I think now the Shining is scarier than the Exorcist. The Exorcist has become less scarier over time and as I watched the Shining a few days ago, it scared me to death!!! I think the Shining held up very well and is terrifying. Back in the day though (referring to the 1970s), The Exorcist was the scarier film....
shareThey are both amazing films.
For me The Exorcist is scarier.
But The Shining is better directed and a more ambitious film.
(Friedkin is a very talented director, but Kubrick is Top 3 of all time).
How the hell is The Shining a more ambitious film? There's so much more happening in The Exorcist, especially from a technical perspective.
sharethe exorcist
shareThe Shining, and for me, it is not even close.
shareThe Exorcist is far beyond just a scary film. The assumed horror elements of the story are totally secondary to the real storyline of lost faith and nihilism. I say this even as a non-theist.
shareIts interesting. In Southern California, for the longest time, The Exorcist only played in one theater, so the lines were around the block pretty much all day, every day, for MONTHS. (Id say December through March.) The Exorcist was from a very big and famous best selling novel(like The Godfather the year before) and thus was a "movie event."
The Shining was from Stephen King, who was certainly famous by 1979, but who had not produced a work as famous and widely read as The Exorcist. And it was from director Stanley Kubrick, who was just about the most famous director of his time...releasing movies very infrequently(The Shining was five years after Barry Lyndon and 7 years before Full Metal Jacket which was TWELVE years before Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut.)
So the two movies were different experiences as "events." And I remember this: I waited a couple of hours on line to see The Exorcist, but pretty much walked right in to see The Shining(Hollywood had pretty much ended the BS of putting a big movie in only one theater in a region.)
Bottom line: these two movies began as totally different movie-going experiences, and Kubrick's reputation was more serious than that of William Friedkin.
Neither of them scared me, but then nothing much in movies DOES scare me...except the occasional "jumping out at you" scare shock. (And there is no such shock in The Exorcist and only one such shock -- poorly executed -- in The Shining.)
Scarier (especially on first viewing)? Probably The Exorcist.
Greater (especially on repeat viewings)? Probably The Shining.
To be fair, neither one is a slouch in the scary or greatness department.
The Shining. The Exorcist is not scary at all.
shareAgreed.
shareI remember when I saw the Exorcist for the first time. My friend and I rode our bikes to the video store and were only 12 years old. We rented the Exorcist and I remember it was storming rain and thunder outside. We were soaking wet when we came back to my house. We were both terrified watching it and I remember my heart raced super fast. I vowed to never see this movie again however, I gained enough courage to see it again much later as an adult and it didn't scare me as much. As a kid yes but later through time as an adult, it wasn't as terrifying....
shareThe Shining is one of the most overrated movies of all time. Kubrick butchered the book and turned it into a hammy corn fest. His attempt to scare people is putting on obscenely loud music over scenes of the hotel.
The Exorcist is actually terrifying in comparison because there’s a monster in the house with them.
I saw both for the first time at the age of 15 on a double bill at the drive in with my best friend and his dad. The Shining terrified us, including my friend's dad and we all found The Exorcist to be a little creepy, but overall anticlimactic to the pure terror we felt at The Shining.
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