The first half of the film is more tedious than terrifying. Regan is a sweet young child with a model mother. They kiss each other night-night and talk of ponies and Captain Howdy. Then, as her first irrational symptoms emerge, there’s a sequence of Dr. Welbyish hospital scenes and consultations with various shrinks and specialists.
The thrills begin in the second half when the exorcists, two Catholic priests, are called in to scare the devil out of her. But Friedkin’s dramatization is often more laughable than scary: such as scabby-faced, wild-eyed Regan rolling her head and roaring, an unwitting parody of the MGM lion. Or the scene where Satan invades her box-springs, causing her bed to shake and rattle like a tambourine. Her new voice (dubbed in by Mercedes McCambridge) makes her sound more like a terminal emphysemic than a vessel of the devil. Not that she doesn’t pull a few shockers: gripping a psychiatrist by his tenderest part, or pulling up her gown and making sexual o
100 Best Western Films of All Time, According to Critics
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UPI Almanac for Tuesday, March 16, 2021
On March 16, 1827, Freedom s Journal, the first Black-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States, was published in New York.
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On March 16, 1827, Freedom s Journal, the first Black-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States, was published in New York. File Photo courtesy of The Afro-American Press/Wikimedia
U.S. soldiers bring back the sand of the disembarkation beach at Iwo Jima, Japan, on March 19, 2016. On March 16, 1945, the Island was declared secure by U.S. forces in one of the major World War II conflicts in the Pacific. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
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Because of the scant financial prospects during a time of scant theatrical attendance, the year-end crop of movies being positioned for the Oscars and other awards (alongside the alternative batch of holiday blockbusters) is thinner than usual. But there are still some wonderfully accomplished and delightfully surprising new movies: foremost, “Sylvie’s Love,” which is playing not in theatres but on Amazon Prime. Even before the pandemic, that service, like others, had taken on a major role as a producer and distributor of movies that studios wouldn’t touch and independents couldn’t afford; similarly, it also plays a significant role as a virtual repertory house. Though the actual repertory houses (notably, Film at Lincoln Center, Film Forum, and Metrograph) have continued to play leading roles in the release (digital, for the time being) of classic rediscoveries and restorations, Amazon and other services are the video store in the sky.
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