A horror classic that has withstood the test of time, I jumped, cringed, shivered, and flinched throughout “The Exorcist,” a gross, creepy movie. Filmed in 1973, the make-up, special effects and sound are great even by today’s standards. And I can’t count how many times I’ve seen the spinning head and vomiting scenes parodied. This may not be the scariest movie of all time (as the tagline claims), but it comes close. The flashing and superimposed imagery of the devil sends a disturbing subliminal message of hellish horror.

The film is cleverly intriguing when Regan begins her strange, possessed behavior. Her mother and the doctors think she has a mental problem, but then things get scarier and more bizarre ... and her mother begins to question her atheist lifestyle.

Soon the exorcism begins, performed by Father Karras, a priest losing faith, and Father Merrin, a priest and archeologist, who believes the demonic relic he has just unearthed in Iraq is a bad sign. It makes for a disturbing, shocking, scary and sad climax.

Hollywood can spit out as many PG-13 ripoffs (“The Exorcism Of Emily Rose” and “An American Haunting”) as it wants, but nothing will ever come close to this classic masterpiece.