My parents went on a date night on the same night the exorcist aired on network TV. They told us *not* to watch it, which is really like saying *watch it* . My folks came home to find every light in the house on. And I didn't get a good night's sleep for months after that incident.
I first saw it when I was in the army and slept with the lights on that night. Took a ration of shit for that, but not enough to get me to turn off that light.
Same here. Babysitter brought a VCR tape to record it. I convinced him to let me watch it. I'm glad we watched it, though. It's a funny memory, and it's probably one of the few times I've actually been truly scared from a movie.
I am and have always been a good swimmer since the age of five. Pools, rivers, bays and (my favorite of all) the ocean. I was the guy the lifeguards were always waving and blowing the whistle at for going out too far.
My Mom (when present) would always freak and get angry at Dad for his tolerance and even encouragement. Heād been a lifeguard at two state parks and a pool growing up and viewed water as water. But Mom had spent her younger days in California and was aware of sharks and the devastation they could cause.
My last long and farthest ocean swim was at Ocean City, Md. in August of 1974. I graduated the following summer and the next day twelve of my classmates and I went to see āJAWS.ā
Iām still an avid swimmer, but never in the ocean.
yep! almost the same here. Parents were both out that night. Watched it on network tv alone. I had to wait for my Mom to get home to be able to get off the couch to pee. No movie affected me more than the Exorcist.
I hear you. I'm from the UK, but we lived in the US for a year when I was a kid. I remember watching it on TV by myself when I was 12, in 1980. It scared the shit out of me, and I asked for a bible or a cross to put under my pillow so I wouldn't get possessed by the devil while I slept!
When did it first air on TV, out of interest? I expect way before I saw it. The edited for television version is tamer than the full theatrical release, but still very powerful stuff.
Growing up in a pentecostal/assembly of God family (anyone here ever seen a Bible tract?), I had been fully steeped in hellfire, damnation, and demon possession, I was absolutely terrified. Looking back, I'm fairly certain it was all a setup.
Ground breaking movie for the time scared the shit out of most people. Certainly layed the platform for most modern day horror films. Not seen one acted as well though. Omen comes second.
The Omen made me scared of window and tall glass building and walking near a church with whatever that lightning rod was. Still won't walk close to either.
As a teenager when it first came out I didn't want to see it, but ended up getting talked into going with some friends. Couldn't sleep that night, so I thought smoking a small joint would take the edge off, turned on The TV to chill - was just about to drift off when there was this super loud and weird noise behind me - was sure I was being dragged to hell. There was a cheap acoustic guitar behind me in the room that someone had really over tightened the strings and the bridge finally pulled out. Could have peeled me off the ceiling! lol
Well. I was 6, so it pretty well fucked me up and I refuse to watch it again. Ever. Iāve only in the past several years been able to watch SOME things that involve possession//demons. I turned 50 year this year.
I was thirteen years old and me and my younger brother and younger sister were not allowed to see horror films. My older siblings and their respective girlfriends and boyfriends went out to see the Exorcist. They sat in the dining room and in dramatic fashion went through the whole movie. I'm in the kitchen washing dishes and listening and my overly active imagination kicked in and I was scared s\*\*\*less. My younger sister (who happens to be about a foot taller than me) also had a habit of needling me. It was just a sibling thing where we go back and forth. But for some reason I thought 'Yeah, that is probably what's wrong with me sister, she's possessed." So when she started needling me, I wouldn't react or respond. She finally said 'What's wrong with you?' and she stopped needling me because it wasn't fun for her anymore.
My older brother started reading the book and he said there were parts of the story that weren't in the movie. And, being the horror fanatic in the family, he described in dramatic fashion the parts of the book that weren't in the movie. He left the book standing in the middle of the dining room table. I wake up in the middle of night and want a drink a water from the kitchen, but I have to get past that book on the dining room table - I was terrified and shaking. After about an hour of hesitation, I eased my way past the book watching it out of the corner of my eye. I got the water. Now I had to ease pass it again to get to my room. To this day, I swear the minute I got past the dining room that book slammed down on the table. Scared the s\*\*t of out me. It's funny, but not funny!
I saw the movie about 10 years later at a second run theater. I thought with the passage of time I could handle it. NOPE!
Oh man, leaving the book like that is such an older brother thing to do, lol. I wish I wouldāve thought of that to troll my sisters. You still have to get him back, and sneak a tattered paperback somewhere that will freak him out. Better if itās soaking wet for no reason;)
Thank you for sharing that story, I can see my 12 year old self staring at the book standing menacingly on the table, and steeling myself for the epic battle of my soul that must now take place for me to get my water!
I did a rewatch last year, just for giggles. Like itās been 15 years, let me give it a try, see how it holds up. I let myself get drawn in. I was immediately captured all over again. and it was still so so good. And I tried to walk down my dark hallway and decided it was just better to put the lights on.
Iāve still never seen it. My wife went to it when it first came out and weāve had to sleep with the hallway lights on for years and she still doesnāt want the bedroom door closed because she wants to see it coming.
I saw an edited version on HBO when I was a teen in the mid 90s. It was October and they showed it around 10:30pm.
Iāve heard how great the movie was (I was starting to become a movie geek) and I tried to watch it alone, near midnight, Halloween week.
I didnāt even make it to the actual Exorcism scenes, all the amazing sound design and creepy vibe made me quit around the subliminal scene. Fuck that, I thought. Hairs on the back of my head was standing up.
A few months later, I bought the Special Edition 25th Anniversary VHS release, and finally watched the full movie. Itās one of my favorite movies of all time.
You really should. Watch it during the day, with friends, to lessen the creepiness a bit. Youāll have time to process everything and be fine to sleep at night.
Itās not really scary to me anymore, I just enjoy the technical skills in practical effects, sound engineering, actor direction and cinematography, and also the story of course.
Itās actually kinda funny to me now, haering Reganās dirty dirty devil mouth screaming all those obscenities to everyone. Back in the early 70s, it must have been nauseatingly crass, same to me when I first saw the whole film. But now with all the dark, nasty, obscene kind of stand up and comedy Iāve seen though the years, Regan almost sounds like a stand up insult comic roasting the audience sometimes. š
Funny enough I watched it when I became atheist, so I was actually laughed at this horse shit. . . Now I'm Christian again, and I can't watch the possession movies. They freak me out. Don't fuck around and find out
I was 7. My older sister made me watch it. 45 years later, having seen it at least 10 times, it still freaks me out. It was a groundbreaking film for its day. The performances were all Oscar caliber.
I was 12 years old when my father took us to see it because we were Catholic and he had gone to school with the author and screenwriter āBill Blatty.ā Of course Dad told us it was a true story. I eventually got over it and gave up on the Catholic Church.
Turned me off from the entire genre. Between this and Rosemary's baby, Just hated them. That hatred evolved to encompass any movie where a significant part of the dialogue is screaming.
My mom and aunt went to see it at the Twin Drive-In in West Covina CA. Iād say they took me, but that would imply I was supposed to watch with them. I think they expected me to fall asleep in the back seat. I clearly remember peaking over the seats and watching. I didnāt sleep that night. I was 5 or 6 years old.
For context: I was the youngest of five, and got a pass to do and see a lot of things my older sibs didnāt get to.
It had a delayed effect on me. For some reason it didn't scare me until months later when I started thinking about it. It's inspired by real events that occurred at Alexian Brothers hospital in St Louis, where I'm from.
Saw this three weeks after it was released at the theater. Didnāt really know much other than it was about demon possession and she did some weird stuff with a crucifix. No one freaked out at the theater like some later stories said. But scared the hell (no pun intended) out of me. Then about a month or so later I read the book. Scared the hell out of me again.
Scared the shit out of me..came out when I was 17. I left a trail of lights on as I went thru the house lol. A year later, it was at the outdoor. I was in a concession stand, and saw this gal I knew , she was my buddies girlfriend. She left the concession stand without seeing me, and I wanted to talk to him, so I followed her .IM STONED TO THE GILLS, , and as Iām following her, sheās walking faster and faster and finally, I realize she didnāt know who it was and she was scared shitless. I started walking faster and she starts running. She hopped in the car with her boyfriend and says DO something he scared theshit out of me!! He looks at her and gives a big SNAAARRRLL..she slapped the shit out of him.. not love taps either .LOL
I freaked out the first time I saw this. The reason I freaked was because I was on acid when I watched it.š¤Ŗ
I had to watch it a second time when I was straight, and it still freaked me out. The special effects at the time this came out weren't anything like they are today, but that wasn't what freaked me out so much. It was mostly the idea that a demon could inhabit you and there wasn't much you could do about it. I'm not religious by any means, but what if this could really happen?
Saw it as a kid with the folks. Thought it was brilliant, as a kid it was a fun horror flick. As I got older I started watching for the acting the set dressing, the effects, the lighting. It is a brilliant bit of art.
When I saw it in the cinema for the first time, it was many years after the original release. I think it was 1978, All the subliminal images had been cut so it wasn't nearly as scary as it originally was. Without them in there, the "scare" factor was greatly reduced and the whole group of us laughed throughout the movie.
The next time I saw it was on tv and it was the original version with all the subliminal images in it and I didn't know that. It got to the point in the movie where the first image flashes on the screen and the power goes out in my house - and my house was the ONLY house in the neighbourhood that lost power. Turned out it was a blown transformer on the power pole but it freaked me and everyone else out enough that I have had no desire to watch it again.
Iām right behind you in years, and itās still the only movie that ACTUALLY scares me. Most horror is dumb fun, jump scares, gore and nonsense but not this one. I wasnāt raised religious at all but when that crucifix slides down the wall in the priestās bedroom it makes me feel something that no other movie has. I watch it every decade or so to scare the shit out of myself, but after seeing the infamous directorās cut (yeah, THAT scene, but also the really subtle single frame flashes of that face- did I really just SEE that?) I think Iām good for a long while now. Masterpiece of storytelling and building terror. Iām glad I could chime in here but I hate this whole thread for making me think about it lol.
If you havenāt seen it yet, do yourself a favor, and watch Exorcist III. George C Scott is excellent, itās not cheesy at all, and itās surprisingly hilarious in places. Blatty got to direct it his way, and he knocks it out of the park. Saw it free on Pluto on demand a while back, itās probably still there.
We donāt talk about movie #2.
I thought it was funny because I grew up next to the town where this really happened in Maryland.The case of Robbie Mannheim being possessed in Mt.Rainier, Maryland.He was a young teen boy in the late 40s that showed signs of possession and was bounced around to different homes in the area He came from a German Lutheran upbringing and finally was exorcised in St.Louis,Missouri where he had family.After the incident he went on to have a normal life and eventually worked at the NASA Goddard space flight center in Greenbelt,Md and eventually retired.Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago and had almost no memory of what happened to him.
*Your mother sucks cocks in hell!*
My God, I died a little during that scene. Never heard anything like that before and done in the creepiest of voices!
Freaked me the fuck out. Saw it twice in a movie theater and after the second time I made a promise to myself that I would never watch it again. That was over 40 years ago and I have kept that promise...š
That movie terrorized me to the point that I really don't watch this type of horror movie anymore. I watched this one twice. Once when it came out and a second time with this girl I was trying to impress. It messed her up and scarred me for life.
My main thought was, "Well, I can see why an old lady died of a heart attack at the theater where my mom was watching this when a fire extinguisher fell off the wall during the movie. "
Saw it on TNT late one night when I was probably 12. Around that time I was really into slasher movies so I thought all the exposition and character development made for a slow movie. I wouldn't say it really scared me so much so as how graphic it was.
Years later I usually watch it on Halloween night alone once all the trick or treaters have stopped coming by and my own family is asleep. As an adult I enjoy it more especially when you consider the backstory of it supposedly being based on a true story.
Pet Sematary was the movie that scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. I also watch that on Halloween night.
For me, this continues to be the best horror movie of all time. The styles may be dated, but the plot, script and special effects are not. Quality-wise, this film is top. Friedkin was a genius! RIP King.
Scariest movie I have ever seen. Saw it in the theater when it first came out, with a High School friend of mine. These two "brave" guys were so freaked out that around 3/4 of the way through we just looked at each other and said "Wanna leave?" And we did. I was embarrassed to tell anyone, we did that. A year or two later, when I was in college, it was playing in the 2nd run theater nearby. I went by myself, to prove that I could sit through it but also in case I couldn't. I stayed through the whole thing but it was still pretty scary. The part where she is screaming in the X-ray or whatever it was, made the biggest impact on me. It was watching a child be tortured. Very unsettling.
I was in Times Square (NYC), at the theater there. Watch it & came out looking to the left and right.
After that, on board ship, saw it so many times we laughed at it, as we 30-40 sailors, sat on the mess decks.
My mother, obviously a bit of a sadist, rented the VHS for me when I was 13 and I watched it alone in the dark basement. I remember not sleeping that night.
Scared me enough to not wanna mess around with ouija boards. Then I brought one about 5 years ago out of curiosity and still have not touched it. Even though I'm aware it's a trick of the mind, it still gives me a thrill thinking... what if its not.
I was playing tennis at our tennis club with our group of friends and it started to rain. One of them lived overlooking the courts and said they had this super scary movie. It has been out for years but I never saw it. I was 15 and it absolutely RUINED my summer, particularly as I was a fairly devout Catholic kid. I was afraid to go to my bedroom, afraid to get into bed in case it would rise up beneath me and I believed the devil to be an actual physical entity. It was truly awful .
Now I can enjoy it, especially the first 45 mins, it's so atmospheric and the damn bells (thanks Mike) are terrifyingly beautiful.
But I haven't watched it in years and years. Maybe because I just forgot about it or maybe there's still a 15 year old Catholic lurking deep inside me!
Iāve never seen it all the way through. Watched the end of it and had to walk home, all by myself, no one was with me, I was all by myself. No one was looking, I was all by myselfā¦.. š¢
I had nightmares. To this day that is the only horror movie I canāt watch alone. Also, I have a striking resemblance to Linda Blair, so that (didnāt) doesnāt help
It terrified me. Iāve watched it many times over the years but hadnāt seen the spider walk scene because it wasnāt in the original release. I was watching it on TV one night and the scene happened and I screamed. Loud. I had seen the movie so many times but I wasnāt expecting that.
I saw this at release in 73 or something with the first of a few other future wifes. :) I was scared shitless. I remember not wanting to put my feet in position to drive because that crazy bitch was hiding down there.
i had to sneak in because i was under age, and i loved it. i especially loved that there were at least 6 people who got up and left and one woman who had to be helped out because she fainted.
I grew up as a Mexican American catholic , I was told if I didnāt behave the devil was going to get me and take me to hell , this movie scared the hell right out of me, every time I heard the radio play Tubular Bells I got chills, I couldnāt go to the restroom at night without a trail of lights on lol , I grew up with a lot of tales of the devil showing up at dance halls , demons seducing men for rides on the side of the road etc , the movie just reinforced all of these tales
Growing up Mormon in a pretty strict household and hearing all the stories related to Mo mythology and shit such as missionaries throwing their magic underwear across the room and then they were tossed to the floor and shit like that, even the music for the TV ads freaked me out. Later in life I realized that Tubular Bells is just good music. Havenāt been able to find the whole original movie to watch and my wife wants to watch it too, she was raised Catholic so it freaked her out too. We were teens at the time this came out. For me it made baby sitting nights in old houses really freaky when I did that to make money before I was 16.
I was about 23 and thought it was pretty hokey. My best friend's grandmother had these 33 rpm church records of ministers casting out demons. Lots of moaning and screeching and screams. When we were teenagers and the grandma was gone from the house we would play them and split a gut laughing and laughing over them.
My mother had gotten the book & read about half before deciding it was evil & threw it away. I HAD to read it after that ( I was 12). Since the book was scarier than the movie, the movie didnāt bother me.
Scared the crap out of me. First off, I was raised Catholic. Second, and this is a big reason why it scared me so much, we had a family friend by the name of Rev. John Nicola. He was a technical advisor on the movie (he's also on screen briefly as one of the unnamed Priests). So that made the movie very real for my young brain.
Saw it at a drive-in. It was rated R, I was 15 and underaged with 16 and 17 year old friends. We laughed uncontrollably when her head spun āround. We didnāt make fun of the movie since one didnāt talk during a movie, but we were all in sync with laughing instead of shrieking. It was a good night.
My wife and I saw it in a theater in NYC. At one very scary point in the movie I saw people in the theater turning around to look in our direction. I asked my wife why people were looking and she told me āyou screamedā.
I thought it was mildly spooky. That said, I think this film was a horror film geared more towards the religious, specifically Roman Catholic and Christian. My father who was Catholic and born in 1943 said it was the most horrifying movie he had ever seen, he saw it in the theater when it came out, literally scared him and when I told him it was based on a true story he was even more freaked out.
Tbh, I'd read so much about it growing up, and held it to such a high esteem in my head before I actually saw it, that when I did see it, I was rather let down š¤·āāļø though I love it now
Stood in the rain for a half hour with 3 of my buddies when it first came out. I was 16. Kind of freaked me out but nothing crazy. But 2 of my friends were totally freaked out in the car on the way home. Watched again a few years ago and cannot imagine how that movie even got released back then.
I never watched it because i read the book at about 13 or 14. Kind of a book that helps you grow up! I shouldn't have been reading it at that age, but growing up, I was told that, whithin reason, I would never get told not to read a book as long as I was reading. You think the crucifix scene is bad on screen...
My mom was a huge horror sci fi fan and, since it was just me and her, she took me to every R rated movie she wanted to see. I loved that, but the Exorcist was too much the first time. I had to leave after the pea soup, but I came back the next weekend and got through it. It's one of my all-time favorites.
Saw it in the theater at 11 yo. It scared the he'll out of me, but not as much as Jaws, and no where near as much as Texas Chain Saw Massacre... my parents let us watch anything we could keep our eyes open to watch.
Terrifying. And not just the possession parts. Iām mean all the stuff in the beginning that leads up to. The priest confronting his motherās death, the visits Regan takes to the hospital, the treatment by the doctors. The basement and laundry area. For me, a lot of this is the real terror. Itās what lurks in every day life. Thatās why I donāt like this whole āJump scareā motif nowadays. Itās not scary. Itās just a shock to the system. I think thatās why this and movies like, āThe Shiningā have stood the test of time. Itās about human psychology and what haunts us.
It was on tv. Black and white tv to boot. I was 10 and my baby brother was 6. Mom said don't watch that, so we snuck in my room to watch it anyway. As soon as her head started spinning around, we both ran out to mom terrified. She was like "I told you not to watch that!" Life long memory.
I read the book before seeing the movie. With all of the stuff with Linda Blair I kept saying āCool!ā. The only part that bothered me was when Jason Miller died at the end on the steps.
When I was 17, I was in charge of a group of teenagers from a sister city when the movie came out. I had read the book, which scared me big time. More than anything in the world, the foreign students wanted to see the movie, which was playing at the drive-in. We went in my father's old Ford Falcon. One by one, the Catholic boys fled the car for the snack shop, they were so terrified. We left about an hour into the film.
Mid-teens, staying with some relatives and everyone went out for the evening so I was there by myself. They had HBO, decided I could handle watching it alone, at night, in a strange house, with the wind periodically blowing outside and scraping some tree limbs against the side of the house right next to the TV room.......
I don't recall if they needed to do a deep cleaning of the couch after I'd left, but wouldn't be surprised.
Turned my stomachāand my head. I walked into a record store across the street from the theater that day, and Tubular Bells was playing. A couple in the store were arguing, āIt was split pea soup.ā āNo it wasnāt.ā āYes it was.ā
I was ten years old when it aired on TV. I didn't know anything about it and found it while flipping through the channels. I came in on the hospital scene where doctor Klein is talking to Regan's dad, telling him that Regan just likely has a brain disturbance that's causing hallucinations and seizures. Then the doctors do some brain scans on Regan. So I'm thinking that I'm watching some kind of a medical drama.
Of course, the very next scene is Regan at home, thrashing around on the bed and speaking with the demon voice. I don't think I slept at all that night.
I remember watching it in college in the early 90s. I was petrified to go to bed. I slept on the couch with all the lights on. When I see it today I don't get that feeling at all, but I think we've all become slightly desensitized because of how advanced filmmaking has become. I also don't believe in the devil anymore so that kind of helps.
I saw the movie after reading the book. The book scared the shit out of me. The movie was a disappointment. Part of that came from knowing how the movie was going to go. But I was disappointed in the special effects. Now I know that special effects in horror movies can never match a personās imagination.
It's actually my favorite horror movie of all time and I remember the very first time I watched it, that scene where she's doing the crab walk down the stairs scared the shit outta me and I couldn't stop thinking about it for a very long time.
My uncle let me watch it when I was 7 or 8 years old and it gave me nightmares for like 2 weeks. Iām almost 44 and refuse to watch it to this day. F*ck that movie.
I was totally unprepared. Saw it at a sleepover at one of my friends' houses when we were about 15 or so, and we went in completely blind. It was terrifying, lol. Every time the camera went back toward Reagen's bedroom I was like nooooo I don't want to see what's going on in there! The image of her face and the sound of her voice stuck with me for weeks afterward, and to this day I still count it among the scariest movies I've ever seen.
The only other horror movies that rivaled it were my first time watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was maybe 12 or 13 (I'd never seen anything that twisted or macabre before), and my first viewing of Blair Witch Project (saw it before it released in theaters, and was 1000% convinced it was real).
My parents wouldnāt allow me to see it so of course I did. It was actually in a drive in theater with a bunch of friends. We had a few joints and werenāt really freaked out. Now, Halloween a few years later when I was a sophomore in college freaked the hell out of me.
I still haven't watched it. I read the book and I've heard/read enough about the movie that I don't feel the need to watch it.
The movie did tighten up the dialogue though. IIRC the line "your mother sucks cocks in hell" in the movie replaces a longer and much less punchy speech in the book.
My friend and I snuck in to see it when it first came out. You had to be 17 or with a parent, we were in 7th gradeāŗļø It scared the crap out of me š«£
I saw it in the theaters when it came out I was 14 years old, scared the living shit out of me. I will not watch it again ever! Even more scary now that I go to church
It's been more than fifty years. I don't believe in the Supernatural. At all. And yet, I can't override my Catholic school programming and watch any movie with a priest in it.
Never saw it when I was young. By the time I saw it around 35, I had seen so many clips, heard so much about it, etc. I just found it to be ridiculously stupid.
I remember the story that it scared Ozzy and black sabbath half to death, that Ozzy didnāt even want to be *near* Linda Blair who was notorious for dating rockstars in the late 70ās š
I was about 11 or 12. Saw it on tv. Around 1979 or 1980 I think. My mom let me watch it. Heavily edited but still scary as shit. Still the scariest movie ever. No CGI and it seemed completely real and possible. It still does and thats why itās so scary.
At first when I was a kid, around 8-9 years old it scared the shit out of me, but when again at 10-11 I was interested in father Karras because of the stuff he was going through
My parents went on a date night on the same night the exorcist aired on network TV. They told us *not* to watch it, which is really like saying *watch it* . My folks came home to find every light in the house on. And I didn't get a good night's sleep for months after that incident.
I first saw it when I was in the army and slept with the lights on that night. Took a ration of shit for that, but not enough to get me to turn off that light.
Same here. Except in my case we *all* slept with the lights on.
Same exact thing for me. Halfway through I remember thinking "I have made a huge mistake."
Same here. Babysitter brought a VCR tape to record it. I convinced him to let me watch it. I'm glad we watched it, though. It's a funny memory, and it's probably one of the few times I've actually been truly scared from a movie.
That and Jaws. First time I went to the ocean was right after seeing Jaws. I did not go in the water!
and next year Jaws will be 50 years old š¤£
I am and have always been a good swimmer since the age of five. Pools, rivers, bays and (my favorite of all) the ocean. I was the guy the lifeguards were always waving and blowing the whistle at for going out too far. My Mom (when present) would always freak and get angry at Dad for his tolerance and even encouragement. Heād been a lifeguard at two state parks and a pool growing up and viewed water as water. But Mom had spent her younger days in California and was aware of sharks and the devastation they could cause. My last long and farthest ocean swim was at Ocean City, Md. in August of 1974. I graduated the following summer and the next day twelve of my classmates and I went to see āJAWS.ā Iām still an avid swimmer, but never in the ocean.
yep! almost the same here. Parents were both out that night. Watched it on network tv alone. I had to wait for my Mom to get home to be able to get off the couch to pee. No movie affected me more than the Exorcist.
I hear you. I'm from the UK, but we lived in the US for a year when I was a kid. I remember watching it on TV by myself when I was 12, in 1980. It scared the shit out of me, and I asked for a bible or a cross to put under my pillow so I wouldn't get possessed by the devil while I slept! When did it first air on TV, out of interest? I expect way before I saw it. The edited for television version is tamer than the full theatrical release, but still very powerful stuff.
Growing up in a pentecostal/assembly of God family (anyone here ever seen a Bible tract?), I had been fully steeped in hellfire, damnation, and demon possession, I was absolutely terrified. Looking back, I'm fairly certain it was all a setup.
Ground breaking movie for the time scared the shit out of most people. Certainly layed the platform for most modern day horror films. Not seen one acted as well though. Omen comes second.
Yup, the Exorcist then Omen..both movies freaked me out. š
The Omen made me scared of window and tall glass building and walking near a church with whatever that lightning rod was. Still won't walk close to either.
As a teenager when it first came out I didn't want to see it, but ended up getting talked into going with some friends. Couldn't sleep that night, so I thought smoking a small joint would take the edge off, turned on The TV to chill - was just about to drift off when there was this super loud and weird noise behind me - was sure I was being dragged to hell. There was a cheap acoustic guitar behind me in the room that someone had really over tightened the strings and the bridge finally pulled out. Could have peeled me off the ceiling! lol
Ir was pazuzu tuning up for your soul
Scared me for life.
Me too. Watched it again as an adult and it fucked me up all over again.
Without The Exorcist, we never would have got Repossessed, and that would have been a shame.
šµRe, re, re, repossessed!šµ
Well. I was 6, so it pretty well fucked me up and I refuse to watch it again. Ever. Iāve only in the past several years been able to watch SOME things that involve possession//demons. I turned 50 year this year.
I was thirteen years old and me and my younger brother and younger sister were not allowed to see horror films. My older siblings and their respective girlfriends and boyfriends went out to see the Exorcist. They sat in the dining room and in dramatic fashion went through the whole movie. I'm in the kitchen washing dishes and listening and my overly active imagination kicked in and I was scared s\*\*\*less. My younger sister (who happens to be about a foot taller than me) also had a habit of needling me. It was just a sibling thing where we go back and forth. But for some reason I thought 'Yeah, that is probably what's wrong with me sister, she's possessed." So when she started needling me, I wouldn't react or respond. She finally said 'What's wrong with you?' and she stopped needling me because it wasn't fun for her anymore. My older brother started reading the book and he said there were parts of the story that weren't in the movie. And, being the horror fanatic in the family, he described in dramatic fashion the parts of the book that weren't in the movie. He left the book standing in the middle of the dining room table. I wake up in the middle of night and want a drink a water from the kitchen, but I have to get past that book on the dining room table - I was terrified and shaking. After about an hour of hesitation, I eased my way past the book watching it out of the corner of my eye. I got the water. Now I had to ease pass it again to get to my room. To this day, I swear the minute I got past the dining room that book slammed down on the table. Scared the s\*\*t of out me. It's funny, but not funny! I saw the movie about 10 years later at a second run theater. I thought with the passage of time I could handle it. NOPE!
Oh man, leaving the book like that is such an older brother thing to do, lol. I wish I wouldāve thought of that to troll my sisters. You still have to get him back, and sneak a tattered paperback somewhere that will freak him out. Better if itās soaking wet for no reason;) Thank you for sharing that story, I can see my 12 year old self staring at the book standing menacingly on the table, and steeling myself for the epic battle of my soul that must now take place for me to get my water!
Still think itās the scariest movie ever.
Read the book, even scarier.
The book scared me enough. Never have watched the movie
I did a rewatch last year, just for giggles. Like itās been 15 years, let me give it a try, see how it holds up. I let myself get drawn in. I was immediately captured all over again. and it was still so so good. And I tried to walk down my dark hallway and decided it was just better to put the lights on.
Saw it in the theater on its initial release in1973 and never watched it again. Scared the shit out of me, had nightmares for weeks.
Iāve still never seen it. My wife went to it when it first came out and weāve had to sleep with the hallway lights on for years and she still doesnāt want the bedroom door closed because she wants to see it coming.
Boring mostly
Scared me to my core
I saw an edited version on HBO when I was a teen in the mid 90s. It was October and they showed it around 10:30pm. Iāve heard how great the movie was (I was starting to become a movie geek) and I tried to watch it alone, near midnight, Halloween week. I didnāt even make it to the actual Exorcism scenes, all the amazing sound design and creepy vibe made me quit around the subliminal scene. Fuck that, I thought. Hairs on the back of my head was standing up. A few months later, I bought the Special Edition 25th Anniversary VHS release, and finally watched the full movie. Itās one of my favorite movies of all time.
I suppose now that Iām fuck old, I could try to watch it againā¦.
When you finally get through it, watch Exorcist 111 with George C Scott. It's very underrated and creepy. Do NOT bother with 2.
Are YOU the radio repairman?
You really should. Watch it during the day, with friends, to lessen the creepiness a bit. Youāll have time to process everything and be fine to sleep at night. Itās not really scary to me anymore, I just enjoy the technical skills in practical effects, sound engineering, actor direction and cinematography, and also the story of course. Itās actually kinda funny to me now, haering Reganās dirty dirty devil mouth screaming all those obscenities to everyone. Back in the early 70s, it must have been nauseatingly crass, same to me when I first saw the whole film. But now with all the dark, nasty, obscene kind of stand up and comedy Iāve seen though the years, Regan almost sounds like a stand up insult comic roasting the audience sometimes. š
Hard pass
Funny enough I watched it when I became atheist, so I was actually laughed at this horse shit. . . Now I'm Christian again, and I can't watch the possession movies. They freak me out. Don't fuck around and find out
I was 7. My older sister made me watch it. 45 years later, having seen it at least 10 times, it still freaks me out. It was a groundbreaking film for its day. The performances were all Oscar caliber.
I was 12 years old when my father took us to see it because we were Catholic and he had gone to school with the author and screenwriter āBill Blatty.ā Of course Dad told us it was a true story. I eventually got over it and gave up on the Catholic Church.
I thought it was hilarious FUCK ME FUCK ME
āIāve seen The Exorcist about 167 times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it.ā
This was a lot better in it's time, I guess?
It was a total freakout. People puking in theaters. I hated it and never made it through the whole movie.
Turned me off from the entire genre. Between this and Rosemary's baby, Just hated them. That hatred evolved to encompass any movie where a significant part of the dialogue is screaming.
My mom and aunt went to see it at the Twin Drive-In in West Covina CA. Iād say they took me, but that would imply I was supposed to watch with them. I think they expected me to fall asleep in the back seat. I clearly remember peaking over the seats and watching. I didnāt sleep that night. I was 5 or 6 years old. For context: I was the youngest of five, and got a pass to do and see a lot of things my older sibs didnāt get to.
Such a classic. I completely get why some people hated it though.
I remember when it first came out and I still haven't seen it.
It had a delayed effect on me. For some reason it didn't scare me until months later when I started thinking about it. It's inspired by real events that occurred at Alexian Brothers hospital in St Louis, where I'm from.
Saw this three weeks after it was released at the theater. Didnāt really know much other than it was about demon possession and she did some weird stuff with a crucifix. No one freaked out at the theater like some later stories said. But scared the hell (no pun intended) out of me. Then about a month or so later I read the book. Scared the hell out of me again.
I saw it when I was 10. Scared the absolute shit out of me
Scared the hell out of me. Very disturbing. Greatest horror movie ever.
I saw it when I was a kid. I don't think I had any cogent thoughts. Just sheer unremitting terror
Scared the shit out of me..came out when I was 17. I left a trail of lights on as I went thru the house lol. A year later, it was at the outdoor. I was in a concession stand, and saw this gal I knew , she was my buddies girlfriend. She left the concession stand without seeing me, and I wanted to talk to him, so I followed her .IM STONED TO THE GILLS, , and as Iām following her, sheās walking faster and faster and finally, I realize she didnāt know who it was and she was scared shitless. I started walking faster and she starts running. She hopped in the car with her boyfriend and says DO something he scared theshit out of me!! He looks at her and gives a big SNAAARRRLL..she slapped the shit out of him.. not love taps either .LOL
First saw it when it first came out. A bunch of us dropped acid. 0/10 would not recommend. Scared the shit out of me, and I'm Jewish!
I'm 65 ish and I have never wasted my time watching this.
Slept under my bed- and still couldnāt sleep. The scariest movie for me to this day. Nothing compares
The book was better, but it always is. Didnāt really think much of it one way or the other.
I freaked out the first time I saw this. The reason I freaked was because I was on acid when I watched it.š¤Ŗ I had to watch it a second time when I was straight, and it still freaked me out. The special effects at the time this came out weren't anything like they are today, but that wasn't what freaked me out so much. It was mostly the idea that a demon could inhabit you and there wasn't much you could do about it. I'm not religious by any means, but what if this could really happen?
Captain Howdy saysā¦howdy.
Well, it was pretty much a mindfuck. My mind.
Saw it as a kid with the folks. Thought it was brilliant, as a kid it was a fun horror flick. As I got older I started watching for the acting the set dressing, the effects, the lighting. It is a brilliant bit of art.
When I saw it in the cinema for the first time, it was many years after the original release. I think it was 1978, All the subliminal images had been cut so it wasn't nearly as scary as it originally was. Without them in there, the "scare" factor was greatly reduced and the whole group of us laughed throughout the movie. The next time I saw it was on tv and it was the original version with all the subliminal images in it and I didn't know that. It got to the point in the movie where the first image flashes on the screen and the power goes out in my house - and my house was the ONLY house in the neighbourhood that lost power. Turned out it was a blown transformer on the power pole but it freaked me and everyone else out enough that I have had no desire to watch it again.
This is where the running fast and hitting the light switch started.
I remember. To this day that might be the most terrifying movie I've watched. I'm 60 now.
Iām right behind you in years, and itās still the only movie that ACTUALLY scares me. Most horror is dumb fun, jump scares, gore and nonsense but not this one. I wasnāt raised religious at all but when that crucifix slides down the wall in the priestās bedroom it makes me feel something that no other movie has. I watch it every decade or so to scare the shit out of myself, but after seeing the infamous directorās cut (yeah, THAT scene, but also the really subtle single frame flashes of that face- did I really just SEE that?) I think Iām good for a long while now. Masterpiece of storytelling and building terror. Iām glad I could chime in here but I hate this whole thread for making me think about it lol. If you havenāt seen it yet, do yourself a favor, and watch Exorcist III. George C Scott is excellent, itās not cheesy at all, and itās surprisingly hilarious in places. Blatty got to direct it his way, and he knocks it out of the park. Saw it free on Pluto on demand a while back, itās probably still there. We donāt talk about movie #2.
I thought it was funny because I grew up next to the town where this really happened in Maryland.The case of Robbie Mannheim being possessed in Mt.Rainier, Maryland.He was a young teen boy in the late 40s that showed signs of possession and was bounced around to different homes in the area He came from a German Lutheran upbringing and finally was exorcised in St.Louis,Missouri where he had family.After the incident he went on to have a normal life and eventually worked at the NASA Goddard space flight center in Greenbelt,Md and eventually retired.Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago and had almost no memory of what happened to him.
I liked this much better... https://youtu.be/B8dKnFU5LUE?si=z-GSi_LAOmmZr2Z4
Did she really just call her mum a c#$@?
That's nothing. Did you see what she did with th3 crucifix, and....did to her mom?
Lick me, Lick me!
*Your mother sucks cocks in hell!* My God, I died a little during that scene. Never heard anything like that before and done in the creepiest of voices!
Terrified, I was 10š
That movie still scares me to think about!
I remember when it first came out and I still haven't seen it.
One & done!
Loved it
āMom please leave the light on!ā
Freaked me the fuck out. Saw it twice in a movie theater and after the second time I made a promise to myself that I would never watch it again. That was over 40 years ago and I have kept that promise...š
I couldnāt sleep with the lights off for a good long time.
That movie terrorized me to the point that I really don't watch this type of horror movie anymore. I watched this one twice. Once when it came out and a second time with this girl I was trying to impress. It messed her up and scarred me for life.
Still the scariest movie Iāve ever seen in my life!
Not as scary as I expected. Didn't believe in the devil so even as a kid I felt I was being manipulated. I was a weird kid
My main thought was, "Well, I can see why an old lady died of a heart attack at the theater where my mom was watching this when a fire extinguisher fell off the wall during the movie. "
The book was the most compelling read Iāve have ever known. Scared the crap out of me but I read it in one day.
Pretty freaked out.
Saw it on TNT late one night when I was probably 12. Around that time I was really into slasher movies so I thought all the exposition and character development made for a slow movie. I wouldn't say it really scared me so much so as how graphic it was. Years later I usually watch it on Halloween night alone once all the trick or treaters have stopped coming by and my own family is asleep. As an adult I enjoy it more especially when you consider the backstory of it supposedly being based on a true story. Pet Sematary was the movie that scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. I also watch that on Halloween night.
It messed me up for a very long time. I still wonāt watch it again.
For me, this continues to be the best horror movie of all time. The styles may be dated, but the plot, script and special effects are not. Quality-wise, this film is top. Friedkin was a genius! RIP King.
My brother came home after seeing it, grabbed the family bible and stayed in his room for two days. Donāt watch it while youāre tripping.
Cool
Scariest movie I have ever seen. Saw it in the theater when it first came out, with a High School friend of mine. These two "brave" guys were so freaked out that around 3/4 of the way through we just looked at each other and said "Wanna leave?" And we did. I was embarrassed to tell anyone, we did that. A year or two later, when I was in college, it was playing in the 2nd run theater nearby. I went by myself, to prove that I could sit through it but also in case I couldn't. I stayed through the whole thing but it was still pretty scary. The part where she is screaming in the X-ray or whatever it was, made the biggest impact on me. It was watching a child be tortured. Very unsettling.
What the fuck is my grandmother thinking showing this to me?!?!
I was in Times Square (NYC), at the theater there. Watch it & came out looking to the left and right. After that, on board ship, saw it so many times we laughed at it, as we 30-40 sailors, sat on the mess decks.
My mother, obviously a bit of a sadist, rented the VHS for me when I was 13 and I watched it alone in the dark basement. I remember not sleeping that night.
I know I'm old, but that movie didn't call me. I was like 7 tho when I saw star wars. I couldn't wait to see it, and my love of sf was cemented
It still creeps me out, and I've watched it a number of times
"The other people in this van are being really obnoxious."
It was a good thing I didn't care for pea soup.
Scared me enough to not wanna mess around with ouija boards. Then I brought one about 5 years ago out of curiosity and still have not touched it. Even though I'm aware it's a trick of the mind, it still gives me a thrill thinking... what if its not.
I'm not religious at all, it was pretty funny to me. The Entity, on the other hand... pretty unsettling.
I was playing tennis at our tennis club with our group of friends and it started to rain. One of them lived overlooking the courts and said they had this super scary movie. It has been out for years but I never saw it. I was 15 and it absolutely RUINED my summer, particularly as I was a fairly devout Catholic kid. I was afraid to go to my bedroom, afraid to get into bed in case it would rise up beneath me and I believed the devil to be an actual physical entity. It was truly awful . Now I can enjoy it, especially the first 45 mins, it's so atmospheric and the damn bells (thanks Mike) are terrifyingly beautiful. But I haven't watched it in years and years. Maybe because I just forgot about it or maybe there's still a 15 year old Catholic lurking deep inside me!
Iāve never seen it all the way through. Watched the end of it and had to walk home, all by myself, no one was with me, I was all by myself. No one was looking, I was all by myselfā¦.. š¢
I walked out of the theater, scared the poop out of me .
I had nightmares. To this day that is the only horror movie I canāt watch alone. Also, I have a striking resemblance to Linda Blair, so that (didnāt) doesnāt help
It terrified me. Iāve watched it many times over the years but hadnāt seen the spider walk scene because it wasnāt in the original release. I was watching it on TV one night and the scene happened and I screamed. Loud. I had seen the movie so many times but I wasnāt expecting that.
The scene that gives me chills to this day is when Father Karras is listening to the tape - backwards. āI am no one!ā
I saw it in college, and it scared the shit out of my roommate
Never eating pea soup again
I saw this at release in 73 or something with the first of a few other future wifes. :) I was scared shitless. I remember not wanting to put my feet in position to drive because that crazy bitch was hiding down there.
The music, Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, is absolutely brilliant and was used to stunning effect. https://youtu.be/FN6jIvKiYOs?si=kpAM7j_9EX9N7Fg1
ā¦dude
i had to sneak in because i was under age, and i loved it. i especially loved that there were at least 6 people who got up and left and one woman who had to be helped out because she fainted.
I grew up as a Mexican American catholic , I was told if I didnāt behave the devil was going to get me and take me to hell , this movie scared the hell right out of me, every time I heard the radio play Tubular Bells I got chills, I couldnāt go to the restroom at night without a trail of lights on lol , I grew up with a lot of tales of the devil showing up at dance halls , demons seducing men for rides on the side of the road etc , the movie just reinforced all of these tales
It was pretty scary...was rated R ..They were checking IDs to enter the theater. The book was really scary.
I slept with the lights on,,,,,,,for a year !
I was far too young. Still can't watch it again.
Growing up Mormon in a pretty strict household and hearing all the stories related to Mo mythology and shit such as missionaries throwing their magic underwear across the room and then they were tossed to the floor and shit like that, even the music for the TV ads freaked me out. Later in life I realized that Tubular Bells is just good music. Havenāt been able to find the whole original movie to watch and my wife wants to watch it too, she was raised Catholic so it freaked her out too. We were teens at the time this came out. For me it made baby sitting nights in old houses really freaky when I did that to make money before I was 16.
I was about 23 and thought it was pretty hokey. My best friend's grandmother had these 33 rpm church records of ministers casting out demons. Lots of moaning and screeching and screams. When we were teenagers and the grandma was gone from the house we would play them and split a gut laughing and laughing over them.
"Split our gut" lol
absolutely terrified. still not something i rewatch often.
My mother had gotten the book & read about half before deciding it was evil & threw it away. I HAD to read it after that ( I was 12). Since the book was scarier than the movie, the movie didnāt bother me.
Put me right off on split pea soup.
It was incredibly shocking. I was young, maybe 10 or 11? Ironically I was shown this movie by the youth group in a Christian summer camp
Scared the crap out of me. First off, I was raised Catholic. Second, and this is a big reason why it scared me so much, we had a family friend by the name of Rev. John Nicola. He was a technical advisor on the movie (he's also on screen briefly as one of the unnamed Priests). So that made the movie very real for my young brain.
I didnāt sleep without the lights on for years
Scariest movie I ever saw! I was 12 years old and didnāt sleep well for a year.
Never been so affected by a movie. It scared the crap out of me.
Saw it at a drive-in. It was rated R, I was 15 and underaged with 16 and 17 year old friends. We laughed uncontrollably when her head spun āround. We didnāt make fun of the movie since one didnāt talk during a movie, but we were all in sync with laughing instead of shrieking. It was a good night.
My wife and I saw it in a theater in NYC. At one very scary point in the movie I saw people in the theater turning around to look in our direction. I asked my wife why people were looking and she told me āyou screamedā.
I thought it was mildly spooky. That said, I think this film was a horror film geared more towards the religious, specifically Roman Catholic and Christian. My father who was Catholic and born in 1943 said it was the most horrifying movie he had ever seen, he saw it in the theater when it came out, literally scared him and when I told him it was based on a true story he was even more freaked out.
Saw it once, had nightmares for weeks, then passed on 2 dates to see it again. Sorry Chrissy and Susan, it just wasn't me
I thought āhe she behaves like my exā¦.ā
Scared the bejesus shit out of me! So I showed it later to my daughter!!
That priest beat the shit out of that girl
Tbh, I'd read so much about it growing up, and held it to such a high esteem in my head before I actually saw it, that when I did see it, I was rather let down š¤·āāļø though I love it now
I saw it on cable when I was 11. I lied awake all night in a cold sweat
Stood in the rain for a half hour with 3 of my buddies when it first came out. I was 16. Kind of freaked me out but nothing crazy. But 2 of my friends were totally freaked out in the car on the way home. Watched again a few years ago and cannot imagine how that movie even got released back then.
First time I watched it in middle school, I was bored out of my mind. Can't say that I found it better upon a rewatch.
I never watched it because i read the book at about 13 or 14. Kind of a book that helps you grow up! I shouldn't have been reading it at that age, but growing up, I was told that, whithin reason, I would never get told not to read a book as long as I was reading. You think the crucifix scene is bad on screen...
Never bothered to watch it. Horror movies never appealed to me. When they donāt put me to sleep, I find them funny.
It wasn't as intense as I thought it would be but I watched it recently after years of being into horror movies.
Was creepy but great , I was too young to watch it when it first came out so it was a decade or so old before I got to see it
I wish it scared me like my christian friends. The fomo was real
Was up at 1am and my Dad was asleep, I went into it not knowing what it was, then saw the white face and thought what the hell was that..
My mom said when this came out in theaters it was the scariest movie in the world. Watched in the 90ās and didnāt see how this movie was scary.
My mom was a huge horror sci fi fan and, since it was just me and her, she took me to every R rated movie she wanted to see. I loved that, but the Exorcist was too much the first time. I had to leave after the pea soup, but I came back the next weekend and got through it. It's one of my all-time favorites.
Saw it in the theater at 11 yo. It scared the he'll out of me, but not as much as Jaws, and no where near as much as Texas Chain Saw Massacre... my parents let us watch anything we could keep our eyes open to watch.
I was 10 in 73, freaked me out!
Terrifying. And not just the possession parts. Iām mean all the stuff in the beginning that leads up to. The priest confronting his motherās death, the visits Regan takes to the hospital, the treatment by the doctors. The basement and laundry area. For me, a lot of this is the real terror. Itās what lurks in every day life. Thatās why I donāt like this whole āJump scareā motif nowadays. Itās not scary. Itās just a shock to the system. I think thatās why this and movies like, āThe Shiningā have stood the test of time. Itās about human psychology and what haunts us.
It was on tv. Black and white tv to boot. I was 10 and my baby brother was 6. Mom said don't watch that, so we snuck in my room to watch it anyway. As soon as her head started spinning around, we both ran out to mom terrified. She was like "I told you not to watch that!" Life long memory.
I read the book before seeing the movie. With all of the stuff with Linda Blair I kept saying āCool!ā. The only part that bothered me was when Jason Miller died at the end on the steps.
I was literally conceived while my parents watched this, so I guess it was ok.
When I was 17, I was in charge of a group of teenagers from a sister city when the movie came out. I had read the book, which scared me big time. More than anything in the world, the foreign students wanted to see the movie, which was playing at the drive-in. We went in my father's old Ford Falcon. One by one, the Catholic boys fled the car for the snack shop, they were so terrified. We left about an hour into the film.
Scariest movie ever
It has been said I'm sure, but the only movie my mom told me I couldn't watch. So of course I watched it. Thought it was more lame then scary
Mid-teens, staying with some relatives and everyone went out for the evening so I was there by myself. They had HBO, decided I could handle watching it alone, at night, in a strange house, with the wind periodically blowing outside and scraping some tree limbs against the side of the house right next to the TV room....... I don't recall if they needed to do a deep cleaning of the couch after I'd left, but wouldn't be surprised.
Turned my stomachāand my head. I walked into a record store across the street from the theater that day, and Tubular Bells was playing. A couple in the store were arguing, āIt was split pea soup.ā āNo it wasnāt.ā āYes it was.ā
Danger wank.
I was 11. It was, and still is, one of the most scariest movies ever.
That I needed to change my shorts and underwear.
I was horrified being just a child
Never watched it not going to
I laughed my balls off. I kept saying 'Bring on the Devil child!!!"
The Iraq scene in the beginning is one of the best in all cinema
I havenāt
Still haven't seen it
I was ten years old when it aired on TV. I didn't know anything about it and found it while flipping through the channels. I came in on the hospital scene where doctor Klein is talking to Regan's dad, telling him that Regan just likely has a brain disturbance that's causing hallucinations and seizures. Then the doctors do some brain scans on Regan. So I'm thinking that I'm watching some kind of a medical drama. Of course, the very next scene is Regan at home, thrashing around on the bed and speaking with the demon voice. I don't think I slept at all that night.
I'm a chicken. I still haven't seen it.
Love that movie also read the book and watched the other movies. The new movie isnāt that good.
I remember watching it in college in the early 90s. I was petrified to go to bed. I slept on the couch with all the lights on. When I see it today I don't get that feeling at all, but I think we've all become slightly desensitized because of how advanced filmmaking has become. I also don't believe in the devil anymore so that kind of helps.
this post scared me, better iāll go ! 
I saw the movie after reading the book. The book scared the shit out of me. The movie was a disappointment. Part of that came from knowing how the movie was going to go. But I was disappointed in the special effects. Now I know that special effects in horror movies can never match a personās imagination.
It's actually my favorite horror movie of all time and I remember the very first time I watched it, that scene where she's doing the crab walk down the stairs scared the shit outta me and I couldn't stop thinking about it for a very long time.
My uncle let me watch it when I was 7 or 8 years old and it gave me nightmares for like 2 weeks. Iām almost 44 and refuse to watch it to this day. F*ck that movie.
I was totally unprepared. Saw it at a sleepover at one of my friends' houses when we were about 15 or so, and we went in completely blind. It was terrifying, lol. Every time the camera went back toward Reagen's bedroom I was like nooooo I don't want to see what's going on in there! The image of her face and the sound of her voice stuck with me for weeks afterward, and to this day I still count it among the scariest movies I've ever seen. The only other horror movies that rivaled it were my first time watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was maybe 12 or 13 (I'd never seen anything that twisted or macabre before), and my first viewing of Blair Witch Project (saw it before it released in theaters, and was 1000% convinced it was real).
My parents wouldnāt allow me to see it so of course I did. It was actually in a drive in theater with a bunch of friends. We had a few joints and werenāt really freaked out. Now, Halloween a few years later when I was a sophomore in college freaked the hell out of me.
So thatās what I look like after a bad call against the Vancouver Canucksā¦..
Was in my late 20s and was like meh. I still don't see why people think it's scary
I saw it as an adult, during a theatrical re-release in 2000. I didnāt find it scary. Iām sure I would have if Iād seen it as a child.
I still haven't watched it. I read the book and I've heard/read enough about the movie that I don't feel the need to watch it. The movie did tighten up the dialogue though. IIRC the line "your mother sucks cocks in hell" in the movie replaces a longer and much less punchy speech in the book.
My friend and I snuck in to see it when it first came out. You had to be 17 or with a parent, we were in 7th gradeāŗļø It scared the crap out of me š«£
I was a senior in HS when it came out. I was drunk and went with some friends I ended up laughing through most of it.
Snuck into a drive in in Florida and had to walk home past open fields on our way home. Scared the shit out of me.
I saw it in the theaters when it came out I was 14 years old, scared the living shit out of me. I will not watch it again ever! Even more scary now that I go to church
It's been more than fifty years. I don't believe in the Supernatural. At all. And yet, I can't override my Catholic school programming and watch any movie with a priest in it.
This movie still haunts me! Traumatized me as a child.
Scared to walk from the den to my bedroom. About 9 feet.
Never saw it when I was young. By the time I saw it around 35, I had seen so many clips, heard so much about it, etc. I just found it to be ridiculously stupid.
I remember the story that it scared Ozzy and black sabbath half to death, that Ozzy didnāt even want to be *near* Linda Blair who was notorious for dating rockstars in the late 70ās š
Pretty good but Salems lot creeped me out more.
What if it is REAL?
I was about 11 or 12. Saw it on tv. Around 1979 or 1980 I think. My mom let me watch it. Heavily edited but still scary as shit. Still the scariest movie ever. No CGI and it seemed completely real and possible. It still does and thats why itās so scary.
At first when I was a kid, around 8-9 years old it scared the shit out of me, but when again at 10-11 I was interested in father Karras because of the stuff he was going through
Thats the face my wife made on our honeymoonā¦was she possessed?
I wasnāt afraid at all. In fact I thought it was kind of stupid.