It's difficult to give an honest and fair appraisal of this movie, since it's 50 years old. This wasn't my first time to watch it (I think it's the third?) but it's been so long since I've watched it, it was like watching it for the first time: the only scene I remembered was the "split-pea soup" scene and the head spinning around backward. I suppose, in its day, this was probably considered truly "scary" or terrifying but by today's standards... well, it hasn't aged well. Kudos to whomever did the makeup because they did a bang-up job on Linda Blair's character of "Regan". Some scenes, however, (as in the "Help Me" shot) were far too obviously fake (again, by today's standards) so it cheapened that particular scene a bit. I don't remember - and don't understand - the lead-in story at all; how the excavation in the middle East tied in to the main movie; the film doesn't even give an explanation at any point other than to casually mention that Father Merrin was overseeing the excavations "so he must be healthy". The ending also didn't make a lot of sense to me either...not even the third (or fourth?) time around. In any event, it would be difficult to put this one at the #2 spot of _The 20 Best Horror Movies Ever Made, According to Redditt_ but then, I'm not a part of Redditt. Of course, our next stop is the #1 spot on that same list, and that just proved - before I ever started my journey through this list way back at #20 - that Redditors obviously have no sense of taste when it comes to movies. _The Exorcist_ was plenty.... well, it was probably plenty scary back in its day, but its best runs are far, far behind it. Love that theme song, though.