Yesterday we learned that director William Friedkin passed away. This filmmaker made some incredible projects over the years including The French Connection, The Twilight Zones, Tales From The Crypt, Rules of Engagement, The Hunted, and more. But, there was one project above all of them that affected me the most – The Exorcist.
I was eleven or twelve years old when I first watched The Exorcist. I knew nothing about it other than what the cover of the VHS looked like and that it was a horror movie, so late one night at my grandma and grandpa’s house I popped the VHS in with a couple of my cousins and we popped it in to watch it.
I was in no way prepared to watch this kind of horror film at that age and The Exorcist completely broke my young brain! I had never felt a surge of electric fear pass through my body like that before. It felt like I was just stunned and scared to the core. I remember not being able to move, not being able to look away from the TV screen, but also being completely scared shitless and thinking that that was my last night on Earth and that the Devil was going to swallow my soul.
I had a hard time sleeping for months after I watched The Exorcist and when I did sleep the nightmares were waiting for me to scare me all over again and wake me up screaming. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that The Exorcist really did a number on me!
But, that fear I felt… I’ve been chasing that fear ever since! I freakin’ loved that adrenaline rush, and the horror genre is one of my favorites. I’ll watch anything and everything horror! I owe that to The Exorcist. I rarely find that electric fear in the movies that have been made over the years. But, with all the films that I’ve watched, I’m definitely desensitized, so it’s a lot harder to get that rush.
I remember years later a Director’s Cut of The Exorcist was released in theaters, and I had to watch this movie on the big screen! When I did, there was a moment that wasn’t in the original film that featured the possessed Regan doing a crab walk down the stairs, that new moment struck me with the same jolt of fear that I felt as a kid when I first saw the movie, and I freakin loved that! I didn’t think I would get that rush again watching the movie because I had seen it so many times before, but I totally did, and it was awesome!
William Friedkin introduced true horror and fear into my life with The Exorcist, and I thank him for that! That movie set the bar of fear for me, and it’s rare that any horror film reaches that bar.