This film is currently unavailable
The Exorcist
An electrifying story of demonic possession.
Director: William Friedkin
Overview
Bringing the ancient rite of exorcism into 1970s Washington, D.C., The Exorcist depicts a 12-year-old girl’s possession by evil spirits, and the heroic attempt of two Jesuit priests to save her, harrowingly witnessed by mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn). Writer/producer William Peter Blatty’s tale – inspired by the documented 1949 exorcism of a Maryland boy – combines elements of spiritual treatise, murder mystery and carnival sideshow.
An electrifying story of demonic possession in contemporary America, William Friedkin’s controversial adaptation of a best-selling novel ranks among Hollywood’s most celebrated horror films. Director Friedkin treated medical operation scenes and supernatural shocks with hair-raising realism, leaving audiences fainting and vomiting as wholesome Regan (Linda Blair) gradually becomes an obscene, putrefying beast-child given to graphic blasphemies. A runaway box-office success, The Exorcist garnered ten Oscar nominations. The American Film Institute voted it among America’s three “most thrilling” films ever. Blatty’s ‘mystery of goodness’ trilogy continued with The Ninth Configuration (1979) and The Exorcist III (1990).
Related
Alpha Alpha
Horror 2025 128 mins Director: Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau follows her Palme d’Or-winning Titane with this powerful family drama starring Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani.
The Severed Sun The Severed Sun
Horror 2024 80 mins Director: Dean Puckett
A pastor’s daughter in an isolated religious community kills her abusive husband, unleashing the force of a supernatural Beast.
The Woman in Black The Woman in Black
Horror 2012 95 mins Director: James Watkins
A young solicitor, administering the will of a recently dead old lady, is drawn into a sinister web of events centring on her abandoned house.
Tiger Stripes Tiger Stripes
Horror 2023 95 mins Director: Amanda Nell Eu
Nothing is quite as scary as puberty in this exuberant feminist pre-teen body horror from first time Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu.
Late Night with the Devil Late Night with the Devil
Horror 2023 93 mins Director: Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
Like Ghostwatch reimagined as a cheesy 1970s chat show, this deviously clever found-footage horror has scares to spare.
She Will She Will
Thriller 2021 96 mins Director: Charlotte Colbert
In Charlotte Colbert’s strikingly gothic film, an ageing actor recovering from a mastectomy taps into a mysterious power at a remote Scottish retreat.
Seeking Mavis Beacon Seeking Mavis Beacon
Documentary 2024 102 mins Director: Jazmin Jones
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions of people touch typing in the late 80s and through the 90s. But who was the real Mavis Beacon?
Akenfield Akenfield
Drama 1975 98 mins Director: Peter Hall
Peter Hall’s extraordinary, long-unseen work of sublime poetic realism traces three generations of one Suffolk family and their lives in the farming industry.
Ellis Park Ellis Park
Documentary 2024 106 mins Director: Justin Kurzel
Snowtown director Justin Kurzel’s first foray into documentary is an intimate portrait of iconic Australian musician and composer Warren Ellis.
Baby Baby
Drama 2024 106 mins Director: Marcelo Caetano
São Paulo’s streets can offer danger or opportunity, and for Baby, a young gay man carving out his own existence, they deliver both.
Alpha Alpha
Horror 2025 128 mins Director: Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau follows her Palme d’Or-winning Titane with this powerful family drama starring Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani.
The Ceremony The Ceremony
Thriller 2024 92 mins Director: Jack King
When night falls, two Bradford car wash workers are dragged into an escalating moral crisis.