ABSTRACT
New York Times film critic Vincent Canby’s accusation that The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) created a “new low for grotesque special effects” has been echoed by most critical responses to the film, with many crediting (or blaming) it for inaugurating a new breed of gross-out horror.1 In contrast to these perceptions of the film, Friedkin was reportedly “determined not to make a horror film.”2 Instead, he describes the film as trafficking in realism, explaining, “it’s a realistic story about inexplicable things, and it’s all going to take place in cold light, with ordinary people, on ordinary streets.”3
