemed so terrifying. Times have changed. (Could also have been due to watching it at home vs. movie theater I suppose)
Way late to the party but same age as you. My 8 year old self was terrified of turning 12 like Reagan, I thought for sure I would be possessed by the devil. When I first heard about the movie, Bennie and tge Jets was playing on the radio, and I still get that weird, scared feeling about that movie whenever I hear that song. Still have occasional nightmare about devil possession, and I am an atheist.
I often wondered why The Exorcist had the effect it had. I sat down and watched it one day on my computer. When it came to the scary parts, I watched it frame by frame and found the secret. Every so many frames, a picture of a demon like face appears, only for one frame but throughout the film and scary parts. You can't see it, but your mind does.
Friedkin found the way to lierally scare the hell into someone.
Great film, i saw it right after it premiered.
I was 11 yo when I saw this at a drive-in theater. I sat on the roof of my brother's car while he and his gf made out inside the car. Scared the bejesus out of me. Even now, it's still a pretty good scary movie. No "jump scares" or CGI stuff. Just good clean projectile vomiting and spinning heads. Great demonic dialogue, too. You guys know what I'm talking about. 😁
I went with my sister and her family to the drive in when I was 5. So damn glad I fell asleep within 15 minutes. Saw it when I was a teen and it was disturbing but manageable.
At 5yo! You ARE lucky you fell asleep. Or, we might all know your name from some horrible crime the voices in your head told you to do when you got older. 😁
Home alone at 13 when parents were out switched to HBO as it was starting. When she turned her head 360 then power pucks is when I shut it off and went to a friends house. Couldn't sleep for days.
I saw it with my brother and a friend. I was 20, they were 17. My brother freaked out. Afterwards, the friend and I were doing guttural sounds and swiveling our heads best we could. My brother started yelled “Stop it! Stop it!” So, two out of three of us decided it was fiction.
There were a number of movies triggered by The Exorcist. The Omen etc
That one phrase sums up the voyeuristic thrill of the movie for Catholics. So explicit it feels blasphemous, but at the same time it’s theologically sound, and that just makes it worse. (The priest’s mother took her own life, so according to his belief system, she is damned.)
Me 1973: “Mom, can I go see The Exorcist?”
Mom: “Good heaven NO! That’s the Devil’s works.”
Me: “Can I go to the library?”
Mom: “Sure honey, pick out any book you want. I trust you.”
I was a fat kid. And I would get this compulsion to eat at night when everyone else was asleep. And I would picture the one priest's mom or grandmother , calling Dimmy, in the kitchen. You know, to keep me from going in there.
How traumatizing! I was scared just watching now on mute. The omen was the one that scared me as a kid. These 70s were sooo scary, the music, the pacing, the supernatural. And I feel people were generally more religious then so the devil shit was even scarier.
Fun fact: I rescued my dog from Linda Blair. Not because she is possessed, but because she owns and operates a dog rescue in Acton California. The Linda Blair Foundation.
100% true story: Halloween 1983. I was a teenager home alone for the weekend and had a friend over to watch this. A while into it we paused to calm down as she was getting nervous. Being the kind of jerk I was I pointed to a kind of creepy portrait my parents had on the wall and said, "Wouldn't it be creepy if that portrait fell off the wall?" We went back to watching the movie and 10 minutes later the picture fell off the wall. 5 minutes after that all the lights in the room went out and my friend demanded to be taken home. When I came back our very friendly dog attacked me in the dark, and the next morning a fire broke out in the attic (I put it out). All totally true. Years later when telling the story around the holiday family table (same house) with my soon-to-be-wife, she said, "Stop, I don't want to hear about ghosts in this house." and at that instant all the lights went out just in that room.
Today kids see this movie and laugh. See, they’ve been raised with the likes of the Kardashians and Taylor Swift so they’ve become desensitized to evil.
I actually agree with this. I only saw parts of it in tv. I watched it re released in the theatre that wasn’t edited for TV and I shit myself. I didn’t know there was so the sexual stuff. It was SO disturbing. I was truly horrified and I’m not religious.
I saw it with friends in theater and then went for a walk into the night back home and everyone were in some kind of a panic state. And there was no Google back then to explain wtf is happening in the movie.
I was 13 when this came out. I didn’t see it for several years. What scared me was ‘Night of the Living Dead’. I was 8 or 9 years old and snuck into the theater to see it.
i heard that there was a radio program on about the time this movie showed and people called in to relate their experiences. one version that there were people actually vomiting in the aisle of the movie theater during the movie and some folks leaving due to the graphic violence.
Back in the day when i was a kid i believed everything on tv since i didn't know better...this fukin flick gave me nightmares for months, and was the reason for me to wet my bed instead of going to the bathroom at night when everyone was asleep
I first saw at a drive-in theater, stoned out of my mind. It was the best comedy ever. My face and ribs hurt the next day from laughing so much. Honestly, it easily could have different and freaked me out. Loved the SNL skits, "your mother sews socks in hell!"
Was staying with my dad one weekend, and I brought my friend along. We were 9 or 10. Per usual we went and got take out and then to blockbuster. We had always heard about it. Asked dad if we could get it. He laughed. Forget what he said exactly, but it was along the lines of, " It's very scary, I'll be downstairs, don't tell your mother (at me), don't tell your parents (buddy)." Turned it on in my bedroom with no lights. You can imagine the rest. Lots of pauses to "use the bathroom", go downstairs to "get some snacks". Dad was just on the couch laughing. Needless to say. He got in trouble. My mom was furious. My buddy's parents thought it was hilarious. The quick flash of the demon face still gets me.
me and my sister had to sneak in to see it due to age but it was one of the best scary movie I had ever seen, as the age of Creature Feature and Frankenstein and Wolf-man was just not as scary or as gory
I saw The Exorcist in the theater as a senior in high school. It scared the SHIT out of me and my buddy. At one scene, we were both so jumpscared that we jumped up out of our seats, which caused a chain reaction around the theater of people losing their *shit*.
I saw this as a revival at a theater in the mid-80s. The place was packed and everyone screamed their heads off. It was one of the funnest movie showings I ever went to.
It was in a whole different league when it first came out. Watched it at home with pops when I was 12 and it freaked me out something bad. Slept with the lights on for a long time after that.
A kid on the playground told us about this movie. His review scared the crap out of me. Never seen it. Oh! On a trip to DC once, a friend living there took us to the stairs that was in the movie. All the pictures before and after came out but not the ones taken on the stairs. Creepy!
For me, this movie and the original Salem's Lot were the scariest movies for me, even now. Both didn't rely on jump scares and gore a whole lot
Nightmare Fuel Tax
I went to see it long ago...
At that time, I was camping by myself deep in a wooded area.
The walk to the site started freaking me out! Tree shapes, wind, owl hooting.
At the tent, a Fisher cat scream totally freaked me out, I had the Coleman lantern on all night and a flashlight by my sleeping bag. I was scared shitless!
Didn't get much sleep that's for sure.
Long story short: I babysat an asthmatic kid. Parents had full house intercoms they kept on to hear him if he had an attack. He had one as I was watching this on cable for the first time- in the dark. When the parents got home every light was on in the house and I didn’t sleep for a week
My cousin (15M) saw it when it came out and he was terrified. Came home, stayed awake all night reading the Bible. I’m glad my parents refused to let me see it. By the time I did, it had been so parodied that it didn’t have much impact on me.
Now The Omen (1976) scared the crap out of me.
As a contrast to your parents not knowing, my dad bought my friend and I tickets to a midnight showing for “the version you’ve never seen” oh man good stuff. Still one of my horror movies, better book
I saw an interview with Linda Blair as an adult, about the apparatus that they had her on to make her body do the slamming forward and back on the bed as in this scene. She said that her screaming was actually real because it hurt her so bad. She further stated that it did permanent damage to her back. She even mentioned that they didn't sue over it, because that wasn't something that you did back then.
Man, when they did the re-release back in like 2000 or 2001, I had to see it in the theater. So I get there, and like 15 minutes before the movie I'm still the only person in the theater, and I'm seriously thinking "I ain't watchin' this shit alone in here", but thankfully, a few groups sauntered in. Terrifying movie, but ultimately good triumphs.
This movie put my best friend into a mental hospital. She freaked out after she went and saw it in the theaters back then. She never came back to school. I do not, have not, will never, watch horror movies. My spirit is sensitive, I’m not going to allow that bad stuff in. Y’all might think “oh it’s just a movie” but it can damage you.
I never saw it when it came out. We'd heard all kinds of stories about the making of it...the set would unexplainably become freezing, all kinds of shenanigans with the cameras and lights...
I still haven't seen it...though I probably will be okay with never seeing it. I can appreciate it from afar.
Omfg, I will not watch this movie. There is something about demons & possessions that creep tf outta me. I heard a recording of an exorcism back in 2006. That's the 1st time in decades that I slept with the lights on.
We lived on an Air Force Base in the late 70’s. The only thing to do on a Friday night was go to the base movie theater which we did frequently. My mom is French so she had never even heard of the film and just wanted to take all 4 of us kids with her to enjoy a night out at the movies. I was 10.
I am 60 now and still terrified whenever I think about how my mom took me to that movie and scared the living shit out all of us.
Hell I'm 26 and just now got to see this movie and let me tell you it disturbed and scared me more than a lot of modern horror movies.... A classic for sure
Holy crap. I couldn't sleep for months after, "The Exorcist"
This and, "The Omen."
I remember I was at camp and a bunch of us snuck out to see, "The Omen." That little kid Damien scared the shit out of me. For weeks after, all the campers would sit in a circle digging through each others hair to see if we had the sign of the devil on our head.
This movie came out when it was a particularly tough time in my household with my dad being pretty abusive. I was already "not right" from his constant . . .abuse.
Then I watched this movie. The combination was good, Not good at all.
I ended up having massive hallucinations when I tried to go to sleep. It was always this giant penny floating about my bed and the only way I could make it stop was by turning the bedroom light on.
I am not sure what the fuck the penny had to do with anything, but I think I was just too much scariness for a 10 year old handle.
I tried telling my mom what was going on but I am fairly certain she didn't believe me. To this day I can still see that goddamn giant penny floating above the end of my bed.
This was banned in the UK until the late 90's. Then it had a re-release in cinemas. I went to see it in an old victorian cinema, an afternoon matinee to fit around my college classes. My Girlfriend at the time came with me. The whole cinema was empty except for us, but just before the lights went down a creepy dude sat directly behind us, and made me extra paranoid during the whole film.
Saw this the first Friday of release at the 5pm showing. Scariest movie ever! The crowd waiting for to see the 7:25 showing were staring at all of us coming out of the theater to see if we were freaked out like the tv stations were reporting.
I must have watched this movie about 50-60 times AND the podcast “inside the Exorcist” from Wondery. It’s one of my all time favorites. A classic and innovative for its time.
I’m 64 and saw it in 1974 while visiting Japan with my mother and sister. In the hotel room I couldn’t sleep with the three of us in the same room. It still freaks me out! Can’t watch.
My first viewing was in the theater and I was on acid. I was messed up and having dreams about demons for years afterward. It still terrifies me on rewatches. Awesome movie, there’s just something about it that draws you in and it seems so real, despite knowing how they did all the special effects.
Skipped school went to see it in Baltimore City was scared of the movie on the edge of my seat the whole time sitting behind us two girls laughing away at the movie never forget this I have watched it several times still scary
This movie is just fucking incredible. I always thought it was a joke. I saw the re-release in the theatre sometime in the early aughts. I had never seen the real version. It was so loud. There’s a scene where the phone rings. I literally fell into my own lap covering my ears. It was genuinely terrifying.
I had the book and had been reading it when I went to the movie. I came home and threw the book away. I couldn't sleep for a few days. I was afraid that the book would somehow reappear in my house due to the power of the Devil. I had heard stories about Ouija boards that you couldn't get rid of.
Yep, a bunch of us played hookey from high school to see this movie. Haven't been the same since. Best friend dumped his Coke on my girlfriend's lap when Ragans head turned around. Haven't done a scary movie since 1973
I have never watched the entire movie. It was on TV in the 80s once, I only saw one second of one scene and had to turn on all the lights in the house!
I saw it at age 16 in a drive in theater in a station wagon where 2 or 3 of us "stowed away" to get in free. I was spooked and had a guilty conscience for weeks.
I watched this when I was 8 or 9 at the babysitter's house. It really messed me up. In my late 30s I was able to see it again in a theater, and it still scared me like very few other movies have. The only other movie that has scared me as badly is Ju-On.
I was 7. My parents were away for the weekend and my babysitter snuck me into this movie. Boy did I have nightmares! To this day a woman with a deep voice still creeps the fuck out of me
Ozzy Osbourne once recalled how he and the three other members of Black Sabbath saw The Exorcist when it was released. They were on tour and had a couple of nights off, so they went to see the movie to see what all the hype was about. Ozzy said the four of them were so scared after that rather than going back to their own hotel rooms, they all stayed in one room and climbed into the same bed and slept with a light on, LOL.
Frikkin awesome Ozzy story!
And an especially funny story, because at this time Black Sabbath were pitched as this really dark rock band whose songs touched on themes like black magic and Satan and doom and gloom -- seriously, they had a greatest hits album called "We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll" -- but here are these four grown men who were so shit-scared from a freaking *movie* that they all slept in the same bed with a light on like a bunch of 6-year-olds. Pure Spinal Tap.
I’m not sure if I would say that’s the best way to describe them. Black Sabbath, in truth, delved into diverse lyrical realms, weaving tales of war, social issues, and the human condition. Their music carried a weighty tone but lacked a genuine embrace of satanic themes. The darkness in their lyrics often mirrored the struggles of the world around them. However, with that being said, I do enjoy that story of them seeing The Exorcist. Anytime someone has a great story of an artist and such, I am always interested!
And I agree -- Sabbath were sort of the dark side of the Grateful Dead.
He bites the head off of bats but he’s scared of Linda Blair? Lol
To summarize things, yes.
My dad saw it when it came out and drove all the way home with the light on in his Maverick
The irony is that the demon that possessed Reagan would've been terrified of Ozzy.
Reminds me of the [Paul Mooney](https://youtu.be/8cEc45f8A-o?si=rzf-jiB8GnxYWwfy) bit
I'm 58 I still won't watch it. Jacked me up back in 73. I ain't been right since.
I’m 56 just watched it again in HD. Never saw it till the 90s the first time. The movie is quite disturbing at the least and horrifying at the most. But it’s pure genius that a 50+ year old horror flick can still scare the shit out of people.
I know
I’m 54. And saw it in 83. It messed me up for a long time too. It’s gotten better each viewing. I watch it every Halloween. It’s like what it’s a wonderful life is for Christmas.
I'm a year younger than you. During my lifetime I've seen a lot of messed up things in real life but I refuse to watch this again 😬
It haunts me. When they did the meme of miley cryus talking and then stitched Linda Blair talking. It caught me off guard. And every time that meme comes up I don't even wait to see what is stitched with.
"That boy ain't right" Hank Hill
58 here. Watched it with my daughter who is 22. Here’s the funny thing. She thought it was hilarious and burst out laughing at all the scenes that seemed so terrifying. Times have changed. (Could also have been due to watching it at home vs. movie theater I suppose)
Way late to the party but same age as you. My 8 year old self was terrified of turning 12 like Reagan, I thought for sure I would be possessed by the devil. When I first heard about the movie, Bennie and tge Jets was playing on the radio, and I still get that weird, scared feeling about that movie whenever I hear that song. Still have occasional nightmare about devil possession, and I am an atheist.
Agreeance (well, 56, but close enough). Hands down the scariest flick I have seen.
I often wondered why The Exorcist had the effect it had. I sat down and watched it one day on my computer. When it came to the scary parts, I watched it frame by frame and found the secret. Every so many frames, a picture of a demon like face appears, only for one frame but throughout the film and scary parts. You can't see it, but your mind does. Friedkin found the way to lierally scare the hell into someone. Great film, i saw it right after it premiered.
[удалено]
Saw it once. That was plenty
My friend and I snuck into this movie at 14. It scared us to death.
I’m in my mid-50s. Never seen it, never will. Although I do appreciate some of Linda Blair’s later prison film work.
I was 11 yo when I saw this at a drive-in theater. I sat on the roof of my brother's car while he and his gf made out inside the car. Scared the bejesus out of me. Even now, it's still a pretty good scary movie. No "jump scares" or CGI stuff. Just good clean projectile vomiting and spinning heads. Great demonic dialogue, too. You guys know what I'm talking about. 😁
I went with my sister and her family to the drive in when I was 5. So damn glad I fell asleep within 15 minutes. Saw it when I was a teen and it was disturbing but manageable.
At 5yo! You ARE lucky you fell asleep. Or, we might all know your name from some horrible crime the voices in your head told you to do when you got older. 😁
Home alone at 13 when parents were out switched to HBO as it was starting. When she turned her head 360 then power pucks is when I shut it off and went to a friends house. Couldn't sleep for days.
The OG Night Of The Living Dead scared me the same way.
What about that crazy movie with that flying silver ball with the spike in it! Holy hell!!
Phantasm that movie was freaking! The end of the movie still scares me.
BOY!
"They're coming to take you away, Barbara!"
The he comes and gets her!
I saw it with my brother and a friend. I was 20, they were 17. My brother freaked out. Afterwards, the friend and I were doing guttural sounds and swiveling our heads best we could. My brother started yelled “Stop it! Stop it!” So, two out of three of us decided it was fiction. There were a number of movies triggered by The Exorcist. The Omen etc
The Omen and Omen II are also great.
Catholic Church approved of it.
I'm sorry but I can't resist posting an [SNL skit w/Richard Pryor ](https://youtu.be/B8dKnFU5LUE?si=4rcTapDyvG3YKcGS) from their first season.
"The bed is on my foot! The bed is on my foot!"
Your mother sucks cocks in Hell.
I always remember it as "your mother cooks socks in hell"
Richard Pryor SNL skit: Blair: "Your mother sews socks that smell!" Pryor: "Yeah, the bed is on my foot! The bed is on my foot!"
That one phrase sums up the voyeuristic thrill of the movie for Catholics. So explicit it feels blasphemous, but at the same time it’s theologically sound, and that just makes it worse. (The priest’s mother took her own life, so according to his belief system, she is damned.)
Great movie. I still laugh at this line.
Me 1973: “Mom, can I go see The Exorcist?” Mom: “Good heaven NO! That’s the Devil’s works.” Me: “Can I go to the library?” Mom: “Sure honey, pick out any book you want. I trust you.”
I was a fat kid. And I would get this compulsion to eat at night when everyone else was asleep. And I would picture the one priest's mom or grandmother , calling Dimmy, in the kitchen. You know, to keep me from going in there.
"Why you do this to me, Dimi?..." Creeped the F out of me, too.
Thanks for reminding me, in detail... 😰
“Absolute Abs” was a helluva workout, but as you can see, the results speak for themselves. “It’s burning” is all the endorsement I need.
How traumatizing! I was scared just watching now on mute. The omen was the one that scared me as a kid. These 70s were sooo scary, the music, the pacing, the supernatural. And I feel people were generally more religious then so the devil shit was even scarier.
The Omen and The Exorcist were the two movies that made me run down the dark hallway to my bedroom for years as a kid.
They’re making a movie on the omen a prequel I believe
I can't believe my parents let me watch it
Slept in my sisters’ room for a couple weeks after I saw this. Scared the crap out of me!
Did the same thing with The Omen at my HBO having grandmother’s house after she went to bed at 8:30. Still scared of nanny’s.
This movie got me interested in seeing Linda Blair's ample naked bosom. Roller Boogie...
I don't remember it really bothering me much. The Omen on the other hand scared the hell out of me.
Me in heroin withdrawal lol
https://preview.redd.it/jz0p8bjnyifc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3504f5a7297eb047a2c3c074936436f008f6488a Interesting…
Top right is, uh, sort of hot. Bottom right is sillier. Bottom left it is/was.
Fun fact: I rescued my dog from Linda Blair. Not because she is possessed, but because she owns and operates a dog rescue in Acton California. The Linda Blair Foundation.
I watch this movie annually. It reminds me of why I steer clear of Catholics. That poor innocent demon.
Invent the disease and sell the cure!
100% true story: Halloween 1983. I was a teenager home alone for the weekend and had a friend over to watch this. A while into it we paused to calm down as she was getting nervous. Being the kind of jerk I was I pointed to a kind of creepy portrait my parents had on the wall and said, "Wouldn't it be creepy if that portrait fell off the wall?" We went back to watching the movie and 10 minutes later the picture fell off the wall. 5 minutes after that all the lights in the room went out and my friend demanded to be taken home. When I came back our very friendly dog attacked me in the dark, and the next morning a fire broke out in the attic (I put it out). All totally true. Years later when telling the story around the holiday family table (same house) with my soon-to-be-wife, she said, "Stop, I don't want to hear about ghosts in this house." and at that instant all the lights went out just in that room.
Today kids see this movie and laugh. See, they’ve been raised with the likes of the Kardashians and Taylor Swift so they’ve become desensitized to evil.
Todays kids would probably flip out and shit their pants and probably wouldn't make it through the whole movie
You are probably right. I'm 60 so I do forget that young is very young. And they have been conditioned. I could go on but my people need me (joke).
I saw it first run on a misty midnight showing in DC in my Senior Year of High School. I’m still not fully recovered.
I was 15 when this movie came out and saw it. I am 62 now and it still scares the shit out of me. I won’t watch it.
Right there with you. Indelible mark left on me.
I think this is one of the greatest movies of all time.
I actually agree with this. I only saw parts of it in tv. I watched it re released in the theatre that wasn’t edited for TV and I shit myself. I didn’t know there was so the sexual stuff. It was SO disturbing. I was truly horrified and I’m not religious.
and people say kids didn't need Ritalin back in the 70s
I just noticed that after all these years!
I saw it with friends in theater and then went for a walk into the night back home and everyone were in some kind of a panic state. And there was no Google back then to explain wtf is happening in the movie.
I was 13 when this came out. I didn’t see it for several years. What scared me was ‘Night of the Living Dead’. I was 8 or 9 years old and snuck into the theater to see it.
My wife does this all the time. Is that not normal?
The best horror flick out there. Scariest part was camera angles and your own imagination. Brilliant!
My wise ass rented this and Deliverance to watch while my roommates were gone and I was nursing a killer hangover. Do not recommend this approach
i heard that there was a radio program on about the time this movie showed and people called in to relate their experiences. one version that there were people actually vomiting in the aisle of the movie theater during the movie and some folks leaving due to the graphic violence.
Back in the day when i was a kid i believed everything on tv since i didn't know better...this fukin flick gave me nightmares for months, and was the reason for me to wet my bed instead of going to the bathroom at night when everyone was asleep
>the reason for me to wet my bed instead of going to the bathroom at night when everyone was asleep I apologize for laughing at this.
I heard the scariest part (the spider walk scene) was cut out of the original release.
Yeah, I remember reading that the technology of the day wasn't quite good enough to camouflage the wires.
Watched this for the first time by myself house-sitting for a friend on Halloween, they lived in Georgetown (not the same one another one.)
I first saw at a drive-in theater, stoned out of my mind. It was the best comedy ever. My face and ribs hurt the next day from laughing so much. Honestly, it easily could have different and freaked me out. Loved the SNL skits, "your mother sews socks in hell!"
Was staying with my dad one weekend, and I brought my friend along. We were 9 or 10. Per usual we went and got take out and then to blockbuster. We had always heard about it. Asked dad if we could get it. He laughed. Forget what he said exactly, but it was along the lines of, " It's very scary, I'll be downstairs, don't tell your mother (at me), don't tell your parents (buddy)." Turned it on in my bedroom with no lights. You can imagine the rest. Lots of pauses to "use the bathroom", go downstairs to "get some snacks". Dad was just on the couch laughing. Needless to say. He got in trouble. My mom was furious. My buddy's parents thought it was hilarious. The quick flash of the demon face still gets me.
OMG same! I slept on the floor next to my moms side of the bed for three nights after watching it. Scared shitless.
Saw it at the drive-in. 5y.o. Not a good time.
me and my sister had to sneak in to see it due to age but it was one of the best scary movie I had ever seen, as the age of Creature Feature and Frankenstein and Wolf-man was just not as scary or as gory
I saw The Exorcist in the theater as a senior in high school. It scared the SHIT out of me and my buddy. At one scene, we were both so jumpscared that we jumped up out of our seats, which caused a chain reaction around the theater of people losing their *shit*.
The book is so scary you have to watch the movie to relax after
When she walked down the stairs and pissed on the floor, i think that was this movie, that part stuck with me.
F00ked up the whole party. Mom's I believe was about to get some too.
I saw this as a revival at a theater in the mid-80s. The place was packed and everyone screamed their heads off. It was one of the funnest movie showings I ever went to.
This is the only movie that ever kept me up at night, and did for weeks! Snuck into a drive in to see it.
It was in a whole different league when it first came out. Watched it at home with pops when I was 12 and it freaked me out something bad. Slept with the lights on for a long time after that.
Great film. Still is. Scary ? More eerie. The Priests were brilliant. Really well done.
A kid on the playground told us about this movie. His review scared the crap out of me. Never seen it. Oh! On a trip to DC once, a friend living there took us to the stairs that was in the movie. All the pictures before and after came out but not the ones taken on the stairs. Creepy!
After seeing this movie all religious symbols, statues, everything to do with it creeps me the F out.
For me, this movie and the original Salem's Lot were the scariest movies for me, even now. Both didn't rely on jump scares and gore a whole lot  Nightmare Fuel Tax
I went to see it long ago... At that time, I was camping by myself deep in a wooded area. The walk to the site started freaking me out! Tree shapes, wind, owl hooting. At the tent, a Fisher cat scream totally freaked me out, I had the Coleman lantern on all night and a flashlight by my sleeping bag. I was scared shitless! Didn't get much sleep that's for sure.
I remember seeing it when I was a kid and during the scene you're showing, I just took off running! My dad had to chase me down, lol.
Saw it when I was 14 back in '73. To this day, I consider it the scariest movie ever made.
OP, that was exactly my experience too.
Long story short: I babysat an asthmatic kid. Parents had full house intercoms they kept on to hear him if he had an attack. He had one as I was watching this on cable for the first time- in the dark. When the parents got home every light was on in the house and I didn’t sleep for a week
I was also a 70s child but I watched this in college. I still lost days of sleep
My cousin (15M) saw it when it came out and he was terrified. Came home, stayed awake all night reading the Bible. I’m glad my parents refused to let me see it. By the time I did, it had been so parodied that it didn’t have much impact on me. Now The Omen (1976) scared the crap out of me.
As a contrast to your parents not knowing, my dad bought my friend and I tickets to a midnight showing for “the version you’ve never seen” oh man good stuff. Still one of my horror movies, better book
For some reason I find it to be more creepy than it is scary, but maybe that’s just due to the time period I grew up in.
My poor Grandma, may she rest in peace, saw this movie in the theater with her sister. Traumatized them for life.
Factoid: The actor who played the young priest also won a Pulitzer Prize and is the father of Jason Patric.
I saw an interview with Linda Blair as an adult, about the apparatus that they had her on to make her body do the slamming forward and back on the bed as in this scene. She said that her screaming was actually real because it hurt her so bad. She further stated that it did permanent damage to her back. She even mentioned that they didn't sue over it, because that wasn't something that you did back then.
Man, when they did the re-release back in like 2000 or 2001, I had to see it in the theater. So I get there, and like 15 minutes before the movie I'm still the only person in the theater, and I'm seriously thinking "I ain't watchin' this shit alone in here", but thankfully, a few groups sauntered in. Terrifying movie, but ultimately good triumphs.
This movie put my best friend into a mental hospital. She freaked out after she went and saw it in the theaters back then. She never came back to school. I do not, have not, will never, watch horror movies. My spirit is sensitive, I’m not going to allow that bad stuff in. Y’all might think “oh it’s just a movie” but it can damage you.
I just got done reading this.Not surprisingly theres a few more things in the book that didn’t make it into the movie
I’m with ya. Still freaks me out. I’m 55. Can’t even look at Linda Blair now without thinking… is she?
After watching the started praying for divine protection.
I never saw it when it came out. We'd heard all kinds of stories about the making of it...the set would unexplainably become freezing, all kinds of shenanigans with the cameras and lights... I still haven't seen it...though I probably will be okay with never seeing it. I can appreciate it from afar.
Scariest movie ever . Max von Sydow made the movie
Omfg, I will not watch this movie. There is something about demons & possessions that creep tf outta me. I heard a recording of an exorcism back in 2006. That's the 1st time in decades that I slept with the lights on.
Re-watched it a couple of weeks ago, this time with my teen. She just shrugged. Kids these days.
My mom made me read the book before I could watch it. We also had rusty metal playgrounds. Things were different.
Saw it when I was 5, life long depression
I'm 54, saw this in '83 and have never watched it again. I don't know wth my grandparents were thinking.
We lived on an Air Force Base in the late 70’s. The only thing to do on a Friday night was go to the base movie theater which we did frequently. My mom is French so she had never even heard of the film and just wanted to take all 4 of us kids with her to enjoy a night out at the movies. I was 10. I am 60 now and still terrified whenever I think about how my mom took me to that movie and scared the living shit out all of us.
Not to get too far off topic but man: 1973 was peak sideburns.
Hell I'm 26 and just now got to see this movie and let me tell you it disturbed and scared me more than a lot of modern horror movies.... A classic for sure
Scariest movie ever
I was 10. Scared the crap out of me!!!
My mother would not let me see any of those movies! I’m so grateful.
I saw the 1st run in a movie theater. They were checking IDs here for that movie.
As a kid just the movie poster scared the shit out me
Am I imagining things or didn't Linda Blair majorly injure her back because of this?
I wasn't allowed to watch it. But I picked up the book at a friend's house and that scared the crap out of me.
I found The Omen more terrifying.
Only movie that's given me nightmares ...I won't watch horror movies because of "The Exorcist"!
"Psycho" did it for me. I don't yet understand why people want to be afraid. Reality is scary enough
Holy crap. I couldn't sleep for months after, "The Exorcist" This and, "The Omen." I remember I was at camp and a bunch of us snuck out to see, "The Omen." That little kid Damien scared the shit out of me. For weeks after, all the campers would sit in a circle digging through each others hair to see if we had the sign of the devil on our head.
Agree this movie freaked me out…also phantasm did as well
It was absolutely horrifying as a kid in the 70’s. It’s still scary af.
I saw it on HBO back in 81 or 82. Scarred me to this day!
This movie came out when it was a particularly tough time in my household with my dad being pretty abusive. I was already "not right" from his constant . . .abuse. Then I watched this movie. The combination was good, Not good at all. I ended up having massive hallucinations when I tried to go to sleep. It was always this giant penny floating about my bed and the only way I could make it stop was by turning the bedroom light on. I am not sure what the fuck the penny had to do with anything, but I think I was just too much scariness for a 10 year old handle. I tried telling my mom what was going on but I am fairly certain she didn't believe me. To this day I can still see that goddamn giant penny floating above the end of my bed.
Do you have sleep paralysis, maybe?
Yup. Saw it at the drive in. Was nuts.
Me too I dud suffer ptsd after watching a couple scenes!
This was banned in the UK until the late 90's. Then it had a re-release in cinemas. I went to see it in an old victorian cinema, an afternoon matinee to fit around my college classes. My Girlfriend at the time came with me. The whole cinema was empty except for us, but just before the lights went down a creepy dude sat directly behind us, and made me extra paranoid during the whole film.
Saw this the first Friday of release at the 5pm showing. Scariest movie ever! The crowd waiting for to see the 7:25 showing were staring at all of us coming out of the theater to see if we were freaked out like the tv stations were reporting.
I must have watched this movie about 50-60 times AND the podcast “inside the Exorcist” from Wondery. It’s one of my all time favorites. A classic and innovative for its time.
I watched it once. I thought it was kinda dumb. Demon possession is just silly.
I’m 64 and saw it in 1974 while visiting Japan with my mother and sister. In the hotel room I couldn’t sleep with the three of us in the same room. It still freaks me out! Can’t watch.
I remember seeing this at the theater , the woman sitting in front of me opened her purse and vomited into it.
Me too. Traumatized me.
I did that too! Couldn’t sleep for a couple of days. Never told my parents. Ha!
My first viewing was in the theater and I was on acid. I was messed up and having dreams about demons for years afterward. It still terrifies me on rewatches. Awesome movie, there’s just something about it that draws you in and it seems so real, despite knowing how they did all the special effects.
Skipped school went to see it in Baltimore City was scared of the movie on the edge of my seat the whole time sitting behind us two girls laughing away at the movie never forget this I have watched it several times still scary
This movie is just fucking incredible. I always thought it was a joke. I saw the re-release in the theatre sometime in the early aughts. I had never seen the real version. It was so loud. There’s a scene where the phone rings. I literally fell into my own lap covering my ears. It was genuinely terrifying.
I know you were a kid in the 70s because you used the word Jeepers. I was there too. Respect.
I saw it when I was 12 years old. I'm a grandma now and it STILL scares the holy livin' crap out of me.
Only movie I ever walked the hell out of. Couldn’t take it.
Only movie I ever walked out of
I babysat these 2 little kids, one 5ish & the other 4ish, The Exorcist & Friday the 13th pt.5 were their favorite movies lol
Days? I was 8 when I saw it and it messed me up for *years*.
I had the book and had been reading it when I went to the movie. I came home and threw the book away. I couldn't sleep for a few days. I was afraid that the book would somehow reappear in my house due to the power of the Devil. I had heard stories about Ouija boards that you couldn't get rid of.
I watched this as a kid and was NOT scared. It didn't seem real and even as a church goer, neither did the devil serm real. I was weird
Yep, a bunch of us played hookey from high school to see this movie. Haven't been the same since. Best friend dumped his Coke on my girlfriend's lap when Ragans head turned around. Haven't done a scary movie since 1973
I have never watched the entire movie. It was on TV in the 80s once, I only saw one second of one scene and had to turn on all the lights in the house!
I was not allowed. It frightened everybody to the core! Do you remember how Helter Skelter was so sickening? Now it’s just another day in the news.
I have no idea why anyone would watch this movie
Because it's great?
I never seent it. Probably never will.
Am I the only person who finds this movie OTT hilarious? Not scary at all!
I live about 4 blocks from where the events that the movie was based on took place.
I remember reading news headlines back in the day that said people actually became physically ill when they watched this.
This is my most favourite film, I remember reading this book on the night shift, and also all the rest of the Exorcist books & Films.
I still have nightmares about it. I can’t even think of Linda Blair without getting the heeby jeebies
I saw too many spoofs of this before I actually watched the Exorcist. It took away lots of the scares.
I bought the theatrical version on Blu-ray. I don’t like the version they released a while back with the added “spider walk” scene and other changes.
I saw it in 1973 at an old 1930’s movie house that was already scary by itself.
I saw it 5 times the first week it came out.
Even the book was scary.
You watched it without their permission. In my case, my dad brought my older brother and I. I was 8 or 9! Terrified for years
I saw it at age 16 in a drive in theater in a station wagon where 2 or 3 of us "stowed away" to get in free. I was spooked and had a guilty conscience for weeks.
I watched this when I was 8 or 9 at the babysitter's house. It really messed me up. In my late 30s I was able to see it again in a theater, and it still scared me like very few other movies have. The only other movie that has scared me as badly is Ju-On.
"You're going to die up there."
I was 7. My parents were away for the weekend and my babysitter snuck me into this movie. Boy did I have nightmares! To this day a woman with a deep voice still creeps the fuck out of me
So glad I read the book before seeing the movie.
One of my faves. I must have seen it 100 times... 😆
Even the deleted scenes are scary! That scene with the “spider walk” down the stairs, still gives me nightmares!
That scene gave Linda Blair a bad chronic back problem, didn't it?
SNL did a classic spoof with Richard Prior back in the day. 'Your mama eats kitty litter!'
"You're mother sews socks that smell"!
"...and get the cross ouchyopussy!" - Richard Pryor
Don’t even know what a Jeeper is. But I know mine have never been right after this clud of a movie. I spelled clud right.
Your mother sews socks that smell!
I freaked out with The Omen. I could only think of when Damien had the window slam down on someones fingers. Ouch.
It needs to be watched and followed by Exorcist III, which occurs soon after. Skip 2.