Is The Exorcist really ‘the scariest horror movie ever made’?

09.10.2023 - 19:49 / polygon.com / William Friedkin

When cinematic legend William Friedkin died in August, most of the mournful obituaries focused on tributes to his eclectic body of work. Affectionately nicknamed “Hurricane Billy” for his force of personality and towering stature among the New Hollywood filmmakers, Friedkin produced a respectable, wide-ranging filmography, from Academy Award-sweepers like The French Connection to reappraised gems like the box-office bomb turned classic Sorcerer. Still, critics elevated one title over all the rest, one film that, even 50 years later, still has a firm grasp on popular culture: The Exorcist, which bears the tagline “the scariest movie of all time.”

That’s what critics dubbed it upon its thunderous release in 1973. The Exorcist shocked the nation with its sordid but gripping tale of an actor (Ellen Burstyn) who turns to a pair of Catholic priests to exorcise her possessed daughter. Retrospective reviews have since echoed the “scariest movie ever” claim, and critics still hold The Exorcist to be the single most provocative and petrifying film in the annals of horror cinema. It’s so firmly considered the genre’s gold standard that critics have since praised modern thrillers like A24’s Hereditaryas the “scariest film since The Exorcist.” That reputation has kept The Exorcist’s legacy alive, in spite of a series of sequels ranging from mediocre to infamous, with the exception of the 1990 cult classic Exorcist III.

The Exorcistbrand has remained so strong that Blumhouse greenlit an entire trilogy of sequels from Halloweendirector David Gordon Green, timed to land around the original movie’s 50th anniversary. The first, The Exorcist: Believer, brings Ellen Burstyn back to the franchise to reprise her role as Chris MacNeil, just as Green’s Halloween movies bring back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. The Exorcist: Believer makes some big, problematic departures from the series’ mold, but it unquestionably wouldn’t exist if the Exorcist name didn’t still carry so much respect today.

But is The Exorcist still the scariest movie of all time half a century later? Critics have repeated that talking point for 50 years, even in the face of new horror classics that have proven to be equally potent nightmare fuel. It’s true that The Exorcist traumatized an entire generation of moviegoers like no wide release before or since, but it also helped desensitize audiences who can now sit through endless Saw sequels without flinching. If a movie came along that was as genuinely terrifying as The Exorcist was in 1973, audiences would be far more prepared for it after having experienced Friedkin’s seminal masterwork.

As it happens, “the scariest movie ever” is impossible to determine. Human fears are pretty universal, which