[neverending]

I think a lot of people who watch horror movies today are looking for and expecting a different kind of experience than viewers in the past. I see a lot of people saying movies "aren't scary" and the reasons they give are things like no gore, no jumps, no cool kills and the like. They disect films down to individual moments, and if there are no moments that shock them, then a movie "isn't scary."

When you look at a film as an entity- something to be taken in its entirety- a complete package, a telling of a story, and you place yourself in that story, then different things become scary. It's about being able to identify and empathize with the characters portrayed- even if they're not exactly like you, and react differently than you might. Viewed in this light, different movies are "scary" and for different reasons.

If looking at the Exorcist in this manner, it is indeed a scary movie. I saw it in the theatre in its initial release, and found it to be a pretty scary movie. Did I run from the theatre vomitting? No. And I suspect nobody else did. Those stories were the product of a well done publicity campaign. I don't think it's "the scariest movie ever made" but it is a damn well done horror movie.