The Exorcist

You may be thinking when you see this list "Where is Exorcist 2 or Exorcist The Beginning", the answer to that question is that they shouldn't have existed in the first place and are definitely not cannon. This is William Peter Blatty's original concept for an Exorcist trilogy, which consists of the original, his sequel Legion which was renamed Exorcist 3 and The Ninth Configuration. 

While the Ninth Configuration is a stand alone film that is not a continuation of the story presented in the first film and its direct sequel,  it does contain many of the themes present in The Exorcist and Blatty considers it to be a spiritual successor to The Exorcist. 

The Exorcist is not only the greatest horror film ever made but one of the greatest films ever made. It's a slow burning drama which pulls you in with its foreboding and ominous opening in Iraq and ends in one of the best third acts in film history.

No horror film has the historical significance of The Exorcist, 
it is the first film to make audiences faint in the movie theatre and it is a right of passage for any kid getting into horror, I came across the film the first time as most do when I was way too young to understand it, all I knew was its reputation as the scariest film ever made. It's the only film that as a child made me quite literally cry with fear.

As I have gotten older though and more desensitised I have a different relationship with this movie and I'm old enough to understand that The Exorcist is not simply a horror film, it is more about the regaining of faith through altruistic sacrifice than it is spinning heads and pea soup. It is in its very essence about the ultimate good in people when faced with unspeakable evil.

It is the only possession film where the devils presence is felt in every single frame. What every single possession film that has followed seems to completely misunderstand about this movie is that in the original Exorcist the devil has a clear intention of what it is trying to achieve.

In other run of the mill rip offs the demon possesses the little girl for next to no purpose other than to cause chaos. In The Exorcist Regan McNeil is not the intended victim, she is a puppet used to torture her mother, Father Karras and Father Merrin. The demon's secondary aim is to sit inside of her body until she "rots and lies stinking in the earth".

I would go even as far to say that the devil is solely focused on Karras and the others suffering is an added bonus. Based on this most recent viewing I believe the devil had its eye on Karras from the very beginning of the film. It invades his dreams, it tries to break his faith and make him doubt in the goodness of people and in the existence of god and Regan is used to cement this. Karras isn't presented with a possessed girl, he is presented with what he believes to be a girl who has the delusion that she is possessed. That's another thing other possession films miss about this movie, 
the devil is doing everything it can to conceal what it really is from the people that matter until it decides it is time to confront them. 

The voice of the devil is also unlike anything in any other film, this is directly due to the work of voice actress Mercedes Mcambridge, who tied herself to a chair, drank egg yolks, chain smoked and downed whiskey when she was a recovering alcoholic to obtain the cracked, dirty, wheezing voice of the devil. What you are hearing in this film is a person literally possessed by their inner-demons. 

Of course the majority of the credit has to go to William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty, Friedkin's direction has all the grounded realness of a documentary and Blatty's book and screenplay are untouchably good. The minimalistic experimental soundtrack is also a character in and of itself. 

To conclude, 
The Exorcist is a film like no other movie, 
It has stood the test of time for a reason.
It is a masterpiece.

The Exorcist III: Legion, I forgot how unbelievably good this sequel is. It is the perfect sequel to the original film, as its directed by William Peter Blatty who wrote the original book and screenplay for The Exorcist, it retains the same atmosphere as the first movie and is a natural continuation of its story and themes.

When you watch them back to back you even notice that there is foreshadowing in the original which is paid off here, it also adds to my belief that Karras is the demons intended target in both films. In the original the demon mentions that the exorcism will bring them closer together, which indeed it does, in this film we see the demons full intention fulfilled.

After sacrificing himself to save Regan McNeil's soul in the original, Karras's dying body is possessed by both the demon and the soul of a recently deceased serial killer the demon has enlisted to take control of Karras's body to continue his work. For what better punishment for the repentant priest than to have to watch helplessly from behind his eyes , locked in his own body as it mercilessly murders the innocent. That is a horrifying concept. 

There are two absolutely stand out performances in this movie, one of them is George C Scott as detective kinderman, Karras's friend from the original. The other is Brad Dourif as the gemini killer. The film makes an interesting choice by either having Brad Dourif on screen or Jason Miller when the character of Karras is present. This is done to show who is speaking from the dead vessel of the priests body and it works really well. It's the best performance of Brad Dourif's career, he is phenomenal in this movie.  

The conversations between Kinderman and Karras/the gemini killer have all the gravitas of the original film.

Overall, Exorcist III is the most underrated sequel of all time and the only true sequel there will ever be to The Exorcist. Go watch it. seriously it's great.