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I am not very fond of horror movies, however I could not stop watching this one on VHS format, since for age reasons I could not see it in the theater, and undoubtedly for the time it crossed the limits established until then, since the special effects made it very realistic and terrifying.
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Linda Blair's performance in the character of Regan, the girl possessed by the demon was perfect, it should be noted that at that time she was a girl of only thirteen years old and had never starred, she only had two appearances in small roles.
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Alongside her were Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras, Ellen Burstyn, a veteran actress with more than 20 years of career in the role of Chris, the mother of the exorcised girl, Max Von Sydow, as Father Lankester, and Lee J. Cobb who plays Detective William Kinderman.
The plot revolves around the struggle between good and evil, represented by the demon and the religious, who put all their experience and faith to remove Pazuzu, an old Babylonian demon that Father Lankester had once defeated, from the girl's body.
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Chilling scenes, good staging of everything concerning the place and that magic to make the viewer get into each scene, produced fainting, screams and a collective psychosis that produced more than 440 million dollars at the box office and the nomination for 10 Oscars, of which won only 2, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.
The critics considered it one of the best of its kind in history and many scenes had to be deleted to be presented in some places as they were too strong for censorship, which is why in 2000 it was re-released with new edits and those scenes cut and others that did not appear in the original including a final epilogue where Detective Kinderman talks to Father Dyer about the duality of good and evil.
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The success led the producer to make several sequels and a prequel that did not reach the original success, the number II was called The Heretic and it involved Linda Blair, was released in 1973, in 1990 it was the turn of the Exorcist III and in 2004 a prequel entitled The Beginning, only the latter obtained less revenue from its production budget.
Anecdotally, Linda Blair, despite her long film career, never again starred in a successful film and between 1982 and 1986 she won 5 Golden Raspberry Awards for worst actress.
Nevertheless, this film is a must-see and represents one of the cult films in cinematic history.