[Robb]

Hello fellow “Exorcist”-fans!

 

I was wondering if there is anyone here at the Captain Howdy who saw the “Exorcist” back in the 1970s when it was released?

I'm a subscriber to Swedens largest filmsite – MovieZine.se – where I'm handling all the horror-related movie news, reviews and so on.

It would be very interesting to interview someone who saw “The Exorcist” and make some comparisons to how people reacted to it back then and how they react to it today.

 

Are you interested? Send med a mail to robert@moviezine.se and I'll send you the questions and details 🙂

[Tidy Rat]

I don't know about an interview, but I'll say this: I was twelve when I saw it in January of '74 (I'm in Texas, where — interestingly — no one seemed to have a problem with it like they did in so many other places), and I'd never seen anything as shocking and horrifying on a movie screen as The Exorcist. (Jaws ranks second, Alien third). Nor since then. Same went for everyone else sitting around us (I was there with my mom and brother). Just watching it was like living through a nightmare.         

[kokumo]

I didn't see it when originally released but later it was re-issued. The buzz surrounding The Exorcist had not faded and the horror elements were legendary. The spectacle of the horror far overshadowed the quality of the work, even after the oscar recognition. It was understood that this was a great film and serious discussions were to be found on the novel & film but it really was allll about the puke & masturbation scene, etc. The quotes being bandied were what you might expect; the nasty ones. The audience was rapt during those intense moments as was I & I think we were all there salivating for the next fright rather than enjoying the depth of the material; the nuances. Many years removed from that initial viiewing the way we watch films is so different. We own them. We sift thru them and study them & obsess over them in a way that we could not back them except for the junkies who would pay night after night to watch it in theatres. You really had to get some distance from the hype and sensationalism of it to  appreciate it for how grand an experience it was overall.

[hammer horror]

I was 8 years old when it came out in Italy. I was so terrified by this movie but also totally curious. I remember my parents went to see it. My mother couldn’t sleep for some nights, my father found it totally silly and he was laughing about it. I managed to watch at movie only years later.

[kokumo]

Hello, Hammer Horror, I wanted to ask a question about the Italian edition. There is an actress who starred in a number of Mario Bava films including Hatchet For the Honeymoon with a rather unique voice. She'd been an in-demand charactor actress in Europe for decades before being hired to dub the voice of the demon in the Exorcist for overseas, primarily the Italian market. Was she the voice of the demon in the version you saw in Italy and if so, how did she compare to Mercedes McCambridge?

[hammer horror]

Hello Kokumo, the voice of the Italian version is from the actress Laura Betti. She was a singer and actress who became also famous because of her collaboration with Pasolini. She did also a movie with Bava (Reazione a catena). Her version of the demon is very good, in a way similar to MCCambridge, and much better than the German version (one of worst in my opinion).

[Don]

I saw it the month in opened.  I was a college student. at that time.

There was still a lot of mega-hype going on, so I really didn't know what to expect.  I'd grown up watching horror films whenever possible, so I wasn't too upset, but I'll imagine that it was pretty shockingt to well-behaved moviegoers.  I do recall hearing gasps and nmervous laughter every time that a horrifying scene concluded. 

[actfray]

I first saw it in July 1975 when I was 14 years old. It was at a now-defunct movie theater in Greensboro, NC. My father took me and two friends to see it. I remember the ticket prices were $1.25. I saw it again several times over the next few years when it was re-released and shuffled around to various movie theaters in Greensboro. In 1977 I snuck a small cassette recorder into a theater to record as much of it as I could. It was a late-night screening, and the audience was revved up for heckling. When Chris MacNeil tells the doctor that she's “never even smoked grass,” someone in the crowd yelled, “You should!” The whole place fell apart laughing and cheering. But as the movie progressed, the crowd got silent. Screams of terror replaced the heckling.

I remember seeing “Exorcist II: The Heretic” in a movie theater in Greensboro, too. I thought this was a mess although it did have a few effective scenes.

I saw “Exorcist III” in a theater in Chapel Hill, NC. I wasn't crazy about the movie, but the scene in the hospital corridor still haunts me to this day. I need to see it again as I haven't seen it since its original release.

[Author]

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