The Exorcist 18 121mins Dir William Friedkin WHAT better weekend to re-release William Friedkin's monumental horror flick The Exorcist?

Oh, the stories that surround this one. The fires on set when it was being filmed; the deaths of various cast members while in production; the fact that a poster-board containing an advertisment for the film mysteriously fell to the floor at a cinema in Wales during a preview. You've probably doomed your whole household just by bringing this review up on your screen. Or not.

Director William Friedkin dismisses all the supernatural stories that surround his film. It took two years to get the whole thing going, he says, of course people are going to die during that time. It would be a shame to let the myth overshadow a classic and genuinely disturbing movie.

William Peter Blatty's tale was inspired by the century's only documented case of a posession in Maryland in 1949. He took some elements of that incident and brought it bang up to date -- well, set in 1973 when the film was made.

More frightening than anything conjured up on screen are the 1970s fashions, but that's not too difficult. The Exorcist is not a rubber-pants movie that makes you jump from the seat. It is far more effective. It creeps into your subconcious and mucks around in there, so that hours after you leave you will feel cold and sweaty. Nasty.

Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) has been acting a bit oddly -- violent spasms that shake the bed, swearing in a wheezy, deep voice. Doctors say she has a leesion on the brain but her mum, successful actress Chris MacNeill (Ellen Burstyn), is eventually convinced otherwise and calls in young, ex-boxer Jesuit priest Father Damien Karras SJ (Jason Miller, father of Jason Patric). Perhaps it is the fact that her daughter has turned green, smells horrible, can swivel her head through 360 degrees and lives in a room so cold that you can see you breath when you enter. That would do it.

Of course a 25-year-old movie is going to feel a little dated. It has the rambling style and mumbled dialogue which seems unscripted that dominated cinema in the early 1970s. The plot ambles along building up to the lengthy exorcism and then ends. There are no frills, save some incredible special effects that have stood the test of time. The scene, for instance, in which Regan levitates off the bed is wonderfully disturbing.

There are scenes that shock -- when Regan masturbates with a crucifix, but then it would, wouldn't it? -- but not enough to warrant the still effective video and television ban.

And it should not offend religious sensibilities. The good guys win after all (that's not giving anything away, believe me), and there is no question that they do so through their own faith in a Christian God. I suppose it could be argued that it's dangerous to depict anything demonic -- a young child swearing a lot is going to be attractive to a young child who doesn't -- but what Regan goes through is in no way attractive.

This is a classic. It pushed back the boundaries of movie-making and is still a powerful experience. Halloween could not be a better time to see it. Jeremy Austin

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.