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The Exorcist
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Parents Guide for
The Exorcist (1973) More at IMDbPro »

The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff.
Since the beliefs that parents want to instill in their children can vary greatly, we ask that instead of adding your personal opinions about what is right or wrong in a film, that you instead use this feature to help parents make informed viewing decisions by describing the facts of relevant scenes in the title for each one of the different categories: Sex and Nudity, Violence and Gore, Profanity, Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking, and Frightening/Intense Scenes.
Visit our Parents Guide Help to learn more

Sex & Nudity

We see the possessed 12-year-old girl violently and repeatedly stick a cross into her crotch in a masturbatory fashion (we do not see the actual penetration, but do see a lot of blood afterwards). She then pushes a woman's face down to her crotch.

Some sexual innuendo and several instances of very explicit, obscene and often religiously profane sexual invitations and other utterances spoken by the possessed 12-year-old girl.

A religious statue has what look like bloody horns sticking out of the chest and crotch areas.

Some cleavage, and during a medical examination the top of a girl's bare breasts are visible.

Violence & Gore

There are many very intense and scary scenes: the possessed 12-year-old girl's face becomes increasingly pale and streaked with bloody lacerations, and her eyes begin to redden and sometimes roll back (in a later scene we realize that her whole body has been affected); her voice becomes very low and scratchy, she develops a large lump in her throat and makes eerie sounds. During one scene she goes down a flight of stairs backwards -- she looks like a giant spider. During other scenes she is violently thrown back and forth on her bed; she levitates; her head spins all the way around; she spits yellow phlegm at a man; blood comes out of her mouth; she vomits green goo, projecting it on several bystanders and covering their faces; she urinates in public (we see urine trickle to the floor); and, the words "Help Me" appear on her body (presumably from the real person trapped within). A bloody gash appears on her leg when she's sprinkled with holy water.

Strange noises and demonic-looking or monstrous faces are evident in a few scenes, and household furnishings become animated: candles flare up, pictures fall off walls, a bed starts to shake vigorously, a room shakes and walls and doors crack and split, the temperature drops suddenly, and stuff flies around by itself -- in one scene furniture flies toward a woman.

The possessed 12-year-old girl attacks several people: she hits or slaps several, grabs a man by the crotch and pushes him down; a man grabs her, throws her down, punches her several times and tries to choke her.

A man commits suicide by jumping out of a window and tumbling down several steps.

A person gets an injection, blood is drawn for testing and a catheter is inserted on a person's neck (some blood is evident).

Several dogs are shown fighting each other.

Two men get into a scuffle and have to be separated.

We are told that a man died when he was pushed down some steps and that his head was turned backwards.

We see a dead body, and a pool blood next to a body.

Profanity

13 F-words and F-word derivatives (several of which are used as raw sexual invitations and are uttered by the possessed 12-year-old girl,) 3 C-words, a few scatological and anatomical terms, several religious exclamations and many very explicit religious profanities.

There is some alcohol use at a party and by the mother in the movie as a way to cope with her situation. The mother smokes cigarettes, a doctor smokes a cigarette, but no drug use.

This film is as disturbing as it is scary.

A young girl slowly becomes violently possesed by a demon.

The demon has a lot of different voices and sounds, which can be creepy and somewhat disturbing.

There is a brief close-up of the possessed 12-year-old girl's face during the climax of the film: her face has become increasingly pale, with bloody lacerations across her face, one of her eyes are dark and the other is, yellow, her face has become hallow, her lips have becomed drooped, her teeth have a rather pointy edge to them, and her hair is scraggly and drapes down her face. But her face changes somewhat throughout the film.

Two priests exorcise her in a long sequence that includes frightening noises and grunts, profanities and images of demons.

There are two scenes showing the possesed girl turning her head completely around.

A white demon face pops up subliminally. This is done to scare the viewers.

Page last updated by dynesclan, 3 weeks ago
Top 5 Contributors: The_Alec_Bones, LCCfilmBoi, e-davidson, elderesek, gizmo84
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MPAA:
Rated R for strong language and disturbing images. (edited version in 2000)
Certification:
Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (1998) / Canada:R (Nova Scotia) (original rating) / Canada:R (Ontario) / South Korea:15 / Malaysia:(Banned) / UK:(Banned) (original rating) / Italy:VM14 (director's cut) / Australia:MA (TV rating) / Brazil:14 / Singapore:(Banned) (original rating) / Singapore:R(A) (re-rating) (cut) / Canada:14A (re-rating) / Philippines:R-18 / Brazil:18 (original rating) / Canada:R (video rating) / Portugal:M/16 / Spain:13 / Argentina:16 / Australia:R / Canada:13+ (Quebec) / Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (2000 re-release) / Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) (2000 re-release) / Canada:AA (Ontario) (2000 re-release) / Canada:R (Manitoba) (also 2000 version) / Chile:14 (re-rating) (2000) / Chile:18 (original rating) / Finland:K-18 / France:-12 (director's cut) / France:-16 (original rating) / Germany:16 (bw) (2001 re-release) / Hong Kong:IIB / Hungary:18 / Iceland:16 / Ireland:18 / Israel:18 / Italy:VM14 (re-release) / Mexico:C / Netherlands:16 (director's cut) / Netherlands:18 (original rating) / New Zealand:R16 / Norway:15 (2000) / Norway:18 / Singapore:M18 (video rating) (cut) / Spain:18 / Sweden:15 / UK:18 (re-rating) (1990) / UK:X (original rating) / USA:R / West Germany:18 (bw)

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