The Exorcist (film series)
Reception
Upon its release on December 26, 1973, the film received mixed reviews from critics, "ranging from 'classic' to 'claptrap'". Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic, wrote, "This is the most scary film I’ve seen in years — the only scary film I've seen in years… If you want to be shaken — and I found out, while the picture was going, that that's what I wanted — then The Exorcist will scare the hell out of you". Variety noted that it was, "an expert telling of a supernatural horror story… The climactic sequences assault the senses and the intellect with pure cinematic terror". In Castle of Frankenstein, Joe Dante opined, "[A]n amazing film, and one destined to become at the very least a horror classic. Director William Friedkin's film will be profoundly disturbing to all audiences, especially the more sensitive and those who tend to 'live' the movies they see… Suffice it to say, there has never been anything like this on the screen before".
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