William Friedkin
L'esorcista

In the seventh art, there are unknown films that deserve recognition for their qualities and visual beauty, and there are films stupidly praised, which actually offer nothing. They demand nothing.

This kind of film is totally passive and the viewer's gaze is not engaged. It's sad to say, but "The Exorcist" is unjustly defined as a cult. What's so special about it? Maybe it was the first film to talk about demons, possessions, exorcisms... but what does it offer in its plot that is so shocking and devastating? Nothing.

Imagine a bratty little girl, who does nothing but insult the attending doctor. One day she discovers she has a bladder infection and urinates uncontrollably. Then, as if that weren't enough, her mother stuffs her with vitello tonnato, and the little girl starts vomiting profusely. Sexually deviant after seeing her parents have sex in an illicit pose, the protagonist masturbates with a crucifix. The dear mother fears her little girl is possessed by the devil and calls an exorcist priest who frees her from the curse of the vitello tonnato. And he commits suicide to save her.

This is more or less the plot of this horrendous film. One of the films that does not deserve the success it still enjoys today. The chills are non-existent, the narrative is as flat as an episode of The OC, and the only somewhat unexpected scene is the much-lauded masturbation, which, more than turning the stomach, inevitably makes one smile. Fear is absent. And I mean ABSENT.

Minutes and minutes wasted filming this idiotic child continuing to taunt the doctor, without any black humor or the sarcasm that would have completely succeeded.

The plot has quite a few narrative holes. For example, why does that particular girl get possessed? And who knows, starting with the clever Friedkin who directs a mishmash of extreme boredom, which can frighten people only due to the macabre subject. The well-educated people of the past, who knows what shock they experienced in front of the obscene words inflicted on a bewildered doctor, the continuous curse words from the foul-mouthed mother, the urine on the floor, and the bloody masturbation!

Seen today, the film doesn't even leave an unwary shiver, making the horrendous "Saw" (another overrated movie and never as violent as it's said) appear a pearl of fear.

The positive notes? The really well-done scene of the brat climbing down the stairs spider-like (to think it was removed in the initial edition!), luxuriating in a beige-colored vomit that stains the floor, and the chilling and superb soundtrack by an inspired Mike Oldfield.

Many say soundtracks are boring without being paired with the images they accompany. Incredibly but true, here the opposite happens!