The Exorcist is a bona-fide horror classic that manages to still hold up and scare audiences today despite being over forty years old. As unsettling as the film still is, that is nothing compared to how audiences in 1973 reacted. Numerous graphic depictions of violence and terrifying imagery came out of the film's simple premise of a young girl being possessed by the Devil. There's the projectile vomiting, the constant stream of obscenities, the creepy backwards spider walk sequence, and of course, the infamous and explicit crucifix scene that was unsettling in too many ways to count. It's little wonder that the film caused some hysteria amongst movie-goers at the time, enough for some to have a heart attack or to vomit in the aisle. Controversy like this would normally derail any film, but since The Exorcist is simply a good film, and a great horror film at that, it managed to achieve massive success despite all of its notoriety.