Am I alone in not thinking The Exorcist is the least bit scary?

[SweetZombieJesus]

Maybe its because I think the idea of the existence of Satan is laughable, but I've watched The Exorcist at least five times over the course of my life, and not once, not even when I was little, did it elicit even the tiniest shiver. If anything, I thought it was kind of funny, especially the "You're going to die in space" part. I suspect one had to be raised a devout Catholic, or at least a devout Christian of another denomination, to be scared by this movie.

At first I thought maybe my generation has just been desensitized, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Shining both scare the crap out of me to this day.

[slappypan]

1. No, you are not alone.

I agree completely, and in general I find "Satan" stuff uproariously funny because it is so stupid.

[SweetZombieJesus]

5. If Satan stuff is done well, it can be cool/entertaining

But I've never found it to be particularly scary, whether it's the cloven hoofed horned devil of Legend, or Al Pacino's lawyer Satan in Devil's Advocate. Usually I just kind of feel sorry for him for being a strawman for the evils of humanity.

[supernova]

2. Nah, I didn't find it scary at all

I didn't see it when it came out. Oddly, the movie my mother ever said "NO, you're too little". So I read the book a couple of years later.

But I didn't find the book particularly scary either. The middle Doc thesis on Black Mass was a little disturbing, but that was all. Yeah, the whole Satan thing doesn't do it for me.

[mmm]

3. booring

too long

[MrBenchley]

4. You're not alone

I found it ludicrous and silly...

[rjbcar27]

6. No, I was more scared by Bambi.

I mean, come on, a talking deer!?

[Demobrat]

7. You're probably young and used to spectacular special effects

You have to remember that back in 1972 or so when that movie came out, head spinning was pretty big stuff.

[StaggerLee]

8. I agree

It scared me when I was a kid. But now it is laughable. I grew up Catholic.

BFEE scares me more-

[JHB]

10. It's not the effects, it's the concept.

Besides, head-spinning had been done before, using camera tricks instead of a prosthetic head.

At some fundamental level if you don't buy the danger, you can't suspend your disbelief enough to really be be scared.

[supernova]

12. Agreed

The concept wasn't that scary to me. As I was reading the book I kept thinking.... gee shouldn't they be talking to this thing on a more human level? Trying to understand it, why it wanted to lash out? LOL!

[Bunny]

17. yes, we "old-timers" were virgins

in the realm of spec. effects in 72. Also, it was creepy because it was based on a true story.

[BigMcLargehuge]

9. I think it's only scary if it falls in to your belief system.

I saw it as a kid and it didn't scare me because the concept of supernatural evil is not/was not within my sphere of belief. The fundamental acceptance that there is a Satan or a God and that there is contention between these two beings, and the two sides of the good/evil coin they represent is critical to suspending your disbelief and accepting the terms of the movie.

I didn't, don't, can't, and didn't find it scary at all.

The Thing, on the other hand, while somewhat similar in theme to The Exorcist, i.e. normal people overtaken by something abnormals, never challenged my suspension of disbelief.

[Interrobang]

11. I laughed all the way through it.

Remember that part where there's those noises from the attic? I said to my friend, "That's some mighty big raccoon," and it went downhill from there. I think it has less to do with the (lack of) fancy SFX than it does from the Exorcist's having become a cliche about 30 seconds after it was released. (For a great example of what I mean by that, go down to the library and borrow _The Maltese Falcon_ by Dashiell Hammett. Try NOT to laugh as you read even the first sentence.)

[supernova]

13. Tubular Bells however

flat out ROCKS!

[noonwitch]

14. I didn't find it scary, either

I haven't found satan movies to be scary since I was a kid. "The Omen" scared the crap out of me when I was 12 or so and first read the Revelation.
There were some cool scenes in "The Excorcist", but I just don't believe that the devil can possess someone.
"Rosemary's Baby" is the best of that genre, because it leaves so much to the viewer's imagination. You never see the baby, and none of the occurrances are that bizarre. The satan worshippers seem like really nice people, who want to help Rosemary through her pregnancy. The movie is effective because it doesn't use a lot of f/x and such.

[Quahog]

15. I wasn't Catholic when I saw it the first time

I am now. It's never struck me as a frightening movie. Repulsive, in parts, but being repulsed doesn't necessarily induce a state of fear. For me, the jury is out on demonic posession. I have seen people in a trance state posessed by spirits both malicious and benign (when I was living in Indonesia), but even this was not frightening, although often spectacular or even comical.

You know what movie scared me? Seven. That was a nasty, nasty film. I think any film that explores the dark side of the human psyche that deeply without ever crossing over into the implausible is bound to get under your skin.

[cosmicdot]

16. ... well, Richard Nixon was Prez ... the Late Great Planet Earth stuff ...

I was about 23 ... time in life when the meaning of "is" is questioned ... it was on a Sunday afternoon ... I hadn't been conditioned by the films yet to follow in Cinema History ... it was on/ in a fairly large screen/ theatre for extra effect ... it stunned if nothing else ... it was scary ...

no one jumped out of their seats by a foot (at the same time) like they did at the midnight show when I saw Psycho in the 70s - subliminally shocked!