Oct 31, 2008 4:34 am US/Eastern
'Exorcist,' 'Chainsaw Massacre' Top Fan Favorites
Survey Of Halloween Horror Movies Picks Early 1970s Classics
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Linda Blair was full of demons when she played "Regan" in the 1972 Oscar-nominated picture "The Exorcist."
Warner Bros. Pictures
"The Exorcist," the 1973 movie about three people struggling to save a young girl from demonic possession, has been voted the most popular horror movie of all time, according to an online contest on 16 CBS Web sites. "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," another film from the same era, came in at second place.
Directed by William Friedkin, "The Exorcist" was adapted from a book by author William Blatty, who allegedly based the tale off a real-life 1949 exorcism he heard about while a student at Washington's Georgetown University.
"The Exorcist" remains popular overseas as well. In a poll conducted on the Web site of British retailer HMV, the film was picked this month as a fan favorite by more than 6,000 online voters.
In the movie, actress Ellen Burstyn plays a mother living in Washington D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood where her 12-year-daughter Regan, played by Linda Blair, begins suffering from a strange illness. When a young priest with a background in psychology is unable to help solve Regan's worsening troubles, an elderly priest, played by Max Von Sydow, is brought in the help as a last resort. From there, things get worse.
At the time of its screen debut, "The Exorcist" shocked audiences with its graphic language, disturbing scenes and special effects. A revised version of the film released in 2000 scored an 87% on the movie rating Web site
RottenTomatoes.com.
About a year after "The Exorcist" hit theaters, gruesome visuals and disgusting scenes came along in Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." In the film, five friends enjoying a road trip in their van experience a scare when they pick up a crazed hitchhiker. Soon their nightmare grows after they stop at a seemingly abandoned Texas home and meet a giant, faceless psychopath and his sadistic family of rural cannibals. Hammers, a freezer and a slow-cook barbecue oven deliver some shocks before the chainsaw is finally brought out.
In the quarter century since their initial release, both movies have had sequels, remakes and countless imitators, but the originals continue to draw people back, especially around Halloween.
More modern gory fare proved popular in this week's CBS "Brackets of Terror" online survey. James Wan's 2004 film "Saw" followed closely in third place behind "Massacre," while Eli Roth's 2005 movie "Hostel" came in at fourth place.
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