https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/books/william-peter-blatty-author-of-the-exorcist-dies-at-89.html?_r=0
 
 
I was 12 when I watched the movie with my grand-mother. My grand-mother being a very religious person, I suppose that there was a vibe in the house that made me even more receptive, with all the crucifixes and religious gear all around the house. Not to mention that the cellar trap door was right above my bedroom door and that it was often quite noisy up there. 
 
At any rate, the good thing is that no other movie managed to scare me after The Exorcist.
 
I can't tell you how many times I've watched it. We used to rent and watch it every weekend with one of my friends when I was a teenager - almost as if I needed to exorcise myself from it. It's also the first VHS I purchased. But no matter how often I watched it and read the book, it still freaked me out for years. 
 
And though it has long ceased to freak me out, I still watch it once or twice a year.  It was a good story and the film aged pretty well I think.

I think it was the first horror film I watched at the cinema. I was 17 and at art college. Saw it grudgingly with a girl called Heather who was a little older than me, but I was besotted with her so I went along. It absolutely terrified me, I remember being unable to sleep properly for a week.
 
I've watched it rarely since, there's something about it that strikes very deep in the psyche. The film critic Mark Kermode rates it as his favourite movie of all time, he says he's watched more than 200 times and always find something new in it.
 
Saw the 2nd one with Richard Burton which seemed laughable after the original The 3rd one has some very scary scenes in it, notably the 'nurses station' sequence, which is unbearably tense.

I'm embarrassed to say I saw it when it came out and I don't know why but it is the only movie that has ever scared the living crap out of me. I went with my wife and she thought it was "dumb" and unscary.  I've never admitted it to anyone that I sunk down in my seat while I was watching it. I saw it again years later and that time it wasn't scary at all.

jamesg1213
 The film critic Mark Kermode rates it as his favourite movie of all time, he says he's watched more than 200 times and always find something new in it.

 
I can't come up with a number for fear of exaggeration but I'd be tempted to say that I too must have seen it hundreds of times.
 
I remember one time in particular, back when we used to watch it every weekend, after an evening of partying, we put on the rented VHS. What we did not know was that they'd replaced their copy and that this version included a scene that we'd never seen before - a very explicit scene involving a crucifix.
 
I think it was even more shocking because we knew the movie by heart - every scene, every line of dialogue, every little inflexion... We just couldn't believe our eyes.
 
We'd always heard rumours that there was a longer version - some people even said it lasted a whole 6 hours, sort of an urban legend of those days before DVD's and director's cuts and bonus material. That extra scene certainly made us think that there was indeed more Exorcist material floating out there. 

Interesting.  I still recall laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of it all the first time I saw it.  It's amazing how your preconditioning contributes to the effect it has on you.

craigb
Interesting.  I still recall laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of it all the first time I saw it.  It's amazing how your preconditioning contributes to the effect it has on you.

Interesting...what would you say was in (or not in) your preconditioning that stopped it scaring you?

jamesg1213

craigb
Interesting.  I still recall laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of it all the first time I saw it.  It's amazing how your preconditioning contributes to the effect it has on you.

Interesting...what would you say was in (or not in) your preconditioning that stopped it scaring you?

Well, let's just say that the answer would probably be a TOS violation and leave it at that for now.

craigb
Interesting.  I still recall laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of it all the first time I saw it.  It's amazing how your preconditioning contributes to the effect it has on you.

I think it's *scary movie 2* by the wayans that spoofs the exorcist.  It's brilliant.

craigb
Interesting.  I still recall laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of it all the first time I saw it.  It's amazing how your preconditioning contributes to the effect it has on you.

Ditto.
 
As I said, I grew up with my very Christian grand-mother in a house full of religious gear with few outside influences and no friend my age to speak of - we lived across the street from the cemetery, practically sandwiched between 2 funeral homes, a Catholic church and a convent.
 
It would have been hard no to end up being me. 
 
And The Exorcist was bound to leave a mark.
 
But even though it has long since stopped spooking me out, and even as a non-Christian, I do think it's a terrific movie. I mean that's how movies work - suspension of disbelief. So long as it is coherent within a given set of boundaries... Same way that I don't need to believe in it to enjoy Batman or Dracula.