Not necessarily the best movies ever made, but these are twenty of my favorites, in no particular order.  Each post for the next twenty days will feature a brief discussion of one film (though one or two days will have multiple posts to make up for absences).

Post 15: The Exorcist (1973 dir. William Friedkin)

Again I return to the frigid dark of The Exorcist. I love this movie and know of no other film that so well captures indescribable, inseparable, inexplicable guilt. Each of the main characters carries an overwhelming weight of regret over past behavior. Their sins laid bare. only the sacrifice of a holy person can rectify their collective trauma, personified in the innocence-gone-foul that is Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair).

This is one very frightening film. And it isn’t so much the supernatural, but rather those elements grounded in everyday reality which terrify me. As someone who has undergone invasive medical tests and procedures, the scenes of Regan being examined are difficult to watch. As a father those same scenes fill me with fear and doubt as I imagine my own children receiving the same treatment. The emotional impact in those moments, and throughout the film, works on a multitude of levels.

The movie just feels like it is always trying, but never able, to catch its breath. It just doesn’t stop, nor should it. Nominated for best picture of the year, a unique but not unheard of honor for a drama filled with horror elements (I’m cautiously peering at you Silence of the Lambs), the film deserves all the accolades and praise given to it over these many decades. It is precisely because of the naturalistic settings and acting that the film endures to this day.

The acting in particular always beckons me back, especially Jason Miller as Fr. Karras. He projects such a quiet empathy, a deep and objective love, that I always, always admire him. Just when I begin to wonder, he always expresses his own guilt and fear at just the right moments. He is the audience’s crucible, the vessel through which we can finally begin to, at the very least, approach this material and feel some measure of comfort.

The marriage of guilt and empathy which Miller gives up to the audience is also what makes his character the most willing and vulnerable to the horror patiently awaiting in the dark attic of the final act. It is masterful drama played out on a religious and supernatural canvas. I understand that this subject matter is not for everyone, but it is among the greatest of all films ever made, and one of my favorites.