The Exorcist isn't a film I love for the satanic storyline.
I love it for it's audacity and all-emcompassing horror vibe.

I've never believed in Satan- human construction indeed.

It's like my mom said when my sister asked if there was a santa claus at age 8:
"Do you believe in Santa Claus"?
"Yes".
"Then he exists".


The Exorcist is the best film William Friedkin's done. I love The French Connection, but only really for Gene Hackman.

Exorcist was shocking in it's day and still shocks people. I showed it to a friend who had never seen it and he went apeshit.
"What a terrifying movie. Don't ever do that to me again".

Who doesn't get creeped out at Regan doing that spiderwalk down the staircase? Man if Friedkin had left that in in 1973 it would have caused an even greater furor. It's a very unsettling movie. LOVE IT!
It's got a cult/special status in film history. (And literary history).

At the audition with her mother Linda was told she's auditioning for a wierd movie.
Friedkin: "I have you doing some shocking things in the movie.
Do you know what masturbation is?"
Linda: "Yeah- it's jerking off."
Friedkin: "You know what jerking off is?"
Linda: "Yeah, don't you?"
Friedkin: "You got the part kid".