This is my history of me finally getting to watch the Exorcist, hopefully you lot will add your opinions.

I had first heard of the exorcist when my local Bells store used to rent out vhs, the cover was a man looking through a window as a light was shining on him plus the font of the title drew me in. I was 14 and with it being an 18 I had to ask my mam to rent it which she answered no its 18 for a reason.

I was consumed with wanting to watch it, i even bought the novel and read it. Little did I know that my mam was asking around her friends asking if it was suitable for me to watch which straight away they said no and told my mam it was about demon possession and it got banned.

I asked my friend if he had seen it and he replied yes its good, he then rented it and asked if i wanted to see a film he rented. Then me being stupid I said i can't be bothered watching a film.

Later he told me what he had rented and i started kicking myself.

When I was 16 mam was going out and I asked to rent a film, she guessed what I wanted to rent, she eventually gave in and rented it for me and she was going out for a night out with her friend, so i wallowed in every scene of this film I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, i loved every minute of it because it took me 2 years to finally see the film.

When I finally turned 18 I bought the vhs and watched it again, then bought the complete anthology which i now own.

What are your thoughts on that history?

I have similar stories for 100s of films I've wanted to see.The difference being that they were films I'd read about in the 70s and 80s and couldn't see until the internet and dvd came along.Was "The Exorcist" the film that got you into horror?Myself, the films that blew my mind were the nasties when they first came out on pre-cert video.Not only did they deliver the goods in a way films on telly never could due to censorship at the time,they also showed me that there was more to horror than Hammer and Universal monsters.I'd have been about 13 at the time and apart from vague mentions of European horror films in a couple of magazines had no idea what was being made outside of the mainstream horror cinema of America.

My own account of seeing The Exorcist for the first time comes from when it was reissued uncut in cinemas in the early 90s. It really impressed me on that occasion, but I've found it to be a film of diminishing returns on each repeat viewing. I can admire it for being technically perfect, but the idea of it grows less scary and more ridiculous as I grow older and question the idea of religion more.
I can't really get with the idea of the demon Pazuzu possessing a young woman for no better reason than upsetting a few people and then being cast out by a couple of blokes in dresses.
I find The Shining way better because there's more ambiguity about what it "means" as an example of commercial horror from that era.
What was cool about that time was seeing an uncut Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Hardware at a horror all nighter in my desperately rubbish hometowns' only cinema courtesy of the efforts of some horror fans who'd infiltrated that establishment.

I originally saw The Exorcist on video when I was 12 or 13 at a friends house, purchased before the authorities banned it so it was quite a coup at the time. It was scary at the time and for a number of years later within the context of being young and not really questionning the religious faith you have been indocrinated into, believing in god and the Devil etc.
Like Doc I appreciate it from a technical perspective but the film has enormously lost any impact it once had for me because of its subject matter, depiction etc. I feel empathy for the distress of the mother, Regan being subjected to all those medical tests etc but scary? No unfortunately. I also much prefer The Shining.

Ditto here, this was essentially the same point I made about Halloween on the other thread here. What was once cutting edge in horror, is fairly humdrum 20-30 years later.

I still say the original "Halloween" and the original "The Exorcist" (I know, don't be suprised if they do remake it) are a thousand times better than most of the dull, trendy, lazy, CGI mainstream hollywood s**t that's made today.

I agree with a lot of what's said above especially Lando's point about Halloween and The Exorcist.
My sister is 7 years older than me and being nearly 18 when the Exorcist first came out she went to see it with my (open minded) Irish Catholic mother. I'll never forget their faces when they came back from the cinema. Pale faced and shocked they both said it was the most terrifying film they had ever seen and my mother sat with a cup of tea shaking her head for a long time so naturally for a 10 year old i desperately wanted to see it. Unfortunately it wasn't until the early 90's uncut version came out that i saw it at the cinema. I'm sure if i tried harder i could have seen it sooner but the fear probably got me every time.....

The film that got me into horror was Dawn Of The Dead, the original George A. Romero one

I sneaked into a cinema when I was 15 to see the Exorcist. i got a b@llocking when i got home as i'd told my mum i was going round a mate's house, and she'd rung up to see what time i was coming home. Said mate also in trouble as he was with me and purportedly at my house !!

I first saw "The Exorcist" on a bootleg tape belonging to my uncle who had quite the collection of hard to get banned films etc and although I find it to be an okay film it just doesn't stick in my mind as anything too special, I guess its a film that just doesn't appeal to everyone although I will admit you're right about it being better than most of the recent mainstream fare Lando and almost certainly it'll be remade, if there's profit to be made then its not even a question of will they its more like when will they, by the way does anyone actually know why they made two alternate prequels at around the same time with the same cast, seems kind of daft if you ask me.

P.S. great story JONESY, my childhood is littered with memories of working round my strict parents, I don't think they wanted me to grow up to be a horror fan like my uncle, oddly enough this inability to see these movies only made them all the more desirable and I got full force into the genre the second I was earning money, it was soon after I realised the censors were restricting our viewing pleasure and I saw them as the successors to my parents in opposing my hobby, like before I felt the need to see what I was told I couldn't and so while forbidden slashers fill my childhood favourites my nostalgic memories from teen film experiences relate mostly to the good old video nasties, oddly enough many of the films that have influenced me or became my favourites might have never been seen by me had they not been made so hard to get, does this mean censorship is infact futile? Lets face it "Murder Set Pieces" has nothing to offer but gore and in my opinion it wouldn't have been remembered as anything special if Lionsgate didn't hack some 23 minutes out of it in the US followed by a complete ban here in the UK in 2008.

I have said it before but I was extremely lucky, it was because of my Dad watching them and letting me and my sister watch some that got me into horror as a kid in the video nasty era. I used to get so excited when he borrored some or copies from one of his friends and I couldn't wait to see what was next.

The first ones I clearly remember seeing are "Phantasm", "Halloween", "Zombie Flesh Eaters", "Carrie", "Friday The 13th", "Salem's Lot", "The Evil Dead, "The Shining", "Poltergeist", "The Burning", "Dawn Of The Dead", "An American Werewolf In London and of course "The Exorcist".

My opinion is to watch this film without mixing your own feelings about religion. Saying this you can watch Stigmata, another strong movie where religion is taken forward and in the context of a film from different points.

I managed to separate my own faith from what it shown in the movies.

Just watch and draw your own line, everybody has different opinions, so count your own.

Because A. Walker, 1 director made Dominion and shown it to the studios and they hated it saying it lacked blood, they then hired Renny Harlin who got given the script and got told to add blood so he took the script and re filmed some of it and added blood - the studio liked it and it got released as Exorcist Beginning.

They then had the idea of releasing the original Dominion as well so fans could choose which they prefered.

Hopefully that is some help A Walker

Thanks for the info stuart, what a weird story, I preffered "Dominion" and don't see why the studio's felt it wouldn't work especially as the original Exorcist had hardly any blood so it wasn't an expectation.

I read the book years ago, and then one day a friend told me that he had a copy on video (this was before it was re-released and approved and before dvds had made an impact). I started to watch it but found it so boring that I fell asleep. So much for the hype surrounding it at the time - perhaps it is just me, or over the years it hasn't worn well.

I've just read this morning that Blatty and Friedkin are working on a remake of the Exorcist. A mini-series....apparently it's going to faithful to the original but reinstate a sub plot from the book that wasn't originally filmed, include additional scenes and a new ending.....