Screen

Devil Dregs

‘The Rite’

Richard Alleva

The Exorcist (1973) was geared to shock. With its pea-soup projectile vomiting, bestial soundtrack noises, revolving head, voice of Satan (Mercedes McCambridge electronically baritone-ized), vertiginous camera work, elegant Georgetown setting transformed by fog and shadows into a circle of hell, it was meant to achieve two goals. First, to stir up feelings of atavistic dread, (...)


 

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