The Exorcist
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 26, 1973 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutTom Huddleston
William Friedkin’s full-throttle adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel works because it fuses the extreme and the everyday. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Rarely do movies affect us so deeply. The first time I saw Cries and Whispers, I found myself shrinking down in my seat, somehow trying to escape from the implications of Bergman’s story. The Exorcist also has that effect--but we’re not escaping from Friedkin’s implications, we’re shrinking back from the direct emotional experience he’s attacking us with. This movie doesn’t rest on the screen; it’s a frontal assault. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
This jolting tale of a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil, her desperate movie actress mother and the two priests called in to exorcise the demon, actually seems a deeper movie now -- more intense, less formulaic or shallow. Yet it's also retained all its original hypnotic narrative grip. [2000 re-release] Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There's something elemental about The Exorcist, even with the new hopeful ending that betrays the bleak original. [2000 re-release] Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
This truly terrifying film version of the best-selling Blatty novel is far superior to the book. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
The Exorcist is diabolically inspired: it’s still capable of making you jump and yelp. Read full review
100
Total FilmStaff (Not Credited)
The story itself is more satisfying, while the power of the jolts is boosted by the immaculate sound and sneakily effective subliminal extra frames. See it and shiver. [2000 re-release] Read full review
100
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
The climactic sequences assault the senses and the intellect with pure cinematic terror. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsKathleen Carroll
Director William Friedkin, with his scrupulous attention to detail, his determination to convey a sense of realism, achieves such startling effects that one comes away almost completely convinced of the possibility of demonic possession. His movie rushes headlong towards a blood-curling climax (the actual rite of exorcism), a series of scenes so powerful it leaves the audience limp and exhausted. Read full review
100
EmpireWilliam Thomas
Unlike a number of director’s cuts, this version does embellish the original film. It won’t, however, win any converts. Fans should see it again, first-timers should believe the hype. Non-believers should suffer eternal damnation. [2000 re-release] Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneGene Siskel
Through technical virtuosity at every artistic level -- including the brilliant acting debut of playwright Jason Miller as the doubt-filed priest who assists Von Sydow in the exorcism -- The Exorcist becomes more than a shocking movie: a film with a strong, positive force. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Here, in paranoid, bad acid trip form, is the real birth of girl power. [2000 re-release] Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Director William Friedkin, (“The French Connection” and this year’s “Rules of Engagement”) has always been a provocateur, a master of the shock. But his very lack of subtlety is both the strength and weakness of The Exorcist in the 21st century. [2000 re-release] Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelJay Boyar
Working from Blatty's own screenplay, director William Friedkin sets his own unhurried pace. That pace, at times, does seem a tad glacial, and that is the film's biggest failing. But unlike so many horror flicks that followed, this one really is about something. It's about several things, actually: coming of age and letting go, mainly, as well as getting sick and growing old. [2000 re-release] Read full review
80
VarietyRobert Koehler
Just as some of the footage deepens what is already there, additions in final reel, though closer to Blatty’s wishes, restate the obvious or add a feel-good patina which pushes the film closer to our own audience-pleasing period than the more daring early ’70s. [2000 re-release] Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A museum piece, something to be enjoyed for its historical value. [2000 re-release] Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The Exorcist is still shocking, but mostly because of its graphic, anti-religious language. [2000 re-release] Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Exorcist's strength is that it places character development on the same level as the horror elements, but it is not a ground-breaking motion picture. It is also too long, with a setup that could have accomplished the job with equal effectiveness in about 2/3 the time. [2000 re-release] Read full review
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